Note: This article was written on Tuesday, Oct. 3rd. As of writing this article, I have no idea whether or not Resident Evil 6 is bad or good. What I do know is bad writing, and this is a commentary on such.

More often than not, any time I write an editorial, I have an incredibly long-winded opening paragraph about the necessity of something intellectual, while breaking down the necessity of something or other, usually in more words than are appropriate. Today is a different case. I’ve come to the conclusion that the game media, as a whole, has no idea as to how to keep their stories straight. Why? It’s because the video game media, as a whole, is a bunch of fanboys.

Has anyone had an experience when they’ve been absolutely shocked at the inconsistency of the nerd subculture? This whole situation with Resident Evil 6 is taking me back to a moment I had in a Gamestop around 2009. At the time, Resident Evil 5 had been released, and as per usual, I heard a bunch of whining nerds with neck beards complaining. As I overheard the complaints about a lack of exploration and such and such about it not being survival horror, I felt the need to ask these gentlemen what their favorite Resident Evil game was. Their answer? Resident Evil 4.

This is where the main problem begins to rise up within the game media. Often times, game bloggers (I refuse to call them journalists from this point onward) will outright refuse to keep their story straight, depending on the mood they are in. Many of the same complaints that bloggers had about Resident Evil 5 in their reviews have returned for their “articles” about Resident Evil 6. Thing is, if you look at reviews of RE5, you see eights and nines abound. In RE6’s reviews, the scores are significantly lower. Well, if they’re guilty of the same crimes, then why is one so highly regarded and the other terrible?

Quite frankly, it’s hard to pick one particular reason why the game is getting reviewed this way. One trend in game blogging is to pick one game to “bury” (as pro wrestling fans would say), and the collective blogging mind decides to give the game a bad rep, while ignoring what the game brings to the table. Fallout: New Vegas stands as such an example, and the game’s success in spite of this brings a warm feeling to my chest. Another trend is simply to complain about either menial things, or to give blatant indicators that the particular writer should have passed the review on to someone else.

In regards to the latter, often times I’ll read reviews by “critics” that have particular criticisms about one game, but when the same criticism can be levied against another title, it is ignored for whatever reason. One particular example I saw not too long ago was a Mariokart 3DS review by Jim Sterling, where he complained that the game was just “following the same formula” and whatnot. Yet, the exact same complaint can be levied against Modern Warfare 3. Destructoid’s official score of Modern Warfare 3 was a 9.5, while Mariokart 3DS has a 5.0. For gamers, by gamers, provided you’re satisfying the advertisers.

Gamers, I’m going to be as honest as humanly possible. The popular games “press” are unreliable, uneducated, imbecilic, and inconsistent. These people do not care about informing you. They care about inflating their own egos because they think they’re special if someone hears what they’re saying. Here’s a news flash: You can stand on a soapbox in downtown Chicago while reading Twilight out loud and be heard, but you’re still spewing crap. Play the game yourself, decide if it’s for you, and wait about ten years until the video game media goes from being a group of terrible writers to a group of decent journalists.

Voice of the Voiceless

-Micah C.

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About The Author

GuestPost represents the work of past New Gamer Nation writers. Though they may not be with us anymore physically, we know they are with us in spirit.

  • dadcat

    Or maybe it’s because the medium is constantly changing, and what was acceptable at one time, is less so years later. Weird to me you ignored that point entirely. 

    • Micah

      Thing is, I don’t really completely agree with that standpoint. Then again, I probably should have elaborated on as to why I don’t. 

  • hyperhexagonest

    Also, your perceptions of the “trends in game blogging” are hilariously out of touch with reality. That you think there is a cabal of bloggers/writers who “collectively decide” anything is laughable. Especially in the case of major sites like Destructoid, Polygon, Gamespot, Giant Bomb (just to name of few of the locations who disliked RE6), there is so much internal coordination going on regarding post-scheduling and writing their own content, that they don’t meticulously plan their opinions around some sort of concentrated strike on specific games/content. 

    Moreover, to add to what dadcat said, your black/white interpretation of score assignment is equally short sighted. You talk a lot of bluster about people needing to play games to determine their opinions; do you have enough history with both the Call of Duty and MarioKart franchises to speak to the validity of destructoid’s reasoning/scoring? Because if you haven’t extensively kept up with both series, then it wouldn’t make sense to assert that the core criticism – staleness and lack of innovation – should result in the same score penalty to both titles. You’d need to – as you advised – *play* them both to understand the degree to which staleness affected quality. 

    Overall, this was a really poorly thought out, very messy piece that reeks more of the “vendetta” you seem to be railing against than it comes across as anything well informed. 

    • Micah

      “Because if you haven’t extensively kept up with both series, then it wouldn’t make sense to assert that the core criticism – staleness and lack of innovation – should result in the same score penalty to both titles. You’d need to – as you advised – *play* them both to understand the degree to which staleness affected quality. ”

      Answer’s pretty simple: Yes I have, but I’ll keep my personal thoughts on your response to myself for the sake of being civil.

      At the end of the day, you’re half right. Some cases it can be more stale than another, but to ignore it completely was the critique I had. On top of that, I don’t think there’s some sort of cabal or conspiracy, but some game bloggers seem to pick and choose which games to bag on without any sort of rhyme or reason, which was the point I made.

      The point you missed completely.