Adressing the Masses

GASP! It's a bonus blog on Monday! I have been wanting to do a blog like this for a while now, but haven't gotten many readers and comments to do it. I think I finally have enough stuff to talk about however, so I will. This post will be entirely dedicated to addressing comments on all my posts. If there was a comment I felt needed a reply, I saved it for a post like this (that and blogger has no system of replying to comments whatsoever). I am going to try and explain myself in some things, and try to voice some of my opinion along with it. So sick back and relax. You'll probably see a comment or two of yours.

Comments were made in regards of my review system and the various changes that have occured to it. Specifically in regards to my implementation of no rating of the game. Some complaints were made to the final verdict section of my reviews:

Just thinking that you *shouldn't* put a buy/rent/ignore thing... That's a bit of an objective statement, no? The reason you didn't add star ranks and stuff is because its a subjective thing, and the people themselves should decide for themselves whether they would like to buy it, rent it, or ignore it after they read the review...

And people who did want a rating said something:

Like the review system, but do u think u should put in a syatem where you say if people should buy it, rent it or ignore it? Just a thought...

My creed has and will always be that I WILL NOT RATE A GAME. I will not give a game a star rating, a letter grade, or a percentage. I just won't do it. To understand why I would not do this, you have to understand that I believe there is no such thing as an objective review. It just is not possible. When someone plays a video game and reviews it, their opinion will be taken into account. There just in no way to be completely objective. I don't pretend to make my reviews objectively true. My subjective opinion will be in the reviews. I can't help it, and no one else can either. Take note that before I write a review I have already read plenty more professional reviews from places such as GameInformer, IGN, and GameTrailers. I also play the game to fullest extent I can. I try to give the best unbiased review I can. But this doesn't mean my opinions won't leak out.

Now, as to regards of the final verdict. The final verdict is the most opinionated and subjective part of the review. By my feelings I am giving suggestions about what I think people should do if they are interested. This isn't a rating. This is a suggestion. If I say something is a must-buy, I say this because in my opinion it will have mass appeal with a certain group of people. If I say something is worth a try, I feel the things I found in the game were worth a suggestion to try the game for other gamers. DO NOT TAKE THIS AS A RATING. I judge the pros and the cons of the review in the actual review. And, as always, if you disagree with the final verdict, you may. As I have stated, reviews will and always will be subjective.

Another comment was made in regards of my statement that Army of Two: The 40th Day was gaining much improvement, and that I thought it looked completely different and better:

...Though Army of Two make fix the story aspect of the game, as the trailer showed, the horrible and painful one-liners are remaining. What a shame...

Things like the one-liners in Army of Two give the game a bit of personality. Yes, they are cheasy. Yes, you can find yourself thinking why the developers made this dialogue. But it is my opinion that this type of thing should never hold a game down. If the developers are set to make a gameplay experience ten times better, and they succeed,more power to them. If that means keeping those one-liners, so be it. I'll take it if the game overall is better.

A lot of comments were made about my comments on Battle.net, specifically my awe at the number of registered players on Battle.net:

Most WoW players have a battle.net account so this makes sense.

There is no limit on how many you can create, and because this old Bnet system doesn't really have a good system of rankings, or achievements, or a friends list, or anything else, you don't lose much if you "reroll" and make a new account.You could make 100 accounts in 20 minutes. People do it all the time to change their name.

Battle.net has a gigantic number of registered users. More than World of Warcraft. And WoW has over 11 million players. Saying most WoW players have battle.net accounts is a cop-out. Do not forget that Blizzard had a big number of players internationally with Starcraft WAY before WoW came out. Starcraft was and is a global phenomenon. A statistic stated that over 75% of gamers in Korea play Starcraft. This is why it's a career there to play Starcraft. This global popularity is why Bnet is so popular. And although WoW players may attribute to that, saying that they are responsible for a boost in Bnet users is not correct. In regards to the ease of creating accounts it is the same situation. Saying that this is a reason for Bnet user increase is diminishing the numbers. Some people may take advantage of the situation, but that can't be used for a valid reason. And even if it way, why should that affect numbers? Registration is registration, and if a person has made 100 Bnet accounts, then they made 100 accounts. They chose to do that. They wanted to do that. And that therefore counts as a valid account registration.

Some did not like my choices in the awards I gave for GAMEScon and Blizzcon.

But Fable III as the worst game? Even though it's Fable, it shows that at least Peter Molyneux is commiting to a game (the gap between the first two Fable games was around 4 years) and that depite its flaws it has become a franchise as recognizable as Halo and Call of Duty. Do the right thing and give this one to "Just Dance".

My worst game for GAMEcon was Fable III just because of the way it was handled and the potential lost. Lionhead has not done anything else with Fable for a long while. Many a gamer was waiting for Lionhead to announce something different. And they didn't. It was dissapointing. And on top of that, that was the only thing talked about at the Microsoft Conference. It was upsetting in my opinion, and I don't like it when a developer kills a chance like that. That being said, if my choice was purely from a like/don't like standpoint, I would have picked "Just Dance". But I tried to pick a game that would survey my distaste in regards to the entire show.

You've made good choices. However, having played both World of Warcraft and being a Starcraft player for the past 8 years (about), I think I would consider the Game of the Show SCII. I think if I talk about why I would never stop though... However, Cataclysm comes SO close to SCII.

Again, it was a choice of mine taking into account the entire show, not just what I liked and wanted. I am not a WoW player. I would have picked SCII in a millisecond if I was picking because of my likes and dislikes. But I picked Cataclysm because it just was the reasonable and obvious choice. Blizzard fans wanted this announcement and they got it. Everything they wanted from a new expansion is arriving. That is a big deal. Remember that SCII is not new. It was revealed a while back. And although it still has tons of popularity, that means nothing compared to a new and fresh announcement. Again, SCII is what I want the most, but not the best choice for game of show.

A comment was made on my delayed post:

Very confused you didn't mentioned Duke Nukem Forever, which now may be the only game to receive a "Permenantely Delayed" status.

This game does not deserve a space in my delayed post. It is an entirely unique situation, that has never happened to any other game to date. A 10+ year delay is unique to Duke Nukem Forever. My post was about delay trends. I stated at the beginning of the blog that every delay situation is different and varies for each game. So I wasn't going to make any note of one specific game. This isn't a trend, and therefore I didn't mention it.

Finally, a lot of comments were made about my post on remakes.

Completely agree with all of these. Marathon should be Bungie's next big thing, they've already got everthing they need to start. I was always surprised that one of the greatest games for N64 like Star Fox got a crappy revamp to Gamecube but not to the Wii yet. Goldeneye and FFVII would keep the fanboys at bay, but i'm thinking just in the cockpit for Rogue Squadron. The out-of-cockpit for RS3:Rebel Strike was terrible. Also, can I get a little OCARINA OF TIME please?!?!?!?!?!?

Nintendo would never remake Ocarina of Time. It has too much "video game merit" for Nintendo to warrant a remake any time soon. In my opinion, I would rather Nintendo spend time and resources on creating a new Zelda rather than going back. If you liked Ocarina of Time like I did, I wouldn't want a remake just quite yet. The chance for messing up something is high, especially with a company like Nintendo.

There also was some inter-comment debate about handheld remakes:

I also hope that these possible remakes dont dive into the abyss that is the handheld. ugh. the handheld pretty much killed Final Fantasy remakes and Crisis Core FF7.

Final Fantasy I-VI (with the exception of FFIII since I haven't played it) were remade into the GBA, and they were NOT killed. They were extremely good remakes, with a little extra content in each of them after beating the games.

It is my personal opinion that a console game should never ever be remade into a handheld game. It ruins the feel of that game. That being said, both have good points. On one hand, games like Crisis Core FF7 were terrible for the handheld. Although FFI-VI were pretty good, realize that the original games were so close to handheld games anyway that a transition to handheld was okay. 2D sprite games like this work with handhelds. But when you get to a 3D game like FFVII or Rogue Squadron, a transition to handheld can kill the game. I remember how great the original Star Wars: Battlefront and its sequel were. When they transitioned the title to handhelds, it lost all of its appeal. Handhelds appeal to a different audience that consoles, and the transition, save a few examples like FFI-VI, tends to be really bad.

That is it for now. Thank you all so much for making these comments. It really makes me feel like all the writing I am doing here is being read by others and not just by myself. Keep commenting. I love hearing other opinions and I love that my posts can incite conversation and thought. I hope to keep addressing these comments that I feel need addressing. At least until blogger finds a reply button somewhere....