Nobody is owed shit. Nobody identifying as a video game enthusiast has the right to complain. They're not advocating for themselves as consumers, and man their chickens are coming home to roost. Yes, they're withholding shit from you! You're gonna buy it anyway.
Yeah, that's pretty much my criticism. I liked the parts where you talked about ME3 though!
Also, in a critical context, I'm not sure it's ever really appropriate to single out individuals on the grounds that you know them personally, regardless of your disclaimer.
Nobody is owed shit. Nobody identifying as a video game enthusiast has the right to complain. They're not advocating for themselves as consumers, and man their chickens are coming home to roost. Yes, they're withholding shit from you! You're gonna buy it anyway.
Nobody votes with their dollar, they'd rather buy shit and then complain about it
it's ridiculous
if you can't have enough self control to not pay for something you feel isn't worth your money, you have nobody but yourself to blame
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Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
Yeah, that's pretty much my criticism. I liked the parts where you talked about ME3 though!
Also, in a critical context, I'm not sure it's ever really appropriate to single out individuals on the grounds that you know them personally, regardless of your disclaimer.
Well, I don't think there's much productive to say about exclusively this video game with the experience I had. I don't want to write consumer reviews, I write criticism, which is either about patterns in the wider world as related to the text or the inverse. It points to some very important problems in the industry, and I think restricting my scope in this case would be a mistake.
And it is appropriate, because I had called him out as being an awesome writer. Good ethics to point out I know him - otherwise it looks like nepotism.
To be honest, the review didn't do much for me. It felt like you spent a long time talking about how there were flaws but never really get around to saying what the flaws were. You communicate what you feel was done right better than what you feel was done wrong, at least to me. I think you should have perhaps been a bit harsher, if you feel that the game really is that flawed. It kind of seemed like you held yourself back from expressing the negative side of your criticism.
And I'm not saying this simply because I personally felt that before those last five minutes, the game had been excellent pretty much the whole way through. I didn't really consider it a deeply flawed game but I am open to the opinions of someone who does. Just like I am open to hear reasonable opinions from people who liked the ending even though I didn't care for it myself. It's just that, as I finished reading your piece, I didn't really come out of it with a real understanding of why you describe it as deeply flawed. I think a little more elaboration and support would have helped.
I also didn't experience the technical problems you bring up at all. Don't know if that's cause I was playing on a 360 or a case of luck or whatever. Barely ever even saw texture pop-in.
All this being said though I think you're a good writer and I'm quite interested in seeing how your trilogy run goes. At this point it's not unreasonable to say that taking your character through the trilogy is an important and meaningful part of the experience. I get why you played 3 the way you did but I can't help but feel a little bit sorry for you that you missed out on having your "first time" be with "your" Shepard. I'm sure the fact that my first run through each game was with the same character, exploring the narrative for the first time in that way, means my experience was colored quite differently from your own. If anything I'd say it's where the ME games truly succeed and innovate.
I think as long as you don't directly confront him with opinions that actively provoke discussion that may disprove him you're generally in his good graces.
I mean he does video game articles for penny arcade when generally the actual comic and news posts do that already not to mention PATV.
He just strikes me as redundant.
Also I wish I wasn't like a year behind on games. I feel like anything I submit to you guys would be outdated.
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
we'd really like to get away from having to scramble for content every day, so if you've got an article brewing throw it out way
we would love if submissions have a critical comment/analysis element as well as a solid rhetorical throughline - a theme and argument that carries the reader through the piece and arrives at a solid conclusion
please don't get intimidated by that, though, dear forumers - we are excellent editors and part of that includes helping you with it. so try your best and send it over.
Genuine feedback is that it's a good review that is well-written and excellently thought-out. It is insightful and it raises many questions about the way games are reviewed in general.
However, I honestly think that the spoiler-free aspect of the review actually hurt it a bit. For most of the review, I was bobbing my head along, agreeing with you almost entirely, but always with the impression that you were going to review the game in depth later in the review... and then it ended.
As in, the meat of your review actually felt more like preamble, like introduction to your point, and that you were going to back those points with specifics after that. There wasn't much of that and, on reading it through a second time, it actually feels very general.
I know that you were speaking to overall themes and avoiding spoilers, and as such the specifics of the game don't matter as much. But were I a person who didn't know you, who didn't know this site, and who didn't quite understand the philosophy of the site, I would wonder very much if you had in fact played the game at all, or if in fact you had just linked a general attitude about gaming in general to Mass Effect 3 and the vague claims made about its ability (and inability) to do certain things.
Personally, I like the "general theme" thing... but if your hope is for someone to read your review and take it on board when next they set their pen to game-designing-paper, they need to know precisely how and where Mass Effect 3 failed in the ways you are claiming it did. A stated failure by your standards might not be the same for a reader who does not know you, hence the importance of a specific example or two that illustrates and supports your point.
These are just my thoughts so take them for what they are, but I nodded so hard at the whole "race to review" point that you made that maybe it just addled my brains up a bit.
Yeah, I feel a similar way, as I posted about earlier in the thread.
I've actually been musing about contributing ever since this whole thing got started, but I'm having a real hard time figuring out what I'd actually like to write about.
I was thinking I could take a shot at reviewing Xenoblade. It's out right away and I've got my preorder ready for launch day. I actually don't really know anything about it so I'll be going in completely blind and without any specific expectations.
Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
Orik if you are scrambling to publish stuff every day, have you thought about updating three times a week instead? It's less pressure and if people know when you are updating its no like you are dicking people around.
Also as thus is where writers and readers of literature and visual media live, I have a question. People were discussing in the ME thread if half life was the Citizen Kane of videogames. (I argued such a game does not exist yet).
But what I was wondering was are there equivalents in other genres? I.e. genre defining works. And if so what are they. Or say with stories, they have existed for so that you can't really give a title like that and it's only something that "new" media can do.
Posts
But other than that, yeah, it was a good read
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Also, in a critical context, I'm not sure it's ever really appropriate to single out individuals on the grounds that you know them personally, regardless of your disclaimer.
Nobody votes with their dollar, they'd rather buy shit and then complain about it
it's ridiculous
if you can't have enough self control to not pay for something you feel isn't worth your money, you have nobody but yourself to blame
Satans..... hints.....
Well, I don't think there's much productive to say about exclusively this video game with the experience I had. I don't want to write consumer reviews, I write criticism, which is either about patterns in the wider world as related to the text or the inverse. It points to some very important problems in the industry, and I think restricting my scope in this case would be a mistake.
And it is appropriate, because I had called him out as being an awesome writer. Good ethics to point out I know him - otherwise it looks like nepotism.
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Hopefully I'll have this first one done and sent off to the site today or tomorrow.
And I'm not saying this simply because I personally felt that before those last five minutes, the game had been excellent pretty much the whole way through. I didn't really consider it a deeply flawed game but I am open to the opinions of someone who does. Just like I am open to hear reasonable opinions from people who liked the ending even though I didn't care for it myself. It's just that, as I finished reading your piece, I didn't really come out of it with a real understanding of why you describe it as deeply flawed. I think a little more elaboration and support would have helped.
I also didn't experience the technical problems you bring up at all. Don't know if that's cause I was playing on a 360 or a case of luck or whatever. Barely ever even saw texture pop-in.
All this being said though I think you're a good writer and I'm quite interested in seeing how your trilogy run goes. At this point it's not unreasonable to say that taking your character through the trilogy is an important and meaningful part of the experience. I get why you played 3 the way you did but I can't help but feel a little bit sorry for you that you missed out on having your "first time" be with "your" Shepard. I'm sure the fact that my first run through each game was with the same character, exploring the narrative for the first time in that way, means my experience was colored quite differently from your own. If anything I'd say it's where the ME games truly succeed and innovate.
My Let's Play Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2go70QLfwGq-hW4nvUqmog
We've got new stuff up about Journey today
Don't stop believing
I think as long as you don't directly confront him with opinions that actively provoke discussion that may disprove him you're generally in his good graces.
I mean he does video game articles for penny arcade when generally the actual comic and news posts do that already not to mention PATV.
He just strikes me as redundant.
Also I wish I wasn't like a year behind on games. I feel like anything I submit to you guys would be outdated.
thinking my syndicate review is kind of past its best by date now
Not every article has to be cutting edge
I am bad at games keeping up with
I'm talking about the new syndicate
and as it was a bog-standard review with nothing too critical-thinking about it, I don't think anyone would find it interesting
And if it's really bad, we secretly mock you for a few minutes.
Wait, i wasn't supposed to type that.
we'd really like to get away from having to scramble for content every day, so if you've got an article brewing throw it out way
we would love if submissions have a critical comment/analysis element as well as a solid rhetorical throughline - a theme and argument that carries the reader through the piece and arrives at a solid conclusion
please don't get intimidated by that, though, dear forumers - we are excellent editors and part of that includes helping you with it. so try your best and send it over.
we love you.
Genuine feedback is that it's a good review that is well-written and excellently thought-out. It is insightful and it raises many questions about the way games are reviewed in general.
However, I honestly think that the spoiler-free aspect of the review actually hurt it a bit. For most of the review, I was bobbing my head along, agreeing with you almost entirely, but always with the impression that you were going to review the game in depth later in the review... and then it ended.
As in, the meat of your review actually felt more like preamble, like introduction to your point, and that you were going to back those points with specifics after that. There wasn't much of that and, on reading it through a second time, it actually feels very general.
I know that you were speaking to overall themes and avoiding spoilers, and as such the specifics of the game don't matter as much. But were I a person who didn't know you, who didn't know this site, and who didn't quite understand the philosophy of the site, I would wonder very much if you had in fact played the game at all, or if in fact you had just linked a general attitude about gaming in general to Mass Effect 3 and the vague claims made about its ability (and inability) to do certain things.
Personally, I like the "general theme" thing... but if your hope is for someone to read your review and take it on board when next they set their pen to game-designing-paper, they need to know precisely how and where Mass Effect 3 failed in the ways you are claiming it did. A stated failure by your standards might not be the same for a reader who does not know you, hence the importance of a specific example or two that illustrates and supports your point.
These are just my thoughts so take them for what they are, but I nodded so hard at the whole "race to review" point that you made that maybe it just addled my brains up a bit.
I've actually been musing about contributing ever since this whole thing got started, but I'm having a real hard time figuring out what I'd actually like to write about.
I was thinking I could take a shot at reviewing Xenoblade. It's out right away and I've got my preorder ready for launch day. I actually don't really know anything about it so I'll be going in completely blind and without any specific expectations.
My Let's Play Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2go70QLfwGq-hW4nvUqmog
Also as thus is where writers and readers of literature and visual media live, I have a question. People were discussing in the ME thread if half life was the Citizen Kane of videogames. (I argued such a game does not exist yet).
But what I was wondering was are there equivalents in other genres? I.e. genre defining works. And if so what are they. Or say with stories, they have existed for so that you can't really give a title like that and it's only something that "new" media can do.
Satans..... hints.....
it's one of those things peopel go reaching for when trying to legitimize video games to themselves.