Why is video game critique so lousy compared to film or music critique?
Will it improve in the next decade or so?
Who is the most interesting video game critic at the moment?
Who is the most contrarian video game critic at the moment?
Video game critics are the same fanboys raving on message boards. Only difference is they get paid to be total faggots.
You actually have to put forth effort in experiencing video games. I'm not going to say all video games take the same level of skill, but most require at least basic ability to get through. Meaning there's a lot more to affect a reviewer's opinion, also just a wider variety of likes, dislikes, and things a reviewer may or may not want to put effort into. I assume people on like youtube or whatever, probably just review whatever they want, but in a larger setting, someone may get assigned to something they don't particularly enjoy, have the skill for, or just don't have the attention span for, all of which can affect a review.
Not to say film and music don't have similar pitfalls, but you don't have to actively engage as much in either to get a good sense of things.
>>329859005
Because they're considered children toys regardless of their rating.
>Will it improve in the next decade or so?
No. If anything it'll get worse due the increasing pressure on publishers to sell more copies to keep up their earning rates with the increasing development cost, ergo more bullshit against the consumer's best interests and thus more media justification of it from profesional shills.
>Who is the most interesting video game critic at the moment?
A gigantic faggot.
>Who is the most contrarian video game critic at the moment?
See above.
>>329859005
It's a new art medium.
Video games is the only medium that is hyping their fans for 70 bucks with barebone and lazy games .... and it's legal
I can get a 15 $ game with more effort made into it than Battlefront or any sport game.
>>329859005
>Why is video game critique so lousy compared to film or music critique?
Because game journalism sites are literally just marketing branches of game companies
Bunnyhop/Matthew are the best
>>329859005
The closest thing to a legitimate critic in video games is icycalm and he is literally crazy.
I think Totalbiscuit does a fantastic good job laying out and explaining the details, sensibilities, practicalities and artfulness of the mechanics found in the video games he critiques. I also like his thoughts about fusing narrative with gameplay (he talks about it with games like Undertale or Brothers). He's one of the better critics around for sure.
One other critic I like is Matthewmatosis whose thoughts on game and level design is really enlightening and intriguing I find. His Dark Souls critique videos is something I always come back to because he sees things in games that I don't think most do, and that makes me strive to appreciate the same sort of things in video games.
I find that most critics go for the "overview" sort of critique, ie. this game has good gameplay, good art design, good mechanics and whatnot, focusing on if that game is worth your buck or not.
But the best sort of critique I find will pick an angle in the game and really expand on it. If more critics reviewed games like that, it will really let the medium grow as an artform. That's my take on it anyway.
>>329859005
>Why is video game critique so lousy compared to film or music critique?
It's been around for much less time and it started as a toy.
>Will it improve in the next decade or so?
Reply hazy. Try again later.
>Who is the most interesting video game critic at the moment?
None of them are worth listening to.
>Who is the most contrarian video game critic at the moment?
See above.
>>329859375
In this sense video gaming is oddly similar to reading literature. You get out what you put in, in a sense. The main difference is that literary criticism focuses less on current releases and more on works that have, or could, stand the test of time, so there is less of a money-grabbing shitshow where no one can earn respect.
Because film and music critics can criticize both the craft and the artistry behind their chosen medium whereas more video games are reviewed on a technical basis, give or take criticism of any storyline present within the game.
I want to start critiquing games and working on my first video. What would you guys like to see?
>>329862115
I want to see how many billiard balls you can fit into your mouth
>tfw this is the whole reason gamergate existed but everybody hates it
>>329862249
None, but I can stick 1 golf ball in my mouth.
>>329862518
you got a small mouth my nigga
>>329862115
Don't critique video games like a checklist. Pick one part of the game you're reviewing and really lay out your thoughts on it. Use other games you've played as paradigms and compare; it'll really enrich your critique... at least that's what I'd want to see in game reviews.
>>329862115
Lots of lens flare effects and an intro with the best music and visuals you can find on Google.
>>329862115
Watch Siskel and Ebert at the movies. I mean a LOT of episodes.
Get an idea of how they review, the way they come to the opinions they do.
>>329862790
Bonus points for using dubstep and an intro that lasts 30 seconds
>>329862941
Industrial Metal and an intro made on Moviemaker, how does that sound?
>>329859005
Brain drain. There is more money in literally everything else, there was a good stock of writers in the 90s and 00s but it's fucking gone now, most have moved on. Due to the nature of games and the demographics that read games journalism, there is just no money to be made there.
>>329862115
Don't be afraid to be contrarian.
>>329861839
>I have zero knowledge about anything OP asked about but want to reply anyway: the post
>>329862653
I'm working on Natural Doctrine currently. Should I just go over briefly the story, sound, and graphics then really lay into the gameplay?
>>329859005
I think there's a false assumption that music and film has better critics; I don't think that's true.
There's thousands of no-name fuckwits spewing their shit opinions about evey from of media. I think the main difference is that film, music and literature are far, far more established. So, will it get better? Here's hoping, but there will always be fuckwits shilling and 'journalists' with an agenda.
>>329861891
Welcome to games journalism 15 years ago.
A lot has changed since.
>>329863102
This.
Say what you want about EGM being a conflict of interest because they had ads everywhere, but at the same time they knew how to actually review things properly.
>>329863294
Has it? I see the bulk of reviews now resembling that of those you'd find in video game-related publications, only in far greater detail. Any reviews I should check out that might change my opinion?
>>329863782
Look up New Games Journalism.
>an actual good thread with some interesting posts
>on the /v/ board
t-this isn't the /v/ that I know...
Music critique isn't good though.
>>329863657
In the 90s in the UK you had at least two PC magazines putting out high quality content monthly, not just fluff reviews and cheats but analysis, features etc. That time is long gone now. There are still some good writers, but you are more likely to find their stuff on random blogs as opposed to any trusted institution.
The old print media still doesn't have any respect for video games, and only hire the odd writer just to give the appearance they care.
>>329859005
Because compared to film and music, video games come out much more frequently.
When musicians make music, they spend years making it, then go on hiatus/tour for for years.
When directors and film companies make films, they take several months to a year from start to finish.
In both processes, there's a quality filter and budget restraints. Not every film gets made, and not every song get sung/played.
On the other hand, there are thousands of devs making all kinds of different games all at the same time. Many of these games are simple enough to only require a handful of months to make. Others require years of development time. Even basement dwelling neets like the ones on /v/ can spend a few months learning how to code a game and have it greenlit on Steam in a year. It literally becomes a case of 'this is something anyone can do', and as a result, someone's got to review them.
Unfortunately, there's not enough people reviewing them because, except in very rare instances, making decent money reviewing games is impossible.
I know a guy who writes casually for a prominent game reviewing website, and he says that he has three games to review almost at all times. People that write full time for the website usually have about eight to ten.
It's hard to put out quality work when you're expected to do it several times a week.
>>329865412
There's plenty of music that comes out year after year or quicker. And there's plenty of games that take years to come out.
>>329859005
Film critique is worse and television is absolute nonsense at this time
>>329865507
Most of the people putting out music year after year aren't likely to get reviewed. They're the $.99 throwaway mobile game of the music world.
>>329865671
But most famous artists do put out music year after year. If we're talking about less known artists then I agree with you.
Not him by the way.
>>329865671
Have you forgotten that even the bands held in the highest regard often released albums every year? I'm not attesting to their quality but bands/artists like the Beatles, Hendrix, the Beach Boys, Dylan, etc are held in very high regard and their albums were released every year. And some bands and artists still do that, and not even talking about the bands you're thinking of like Buckethead or Viper that release over 100 albums per year.
>>329860169
Flimsii has some potential if he'd just upload more.
>>329865412
Nice anecdote, but senior staff writers are not forced to churn out reviews like that, they are used just for the bigger games, and also opinion pieces and features.
>>329862324
They hate it because it calls out companies and their shills' shitty practices. But on the other hand /pol/ infecting GG did more harm to it than anything else by depriving it of the moral high ground.
>>329865412
There are thousands of film studios creating movies at the same time and many films flooding the market weekly. Are all of them blockbusters? Of course not, but don't pretend that the film industry doesn't do the same shit.
>>329862324
They quickly gave up on that and went after EVERY games writer that politically disagreed with them, even if they were not the shitters OP is talking about.
This is why /pol/ is the worst cancer, it changes every single debate to be about politics.
>>329859005
Movie critiques are just that, Critiques about movies. They have an advantage over video games in this:
The companies that make movies are well beyond video games in terms of marketing, saturation and appeal. No one needs cooked reviews for Mad Max because a movie's appeal isn't as narrow a scope as a video game's is. If a respected reviewer gives a review on a movie, there are thousands of those, and many reputable ones.
Video games on the other hand only recently began their foray into the public eye out of the niche market, and its hard to find credible review sources/reviews.
So what do companies looking to make the big money do? Use all the avenues of advertisement they can get their hands on. Buy up reviews (from the few established video game sources), shill on forums, and overall try to market like the media big boys, but its few and far between.
>Why is video game critique so lousy compared to film or music critique?
Video games are much younger than those, it needs more time. But at the same time, there ARE some decent critics floating around... they're just hard to find.
>Will it improve in the next decade or so?
No, it will get worse all around. Good critics have always been few and far between.
>Who is the most interesting video game critic at the moment?
Icycalm
>Who is the most contrarian video game critic at the moment?
Icycalm
>>329866310
>They quickly gave up on that and went after EVERY games writer that politically disagreed with them, even if they were not the shitters OP is talking about.
That's /pol/, not GG.
At one point GGers must have realized ALL THE MEDIA in general is corrupt, so they went after the second source of their pain: the censorship of the things they like (fan service mostly), and the shills who defend it.
>>329866725
But by that point they had already become easy prey for the media because /pol/ got in GG to spread their racial supremacy propaganda, making GG lose credibility even among nerds.
>>329867012
>>329866725
I guess the same happened with feminism as a movement and feminazis getting all the attention.
>>329865412
nigga the Miles Davis Quartet busted out 4 album's worth of music in a week what are you talking about
>>329866725
The idea that the games media was as corrupt as other media is retarded though. They found out that some people who write about games are friends with some people who make games, and also that plenty of those people had political opinions they disagreed with and tried to start the biggest shitstorm in internet history. All of the sane GGers with actual arguments and valid issues with games journalism were drowned out by the /pol/acks.
>>329867227
Come to think, they're a parallel. Anger makes all people very similar.
>>329867270
>tfw listen to Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet 10 times a week
It's pretty funny that he pumped out all those albums, which included some of his best works ever, in under a week just so he can finish his contract with a label he actively hated.
No idea why more people don't like him. At this point I would expect there to be a small vocal group frequently participating on this board or across the internet, but it seems like all discussion of him is still under wraps / nowhere to really be found.
>>329866650
Where can I read more of Icycalm's stuff? I love interesting, contrarian, Richard Brody-type critics.
>>329868468
culture.vg
He also has a Steam account with a curator page, just google him and you'll find it right away.
>>329859005
I feel there was a thin sliver of time as the video game blog / news site idea took off where they were the best location to get good game reviews. As the video game industry grew, it brought more money to these blogs. As the blogs grew, they became more corporate in nature and other (financial) incentives came into play, causing their reviews to be biased. It's easier to be entirely honest on, say, an anonymous image board than in an office with an editor-in-chief who wants page hits leaning over your shoulder.
You also have the low barriers-to-entry problem. Youtube is fucking disaster. Such a good platform ruined by every young adult's eagerness to be internet famous. God knows how many quality reviews are out there, doomed to stay forever at 10 views, burried underneath a sea of uncreative 10 year olds, dubstep splashes and "wwwwHHHHATs up YOUTUBE"s.
>>329867507
>The idea that the games media was as corrupt as other media is retarded though
Just watch any news channel and you'll see them lobbying in favor of X or Y candidates when in theory they should just report reality.
>They found out that some people who write about games are friends with some people who make games
They found a person they didn't like (a feminazi hipster that made shitty games) literally sleeping with people in media outlets who later gave her positive reviews, making them jump to the logical conclusion that she was getting favorable treatment because of it, thus making those media outlets corrupt (which they always were regardless of all this, just like every other gaming news site with sponsors or enough of an audience to receive gifts from publishers).
>All of the sane GGers with actual arguments and valid issues with games journalism were drowned out by the /pol/acks.
Pretty much.
The moment they let stormcucks in and preach shit like "cultural marxism" they lost half the fight.
http://guardianlv.com/2013/09/grand-theft-auto-v-fans-demand-game-reviewer-be-fired-after-less-than-perfect-score/
It's a medium controlled by insane fanboys who won't accept anything they like as less then perfect and websites that are advertised by the things they're supposed to review. What'd you think would happen?
>>329868184
Fuck you for even reminding me about that guy's existence.
>>329867981
Those albums were so good it made other albums at the time irrelevant
>>329868184
>No idea why more people don't like him
He's a con artist with a following of cock suckers who actually pay him money to circlejerk him and each other in his own shitty forum, and he literally believes himself a God despite being just a man who read philosophy and reached to some conclusions instead of say, a world leader, a war mongering tycoon or even a simple mobster with enough power to get away with murder with impunity.
A shame really since his reviews and essays at least regarding to video games are superb.
>>329865892
Was he that guy who used to play with Criken?
>>329869720
>he literally believes himself a God despite being just a man who read philosophy and reached to some conclusions instead of say, a world leader, a war mongering tycoon or even a simple mobster with enough power to get away with murder with impunity
So, like Nietzsche? Are you dissing Nietzsche right now?
Nietzsche:
>To live alone one must be a beast or a god, says Aristotle. Leaving out the third case: one must be both — a philosopher.
>>329868854
You seem to misunderstand me, I know most media is corrupt, games journalism is on a whole too inept to even be corrupt outside console magazines and the big websites, and everyone knew about those anyway.
The one isolated case of a woman fucking games journalists doesn't make "those media outlets corrupt", it doesn't even imply that her shitty games got good reviews because she fucked people. So many leaps of logic.
>>329862653
>Use other games you've played as paradigms and compare;
Absolutely horrid advice.
Nothing tunes me out faster than someone saying
>This blue isn't red.
I can fucking see that, explain to me the aspects of why it's blue not why it isn't something else. What happened in the paint mixing process that created this blue? If I wanted to find out about red I'd have gone and done that.
>Inb4 if it's similar it's comparing one shade of blue to the other
Just think about that for a second, you're again not informing me about the particular shade on the table, you're telling me 1.1 isn't 1.01. For fuck sake explain the value of what's in front of us instead of just pointing at other things every few seconds.
>>329870034
>You seem to misunderstand me, I know most media is corrupt, games journalism is on a whole too inept to even be corrupt outside console magazines and the big websites, and everyone knew about those anyway.
I disagree. Even small blogs and youtubers who get sponsored are partial towards their patrons' products. Even a monkey could understand the tacit implications of receiving free products you're to review.
>The one isolated case of a woman fucking games journalists doesn't make "those media outlets corrupt", it doesn't even imply that her shitty games got good reviews because she fucked people. So many leaps of logic.
The corrupt media outlets would never just flat out say 'Yes, we gave her shitty games good scores because she sucks a mean cock'.
>>329869906
Nietzsche was brilliant but also deluded with an unwarranted sense of self-importance.
Icycalm too, but unlike Nietzsche he'll die without making a mark in history.
>>329870070
This is an absolutely reductionist comment and I'm not going to reply to it. Bye-bye.
>>329870070
Stop saying that comparative analysis comes down to this isn't this or that isn't that. Of course blue isn't red and 1.1 isn't 1.01; the point is to understand that blue by relating it to that red to better appreciate what's in the blue. Get me?
>>329871085
It's apparent you don't know what you're talking about.
>>329859005
video game critics dont play video games
>>329871232
But you already replied to it.
>>329872530
Yeah, I wrote him another reply because I thought that wasn't really fair of me to reply like that.
>>329872334
And it's apparent Icycalm isn't a God and nobody will give a shit about him a bunch of decades after his death.
>>329862115
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV16ROaHVfo
Do this.
>>329872783
They'll probably care about him more then, because that's how these things tend to work. He already left a ton of material for many people to read years to come.
>>329873024
>0:59 talks over the cutscene while talking about the importance of the cutscene
Splendid, straight into the trash without fuss.
>>329873227
Mate, it's for people who have already played the game, why would he stop talking?
>>329873129
Go back to bed, Anthony.
>>329859005
Gaming still doesn't have its Armond White.
A guy who is actually super critical when he sees it and doesn't give free passes to AAA shit.
>>329873886
I think one of the key issues is more for someone involved, informed or experienced to be willing to give an audience straight talk.
For example Alex Garland commented on a scene in Enslaved, but he did it in such a way he ridiculed and criticized the character instead of Serkis' ideas or just the overall approach. Granted a review shouldn't turn into a boxing match between creators, but I just feel a lot of people who could provide an informative opinion are reserved because professionally they want to remain in good relation or light generally. Still it was a step in the right direction.
For a more direct example there was that audience test for Dishonored I believe where the people selected became confused with some matter and instead of the evaluation determining that either A) they're retarded or B) clarification is needed they decided to simply simplify it. If things like that happen often I'd prefer someone in the know to call it out for what it is, brain dead dilution and that should go on the record that the game and its developers aspired for less instead of improvement. Equally however so it's not a one note chain of derision devs who do not falter should be applauded for their persistence.
>>329859375
It also doesn't help that for full-price releases, twenty hours is a pretty standard length.
>>329862115
No scores or numbers. Give your impression of what kind of game the game is trying to be, and whether or not it does a good job of being that game.
Example: The Last of Us is good at delivering a cinematic experience. If you want pretty cutscenes and a touching story, this is good. If you're looking for gameplay that feels unique and impressionable, this game may not be for you.
>>329862115
Actually play the game. And analyze each part individually while showing it. If you say the controls are bad cause strange input lag, talk and show. The timing of your commentary, with the presentation can accurately show that underwater feeling of bad lagging controls.
Little things like that go a long way, and let's people ignore you and just go entirely by video, which helps cause not everyone wants annoying voices in a gameplay video.
>>329878930
This.
>>329862653
Plenty of people do that already
>>329875503
Holy shit how fucking based what is he doing on that site.
Professional critique is in the shitter, but there actually are some good small-time less popular Youtube critics making videos on design.
>>329880507
There's almost no doubt he was banned immediately after his justified rant.
>>329881054
Why do NeoGaf users blatantly ignore the dictatorial hugbox they live in
