For the most part, I hate reading video game reviews. I find them to be verbose, overdrawn, and poorly written. One of the biggest offenders is IGN, with 4 to 5 page reviews going in detail about aspects of the game that frankly should not make its way to a review. Game reviewers look for qualities that would not normally appeal to the average gamer. Bonus content, developer reels, and concept art are all nice additions but are not a deal breaker and do not stack up against solid gameplay. Video game reviews also have the habit of comparing one video game to another. This works great if your target audience is an avid gamer, however when every video game review contains comparison to similar games in the genre, it becomes important to ask: who reads game reviews? I have to imagine that not everyone who reads a video game review is a seasoned gaming veteran; I am sure there are concerned parents who want to research a video game before purchasing it for their child. I am sure the jargen-filled, self-referencial nature of video game reviews is one of the many factors creating a barrier between gamers and non-gamers. Looking at the film reviews, critics write reviews that appeal to hardcore movie goers and the everyday person. Movie reviews are written in a manner that can be easily digested for public consumption. Did I mention that video game reviews are extremely biased?



Movies and film have the advantage of an academic backing and a diverse viewership. Despite being a relatively young field of study, most college campuses have a department for cinema studies. FIlm benefits from being considered both a commercial entity and an art form. Movies and film also have a much broader audience than video games. Men and women of difference race and religions go to the theater to watch the lackest blockbuster. Unfortunately the video game community does not enjoy these luxuries, but it also shows through their writing. Most reviews follow the same format or template: a brief introductory paragraph, an analysis of the graphics, gameplay, sound, give or take another section, and then a concluding paragraph. Some reviews have degenerated into bullet points of pros and cons while others are detailed plot synopsis and gameplay analysis. In most circumstances, I jump straight to the concluding paragraph because everything I actually want to read is summed up there. Some reviews lack a concluding paragraph which is a something I think we all learned about in middle school. Because reviews are so formulaic, reading reviews is never really a surprise. I read and watch many reviews - for good games, for bad games, for games I'll never play, and games I desperately want more than anything else. I enjoy reading and even if the writing is not the best, then I learned what worked and what didn't work.



Gamers are an opinionated crowd debating in great detail trivial matters like: Who is better: Cloud or Sephiroth? And those opinions and biases find their way into writing. Taking Final Fantasy as an example, reviewing Final Fantasy 8 is not a review of Final Fantasy 8 against the quality of Final Fantasy 7 or any of the preceeding Final Fantasies. Especially with Final Fantasy, most of the games have different locations, characters, and plots. Understandly, franchises have standards and it is important to address if a quality of a series is in sharp decline, but to base a review around that premise is a good way to confuse anyone reading who hasn't played Final Fantasies. My firm belief is that any one should be able to read a game review and know if they should buy the game or not. Instead, readers are treated to long-winded reviews without much personality or style. Those who have experience in print media understand the spatial constraints of writing anything. Editors cut content, adjust layout, and alter margins in order to have the writing fit a given space. Online reviews have endless space and do not need an editor - boundless creative freedom. Because of this, reviewers do not understand the desired lenght of a review - at maximum no longer than a single magazine page, two-columned.



I'm sure there are those who will read this and think that I am a pretentious person. I do not claim to be an excellent writer; in high school I was actually a pretty bad writer. Over the years, through a series of eye-opening experiences and necessity, I realized that communicating meaning and important through writing is invaluable trait. Right now more than ever, gamers want to be taken seriously. E-sports are growing, video game studies departments are appearing on college campuses, and the financial endowment of video games is growing. Video games and the gaming community is also under attack from political administrations and other organizations. To the general public, gamers are still thought of as a group of prepubescent, poorly articulated, over-aggressive homophobes. We at Destructoid know, more than anything else, that we are also a group of able writers.