Coffee Talk #264: Game Developers vs. Game Journalists

I have the utmost respect for game developers. I’m amazed by how hard many of them work and how much they put into their games. With that in mind, I hate when developers…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the beauty of Buddha Bar, the Red Sox owning the MLB winter meetings, or why Winona Ryder isn’t bigger, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I have the utmost respect for game developers. I’m amazed by how hard many of them work and how much they put into their games. With that in mind, I hate when developers accuse reviewers of “not getting it”? I understand that developers get attached to their products and it’s sometimes hard for them to take criticism, but it’s ridiculous when they think it’s some sort of disrespectful conspiracy.

Silicon Knights’ Dennis Dyack immediately comes to mind when thinking about this whole deal. More than any other developer, he has been extremely critical of game reviewers. (In some cases he’s absolutely right. In others, he sounds a little crazy.) When Too Human was met with mediocre to poor reviews, Dyack accused journalists of not getting it.

More recently, Warren Spector felt that game reviewers didn’t understand the camera in Epic Mickey. He told MTV:

This is a game that takes platforming elements and adventure game elements and role-playing elements and merges them. So we couldn’t tune the camera perfectly for platforming or for action adventure. It’s a very different camera style. What we did is try to find the best compromise in the moment and give the player as much manual control as we could. So we took the hardest problem in third-person gaming and made it harder by trying to accommodate two different playing styles.

And I will go to my grave, imperfect as it is, proud as hell of my camera team. If reviewers want to give us a hard time about it because they’re misunderstanding the game we made, it’s not for me to tell them that they’re wrong, absolutely not.

The thing is, I don’t think reviewers should give a damn that the camera tried to accommodate a variety of genres. They should give a damn that the camera takes away from the game’s fun and should convey that to their readers. At the end of the day, reviewers are gamers. They are responsible for telling their fellow gamers whether a game is enjoyable enough to purchase.

Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the issue. Should reviewers care about the developers’ technical goals when judging a game? Do developers have a point when they say that reviewers don’t get it? Lastly, can you please take away my nasty hangover?

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

33 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #264: Game Developers vs. Game Journalists”

  1. no i don't think reviewers should take in what technical goals the developer was looking for. I think you can compare video games with music or art. either people like your stuff or not. If the reviewer doesn't like your approach for the camera use then oh well someone will but don't get all touchy about it. Not everyone is going to like your work of "art" you just have to deal with it. i wish i could cure your hangover but i'm still trying to get over these toxic paint fumes at work. I left early yesterday because i was lightheaded and they're still having this guy paint! why are they letting him paint during business hours!

  2. Having reviewed a few games myself, I must say that I try to be respectful of the developers and the work they put in. Game reviewing, like any other type of critique, is subjective to a large degree unless you're talking about glaring technical issues like screen tearing, game freezing, etc. Everyone has different ideas of what is "fun," and the most important thing is to at least be fair in judgment of a game. People may agree or disagree, but I'm not the only yahoo with a website out there voicing my opinion.

    But ultimately I'm not writing the review for the developers, I'm writing it for the people who follow our site, or just happen to pop by. If I can't be honest with them, I'm wasting my time.

  3. Having seen some of the camera issues with Epic Mickey, I would agree that the consumer should be concerned with how is actually responds (which seems to be similar to SMB64's problems with camera angles). If a developer is that mad about it, then get the hell over it. It's that simple. lol. I respect what a lot of developers do, but in the end they don't get paid if the consumer doesn't appreciate the controls of a game, in situations such as this one. If the consumers "got" what the controls were trying to do, then they would not be good consumers because they would be laying down and settling for an inadequately developed and tested game.

  4. If your only complaint against a game is its camera angles, then you should not penalize the game for it unless it is game breaking. Reviewers do have to take into consideration the whole product and not just the negatives, which seems to be the norm nowadays. If you want to make a living complaining, go be a movie critic, because you aren't helping anyone here.

  5. I see some reviews that give passes to bad technical details for the sake of the whole or art. Big reason I don't read reviews is that I'd rather have my own opinion as opposed to a relative opinion of the reviewer.

  7. @TNA

    Tara and Mickey James put on the match of the night last night. Their match was the main event. When was the last time you saw 2 women headline a show? Take note WWE. That's what you can do when you have women who can actually wrestle.

    @topic

    What I hate about reviewers is that a lot of them tend to give free passes for big games while nitpicking smaller games to death. Socom Confrontation released full of bugs and was picked apart by reviewers, and rightfully so, but COD: Black Ops and Fallout New Vegas was also released full of bugs but only a few reviewers had the balls to mention it and take off points for it. Why is that?

  8. Played a bunch of Infinity Blade on my friend's iPad today. It feels different than on an iPhone. I enjoy the game on its own, but love what it means for the future of mobile gaming. Chair and Epic did a fantastic job on this game. Fantastic stuff.

    1. @Ray

      I find that I like the game better on my iphone. It felt easier to control since my hands weren't so far apart. Mainly shield blocking.

      I still play it on my iPad though because I like the bigger screen!

      1. I agree with you assessment of the controls, but I wouldn't necessarily say "better". It's certainly easier on the iPhone, but I felt more challenged on the iPad. There are some enthusiasts gamers that would feel completely unchallenged and possibly bored playing on the iPhone.

      2. @Ray

        Do you play games to be challenged or entertained? Me personally what I do for a living is challenging enough on top of day to day life happenings. I much prefer something entertaining. That's not to say I want a game where there is no penalty for failure, I just don't care for a difficulty that will make a grown man cry lol.

  9. Super excited about the Elder Scrolls V and Mass Effect 3 announcements from the VGA's. The new SSX looks…..different. I kinda liked the old arcade style games.

  10. I went and browsed what was teased and announced and I'm a bit disappointed Sony is only bringing sequels to the table as the heavy hitters. UC3 will be the only one I am interested in. Never could stand Twisted Metal (what Jaffe showed looked like crap anyway), and R3 won't be a purchase for me because R2 wasn't very good. Maybe a borrow or rent.

    I didn't notice what MS had if anything. Hopefully they have new IPs.

  12. looks like me and big blak in the rpad.tv fantasy football final

    apparently the key to winning is to play a defense that gets shelled…highest scoring defense of the week…the bears!!!

    1. yeah and the broncos scored well too. That's why I picked up the Bills defense, but then they started to put up a fight so my strategy didn't work out as well as I had hoped.

  13. Infant Sorrow rules! There's a little African child trapped in all of us.

    <object width="575" height="456"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/OsjgR2GId5s?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/OsjgR2GId5s?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&quot; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="575" height="456"></embed></object>

      1. He is on the verge of complete greatness. I enjoy his writing, stand up, acting, and silly music. He just needs a little bit more and he will be a legend. I'm hoping he rocks it with the Arthur remake. On paper, it sounds brilliant.

        On a side note, my current LA nightmare (that doesn't involve Bolivia Bunn) is meeting Katy Perry. I would just bombard her with questions about her husband.

      2. oh they are doing the Arthur remake. I remember parts and pieces of it. Dudley Moore was funny in that movie. I agree, he's just one blockbuster movie away or if he does a successful tour as Infant Sorrow from being Legendary.

        Hey did you manage to see the Khan vs Maidana fight this weekend. It was a good one. I'm pretty sure it will be one of the top 10 fights of the year shown on HBO later this month.

  14. dont know if you guys caught this, but xmen arcade is coming out on psn today, instead of february…1 day before xbl actually….what systems are you guys planning on buying it for?

  15. well, im psn, so i guess ill be playing alone…..its ok though, cause you wont like me after next sunday anyways…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH

Comments are closed.