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GamerGate - The Purpose Of A Game Review And How To Write One With Minimal Subjectivity By Oliver Campbell

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ver Capbell onSep25 The Purpose Of A Game Review and How To Write One With Minimal Subjectivity In the continuing consum er revolt that is #gamergate, more than once has the subject of game reviews come up. Qualms are usually focused around how they are frequently slanted, skewed, heavily biased, or just not informative. So I've decided to sit down and tell you how to go about crafting il quality review. Why do we write reviews? Any review boiled down into its basic form is written in order to help the reader (YOUR customer) make an informed decision about what they MIGHT purchase, or otherwise utilize. The fact of the matter is this; game journalism and game reviews are a customer oriented business. Your readers are your customers, except rather than paying you upfront with cash (unless you're still subscribing to a magazine) they're paying you with clicks of your articles. Nevertheless, your ultimate job is to serve your customer and serve them well. Assume that every customer has a limited entertainment budget: your job is to make sure that they are getting the best value for their dollar Over the past week I've seen more than a few people make the mostly false claim that a review can't be objective in its nature. Not only do I disagree with that, I tend to make it a point in the reviews that I write to avoid unnecessarily interjecting my opinion into it as much as reasonably possible. A good written review is more or less an informative essay that is flavored with your unique personality with a sprinkling of your personal interpretation. To build the structure of a good review, I go back to the 4E's: Educate, Explain, Elaborate, Emphasize. Let's go ahead and take a look at each of those in detail. Educate Explain to the customer WHAT they are buying. Follow the What, Who, When, Where (the 4 W's) method. WHAT game are yow reviewing? WHO developed and published it? WHEN did it,or does it,ese WHEREwhich platforms) did it, or will it, release Explain After you've covered the basic fucts sheet, in this section of the review is where yo talk about emctly what the game is, What do you do in the game? What is the purpose of it? Are there aaditional under explained or not explained features (not shown on the box or in pre-release material)? How euch entertainment time should the average customer get out of this tirle? What genre is it? How much time did you spend with the product? There are more questions to be asked depending on the product, but this shod give you the general idea of what this section is about. Elaborate In this section is where you go into further necessary detail on featares in the game that are big enongh topics to not eusily fit into basic explanation. What is the big hook for the game that sets it apart from others of its genre? Does the game do something that no one else has done? This is its own section becanse yon may need to go into complex detafl to explain a mechanic in-depth, meique title features, ete In this section of the review is where you shouid put more dctail on quality oflife and quality of build. If it's a eent gen title with achievements (such as Steam Achievements, Xbox Achievements, PlayStation Trophies, etc) you wonld taik about them here. Does the game run at industry standard resolutions? Are there additional microtnansactions Will DLC be availabie? Are there big, notable issues such as bugs, screen-tearing, poor performance,cnashes, so on and so fortk? You will often hear people say "How are the graphics? Interpretation of artistic STYLE is suhjective QUALITY ofwork it as much as you'd think. Are the textures wushed out and muddy? Is it difieralt to see properiy? Are there clear and obvions typos? Is the audio for the game clear and free of baciground noise es, this kind of stuf DOES happen)? You should talk abot all ofthese things here Closing The final portion of your review should talk about your own eoperience with the titie and how you enjoyed it, ifat al. THIS is wbere the subjectivity of your review comes into play, as opposed to the other sections. Every person consume the content differently. Yow can talk about how much ficn that you had or whether your disliked the eoxperience overall. What were your impressions? What did you think of the art style and direction? How does it compare to other games of its genre, in your view? Does it do things worse than its competitors or better in your view? How did you enjoy the story, if applicable? Again, there is plenty of space here for you to show the reader YOUR interpretation of the facts preseuted in the majority af the product review is sunique and wil I typically avoid providing scores on my reviews. The reason being that no one can seem to actually agree on WHAT scale to use. People use stars, yes no, scale of to s and scale of i to o, usually. My general problem with these scoring systems is that the meanin名of them can vary wildly depending on who is looking at it. A 3 star review is 'supposed' to be average, but to many people it's considered mediocre and not worth your time. Instead, I say who is likely to purchase the title and who is likely to avoid the title. If, for example, the game falls into the 'brawler genre and you didn't have a bad experience with it, you can safely say that "Fans of brawlers will probably enjoy this title." This achieves two final goals: It defines who the intended audience of the title was, and who would do better to avoid it altogether. Now bear in mind, this isn't necessarily a blocked-out template for every review, it's here to explain to you WHAT should be talked about in review, why you're talking about it, and how to do so well. Your job, as a reviewer isn't to tell the customer what to buy. Your job is to INFORM the customer of what they COULD buy, should they be inclined to. You are their eyes and ears in places that they cannot venture, you are there to provide them with the data that they could not easily glean on their own. Happy reviewing. Oliver Campbell nter ema Responses Inspired to write your own story? TRAIN PEOPLE The paradoxes of organization of PEORE of agity

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