New Games Journalism

There are lots of different types of Game reviews/reviewers. Whether it’s published in a magazine, video reviewed on a website or posted to an internet blogging site. All reviews strive to the same purpose, to analyse and criticise, usually ending in something out of 10

A term for this is ‘New Games Journalism’ which incorporates any material which has been created as a response to a games experience. This can include the gamers thoughts about its playability, experiences within the game world, interaction with other players online and even the gamers anecdotes.

So, this week’s task - to review a review, very inception like! Except without all the guns and mindfuck.

I guess I shall start with this article from eurogamer ( as it is the most amusing)

A review of Project Gotham Racing 3, by boomboxdan

He does point out at the start that - ‘this is my first review so go easy on me!’ but I’m sure he won’t read this so… let’s not. The first thing I noticed when reading through was the complete lack of correct punctuality, making it awkward to read, and his opinion less valid :P also ending sentences in, ‘and all that’ just seems a bit half arsed, and all that…

I found it amusing when he was talking about the how good the visuals of the game are, and as further evidence, ‘his two mates, Woody and Scott’ also agree, which means they must look good! Using technical specifications in this situation would have been much more appropriate, rather than opinions from his friends.

However this is just a consumers article so it does not have to stand up against a professional review which would be expected to meet much higher standards. Hey, it’s not like he’s getting paid for this shit. But it is however a good example of NGJ

There are opinions that NGJ is affecting sales magazine companies such as PC gamer. Magazines are used primarily for looking at games to make a decision before you buy. Kind of like a catalogue for games. However why pay £5.99 for someone’s opinion when you could go on the internet and find this information for free! I guess if you’re a fan of glossy pages, and the cds with game content and patches may swing it.

(I remember I used to get my mum to buy them for me, but the cd’s used to just pile up in my room, and then I discovered that pretty much everything is on the internet!)

So where do professional reviewers earn their money from?

Well let’s use PC Gamer as an example. Their articles are typically written by in-house editors and free-lance writers, publishing the final product monthly. Earning money from advertisement and sponsors but mainly sales.

PC Gamer also has various websites, forums and even blogs which help advertisement.

The company has worked its way up to becoming the bestselling PC game magazine in its respective countries (UK & US)

I think that NGJ is good in the way that it allows anyone to express their opinion and also make a name for themselves and be recognised against their peers for something which they presumably enjoy.

However to some extent yes it can have a negative effect on professional companies which review games to provide writers with an income. But if these companies adapt to the situation and provide fans new ways to enjoy their product, such as blog writing then NGJ won’t be so much of a threat to the larger more successful publications.