Task - Week Four

Wow, I did a lot of reading for this one.

Game reviewers have a lot of issues. I mean, face a lot of issues. One of the biggest seems to be that reviewers have a genuine love of games – or they wouldn't be doing the job that they are – but that 90% of what comes in to be reviewed is disappointing in some way or another. There's an expectation that each magazine will review the same games, too, which must be limiting. Wages tend to come from publishers that are sponsored by someone with a vested interest in the score or rank a particular game is given, and that also puts pressure onto a reviewer to highlight the good points, perhaps.

The NGJ is awesome. Personally, I never tend to read game reviews. I know that a lot of my friends do, so on the rare occasion I go out to buy a game, I normally ask them if they've played it, or read anything about it, or just buy it because I know my curiosity won't be satisfied until I do, no matter what anyone says. This is largely helped by the fact that I can play utter drivel and enjoy it. Game reviews that retell the story of the game, or appraise its technical abilities tend to be dull, boring even, unless that's your specific interest... And although it will give you an idea of how the game runs, or progresses, it can't tell you how you will react to the game, how you will enjoy the game or which parts of it are going to make you react in a certain way.

The New Games Journalism is more keyed to convey a feeling or an experience of playing the game, rather to outline it in its entirety. Its much more personal, and is easier to relate to. They still tend to highlight important issues within the game, but without the impersonal feel of a list. Its more interesting to read, there's more 'fluff' to it, less filler and more personal experience. Each one is very different, as each person writes very differently. None of them follow the same format. And while some will hold your attention right until the end, some I couldn't even read – but someone else will have a completely different opinion about it.

It must be good. I haven't played any of these games and I've been trawling NGJ reviews for three hours.

http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?page_id=693
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/egrr_550_62798
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/game_culture/2005/03/ten_unmissable_examples_of_new_games_journalism.html
http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?page_id=3
http://shinyshinyshiny.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_shinyshinyshiny_archive.html
http://www.alwaysblack.com/blackbox/possessingbarbie.html
http://www.alwaysblack.com/blackout/zangband.html
http://www.alwaysblack.com/blackbox/bownigger.html