My problem is mostly with the reviews as well. They don't seem to realize that it's possible to give a game a negative review without coming off like assholes in the process (or, more likely, they fully realize it, but are deliberately ignoring it). It just seems to be that their entire modus operandi lately is to stir up fanboys just for the sake of stirring up fanboys, which they seem to be very good at doing and the more popular/hyped the game the easier it is, because they know it will bring them thousands of page-views and about that many comments per article. And then they circle the wagons when they get called out on it, as evidenced by the multiple follow-up articles they put out in defense of their reviews.
I mostly enjoyed their non-review editorials and fluff pieces before, but lately, all the negativity surrounding the reviews has been spilling over into those as well. Look at the recent "joys of being a game reviewer" post, for such an example. I don't know... it just seems that the site, as a whole, has gotten a lot more mean-spirited than it used to be, and the raging fanboys, the sycophants, and the writers themselves (because they rarely fail to continue to stir the pot in the comments) all share the blame. I don't know what changed, but I would guess it's that they're just trying to cater to what has apparently become their new core demographic, given that every time there's a negative review or a similarly themed editorial or whatever, there seem to be more "in before flame war" or "looking forward to the fanboys showing up for this one" or such posts than there are actual angry fanboys showing up at times. By that, I mean that their primary audience nowadays seem to be denizens of 4chan or Encylopedia Dramatica or whatever. It didn't use to be that way. It used to be that you'd often see actual intelligent conversation in the comments, but those days seem to have gone the way of the dodo. The site just doesn't suit me anymore, in general, because of this kind of thing.
Well, mostly, it's just a couple of writers (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SmallNameBigEgo) (one of whom is the FFXIII review writer and the other of whom is the one who wrote the Metro whatever not-review), and their hordes of "lickspittles," that annoy me the most. The rest of the writers are pretty cool, for the most part. I also tend to enjoy the articles that get "promoted" from the community blogs (though I don't follow the community blogs themselves), because those are sometimes even better than the articles by the paid writers. Except, of course, when these articles are simply weighing in on whatever the latest brouhaha happens to be. Perhaps that even partially contradicts my earlier statement about the core demographic seeming to be mostly /b/tards these days. Heck, even those two particular writers themselves didn't start off bad, and still, even now, occasionally put out stuff that isn't completely flamebait. But, sadly, those two particular writers also seem to be the most prolific on the site, as well, and more and more of their output seems to be geared toward trolling the fanboys. It just sours me on the whole site overall.
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I mostly enjoyed their non-review editorials and fluff pieces before, but lately, all the negativity surrounding the reviews has been spilling over into those as well. Look at the recent "joys of being a game reviewer" post, for such an example. I don't know... it just seems that the site, as a whole, has gotten a lot more mean-spirited than it used to be, and the raging fanboys, the sycophants, and the writers themselves (because they rarely fail to continue to stir the pot in the comments) all share the blame. I don't know what changed, but I would guess it's that they're just trying to cater to what has apparently become their new core demographic, given that every time there's a negative review or a similarly themed editorial or whatever, there seem to be more "in before flame war" or "looking forward to the fanboys showing up for this one" or such posts than there are actual angry fanboys showing up at times. By that, I mean that their primary audience nowadays seem to be denizens of 4chan or Encylopedia Dramatica or whatever. It didn't use to be that way. It used to be that you'd often see actual intelligent conversation in the comments, but those days seem to have gone the way of the dodo. The site just doesn't suit me anymore, in general, because of this kind of thing.
Well, mostly, it's just a couple of writers (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SmallNameBigEgo) (one of whom is the FFXIII review writer and the other of whom is the one who wrote the Metro whatever not-review), and their hordes of "lickspittles," that annoy me the most. The rest of the writers are pretty cool, for the most part. I also tend to enjoy the articles that get "promoted" from the community blogs (though I don't follow the community blogs themselves), because those are sometimes even better than the articles by the paid writers. Except, of course, when these articles are simply weighing in on whatever the latest brouhaha happens to be. Perhaps that even partially contradicts my earlier statement about the core demographic seeming to be mostly /b/tards these days. Heck, even those two particular writers themselves didn't start off bad, and still, even now, occasionally put out stuff that isn't completely flamebait. But, sadly, those two particular writers also seem to be the most prolific on the site, as well, and more and more of their output seems to be geared toward trolling the fanboys. It just sours me on the whole site overall.