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Author Topic: Rate this...  (Read 1883 times)

Luigison

  • Old Person™
« on: October 31, 2011, 04:07:13 PM »
Sessler's Soapbox: I Hate Numbers
http://www.g4tv.com/videos/55954/sesslers-soapbox-i-hate-numbers/

I completely agree with him, but give his video a four out of five for giving us little more to look at than his slowly reddening face. 
“Evolution has shaped us with perceptions that allow us to survive. But part of that involves hiding from us the stuff we don’t need to know."

WarpRattler

  • Paid by the word
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2011, 05:18:11 PM »
I'm inclined to agree with quite a bit of what he's saying. Especially the part about Metacritic, which has far too much sway on industry decisions.

(If you think he's exaggerating about that bit, about it affecting people's jobs: Kaos, the studio behind Homefront, was closed down after the game was released to a middling critical response and ended up with a Metascore of 70. But the game is getting a sequel due to it selling millions of copies across the three platforms it was released for.)

Unfortunately, sites like Metacritic are very successful, because - as described in the video - people want to find out the quality of something and have it distilled to a single number.

Part of the issue, of course, is that no one wants to have to read.

(I know that's a bad example because all the complaints are about them expecting a platformer rather than a story-based game, but we could apply the same thing to games like Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, or pretty much any other non-Ace Attorney non-porn visual novel that's been given a chance at stateside release. This is why I fully expect Aksys's US release of girl's visual novel Hakuoki will see scores of 5/10 or lower across the board.)

Luigison

  • Old Person™
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2011, 07:23:23 PM »
I like to read, but some games start out with lots or reading and I don't like that.  I want a game to give me input/control then draw me in deeper with story.

I'm guilty of the very thing Adam Sessler refers to:  http://www.themushroomkingdom.net/spp_rre.shtml
“Evolution has shaped us with perceptions that allow us to survive. But part of that involves hiding from us the stuff we don’t need to know."

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