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Bias, protest, and shame: Zelda's 8.8 from Gamespot |
Listed in: Wii Tags: Gamespot
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The fact that Gamespot's Jeff G. gave The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess an 8.8/10 (after 1UP gave the same game a perfect 10) isn't what inspired this post. Dennis of the VG Resource Center wrote on the wave of outrage (bordering on hatred, it seems) from Zelda fans in reaction to Gamespot's review, and had this to say: "Something dawned on me today: Opinions don't matter anymore."That was when we remembered another article about reviews - and outrage - that appeared on QJ. The one about 1UP pulling the Neverwinter Nights II review after a torrent of protests from outraged NWN fans.
Dennis says that this was "shameful" behavior of gamers - or fanboys. "Lacking the experience of actually playing the game to form a cohesive argument, fanboys had to resort to making personal attacks against Jeff to give their posts some sort of artificial meaning." There's even a double irony in all of this: Jeff gave Ocarina of Time a perfect 10. On the other hand, one of our readers of the perfect 10 article criticized comparing Twilight to Ocarina. More from Dennis before we run out of space:
And that's all I really feel like linking to. Chances are, if you frequent any major gaming forum, you'll be seeing (or have already seen) giant rants about the validity of Jeff's review. The ******* validity. Apparently, one's opinion is not valid if it is in contrast to a group's opinion.
Are comparison's to other reviews valid? Yes. Is saying a review is invalid because it doesn't agree with everybody else's opinion a valid reason? People like to play the "He's an Xbox fanboy" card, blissfully unaware that they are equally biased themselves, if not more so... This isn't about the review itself, but rather the mindset some of these people operate in.
Read link takes you to Dennis' complete argument. Rant as you wish - whatever your opinion of the game, the gamers, or the game reviewers are. Don't be mistaken by the decision to write on this topic, however. The staff's opinions on Twilight Princess do range across the board. But we've never, ever hated each other for it.
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Ign.com : press average
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here you get many reviews from diffrent gaming sites.
the average valuation is 95% and gamespot gave the lowest
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My, it is such a strange world indeed.
In other news, the videogame industy is still very young and critics of any young industry tend to be unfocused, says one observer.
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So when a mainstream site like Gamespot.com post an 8.8 after seeing almost perfect scores across the board, harcore fans have a reason to question the credibility and integrity of the review, especialy when Gamespot is know for having a few review mishaps in the past.(Shenmue, Metroid DS,etc.)
Its sad and ironic that Mr.Dennis accused the hardcore fans of "shameful behavior" when latly him and a lot in the gaming media try to downplay the importance of game reviews and insult the fanbase. Lets be honest, these scores matter, and so do opinions. If not companies wouldn't be recruiting journalist and pumping millions of advertising dollars on these sites. "http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/01/sony-recruits-journalists-for-semi-official-blog/"
I think all the attacks on Mr. 8.8 over at gamespot are justified, no matter how foolish some rants may be. Because they're the readers and they contribute to their existance. but the verbal attacks from bloggers against the reader... that's "shameful behavior".
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It's that NOBODY KNOWS WHAT A CRITIC IS SUPPOSED TO DO.
Many people believe that they're sources for which people decide what to purchase. Others believe that reviews are simply opinions of somebody, nothing more.
Jeff Haynes (I think it was) had the audacity to say that his job was to see if a game was "fun". (via IGN podcast: http://games.ign.com/articles/720/720182p1.html)
Now, that sounded ridiculous to me, because "fun" is such a fluffy word that's different for everyone. (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/65/15)
To me, Jeff Haynes obviously doesn't realize that his job as a critic influences the opinions of millions of other people. He should realize his responsibility.
Like many arguments, most disputes arise from lack of definition. I think I know what game critics ought to be, but for the rest of the world, we better find out fast before any more disputes of greater size erupt.
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Absolutly! I agree.
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and on every wii game that gamespot have reviewed that is on metacritic, monkey ball was the only one that didn't get one of the lowest scores!
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There are some graphical issues taht stop it getting a perfect 10, but there's summut to improve upon for next time xD
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OIO my cok
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