Archive for the ‘gamespot’ Category

Addiction to gaming FTL

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

Since the AMA has declined to classify video game addiction as the same as substance addiction, the bowels of the Internet are venting their spleen about what they think gaming addiction really is, and what it isn’t. Gamespot user Draqq_Zyxorian had this to say in his latest blog entry:

“PASSION. Somehow, this word is abandoned for the more fearful word: ADDICTION. Could it possibly be that when someone sacrifices much of their livelihood towards the pursuit of success in video games, it is not because of addiction, but because they are passionate about it? You know, like they would a sport – which is a GAME, I might add. Poker, blackjack, paintball, deer hunting, mixed martial arts. Last time I checked, sacrificing most of your livelihood, even for something that involves gambling or violence, can also be called dedication and heart.”

He goes on to compare the folks that play games obsessively enough to forget to eat, sleep, and bathe to athletes of all kinds. Somehow equating the passion that the athletes have to become the best they can be to video game players doing the same. The only problem is, I’m pretty sure that there are very few folks in any sport that have gotten so passionate about honing their craft that they forgot to eat for a few days.

Link! (GameSpot)

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GameSpot changing review format

Sunday, June 24th, 2007

After 11 years, video game website behemoth GameSpot is ditching their old review scale for a newly reconfigured one. They’re going to be using the same 10 point scale, but with .5 increments instead of the previous .1 increments. It’s no secret that I have issues with traditional review scoring methods, so this is certainly a step in the right direction.

“That’s 1.0 to 10.0 with half-step increments. Component scores, like graphics and sound, will no longer be a part of GameSpot’s score. With fewer scores to choose from, our review team will be able to speak more definitively about games. By eliminating scores like 7.9, we’re no longer able to say “this game is almost great, but not quite. Now our choices will be to say “yes, this is a great game” and give it an 8.0, or say “this game is good, but not great” and go with a 7.5. While I’ll personally miss the ability to give games a 6.8, I look forward to eliminating quibbles about the quality differences between games that are only a tenth of a point apart.”

It is also made clear that the numeric scores still mean the same thing, which means that a particular game must score at least 7 out of 10 to be considered of ‘average quality’. This is a flaw, but also makes it difficult to compare scores at a glance to other sites that consider a 5 to be average.

Since some of the granularity of the scale is going away, they are also going to give out ‘medals’ to each game for different reasons to highlight things that the game does particularly well instead of adding a tenth of a point here or there.

It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Link! to full article (GameSpot)

 

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