Before I cut to the chase, I'd like to thank iamsuperman's blog post http://n4g.com/user/blogpos... regarding this issue. In his blog, he mentions what gaming journalism should do in order to present a more "fair and balanced" tone in all of their outlets, whether it be reviews or articles. After reading both that blog and viewing the usual comments that come through here, I had to ask myself: Who's going to take the first step towards a more welcoming atmosphere? I purpose that you, the reader, and I can be the first to achieve a better gaming atmosphere IF we can recognize these aspects.
1.) Opinions and bias are not going away
Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Onion News, New York Times, and even NPR are all examples of educated indivduals giving biased news at some point or another, whether it would be through suspicious camera shots to their talk show hosts. We need to recognize that another opinion will be leaked in some way shape or form into a review (and some news articles). Yes, it's shocking to see Edge, IGN, and every other reviewing site to think that not every exclusive is the "cat's meow". Even though reviews have objective means of displaying the game's true quality, the reviewers themselves all have dispositions to find different qualities of a game to be more important than others. The problem with this, as seen with some low scores to hyped games, is the backlash received by the community for this disagreeable score; however, the advantage is the ability to find that certain reviewer you can relate with that gives the best explanation (in your opinion) as to why this game is bad/mediocre/good/excellent. The reason this is number one goes by the rule of finding a problem by first recognizing the problem.
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2.) You're wasting time by complaining, rather than making a change internally.
This is more of an uplifting aspect to the blog, rather than an analysis. How many examples have we seen throughout the Bible where someone is dawned with a sense of "spiritual self-realization" in order to change his/her outlook on life, or a situation at hand? The answer would be dozens upon dozens, I imagine. Although you may be questioning my example, I've used it to help you, as the reader, to realize that this isn't the only generation to be bombarded by these types of complaints, only the technology has changed. Throughout various stories, both fiction and non-fiction, the general outlook of said character usually only makes a turn for better once they've changed internally; more often than nought, the external situation has stayed the same or even gotten worse in some cases, yet he/she stays with their new outlook in order to feel satisfied. With number two on this list, I hoped this would come off as the no-brainer solution.
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3.) Attack the quality of the review content, not the review score.
If you are a usual to n4g, it's easy for you to notice that ps3 and 360 fanboys feel that certain sites have it out for some of their system's heralded exclusives. Just the other day, I was greeted to comments on Edge's recent review score for inFamous 2 that made me appauled to be a member of this site. For every herd of users who say "But you gave X exclusive a higher score than Y exclusive", you'll be lucky to see a handful of users grab a quote FROM the review and make a complaint about the diction, grammar, etc. You should also note that these attacks against a certain site are exclusive only when exclusives to a console are involved. This is a definite sign where gamers need to understand the reasons why this game received this score before openly attacking it.
I've even seen it in my own personal reviews (there was some good criticism given as well, mind you): http://n4g.com/channel/call...
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4.) Patience is a virtue
Face it, the reason some of these disagreeable sites have such a strong following is that they started from somewhere, made their way up the ladder, and lost sight of what gamers truly wish to see from the site altogether. I believe that we, the "website sojourners", can be the first to create a better enviroment on the internet if we go after the "meat and potatoes" of the site, rather than bashing the flair that gives the site more hits. You don't need to start a revolution in order for the industry to change for the better, just let your honest voice be heard before the masses and the internet will have one less troll to worry about.
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