Video Game Journalism

Oh yeah, I remember that. It was forever ago.

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes

I think Gamespot's shaped up since then. They've for a lot more video stuff, and it's all pretty good. The videos with Danny O'Dwyer in them stand out - The Lobby is like a multiple quick-looks a la Giant Bomb show, and The Point can be pretty interesting at times.

I, too, basically only get my news through word of mouth or social media sites, and occasionally the front page of Steam. Always worked well enough for me.

edited 24th Sep '14 3:48:29 PM by mythmonster2

I'm in the word of mouth thing.

I do still get issues of Gameinformer delivered to me though. Dunno why actually.

Oh really when?

I'm pretty trustworthy of Good Game. They owned by a publicly owned broadcast station so like Top Gear they are not depended on keeping advertises happy.

hashtagsarestupid

Good Game is a really good Vidya Gaems show. I trust them

I'm having to learn to pay the price

Honestly, I get pretty much all of my gaming news from here and from a podcast I listen to, the Top Down Perspective (cohosted by Proton Jon!).

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

The only reviews I pay attention to are Zero Punctuation, though I take it with a grain of salt. I mostly rely on word of mouth too.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

Escapist has been pretty good ever since a certain thing caused them to update their policies, so I joined their community.

Reviews I don't pay attention to anymore though.

edited 25th Sep '14 8:28:41 AM by Thorn14

I like Yongyea on www.thenasian.com, although he tends to just cover stuff he's interested in. I think over 80% of the stuff he posts is about Metal Gear.

What makes a good man turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?

And 0dd1 continues to be awesome by introducing me to great things I didn't know I wanted.

But that's a story for another time.

Heh, gracias. It's both an incredibly fun and incredibly informative listen. Best part of each of the podcasts, though, is the last few minutes, where they answer emails from fans. A few episodes back, they (half-jokingly) gave out Jon's PO Box as an option for sending in mail to the show, and last week? Two people actually sent in snail mail letters!

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

Anyone here ever read the British pc gaming magazine, "PC Zone"? It was quite popular for a long while but ended up getting shuttered in favor of the UK/US version of "PC Gamer".

I mostly use this place and Steam for my news. Some word of mouth, but I'll admit I give more than I receive on that front. I think I turned one of my coworkers onto Paradox Interactive's games yesterday, so there's a win for Word of Mouth.

Steam's really great, too. Most of my use there is for the sales, so the games I'm looking at are already out and reviewed by other players who are willing and able to be honest.

I go to IGN for my reviews. Then I scroll down and laugh through the comments.

"Marth likes just the tip, Lucina likes the whole thing."

I sometimes do that but I don't really like giving IGN clicks, tbh.

I mostly use word-of-mouth — in the forum of internet forum posts, IRC chatter, and people bothering me on instant messaging services (including but not limited to Steam) — as my ways of getting video game news.

I don't use any news sites, unless someone links to them, and then only if there's some sort of interesting content. Release news is rarely interesting to me; you gotta have some sort of post like an indie dev discussing their sales figures or something.

edited 27th Sep '14 3:15:50 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

My usual reaction to comments sections.◊

Schild und Schwert der Partei

This is it for me.

Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

I followed Angry Joe for about 4 months, then I realized he didn't review Nintendo and Sony exclusives so I unsubscribed from him. Now I just follow my own tastes in videogame genres to determine what I want to buy.

I go to the Escapist for news (as well as some of their articles); I don't really go there for reviews, but will look at one if it catches my interest.

In terms of determining which games I want to play, Let's Players and internet critics are a major source for me, in particular Total Biscuit (I don't always agree with his views, but I've been very impressed with his open-mindedness, transparency and (as far as I see) awareness of at least some of his own biases (such as lack of skill in certain genres), Jim Sterling and certain of the Yogscast members.

(I watch other Let's Players, but those I watch more often for entertainment than gauging games, simply by virtue of which games they play: ones that I enjoy watching, but seldom acquire myself.)

As to discovering games word of mouth/forum is likely a major source, although I do think that all of the above-mentioned sources have proven at least somewhat useful in that respect.

My Games & Writing

For those of you who use sources like TotalBiscuit to decide what games are worth your time, I have an open question (not trying to be sarcastic or anything):

Why do you feel you need such a "curator" (for lack of a better term off the top of my head)?

Possible questions I'm curious about:

• What kinds/categories/subsets of games do you do this for?
• Do you feel you can't trust certain reviews or reviewers?
• Is this something you do if you're not familiar with the developer/publisher/studio? Or only when a game lacks a trailer?
• Do you only do this for new games, or all games in general?

I'm asking this because I've never had much occasion to make such use of them, but I've seen a lot of people clamoring on the Steam forums for this sort of "curation", and I'm curious to understand why/how people use it.

edited 29th Sep '14 4:43:55 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

I like Angry Joe. But yes he does focus mainly on PC and Xbox games. I think it's mainly he just didn't have a Play Station or Nintendo when he started.

hashtagsarestupid

From my point of view, curation is a separate matter from Let's Plays (for informational purposes)/"first impressions"/other criticism: the former is, I believe, a matter of instituting quality control in what games are released, while the latter is a method (akin to reviews) of determining which games you want to actually play.

As to whether curation is valuable, I don't know; my digital distributor of choice (GOG) is curated, but I don't really use Steam, so I'm not familiar with the effects of an uncurated environment. The argument that I've seen presented in favour of curation is that a lack of it makes it harder to find good games: the wash of poorly-made, poorly-tested stuff drowns the gems that you might be looking for. I've seen arguments against curation as well (such as allowing the market to choose), I believe.

As to videos aiding buying decisions, I'm not sure of how it's any different to a written review—save that it has the advantage of also showing gameplay, allowing a more informed decision.

Given this distinction, however, I'm not sure to which issue—curation or using criticism to make decisions—your questions apply. For now I'm going to answer on the assumption that it's the latter:

All kinds, I think.

Hmm... Not really. It's more the other way around: I stick with critics/reviewers/players/etc. that I find value in, whether they provide useful technical insights, have perspectives in line with my own,

Not at all; after all, trailers can be untrustworthy, and a developer or publisher can make a good game today and a bad one tomorrow, or vice versa, I feel.

This might depend on what you mean by "new" games—I do buy "classic" games from GOG, but I'm not sure that you don't simply mean "games that were released a few months ago. Classic games I tend to buy because I already want them for one reason or another (nostalgia, having missed it the first time, having only ever gotten to play the first episode, etc.)—although I have been put off by screenshots or word of mouth, I think.

On the other hand, my approach is generally to watch relevant videos as they come out; if something catches my interest, it goes on the list of games that I want, whether it came out yesterday or last year. I do, however, make a note of interesting games coming up and keep my eyes open for videos involving them.

edited 29th Sep '14 5:48:25 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

My Games & Writing

Jim Sterling I like for his insights into gaming in general, but his reviews have their head two feet up their asses.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.