Gaming Critics

Aidan Cole 1 Validity of Gaming Critics Every art form has critics and judges. Movie critics, photography critics, music judges: these are people whom the public rely on to help differentiate between mediocre and master- pieces. As a species, we want to see the best of what we can create; therefore we rely on critics and judges to help guide us in our search of praising others’ artistic expression. In recent years, there has been a new realm of critics who have surfaced: gaming critics. The official definition of video game is “any of various interactive games played using a specialized electronic gaming device or a computer or mobile device and a television or other display screen, along with a means to control graphic images.” (“video game”). Since the age of the classic arcade games such as Pac-Man, Galaga, and Donkey Kong, we have loved playing video games. They gave us a rush of excitement as we competed with one another to see who could score the highest, or reach the highest level. Jason Gastrow, a popular video game critic on Youtube known as Videogamedunkey, or Dunkey, says in a video, “Arcades were brimming with looping endless games that demanded one knee-jerk reaction after another…These were games designed to kill you (the player) fast and suck down quarters, and people loved them. Then in the mid 1980s we see the focus shifting back towards consoles with the NES (Nintendo Entertain- ment System).” (Dunkey “Difficulty in Videogames Part 2”). As technology grew, video games went through a rather quick transformation, from a passing form to a must have form of entertainment, and for some, an actual career choice. Once the age of consoles settled in (NES, Xbox, Playstation, Wii, PC, ex.), the games started changing. With every new generation of consoles came new potential for innovation. De- velopers began to tell stories that gave gamers a fully immersive experience, with better graphics Aidan Cole 2 and much more intricate and complex gameplay. A good example of this innovation and evolu- tion is Super Mario 64 (1996) vs Super Mario Odyssey (2017). Both games are from the same franchise and are open world, but Super Mario Odyssey has better graphics, better controls, and has more hours of gameplay. This also introduced the Console Wars: where consumers would argue amongst each other as to which console was better, which only sped up the competition between gaming companies, forcing them to start making better quality games at a faster rate, exclusive to their corresponding console, making consumers want to buy it. Microsoft for example launched the Xbox with Halo in 2001 with great success. Sony launched their Playstation 2 console with a few Ratchet and Clank games and Jak and Daxter. It was an endless circle of cap- italism and consumerism in the gaming industry, which siphoned money from consumers leading to its growth. What is the societal role of a critic? According to contemporary artist Dr. Oliver Watts, “The critic acts as a mediator between art and its audience. The art critic is both an outsider and an insider, someone who is embedded within art but also observes it from the outside.” (Dr. Oliver Watts “The Role of the Art Critic”). This is why critics exist, not to dishearten the artists themselves, but to help their audience understand the art itself. In this world full of political cor- rectness there is always a need for real criticism. According to John McDonald, an art and film critic for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review, Art criticism nowadays is both a hopeless cause, and more necessary than ever. Hopeless, because intelligent commentary now seems less desirable than glossy advertisements. Necessary, because it is important that someone, anyone, stand against the tides of banality and forced Aidan Cole 3 positivity that threaten to swamp the contemporary art world. (John McDonald “The Role of the Art Critic”) We need criticism in all forms of art because it keeps us honest. As we try to become more accepting of other cultures and ethnicities, we must not lose site as to why we objectively need criticism: to keep us pushing to be better. So, knowing all this, why is it that the gaming industry is struggling to create their own stable platform for criticism? It’s because of a few things: First, unlike the film industry, the gaming industry is mostly driven by company invest- ments instead of relationships. For film, a company must invest in actors, crew, directors, pro- ducers; and all must be able to work together and form relationships in order to make the best film possible. In the gaming industry, most of the game is made by developers at a computer. There is less need for relationships and instead more of a need for investment in software devel- opment and time. The point is, there is more power given to a company that invests in making the video game than to a company, in this sector, attempting to invest in relationships. As a result there is less public knowledge of video games as an art form and a good portion of the public still see video games as a passing form of entertainment, therefore there is less need for real criticism of it. Second, historically speaking, video games are still relatively new compared to film, music, literature, painting and dancing. Painting has existed since the dawn of man and the earliest findings of dancing appear in India around 6000 B.C. Motion Picture Films weren’t created until 1888 and the earliest artistic criticism of film emerged in the early 1900s. Video games didn’t first make an appearance until the early 1970s and “the first consumer-oriented print magazine dedicate solely to video gaming was Computer and Video Games, which premiered in the U.K. Aidan Cole 4 in November 1981.” (Wikipedia “Early History of Video Games”). To put into perspective, the art of film is around 132 years old and it took between 15 to 20 years for it to establish a stable platform for unbiased criticism. Video games are only fifty years old and they are still struggling to find a stable platform. Why? Because for years they were seen as entertainment only and only recently is gaming being labeled an Esport. The gaming industry has grown so fast in a short amount of time, at the speed of technological growth, that consumers are struggling to keep up. However, in all this crazy innovation, a new community was born which leads to my final reason. Third, a fast growing community formed around gaming, who were without critics for a long time. In the art of filmmaking, the critics were established before the audience, but here the opposite happened. The gaming community was established before gaming critics. As a result, the community itself took on the role of being the critics, a role which led to very disorganized criticisms in video games. Simply put, by the time gaming critic platforms such as IGN and GameSpot, were established, the gaming community had already begun to self-criticize, therefore they had little to no validity or influence by the time they became recognized. Since the industry had disorganized criticism the gaming community was never consis- tent in their voice. Dunkey pointed this out: “Gamers will sit there and complain about Ubisoft, EA, and Activision to their dying breath and yet, what are the top selling games every year? Ubisoft, EA, and Activision.” There is a common idea amongst gamers where if a video game seems like something they wouldn’t like, then why play and review it? Dunkey responds to this idea by saying, You can’t only review games you enjoy. You need a contrast to Aidan Cole 5 differentiate good from bad. Sometimes when you take a chance on a game you might not like, you end up finding something really unique and special… If you truly want people to stop criticizing video games then you might as well hand the entire industry over to EA. (Dunkey “Game Critics (Part 2)” For a consumer, this logic seems reasonable. If you think a certain game might not be fun, why play it? However, a reviewer must play all video games in order to differentiate good from bad, in storyline, gameplay, and functionality for the audience. For example, film critics don’t just review motion pictures produced by successful or well respected directors only. They instead review films from an array of directors, studios, and artists in order to compare and contrast the skillset and artistic visions connected to the art of filmmaking. IGN gives nearly every major game release a nine or higher because of they only play games that are popular. The reason for this is a simple fact that IGN, GameSpot, Metacritic, and others make their money by assisting driving gamers to purchase the next best and greatest game developed by the major gaming companies. Even a popular franchise like Call of Duty, games which the community (until recently) always complained about for being too repetitive, IGN would give an 8 or 9. Another problem is that the language of their reviews never seems to match the overall score or result. To help demonstrate the point, in IGN’s review of Kingdom Hearts III the reviewer complains about the storytelling, saying that it’s “as simplistic and predictable as ever.” The reviewer also states that the game itself wasn’t all that challenging. The story had little sur- prises and the pacing was sluggish.

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