Sunday 3 April 2011

Game writing

Game writing is an interesting topic as I personally used to buy game magazines to find more about a particular game that ‘s going to be released. It’s not until now I realised how flawed some of the reviews are. When I was young I used to take ratings very seriously as if a game magazine have given a game a 9/10 I instantly assume the game must have been worthy of such a high score and in several occasions I changed my opinions on a game because it might contradict what their views on the game is.

It was now I realised how much stress these writers are under to consistently produce information for the public and this leads to them thinking in a linear fashion as this probably sped up the process of reviewing something. The first issue that faces the reviewer is time, as a ridiculous amount of information should be written in a way the public can understand and make sense of it quickly. The score system that reviews usually have near the end instantly gives the customer whether this game is worth their time as if the score is low I guess the general public wont even bother reading it. This would mean that if a well anticipated Triple AAA title was about to release then the reviewers know that they would spend more time on it as this might be the focal point in their magazine and because of this other games would perhaps suffer and get poor reviews due to lack of interest or the reviewers being asked to prioritise more on certain successful franchise by their superiors.

I think it’s highly debateable on how important the ranking system is for sales, as the ranking system will improve sales or should for games that are worthy.

- The ranking system also gives a very quick idea of which games are popular. - The ranking system also diminishes the exposure of smaller games especially when they are released at the same time as a hugely popular franchise and usually goes under most people’s radar. Having said, another concern reviewers have is that new indie games usually don’t get enough exposure because they usually fail to send a copy of the game, which instantly makes it hard to get sufficient amount of exposure. This is a shame as they have a lot of space to be creative and really push the creativity.

I think game writing in general should be balanced in terms of maintaining objectivity and subjectivity. The factual and technical aspects should always exist to give a clear idea on where things are headed this generation. I know this is slightly off topic’s but I think having a section where they show snippets of making of the video game as this could inspire the creative audience. This could be placed after the review or before to show some thought process behind the game rather than just in-game screen shots. This would not only showcase some original artwork to look at but for some it could help them understand the reason behind the game and the visual decisions they made.

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