A Symposium On Game Reviews. Topic 1: Review Scores, Part I
May 30th, 2009
Are
reviews primarily a consumer guide, or should they serve another
purpose? Do review scores deter intelligent discussion of videogames?
Is the presence or absence of a review score the only difference
between a reviewer and a critic? What is the role of the reviewer when
the Internet is democratizing published opinion? How should reviews and
reviewers evolve in light of the emergence and growth of Flash games,
small games, indie games and user-generated games?
These
questions and more were on the mind of N’Gai Croal, John Davison and
Shawn Elliott last summer when they decided to expand their
conversation to a number of noted reviewers, writers, bloggers and
journalists for a published email symposium on game reviews. (See below
for the full list of participants.) The planned list of topics include
Review Scores; Review Policy, Practice and Ethics; Reader Backlash;
Reviews in the Age of Social media; Reviews in the Mainstream Media;
Casual, Indie, and User-Generated Games; Reviews vs. Criticism; and
Evolving the Review. The participants are as follows:
- Leigh Alexander, Gamasutra/Sexy Videogameland/Variety
- Harry Allen, Media Assassin
- Robert Ashley, freelancer
- Tom Chick, freelancer
- N’Gai Croal, Level Up/Newsweek
- John Davison, What They Play
- Shawn Elliott, 2K Boston
- Jeff Gerstmann, Giant Bomb
- Kieron Gillen, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
- Dan Hsu, Sore Thumbs Blog
- Francesca Reyes, Official Xbox Magazine
- Stephen Totilo, MTV News
The topic for Round 1, which will be published here in installments over the next several days, is Review Scores. To read Part I in its entirety, click on the link below.
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