O gamer journalism time and again is criticized in a “fierce” way because professionals in the field make an analysis that is often not based on the real quality of the title, or “sugaring too much” its virtues, or depending on the series, placing a “disproportionate weight” on the titles. defects. Add this to the fact that there are many haters and fanboys of a certain franchise on the internet, and criticism towards these professionals seems inevitable.
This could be reduced by more lay people as “it’s just the opinion of those who write it”, but things are not that simple. Opinion is often conditioned to a editorial of a certain communication vehicle, in addition to the fact that many journalists write what will give the channel a greater audience. It is not uncommon for many not to actually play the game, just rewriting texts from other channels in their own words.
Opinion | What makes a good game review?
But here comes the question that gives the title of this article: “What makes a good analysis of a game?” and, in the opinion of this one who writes to you, it is the amount of information concrete and not a simple perception of what happens. Just as Gabriela Prioli became a meme telling Monark during the Flow Podcast that we need data based on reality to make a value judgment, a good analysis of a game also involves the amount of information we have before that work.
The more information you have before that analyzed object (games), the more solid your opinion will be before him, and the more convincing your message will be when it comes to transmitting.
Obviously, in today’s world, sometimes we don’t have that much time to complete the entire game, in addition to researching development, the motivations of the production team to make a certain decision, etc. can be an impossible task in which we have to be more and more agile when it comes to delivering a text within the given time frame.
In many cases, an analysis is made based more on our own perception, but this is not ideal, since we enter into “guessing”. Information is always stronger than opinion, and it is important to use it to structure your analysis. Our perception can be contaminated with third-party opinions or sometimes we have a bad day and we simply don’t like what we see.
A particular case involves a video analysis I did a few years ago for Planeta Sonic talking about the Sonic 2006considered one of the most controversial in the series and which, in fact, is the weakest game in the main saga, indisputably.
Writing the script for it was especially challenging, as many ultra-young people and teenagers nowadays enjoy this game and have some kind of emotional bond with it despite all the flaws the game may have, and many others hate it so that any praise, even the soundtrack, which is good, is already a reason to have “blood in your eyes”. However, he knew he had done a job well done when haters and fanboys of this game were practically unanimous in saying that the analysis was quality.
The review will always pass by our side subjective and by our perception, since it is impossible for us to be exempt from opinions. However, it is important to reinforce once again that the more you know the game, the stronger your opinion of it will be.
So you want to do a sensational analysis? Beat the games 100%, research the development, try to know all the details, study the curiosities a lot, what are the defects, compare with other games of the same series and also similar ones, and after all this load of information, you judge a value if that experience is positive or negative.
