Video Game Review – Why criticism of Video Games Should Be Mixed
In the ongoing #gamergate consumer revolt, more than ever before has the topic of game reviews been brought up. Many topics are being written about, such as the lack of diversity in game designs, how they often are slanted, biased, or simply not informative at all. These are valid concerns, but often too much is written about the negative aspects, and not enough is done to defend or encourage the positive aspects. I want to take a moment to point out some things that I think you should be aware of when you’re looking over game reviews.
First off, it seems to me like often gamers write these critiques as if they’re attacking video game journalists. This is completely untrue. Yes, there are some bad apples in there that need to be expunged, but the majority of them are actually good people, just perhaps don’t recognize their flaws. This is why a great number of gamers feel that gaming coverage is often too subjective to be of any real benefit to anyone. But you know what? I think that criticism of this sort is actually very valuable, and this is especially true with the massive phenomenon of multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).
The interaction between players is at the heart of MMORPGs, and anyone who plays a lot of video games knows this. With that said, criticism of the games is always a valuable part of video game reviews, even when it is sometimes difficult for gamers themselves to see things their way. So in the end, you can probably understand where many people are coming from when they criticize video games. Sometimes, you need to look a bit deeper into things than what you first thought to get the right point of view.