MMO BinA Geek's Look at Massively Multiplayer Online Games

By now most people who follow ‘gaming news’ on the blogsphere would have heard about the Eurogamer fiasco (for lack of a better term right now) that happened due to an online game review receiving a low score and then Tasos’ reply to that and a whole lot of other replies following.

There has been a lot of feedback on various blogs about this matter as well, but the one that sticks out most in my mind is from Dusty Monk of ‘Of Course I’ll Play It!‘ - his comments on the matter echo my own almost exactly. I felt that the response to the review was handled poorly, and if you stand by your game and believe in it why would you even give such a strong reaction to one single review.

That’s not what I wanted to talk about though.

When I first heard about this incident I couldn’t help but chuckle. Let me explain - aside from writing class guides and dungeon guides for Beckett MOG, I also dabbled briefly with writing reviews for an online site. I was given an assignment (yes, the editor knew the games I currently played) to re-review Dungeons and Dragons Online. Actually, the specifics were that DDO had recently revamped their starter area, and that was the area I was to review. I mentioned at the time to the editor that I had never played DDO before, that my perspective would be that of someone who has never experienced any aspect of the game and I asked before I even accepted if that would be alright. I was told yes.

So I picked up a copy of the game, and played a few hours every evening. I don’t consider myself an expert in any one game but I have played a LOT of games over the last few years and I know what I like and what I don’t like. While I DO enjoy LotRO a huge amount (another Turbine game) I did NOT enjoy DDO. At all. I didn’t enjoy the character creation, the game play, instancing, the social (or lack there of) experience, nothing. I created multiple characters and ran them through the newly revamped starter area (even though I had no idea what the old one was like) and it was simply not enjoyable for me.

Of course a review is a persons personal opinion - and I even stated as much in the article, but when you simply are not grabbed by a game it is VERY hard not to let that show in your writing. I was told that articles were supposed to be ‘genuine’ and reflect the writers personal thoughts. I’ve never written any other way, and so I thought nothing of it. I gave the game an average rating of 6.5 I believe (maybe 6.2)  since the game site does use a rating system, and explained my reason for why I had rated it thus. I mentioned that I had never played before, and I mentioned that I could not comment on how the game used to be. Keeping in mind that these were things that I had cleared with the editor beforehand via email.

Not 10 minutes after the review was posted I received a frantic email from the editor because the forums had exploded with comments from DDO fans who were exceptionally upset at my review. He mentioned that it was partially his fault because he had posted the review as being a full review and not just a review of the introduction area which was what I wrote about (and was told to write about). I stand by my writing and I had re-read what I had written and did not feel that I had said anything I couldn’t justify. The first question I was asked (of course) was how long I played. At the time I had xfire shut down (it does happen rarely!) so I couldn’t just send over the numbers (and even that is not a perfect indication) but I still felt that I had played enough (2-3 hours an evening over the course of two weeks) to justify writing about the starter area.

This site is known for its less then glowing comments made by readers. I was expecting it. As a game reviewer you’re told to have a thick skin and you have to be able to handle a lot of nasty remarks made by people (like how I should be fired, and even killed). Those did not bother me because I knew they would come.

What DID bother me was that the editor requested that I rewrite the review (or write a second review), this time using an end game character supplied to me by turbine and an official in game tour / play session.

What? There was no way I would feel comfortable writing the article under any circumstances. I did not feel that I qualified to write it based on the fact that I had never played the game before and I had no idea what the experience used to be like. I felt that re-writing another review would mean I didn’t believe in what I said the first time - and I stood by my writing (and still do). I was upset that I was even asked to do the second assignment. After thinking about it for a day or two I said that I was sorry but that I was simply not qualified, and I felt pressured into writing a higher rating based on the response from the previous article. The issue was dropped from there and I did not write a second review.

At least Eurogamer has the mind to suggest a different writer gives their opinion in a second review instead of requesting that the original reviewer plays more and gives it a second shot hoping to some how change their opinion. Let me tell you, that won’t happen. There are just some games out there you simply don’t enjoy - and that is OK. You don’t HAVE to enjoy them. There’s a lot of pressure when it comes to reviewing games and readers need to remember that it is ONE persons opinion which may not be anything at all like yours.

I went back to writing articles the way I am most comfortable with. Guides and my personal experiences within the game, a positive outlook on things rather then a negative. Maybe that’s taking the easy way out but I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who had a bad experience with a game review.