Week 5 Task

I apologize for this week’s task. I had real trouble writing it.

What issues face reviewers?

At present gaming magazines are in something of a slump so reviewers writing for magazines may have to deal with job cutback issues but reviewers in general have to deal with issues involving the rising cost of games and how worth the money they are. Should a reviewer give a game high praise and then people who buy the game find it to be less than what they were expecting and there by not worth the money then the magazine or website that the reviewer works for may lose valuable readers as they no longer trust the reviews.

Who pays reviewers?

Magazine companies in the case of magazines and probably advertising popup agencies in the case of internet reviewers.

Is an objective ranking system for games necessary for sales, is it even feasible?

I wouldn’t say an objective ranking system is necessary but it can help/hinder how well a game sells. For example if I read a review in which a game scored 50% or less (or less than half in any ranking system you can think of) it would have to have something unique or something relevant to my taste in games for me to even consider buying it. On the other hand if a game that normally wouldn’t present much appeal to me scored something like 95% or 10/10 I may eventually buy that game because according to someone who rates games for a living that game is well worth the money.

What are your feelings about the NGJ?

When I first looked at a NGJ I was somewhat confused because the author seemed to be presenting a report of some kind of surreal dream. It went on to reveal that all these weird things had happened in an internet game. I think NGJs are interesting combinations of story telling, creative writing and actual reviewing

What are the particular qualities of NGJ?

It is not worded like a typical review, more like someone talking to a friend about there experience with the game or maybe a detailed diary entry. In some it even seems like a kind of formal report documenting everything that happened…..in fact they seem a lot like blogs (and a lot of them are).

What other forms of games writing can you find?

Nothing really. I’ve found reviews, NGJs and that’s pretty much it. I’m sure there are others (Would this question be suggested if there weren’t?) and maybe I’ve even seen some and just not recognised the differences but there’s no other forms of games writing I can put a name to short of discussion boards and maybe at a stretch some web comics.

How do you feel about your own writing, do you value objectivity or subjectivity?

I think I try to write objectively and fail rather badly.