I've been away for a few days, you know, working 12-hour shifts, having an actual job, making money, that sort of thing. What everyone who doesn't get paid to write game reviews does. So I wasn't around to see any recent blog comments until today, at which point I saw the following comment to my prior post:
No offence but what is even the point of writing a review if it is not out day in date or within a day or two of a games release. No one is interested in reading a review of a game that came out a week ago. Anyone who is interested or wanted to get Borderlands has already read reviews on other sites. Either that or they just went and picked up the game anyways. I just don't see a point in writing a review when it is a week late and people are already done Borderlands and looking to games coming out this week.
It's the classic "Why do you even bother" post. Well, many large internet and print outlets get review copies of games weeks before street date, giving them the benefit of having the time to play the game and review it. They often have more than one person playing the title at the same time. x360a rarely has that. We usually have to get our games on street date like everyone else. Then, like everyone else, we play through them and offer our thoughts on the game. So, considering we're not paid for our services, and we actually have lives (WOW!) expecting us to plow through a game and write a quality review for it in that time frame suggests to me you have no idea how the process works, or the amount of time inolved. If a game comes out on a Tuesday (as Borderlands did) and I'm working 12-hour shifts that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, am I really going to turn a review around it two days?
Then, of course, not everyone out there buys every game the day it comes out, plows through it in three days, and then goes on the the next game. By the way, I love how 9/10 bullshit comments like this are
A: Anonymous
B: Start with the phrase "No offense"
You'd be surprised the amount of hits my reivews get. That's a lot of "nobodys" out there. Of course, I'm fully capable of turning out a review within a few days of release, if that release happens to coincide with my off days, or I get a prerelease copy. I cite Dead Space
as evidence.
Okay, I've wasted enough time on a blog "nobody" reads so I'll get back to writing a review "nobody" is going to read.
My Mom stopped giving me money for games when I was 14. Since then I hardly ever get a game on release date, the last being Gears 2.
ReplyDeleteWith today's tough economic times my $60 is very important to so I will read reviews before making a purchase. However, not just any review will do. I only look to non biased reviews like the review staff of x360a puts out, and G4TV's X-Play (Morgan Webb is hott!).
Keep up the good work Thrawn. I know that your review will be written with quality and more importantly a fair assessment of the game.
No offense, but your reviews are so much more interesting than the reviews of (insert generic company X here) it makes me want to french kiss a snapping turtle; just so I know I'm not dreaming.
ReplyDeleteI'm tempted to post this anonymously...
ReplyDeleteSome nobodies also don't like buying their games right out of the chute, and prefer saving 10-30$ by waiting even a few week to *shock* a month, and would rather read a review by someone they trust :P
Goodness forbid we wait for our instant gratification...
I'd point out that my review of My Horse and Me 2 came out over a month later than the games release date and was one of the highest viewed reviews of last year.
ReplyDeleteMainly becuase it was epic.........
So yeah, hush your mouth anonymous bystanders - some of us have to buy the games we are meant to review.