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Tag Archives: metacriticism
The Mind’s Eye: In Defence of Subjectivity
I learned the joy of owning a ZX Spectrum this week, but I’ve never played one. I felt the connection between Dear Esther and the end of a relationship I never had. I understood the fear of being an inadequate mother, although I am not a parent. It’s easy to see how a piece entitled “What’s wrong with game reviews?” would provoke games writers, especially those who subscribe to New Games Journalism, but Joseph Hilgard’s essay contradicts what I believe about the value of subjectivity in games writing.
Hilgard and I are both psychologists, and we both focus on video games. My undergraduate dissertation studied non-verbal behaviour differences in violent and non-violent games. Even with a science background, it is a mistake to treat game reviewing as an exact science, something that can be dissected and analysed, assigned scores and scales. There is no ‘Five Factor Model’ of gaming. That approach reminds me of when game review magazines had entire columns dedicated to scores: giving games separate marks for their gameplay and graphic fidelity which didn’t count towards an overall score. Continue reading →
Posted in Critical Conversation, Criticism
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Tagged Alan Williamson, dan pinchbeck, deadly premonition, Dear Esther, gamefeel, hiking tour, Joseph Hilgard, kieron gillen, kyle stegerwald, mass effect 3, Metacritic, metacriticism, New Games Journalism, non-violent games, psychology, review scores, sega, Skyrim, subjectivity, super metroid, tetris, violent games, zx spectrum
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5 Comments
What’s Wrong With Game Reviews?
What’s wrong with game reviews? I could complain what a useless measure game scores have become, since the current range of 8-10 scores is too restricted to have any meaning. Imagine how difficult it would be to talk about height if everybody’s height was described as a number between eight and ten. Worse, I find that the most interesting games tend to score in about the 85s, so imagine that sometimes people who were 10 feet tall were actually shorter than people who were eight feet tall. Even if the range of scores were better distributed, though, it still seems like the least interesting titles would still rise to the top. Why is that? Continue reading →
Posted in Criticism, Features, Round Table
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Tagged badgame, Citizen Kane, Dragon Age 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Formalism, Games Criticism, Grand Theft Auto 4, Joseph Hilgard, Lana Del Ray, Metacritic, metacriticism, New Games Journalism, Orson Welles, PC Gamer, Rich McCormick, Roger Ebert, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
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4 Comments
Bad at What? The Question of Skill and Games Criticism
What does it mean to be bad at a video game, and what are you actually bad at when you can’t do something as simple as whack a stationary target with a melee weapon? What does it mean to be Really Good At A Videogame? What consequences does this have for criticism and design? Continue reading →
Posted in Criticism, Features, Round Table
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Tagged 1up, badgame, emergence, emergent, game formalism, james joyce, jonathan swift, kyle stegerwald, mass effect 2, metacriticism, PROSTRATS, quake, satire, skiing, team fortress 2, tribes, ulysses
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7 Comments