BW Media Spotlight

The internet has brought two types of video game reviews, the amateur and the professional, into a strange area where at times some amateurs not only look professional but look more professional than the professionals. I hope you followed that sentence. A game can have a high score from review sites and a low score from the gamers, and often the gamers can’t a game so clearly terrible in the areas that matter can receive such a high collective score on Metacritic. The usual response is that journalists are being paid off with early access (not necessarily money) that people running their own YouTube channel or website like myself don’t get. There are also accusations of “shill media” because they’re owned by a parent company that also owns the game publisher, or controversies like Gamergate (because every controversy is a “gate” now, thanks Nixon Administration and the Nixon-hating press–I blame you both) where clearly the game got a higher score because someone was sleeping with somebody or because they share a sociopolitical viewpoint and agenda. Honestly that last one might not be completely wrong, but not completely right.

YouTuber Alanah Pierce used to work for IGN, which despite yesterday’s post is supposed to primarily be about video games. (They wouldn’t be the first site to abandon specialty and focus on every bit of entertainment media, like CBR or Variety, the latter apparently playing politics lately, too.) While she doesn’t work there now she did use her former position to clear the air about what really goes into a video game review, the Metacritic score, and pointing out the flaws that the fandom gets right. Note that she drops the swears a bunch of times in the video.

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