An excerpt from an interesting article:

ArcAngel3, what's going on!

Good read. Forums are getting infested too. The poser to gamer ratio is slimming.

It's gotta be hard being in the media. What to do?

Nice seeing ya around again. Hope you've been well.

This topic has come up every now and then for a while now.  Any forum covering this I'd wager will get this subject repeatedly.

But my view lines up with the OP / article for most parts.

It's always been funny to see Rave Reviews!, Editor's Choice!, Game Of The Month! with blindingly bright descriptions of the game but seeing actual gamer input, especially those that you know well, with vastly different takes is always entertaining.

It used to be that if you at least look at reviews for a particular title across, say, 3-4 gaming sites / magazines, then you should have a clearer picture of what is BS and what's not.

But that's not the case anymore when you pick up that title and it's not quite with the bed of roses the various gaming sites / mags have been telling.

For most parts, all this is aimed at Day 1 / initial sales.  It takes a while for actual mainstream gamers to actually chime in and get the word out.  Not like those Day 1 reviews that are out right when the title hits.  It doesn't matter if the gaming public actually and eventually catches on and sees the title for what it actually is, despite all these "professionals" telling us otherwise.  Because that takes a while to happen, and by then they're already been taking your money for the inital release and rush.

And that's good enough for them.  As long as they got your cash.

Edit to add:  Reviews might as well have the "This is an advertisement" stuck at the top.

Average review since Jan 2010 was graded as 7.2 which is described as "Good times for all"

MMORPG.COM Best New Game 2010 was won by "None of the above" because general consensus was that the games from the last year were pretty bad and the accompanying text said:

"It shouldn't then, come as a huge shock that, when given the choice, MMORPG.com readers threw the majority of their support behind None of the Above for Best New Game of 2010"

There is obviously a disconnect.

Remember the guy that got fired for his bad review of Kane and Lynch awhile back? I believe it, and it sucks. I want honest reviews, not advertising.

Originally posted by daelnor

Remember the guy that got fired for his bad review of Kane and Lynch awhile back? I believe it, and it sucks. I want honest reviews, not advertising.

 I could care less about devs and their groupies if we we're getting good, different games or worlds or sims, anything at this point other than WOW1005542. But we're not. Not yet anyway.

What we get are many versions of there is something wrong with us. Ya.

From all sides. The devs or publisher PR, the media and in the forums. No ones looking out for gamers, so I would assume everything should be taken as false until proven correct. Everything. Unless someone can offer a reason to assume honesty? 

It's not game media. It's media.

What do you expect? Honesty? Integrity? TRUTH? Well, give me a break.

Originally posted by Elikal

It's not game media. It's media.

What do you expect? Honesty? Integrity? TRUTH? Well, give me a break.

 I do and so do the people that raised them to be better than that. So does the law and so do people who dream of following in their footsteps. You have to leave it a little better than when you got it.  Hardcore lol.

Actually, if they  just stop calling themselves gamers Ill be overly joyed..

I remember back in the days the paper magazine Computer Gaming world had a fairly caustic writer named Scorpia who would sometimes really take publishers to task.  Eventually I think she went too far and they let her go.

But overall that magazine did a great job calling out shoddy products.  They called UO a (drink) "Coaster of the Year" not once, but twice, and Richard got so mad he created a blob like npc mob with the CGW editor's name so players could kill it relentlessly.  Same went for SWG, another coaster of the year (they seemed to dislike MMORPG games in general until COH came out) and overall I found their game reviews to be consistent and accurate.

Now days games can be total crap and get  a 5.5/10.

Oh well, game reviews are just for fun anyways, the real proof is in trying it out for yourself, I might never played EVE for 3 years if I had listened to Yatzee.

Simple fix. If you're going to give us gaming news and interviews with devs and industry insiders just do that and let your readers review it. If you're going to do reviews just do reviews and be as honest about it as you like maybe you'll get some insider news at the same time from devs that actually stand behind their game because they know they aren't  marketing turd-in-a-box.

Interesting article.  I was expecting yet another case of the media telling you that the media are important.

I was aware that publishers tried to pressure game media sources.  But telling them, the day you can post your review depends on how highly you rate it?  I didn't realize it went that far.

I guess the moral of the story is, don't buy a game on launch day, unless perhaps you're excited enough about it that you'd buy it anyway even if the reviews universally panned it as awful.  Rather, wait a while to find out if the game is actually any good, and then buy it.

Originally posted by Quizzical

Interesting article.  I was expecting yet another case of the media telling you that the media are important.

I was aware that publishers tried to pressure game media sources.  But telling them, the day you can post your review depends on how highly you rate it?  I didn't realize it went that far.

I guess the moral of the story is, don't buy a game on launch day, unless perhaps you're excited enough about it that you'd buy it anyway even if the reviews universally panned it as awful.  Rather, wait a while to find out if the game is actually any good, and then buy it.

 I learned my lesson from Funcoms Age of Conan, won't happen again.

Originally posted by FikusOfAhazi

ArcAngel3, what's going on!

Good read. Forums are getting infested too. The poser to gamer ratio is slimming.

It's gotta be hard being in the media. What to do?

Nice seeing ya around again. Hope you've been well.

 Heya Fikus ^_^.  Good to hear from you too.  I've been well, thx for asking.  Btw, I want to give credit to a mutual online friend (Shayde) for finding this article and bringing it to my attention. 

Originally posted by Quizzical

Interesting article.  I was expecting yet another case of the media telling you that the media are important.

I was aware that publishers tried to pressure game media sources.  But telling them, the day you can post your review depends on how highly you rate it?  I didn't realize it went that far.

I guess the moral of the story is, don't buy a game on launch day, unless perhaps you're excited enough about it that you'd buy it anyway even if the reviews universally panned it as awful.  Rather, wait a while to find out if the game is actually any good, and then buy it.

 Yup, I totally agree.  I used to get game magazines, read the reviews, take some of their recommendations and buy games at release.  Over the years I've noticed that the reviews have become less and less reliable.  They often read more like P.R. pieces.  Lots of exclamation marks, and lots of words like "iconic and robust." 

Now, I simply don't buy games on release day.  I wait for the dust to settle so I can get some good information before I decide how to use my buying power.  That has served me well lately.

The mmo exclusive advertising on a site like this doesn't help inspire confidence in the reportage either.  Nonetheless, I'm cynical enough to have no faith in the 'press' anyway and I only come here for the forums.

Originally posted by Elikal

It's not game media. It's media.

What do you expect? Honesty? Integrity? TRUTH? Well, give me a break.

a month ago there was a heated debate on this site over the review of DC Universe Online - which many people thought was inflated and missed many important details which would have reduced the initial score.

The managing editor of this site vehemently defended the "integrity" of the writer (and writers) of this site. He went even further by stating that they are aware their reviews have an impact on peoples purchasing choice and as such they try to be as objective as possible.

so you cant blame people for at least giving reviewers the benefit of the doubt.

i suppose most seasoned readers take all reviews with a grain of salt by now - but i believe that regardless of bias they are still useful if you can read between the lines or at least to relate (or not) to what the game proposes.