Writing about Games.

Game Writing.

What issues face reviewers?

I’m going to start off and mention that I think having reviewers are a vital aspect of a successful games company, without them and other journalism, games would get lost, not having the necessary guidance of a reviewer or public feedback.  Having said that, there are several issues that face a “would-be” reviewer including:

·         External influences.  Everyone is guided by what other people say about a particular game so with the best will in the world; reviewers will subconsciously be influenced by others.

·         Being objective. It is very difficult to be objective because the gaming experience is not something that you can measure absolutely.  In fact most people view games in a subjective way, for example “I LIKE IT!”

·         Allegiances. For example, it is difficult to give unbiased review of a game if the people who designed it are paying your wages.

Who pays there wages?

There is little doubt that the majority of reviewers are paid either directly or indirectly by the game developers. For example a small number of reviewers are paid directly by the developer to give them feedback on key issues including: the games story line, user interfaces and graphic realism.

Alternatively a reviewer may be paid by a magazine to produce an independent report on a game but his work may be subject to editorial changes that are biased towards the developer. This is because the developer places expensive advertising with the magazine or has a direct financial interest in it.

There are very few totally independent reviewers who’s work is published without “interference” from the developer.  This work is mostly seen via online blogs and low key publishing.

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

If an objective ranking system existed it would undoubtedly enhance the sales of games that it ranked highly and adversely affect the sales of those games that were rank low, in the same way that being number 1 in the music charts affects compact disc download sales. However, I don’t believe that this would increase the overall sales of games; rather it would just change the distribution of titles.  I believe that the main factor effecting overall sales levels will continue to be direct advertising.

For an objective ranking system to be feasible I think that it would need to be based on a system similar to that used for the music charts.  In this system representative shops / internet sites could submit sales / rental returns to a central body that would in turn make a chart that shows the overall popularity of a particular title.  However, this would only measure the popularity of a title and not address the relative technical and creative issues of an individual game, such as, graphic realism, plot, character believability and users interfaces, let alone compare these issues from title to title. I think the complexity of doing this would make such a ranking system unfeasible.

What are your feelings about the NGJ?

I think that New Games Journalism (NGJ) is good in the sense that allows the reader to understand the experiences that someone else had while playing a particular game.  It also allows the reader to get a “taste” of the game and to imagine how they might respond to it.  This is very similar to travel journalism where the reader gets a taste of a particular place by reading about someone else’s experiences of that place.  However, as with travel journalism the experiences of the reader are not always going to be the same as those of the writer. This will depend on how each individual plays the game.

What are the particular qualities of NGJ?

Allowing the reader to get a taste of the game through someone else’s experiences is a very effective marketing technique.  It inspires and persuades the reader to play the game and in some cases actually plots the route needed to gain a similar experience. “Just like travel journalism”.  So in summary three key qualities of NGJ are that it is:

·         Inspirational

·         Persuasive

·         Guiding

What other forms of games writing can you find?

·         News (General gaming news)

·         Previews

·         Reviews

·         Interviews

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

My own writing style is generally subjective.  I enjoy describing, enthusing and storytelling rather than using lots of factual information.  This does however sometimes cause me to write more than I need to, especially when I am writing about a subject I really enjoy.