Uncharted Fallout

            I’m writing this article in response to what I’ve been hearing on the internet as of late.  It concerns reviews for the blockbuster game Uncharted 3, which comes out on November 1.  Uncharted 2 was met with near universal acclaim.  It was loved by reviewers and ended up winning most of the Game of the Year awards for 2009.  The series has many fans and because of the previous game’s success the anticipation level for this game is very high.  I’ve come across two reviews for the game, one by Simon Parkin of EuroGamer and the other by Adam Sessler of G4, that have been met with some very mixed responses.  I am writing this article to address the many topics brought up not only by these reviews, but by the reactions to these reviews.  Before I get into this I want to state that I have not played Uncharted 3 yet since it isn’t out and I will not be subjecting my opinion about the Uncharted games into this article.  What I think of the games is irrelevant for this discussion because I want to talk about the reviews; their role and reception.  So let’s get started.

           

First off Simon Parkin gave Uncharted 3 an 8/10 and Adam Sessler gave it a 4/5.  What happened in response to these reviews wasn’t really that surprising.  Fanboys got upset that their beloved exclusive title didn’t receive a perfect score; it isn’t the first time that fans have complained online in defense of their system of choice.  What is different about this instance is the level of reaction to the reviews on both sides.  I’ve heard Parkin’s review classified as “controversial” and other game journalists have leapt to his defence.  It is an opinion based on someone’s personal enjoyment of a game, how could that be controversial?  A review can be unpopular and maybe even poorly written but it shouldn’t be controversial just because of the score attached.  I could see it being controversial if there was strong and inappropriate language used, maybe some sort of racial bias somehow seeping through, but not due to the score.  Especially since the score is a good one.  8/10 is by no means bad but people seem deeply hurt that someone didn’t totally love this game.  No game is for everyone and people should accept that.  Sessler also received complaints, to the point where he posted a video expressing his dissatisfaction with the response as well as with the rating system that reviewers almost everywhere are forced to use.  Then people got pissed at his video.  They wouldn’t let this Uncharted thing go and demanded that it should have gotten a 5 instead of a 4.  On Sessler's topic of giving scores one commenter went as far as saying that if he had a problem with giving scores he should “GTFO”, (that’s Get The F*** Out just in case you didn’t know).  Needless to say I was quite pissed at this statement and I even spent over an hour replaying to somewhere between 15-20 comments on that page, some of which were to support those who had understanding and justified comments and the rest retaliating at people who don’t seem to have any respect or understanding of the topics at hand, in addition to the near 800 word comment I left expressing my opinion on the matters from the video.  This article will in many ways be an expanded and clarified version of that comment, which may be hard to flow since I wrote it all at once without really revising and just saying what came to mind.  Anyways the reviews were justified in my opinion and contrary to what some people were saying these men didn’t give the game a less than perfect score in order to draw attention to themselves, they were just being honest as all reviewers should.  After all it is their job to inform us of what we should and shouldn’t spend our money on, so if they start lying people will either lose out on quality experiences or cash that should have been spent elsewhere.  The reviews were well written, the points were articulated clearly and judging by those points if you eliminate any bias or preconceptions of the game the scores fit with what was written.

           

So now that I have discussed the reaction to the scores and the reviews themselves we can get into what Adam Sessler brought up in his counter-reaction that I find interesting.  He said that he doesn’t like giving scores to games and thinks that it is both meaningless and hurts the argument that games are art, which they totally are.  He has mentioned how he hates the scoring system in the past so it wasn’t that these fans pushed him to some sort of breaking point, but it really seemed to anger him and hopefully caused him to embellish his feelings because I would hate for him to really feel as if a part of him literally dies every time he scores a game.  I personally think that I have a unique perspective on this topic.  The reason I feel this way is that I am a fan first in terms of gaming and a “writer” second.  I use the quotations not to belittle games writing, but because I am not a professional.  I'm just a guy with a blog and a few posts elsewhere.  I have grown up playing games from literally as far back as I can remember, I can’t draw any distinction from my very early childhood and when I was playing games.  So for many years now I have gone to sites and seen and (unlike some people) read reviews.  So where someone who has been a journalist, covering and reviewing games, for many years may not be able to really see the other side, I certainly can.  And where readers may not be able to understand the challenge of trying to write a review and get across your impression of a piece of art and then rate said piece against other pieces, I can do that as well.  Although clearly to a lesser extent than the professionals.  I also understand that it is an annoying fact that most people who look at reviews do not read it, but rather decide to skip to the score and figure that is all they need to know.  I get so few views as it is I have no idea if anyone has ever read a full review of mine or even if they will read all of this.  I have looked purely at scores many times.  I tend to always do it for games that I don’t care about where I simply check out of curiosity, but I also tend to skim over reviews of games I do care about.  I do this for two main reason: the first is that I don’t always have the time to read the whole review although I do come back later sometimes when I do have the time and read it in its entirety and the second is that when reviewing a game you have to discuss plot and I try to avoid reading those spoiler because I see enough from trailers already so I don’t want them to put it in context so that I fully understand what will happen in certain sections before I even play it.  It is important to read the reviews though, especially if you are going to say you understand what they thought of it.  For the most part I usually want a rough estimate of the quality so I appreciate the score and don’t take it as an indisputable truth like others.  There are games that I want to understand more of or understand how they earned the score and to do that you have to read the review, I tend to do this for games that I am on the fence about because I need to know why they earned that score if I might buy the game.  It is hard to rate games, however, sometimes it can be easy but other times quite difficult, especially when you know that most people won’t hear your points because they only look at the score. 

This is what happened with Uncharted 3.  People took offence to the score without putting it in any context, they then said that Metacritic loved it as a rebuttal.  Unfortunately we aren’t dealing with truths; we are dealing with opinions which make it quite hard to refute.  To be honest Metacritic is a lazy site, it doesn’t do anything but take other people’s work distil it to a score, without factoring in anything else other than the site’s reputation (and no one has any idea exactly how sites are weighted) then averages it out, giving you a lifeless number that is totally out of context.  I put just as much, if not more, value into a single review from a person whose work I am familiar with as I do Metacritic.  “But it has so many more opinions” you might say.  I say I don’t care about an average because I don’t know all of the reviewers.  What if some of the reviewers aren’t fans of the particular genre?  What if some are?  What if some don’t feel they have to play through the whole game while others do?  What if some are strict while others are lenient?  What if they use different criteria, like one cares about how much fun it is, the other its technical prowess?  Without context the score has very little meaning.  The fact that it is an average of say 50 reviews is reassuring but I would rather have it put in context and be told why the game got the score it did.  Apparently people are too used to the instant satisfaction our society is now fixated on and just want to get the number and be done with it.  If you are like that it is fine, just don’t take your misinformed opinion and get angry with people or assume you know everything.

           

So many people just want validation from the scores and nothing more, but what separates one score from another?  If anyone can tell me what separates a 9.6 and a 9.7 I would love to hear from you.  It isn’t like reviewers have some sort of formula sheet that leads to a specific number, we all have our own opinions and experiences that shape each and every review written and score given.  I think it is so hard with all the different sites and reviewers to get a good beat on what someone likes and doesn’t.  That is one of the reasons I wanted to make this site.  I thought some might find it refreshing to have one voice for everything.  That way you can read what is here and over time know what I personally value from my game experiences.  You don’t have 10 people writing reviews all with different opinions on each game.  It adds more context than reviews from a different person each time.  I understand seeking validation though, I mean it is something that everyone does; I look at reviews and even Metacritic scores for games I know I’m going to buy and love like I did recently with Gears 3.  It is nice to see that people who hold some sort of authority like the same thing you do and it sucks when they don’t.  If I see a review for let’s say Gears 3 and let’s say it gets a 1/5 I will be pissed and I’ll think that guy is an idiot.  I might read his review just to see how he could possibly justify it, but most likely I will just leave and never return to the site.  If you don’t like the reviews offered go elsewhere until you find one you do.  I don’t see the point of hurling insults at the reviewer.  I think a lot of people tend to forget that they are saying these things to people and not walls of text and they would never say those hateful and dismissive things in real life to the person’s face.  Also if they would then they are terrible people.  It must really suck to see a bunch of people leaving hateful comments when you where just doing your job.  I don’t have that problem…I don’t get comments.

           

One thing that Adam Sessler brought up in his video that I think is important is the discussion of video games as art.  He said he is a firm believer that they are and that when people are forced to score them and then people throw those scores around as facts in discussions and conversations remain shallow it only makes it harder for anyone to take that belief seriously.  I absolutely believe that video games are a form of art and I understand his point, but from his position I feel he is missing something.  If every conversation was as shallow as “hey game X got score X which is better than score Y which your game got, so suck it” he would be right, that isn’t how people discuss a form of art.  Luckily that isn’t the case.  I have deep conversations about games all the time and the more the person I’m talking to knows about games the deeper the discussion can get.  Online is different because if people don’t bother to read reviews they won’t read long comments under reviews.  So what people do is try to have a super quick point that wins the argument, even though we could just discuss and not argue.  What is that point?  The score it got from somewhere.  I think it actually ties back to when people are in school and especially when we have to write essays.  I mean the need for validation and marks could be traced to parents’ approval and letter grades but that isn’t the point I’m trying to get at.  Every time I wrote an essay I had to include quotations even if it is on a book we all read and the teacher should understand the point I’m making.  We are taught that without sources proving our opinions they are worthless, which is ludicrous.  So people say that the whole thing is worthless unless you have a source so they just throw the source (the score) out and then assume they must be right.  In real conversations I've only mention scores in passing, like "hey did you hear Gears 3 got a 10 by so and so" (I’ve already been using it, I’m not obsessed with it, I know other games…there’s um…Gears 2…right?).  The only time I would ever use a score as one of my major points in describing a game would be when I haven’t played it and don’t know much about it and am saying why I am interested in it or when I’m talking to someone who is relatively unfamiliar with the world of games, a causal or softcore or whatever type of gamer you want to call them.  For instance if I am talking to a relative to tell them what they should buy for their kid or friend or themselves and they know next to or literally nothing I can’t describe the experience, how tight the controls are, how the guns feel, how it immerses you, how much I enjoy it or anything of the sort because they don’t understand and can’t relate to what it’s like.  In situations like this you have to say it got 10/10 from this site and 5/5 from this site.  I’m not sure about this but it could be a factor in why some people get so defensive.  If people give a game they love bad scores when they try and recommend it to people who don’t know much about it or games in general they will have a hard time selling them on it when they Google it and see less than stellar scores.  Maybe some people just hate knowing that if reviewers don’t give the scores that they want to see, their friends and family will refuse to get the game and not only will that mean that their friends will miss a great game, but maybe the fan of it won’t be able to do co-op like he wants or something.  Maybe they will not buy it because they think he is wrong.  That would drive me nuts, if I told people to buy something and they looked online and saw a negative review then said no because I don’t know what I’m talking about when they haven’t even heard of it before.  Also a lot of companies look at reviews and if a game you love is poorly received by critics the company may not do another.  Then there are games that you may dislike that get great scores and not only receive sequels but influence other games to follow in their footsteps.

           

The reason we take it so seriously is that for many of us gaming is a passion not a hobby, a life style not a way to kill time, and to see something that you care about, put hours into and spend money on get treated in a way you deem to be negative hurts a little.  I think that we need to be more understanding of people’s opinions and respectful of the fact that these are people we are sending messages to.  Ultimately games are a form of artistic expression designed to get some sort of response out of whomever experiences them and reviews don’t take away from that.  They serve as a loose guideline to help consumers find the best art possible and inform artists of how to improve their designs.  We must understand that it isn’t easy especially with all the different types of games and that there may be discrepancies in our eyes, but that we should always try to take things in proper context and not rush to conclusions and shout false accusations.  We should also take the time to add to real discussions as opposed to juvenile “this is better than that haha” statements, so that people can see the artistic value of games.  Reviewers should acknowledge that scores do more than validate, they assist in purchasing choices of fans and uninformed parents alike.  Their job is important and I hope they all realize that.  Also I hope they know that just because the respectful fans aren’t as loud doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

If you wish to see the articles that inspired this piece their links are below.

Simon Parkin’s review at Eurogamer: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-10-21-uncharted-3-drakes-deception-review

Adam Sessler’s review at G4: http://www.g4tv.com/games/ps3/64706/uncharted-3-drakes-deception/review/

Adam Sessler’s video response: http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/717762/uncharted-3-and-the-problem-with-review-scores-sesslers-soapbox/

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