kane_magus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kane_magus) wrote2010-03-23 03:39 pm
kane_magus) wrote2010-03-23 03:39 pm
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Destructoid's FFXIII review
Ha ha ha, oh wow.
I've ranted a bit about it in the past, but this is probably the best (or perhaps "worst" would be a better word) of several similar recent examples* of why Destructoid (a site I used to love, by the way, but now visit maybe once a month or so, if that much) has become only slightly better than completely worthless to me lately. It's really disappointing because it used to be a great site. Still, I admittedly have a kind of vague "just how low will they stoop for page-views next time, I wonder" interest about it as well. It's the whole "train-wreck, can't look away" phenomenon at work.
* - Which I won't link here, because I don't want to give the site any more traffic than that, if I can help it. But if you just can't help yourself, look up the follow ups to the FFXIII review I linked above, their Assassin's Creed II review, or the several articles about Heavy Rain including their review of it, as well as the various rants against indie/art games and the "Counterpoint" articles that invariably show up a few days after the very few good reviews that they give (not counting the 10 out of 10 they gave to Deadly Premonition, because that was merely another "joke" at Heavy Rain's expense). A big impetus for a lot of it is just angry fanboys being angry fanboys, true enough, but even so, I feel there's a lot of legitimate beef to be had with some of the crap the site puts out these days. Not to mention the fact that there are usually a bunch of sycophantic, pro-Destructoid fanboys clogging the comments of these crappy articles lately, too, which is another reason I feel that the site has hit the skids.
In other words, Destructoid went from being a cool site to being just another typical, crappy gaming website, with a similarly typical, crappy gaming "community" to follow it.
I've ranted a bit about it in the past, but this is probably the best (or perhaps "worst" would be a better word) of several similar recent examples* of why Destructoid (a site I used to love, by the way, but now visit maybe once a month or so, if that much) has become only slightly better than completely worthless to me lately. It's really disappointing because it used to be a great site. Still, I admittedly have a kind of vague "just how low will they stoop for page-views next time, I wonder" interest about it as well. It's the whole "train-wreck, can't look away" phenomenon at work.
* - Which I won't link here, because I don't want to give the site any more traffic than that, if I can help it. But if you just can't help yourself, look up the follow ups to the FFXIII review I linked above, their Assassin's Creed II review, or the several articles about Heavy Rain including their review of it, as well as the various rants against indie/art games and the "Counterpoint" articles that invariably show up a few days after the very few good reviews that they give (not counting the 10 out of 10 they gave to Deadly Premonition, because that was merely another "joke" at Heavy Rain's expense). A big impetus for a lot of it is just angry fanboys being angry fanboys, true enough, but even so, I feel there's a lot of legitimate beef to be had with some of the crap the site puts out these days. Not to mention the fact that there are usually a bunch of sycophantic, pro-Destructoid fanboys clogging the comments of these crappy articles lately, too, which is another reason I feel that the site has hit the skids.
In other words, Destructoid went from being a cool site to being just another typical, crappy gaming website, with a similarly typical, crappy gaming "community" to follow it.
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However, those positives become annoyances when it comes to their reviews because they lack the objectiveness a review should have. While I didn't mind the FFXIII review (his opinion after all...and ironically people's issues with the game are what I'm enjoying about it LOL) it's the Metro 2033 (or whatever year it is) review that got me completely disinterested in their reviews.
To openly 'give up' on a game because you don't believe in how a game is designed is LUDICROUS. His job is to review games and he should have played the game. Not given up. It's great that he pointed out the fault, but what about the rest of the game?
And of course, the "pro-desctructoid fanboys" say that not giving it a number is more credible than assigning it a ficticious number. I agree, but at the same time, no opinion (or 1/3 of an opinion I suppose) is not a valid one either.
In the end, I generally read game sites for articles about games rather than reviews and Destrucoid is one of the better sites I've come across in that regard. I generally regard their site as "fluff" for the most part and take most of what they say as humourous ramblings.
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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.
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The FFXIII reviewer - sarcastic son of a bitch who's angry at everything
The Metro non reviewer - games as art and indie gamer guy
It's great to have a particular characterization for people to relate to. This is another reason why Destructoid caught my attention. Their staff seemed unique and not at all faceless. They had loads of character and it felt more honest when they gave their opinions. However, it just seems they're getting too carried away with it at times.
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This is pretty much it, in a nutshell. They seem to have forgotten that, at the end of the day, they're still just dudes talking about video games on the Internet. Sadly, there seems to be less people criticizing them for this (or, at least, criticizing them in a way that can't be simply brushed aside as "ignorant, immature fanboy" and thus safely ignored, or, worse, paraded around as examples of how all of their critics are supposedly that way) and more people who merely eat it all up and ask for seconds. Not that it matters, because they (the first guy, especially) can't seem to stand any sort of criticism.
Heh, on that note, I wonder if the second guy ever did anything in reaction to the two or three articles the first guy recently wrote about indie games and how they need to stop being so artsy and pretentious ("pretentious" being one of the first guy's favorite words, apparently, despite the fact that it describes him to a tee lately), given that this seems to be the second guy's bread and butter on the site. If he did, I never saw it, though I know the second guy did one of his video rants a few months before all of that in which the subject was how games need to stop being just about "fun" and need to try to strive for more, or some such thing, which seems to be diametrically opposed to what the first guy was saying in his own rant posts. This is a case where I kind of agreed with both of them and yet neither of them, simultaneously, if that makes any sense (though, that said, I agreed more with the art/indie guy than with the angry-about-everything guy, even if both of them hated The Path).
But yeah, the sort of thing I describe there seems to be what the site has become, more or less. More and more of the articles (including, especially, the reviews) seem to be rants about this or that. They claim that they're still not taking themselves seriously, and that it's all in fun or whatever, but more and more often it seems like Serious Business™ to me. I miss the truly laid back attitude that the site used to have.[1]
It seems to be a maxim, generally speaking, that the longer a site such as Destructoid, i.e. one with open forums and comment areas and such, is in existence and the more popular it gets, the more likely it is that the earlier users, who are usually much more civil and capable of non-retarded conversation overall, will tend to get driven away or otherwise become outnumbered by the newer, more 4chan/Encyclopedia Dramatica-esque newcomers, who may or may not simply show up, at least at first, just to troll the earlier group. And the more their readership changes, the more the content of the site seems to change to reflect that, and the more the content changes, the more such users (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LowestCommonDenominator) are attracted, and the cycle feeds on itself. (Of course, TvTropes may have a page (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ItsPopularNowItSucks) for that maxim, as well. >_>; But, ironically, that principle (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ItsPopularNowItSucks) seems to be the driving force behind more than a few of these negative articles that Destructoid itself is putting out lately, too.)
(splitting into two comments because LJ is complaining)
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Personally, the idea that those two reviewers have is idiotic to some degree. I find that NO ONE every talks about intent when describing a game. It's something I'm noticing more and more in the way most reviews are written (game, book, movie, whatever). Most games just want to be about the fun. Artsy games want to be artsy (and often pretentious). Some games try to be bad (Earth Defense Force...so awesome) and are great because of it. Some are merely tech demos (Doom 3, Crysis) and some are self indulgent (Metal Gear Solid).
Personally, if a reviewer to were to try and define the possible intent for a game (or at least define it in their own opinion) the review would instant gain context to the writer and reader.
Anywho, waaaaaaay off topic now, but since it's just me and you in here, who cares right? LOL
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I agree that creator intent would perhaps be an interesting point to note in reviews of things like this. That said, I remember (http://kane-magus.livejournal.com/142511.html) an article (on Destructoid, no less, written by Anthony Burch, aka the "games as art and indie gamer guy") about a game a while back, where, at least in the comments, they most definitely did get into talking about the intent of the creator of the game. (Burch, in the article itself, just said that the guy was probably boozed up when he made the game.) A bunch of the comments were along the lines of "Bah, whoever made this crap is just a smug, pretentious twat and it sucks" and then there were comments disagreeing with that assessment, and then still other comments saying things like "Even if the author of this game is a smug, pretentious twat, so what? The game is still cool and fun to play despite that." For what it's worth, too, the actual creator of the game, posting under the name "heliopod" made some comments in the thread about his intent in making the game. (And I have to agree that it would probably be pretty hard to write a Flash game, or a game in any other language, while under the influence of anything more than strong tea.)
Also, for that matter, in the FFXIII review that kicked all this off, Jim Sterling says that the game was a "pompous and masturbatory affair, created seemingly to promote the developer's ego first, and the player's enjoyment second." That's kind of talking about creator intent, or at least Sterling's malformed opinion of said intent for the purposes of trolling, anyway. I doubt that's what you were talking about though. >_>
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As an aside, it's very interesting to see the differing opinions on Passage between "games as art and indie gamer guy" and the "sarcastic son of a bitch who's angry at everything" (http://www.destructoid.com/passage-in-ten-seconds-art-games-lol--164818.phtml) (and all his "lickspittles" (thanks again TvTropes)).
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I mean, Square Enix openly said that they wanted to create a strongly linear game so they could control the experience. You cannot all of a sudden hold it against them for creating a linear game. You may not agree with it, but you have to judge it accordingly.
Just like if you don't like the colour pink, and an artist uses the colour pink, you don't dimiss it. You judge it based on how he used the colour pink and weather he was successful or not.
I don't understand why reviewers (of anything) fail to understand this. That's why I've always like reading Roger Ebert's movie reviews. While I don't always agree with him, he often had the ability to judge what was on the screen for what it was, not what it wasn't.
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In any event, even though I used to think the site was awesome, it still makes me kind of glad that I remained a pure lurker and never got around to making a user account there, though there were quite a few times when I was tempted to do so, both back in the day and more recently, either in agreement with or in opposition to various articles. I'm not a big fan of participating in flame wars at all, however, after getting embroiled in a nasty one over a decade ago (for you OW!ers that may be reading this, yeah, I'm talking about all (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.sailor-moon/msg/38562d1a03f1bd9b?hl=en&dmode=source)[2] of (http://web.archive.org/web/20010508113014/http://www.otakuwars.org/~kane_magus/How_not_to_handle_author-to-author_relations.txt) that (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.sailor-moon/browse_thread/thread/4d774c1498c3863e/01513ed88181777c?#01513ed88181777c) retarded (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.sailor-moon/browse_thread/thread/7d7011837fe3039b/c0ec70b3ed5fa666?hl=en&q=group:alt.fan.sailor-moon+insubject:two+insubject:tuxedos+insubject:are+insubject:better+insubject:than+insubject:one#c0ec70b3ed5fa666) old (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.sailor-moon/browse_thread/thread/7939c14f3ada20e3/ac9ff30008fbe3f4?hl=en&#ac9ff30008fbe3f4) crap (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.sailor-moon/browse_thread/thread/5c25effbbd560e83/5c216abb5586ac6e?hl=en%05c216abb5586ac6e)[3], which still, to this day, has me rather gun shy about getting caught up in flamewars), so my likelihood of ever creating an account there is forever diminishing.
And.... I seem to be getting way too worked up over this. ^^; It's kind of worse, though, because I'm not so much angry about this as I am severely disappointed by it.
[1] - Though, to be honest, they kind of lost that way back when that Summa guy was around. They finally wised up and got rid of him (supposedly he left of his own accord, but I think there was pressure, both internally and externally, for him to be gone), even despite the fact that when they hired him, for whatever unknown reason, it was right after he had been previously fired from joystiq for more or less the exact same thing that eventually drove him away from Destructoid as well. But... even though they did get better for a little while after that, the site still never seemed to fully recover what it was before all of that needless drama (which is very similar to the needless drama we're seeing now). That was also around the time I started seeing more and more of the "lickspittles" (I do like that word, thanks TvTropes) showing up. And once they start showing up, that was all she wrote. They just now seem to have shifted their attentions from that guy to these other guys.
[2] - Holy crap! (http://web.archive.org/web/20010604043112/http://www.otakuwars.org/~kane_magus/Diablo-Pepin_and_Farnham.wav) O_O Archive.org is awesome.
[3] - At the risk of getting entirely off-topic... Seriously, has it really been that long? It's almost like another lifetime. >_> And how, not to mention why, was I able to find all of that stuff so quickly and easily, when I haven't thought about any of it in years, until now... ^^; It was definitely not a highlight, and was in fact probably the lowlight, of my time in the OW! >_>; In any case, it's all ancient history and I'm not even sure why I'm bothering to rehash any of it now, aside from pure morbid nostalgia (or whatever word there is that means "negative nostalgia," assuming such a word exists).
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My site (http://web.archive.org/web/20010502151550/http://www.otakuwars.org/~kane_magus/) is still mostly there, anyway, including that big, scary, blue header pic. Sadly, it seems that SD-KM's theme, the one thing I would have wanted to pull from there since I don't have access to it on my broken PC at home, is the one thing from my site that isn't actually being stored there.