Week 5 - Writing about games... Things that need thinking about...

Why is the games press often written as if it was written for idiots?

Seriously, unless you know the best places or magazines for reading games reviews and press, it isn't hard to find a review or critic written in 'games for infants' language.

However reading the links we were given and looking at the questions we've been set, I must admit that maybe my bias is wrong, and that maybe my worry should be the fact that money-men (I like that term) are thinking about dumping professional games writers for nOObs barely out of college. Then the quailty of the good mags and sites would go down the toilet as these nOObs would not have the experiance needed to write intelligently for thier audiance.

As regards to who pays thier wages, I would think that the money-men who do that, probably get quite a bit of the profit from the games mag buying public. After all I doubt that the people who back one mag would do so without edging thier bets, and to do so would be to 'sponcer' more then one mag, say like Nintendo Offical Magazine, and then to back one of it's unoffical counter parts.

An objective ranking system is impossible I feel, after all, all games reviewers have to play a game first and if it isn't thier normal choice of game genre, then they will be biased against the game unless they are very very very open minded, and still there will be a slight bias against the game.

Reading the NGJ reviews, I think they are great and show a lot of the writers personality and interest for games which isn't found in normal games reviews, my favourate being http://www.alwaysblack.com/blackout/zangband.html , which I can sympathise with in games, since I used to play quite a few games that worked in this fashion and grrrr. NGJs seem to be personal and go off the actual expericance, instead of giving a review of the game which seems as if you have only watched someone else play a game. It also talks about how the writer responded to the game. Other forms of writting reviews are normally objective and don't always make you feel interested in a game, it's information that was put on a page, and doesn't always sink in.

In my own writing, I don't like to write without having part of myself in the writing. I have having to write objectivly and perfer to talk about my opinions and write subjectivly. This is reflected in these blogs which blatently show quite a bit of me and my personality...

Okay, questions answered, now I have to go panic about the 17th and my photoshoot for Miss England. Just under two weeks to go, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Lol,

See ya later,

Joey