On September 09 2014 23:39 cecek wrote: I think strength gain buff made Razor good in this patch, right? If you reverse it back he might become irrelevant/OD mid counter.
Also, what sellouts TotalBiscuit and Pflax are: + Show Spoiler +
At least they honestly tell you that they were paid to do it.
Literally 0 gaming journalists these days would do that.
That's right, PFLAX is a better gaming journalist than every major online publisher these days.
No, all of them do that now. They have to. There was a quite a big scandal with xbone and Machinima a while back and apparently all of them are now legally obliged to clearly state that the video is paid for. And it's not even enough to put it in the description, it has to be right on the video.
What I don't get is why TB is doing this... I mean, his channel and Polaris has to be making a fuckton of money for him. By doing paid videos he's just discrediting himself as a critic, at least in my eyes. Pflax I guess needs the money, but it still rubs me the wrong way that he's accepting money to promote a competitor's product after being so deep in DotA, even being invited and paid by Valve to TI4.
Hes not a critic, he is an entertainer who's opinion some people use to make purchase decisions. And there is nothing with giving a new game a chance. What if Flax finds a cool feature and tells Valve "Yo, guys this feature is excellent and you should look at this"?
He does call himself a critic. And he is a critic, his videos are poorly researched review under the mask "first impressions", because that takes less effort.
And they're not "trying out" a new game. They're making advertisement for it. I know nobody can stop them from doing it, they have every right to do it, etc.
Sorry, I just remember he said wasn't a "game reviewer" not critic. My bad.
Either way, there is no harm. People will still trust him at the end of the day and he is always honest about when he gets money to play a game, so his point of view will not be "objective".
Oh come on. He makes videos where he states his opinion on a game, reports on it's flaws and strengths and in the end gives a recommendation if the viewer should or shouldn't buy it. That is pretty much textbook definition of a review. Just because it's called "WTF is... xyz" instead of "review of xyz" doesn't mean it's not a review. He even tags his videos as reviews because it gets more hits that way. Saying that he's not a reviewer is just a copout for him to evade responsibility.
I like Totalbiscuits videos. He isn't afraid to say when he thinks a game is bad. Makes for a lot more fair reviews and put some validation when he thinks a game is good.
On September 09 2014 23:39 cecek wrote: I think strength gain buff made Razor good in this patch, right? If you reverse it back he might become irrelevant/OD mid counter.
Also, what sellouts TotalBiscuit and Pflax are: + Show Spoiler +
At least they honestly tell you that they were paid to do it.
Literally 0 gaming journalists these days would do that.
That's right, PFLAX is a better gaming journalist than every major online publisher these days.
No, all of them do that now. They have to. There was a quite a big scandal with xbone and Machinima a while back and apparently all of them are now legally obliged to clearly state that the video is paid for. And it's not even enough to put it in the description, it has to be right on the video.
What I don't get is why TB is doing this... I mean, his channel and Polaris has to be making a fuckton of money for him. By doing paid videos he's just discrediting himself as a critic, at least in my eyes. Pflax I guess needs the money, but it still rubs me the wrong way that he's accepting money to promote a competitor's product after being so deep in DotA, even being invited and paid by Valve to TI4.
Hes not a critic, he is an entertainer who's opinion some people use to make purchase decisions. And there is nothing with giving a new game a chance. What if Flax finds a cool feature and tells Valve "Yo, guys this feature is excellent and you should look at this"?
He does call himself a critic. And he is a critic, his videos are poorly researched reviews under the mask "first impressions", because that takes less effort.
And they're not "trying out" a new game. They're making advertisement for it. I know nobody can stop them from doing it, they have every right to do it, etc.
Not sure what your personal beef with TB is, but I find his first impression videos really helpful and they have helped me with more than a handful of purchases. I don't know how you can really call them "poorly researched reviews" when he is upfront about how much time he has spent with the game and what percentage of the complete picture he thinks that is.
The word "sell-out" has become so tired and old. If we want people to make video game content, which is only recently a thing, they have to get paid for it by somebody. In this case Polaris probably asked him to do this and he got to dick around with Pyrion for a little while in a new MOBA. He says its a paid promotion so people just have to watch and see if the game looks fun to them if they think his opinion is no longer credible as a result of it being a paid promotion.
Oh come on. He makes videos where he states his opinion on a game, reports on it's flaws and strengths and in the end gives a recommendation if the viewer should or shouldn't buy it. That is pretty much textbook definition of a review. Just because it's called "WTF is... xyz" instead of "review of xyz" doesn't mean it's not a review. He even tags his videos as reviews because it gets more hits that way. Saying that he's not a reviewer is just a copout for him to evade responsibility.
He's mentioned before that he tags his videos as reviews for that very reason. It's not really his fault that YouTube is set up in a way that makes that a good thing for his brand. I think you're arguing semantics here. Yeah, you can call his videos "first impression reviews," but it's not accurate to call him a reviewer because he never actually finishes these games. I know what to expect when I watch his videos, and I also know that if I want the opinion of someone who has completed the game, I need to go watch a regular review. And as someone who almost never finishes games either (just a handful of singleplayer games in the last few years), due to a combination of ADD, time constraints, and dota addiction, it's nice to have a format where someone can tell me whether a game is fun for the first 2-10 hours, since that's probably all I will get out of it.
I don't think it's a cop out, because I totally get that he just doesn't have the time to finish every game he wants to cover. He has a family, an SC2 team, and other games to cover and actually finishing a game can take between 10-40 hours for most of the things he is covering. Not to mention he doesn't enjoy half of the games, so forcing himself to slog through the whole thing would be torture.
On September 10 2014 00:10 cecek wrote: Oh come on. He makes videos where he states his opinion on a game, reports on it's flaws and strengths and in the end gives a recommendation if the viewer should or shouldn't buy it. That is pretty much textbook definition of a review. Just because it's called "WTF is... xyz" instead of "review of xyz" doesn't mean it's not a review. He even tags his videos as reviews because it gets more hits that way. Saying that he's not a reviewer is just a copout for him to evade responsibility.
I don't agree with him tagging them as reviews, but youtube doesn't have a lot of nuance in that system, so it might be his only option to be linked other game critics.
And from his explanation he says that he provides first impressions, but doesn't like to call them reviews because he has not played the whole game. I don't think that's unfair as long as he is up front about it. But its all semantics between "first impressions", "critique" and "review".
But yes, he is in the business of assessing the value of video games and if they are good purchase options if you have similar tastes to him. I don't think he ever says anything otherwise. He just doesn't like the word review because it implies he played the whole game.
On September 10 2014 00:10 Rocket-Bear wrote: I like Totalbiscuits videos. He isn't afraid to say when he thinks a game is bad. Makes for a lot more fair reviews and put some validation when he thinks a game is good.
Me too, I've watched him for years and most of his videos are very good. Which is why I don't understand why he accepts paid promotion videos. Honestly, there's no way you approach a product the same way if you are paid to cover it. It will affect you in one way or another. It might even make you be more negative, you're trying to be as objective as possible to the point where you focus on the negative stuff more.
Just knowing that a reviewer takes money to cover a product makes me trust the reviewer less overall.
On September 10 2014 00:10 cecek wrote: Oh come on. He makes videos where he states his opinion on a game, reports on it's flaws and strengths and in the end gives a recommendation if the viewer should or shouldn't buy it. That is pretty much textbook definition of a review. Just because it's called "WTF is... xyz" instead of "review of xyz" doesn't mean it's not a review. He even tags his videos as reviews because it gets more hits that way. Saying that he's not a reviewer is just a copout for him to evade responsibility.
Making a video review is hard work, first impressions is some guy rambling bullshit for 15 minutes without any basis.
Honestly, Steam has very good resources for deciding if you want to play a game or not. The TAG system works surprisingly well, you can get a good idea what the game is about just by reading them. Then there's usually a trailer with some ingame screenshots. And the user reviews are usually good too. There's really no need for reviews on youtube or anywhere else. And it's showing too, because most of today's "reviews" in this industry are just advertisement.
On September 10 2014 00:10 Rocket-Bear wrote: I like Totalbiscuits videos. He isn't afraid to say when he thinks a game is bad. Makes for a lot more fair reviews and put some validation when he thinks a game is good.
Me too, I've watched him for years and most of his videos are very good. Which is why I don't understand why he accepts paid promotion videos. Honestly, there's no way you approach a product the same way if you are paid to cover it. It will affect you in one way or another. It might even make you be more negative, you're trying to be as objective as possible to the point where you focus on the negative stuff more.
Just knowing that a reviewer takes money to cover a product makes me trust the reviewer less overall.
i know there were situations in the past where there was a block on releasing a review until a certain date unless you did a payed review (not saying thats the case here, just relevant)
On September 10 2014 00:10 Rocket-Bear wrote: I like Totalbiscuits videos. He isn't afraid to say when he thinks a game is bad. Makes for a lot more fair reviews and put some validation when he thinks a game is good.
Me too, I've watched him for years and most of his videos are very good. Which is why I don't understand why he accepts paid promotion videos. Honestly, there's no way you approach a product the same way if you are paid to cover it. It will affect you in one way or another. It might even make you be more negative, you're trying to be as objective as possible to the point where you focus on the negative stuff more.
Just knowing that a reviewer takes money to cover a product makes me trust the reviewer less overall.
i know there were situations in the past where there was a block on releasing a review until a certain date unless you did a payed review (not saying thats the case here, just relevant)
The key is to find a few people reporting on games that you trust and rely on them. Much like movies. And news. And music. And food.
Ok, its applies to everything. Just don't rely on "industry reviews" and instead rely on "the guy I have been following for years and know his personal tastes".
On September 09 2014 23:39 cecek wrote: I think strength gain buff made Razor good in this patch, right? If you reverse it back he might become irrelevant/OD mid counter.
Also, what sellouts TotalBiscuit and Pflax are: + Show Spoiler +
At least they honestly tell you that they were paid to do it.
Literally 0 gaming journalists these days would do that.
That's right, PFLAX is a better gaming journalist than every major online publisher these days.
To be honest I don't even find it to be an "at least". They're totally upfront that its a paid for promotional video. And it features a pair of entertainers that people like to watch; so it basically works out as a sponsorship for that one video.
More to the point its not really a critical review video where they're being paid to say "oh god guys this game is the best thing ever 10/10". Its a "playing the game" video to get exposure for Strife. I see no issue unless either of them go on to create a review they claim is unbiased.
Yeah, you build a trust between yourself as a consumer and a reviewer. Which is why it's depressing seeing press people accepting paid promotion, attending fancy press releases, etc. all over the place. =/
And you should trust the critic/reviewer to use their good judgment and not review the game after the fact. Giant Bomb avoids doing it when they get to close to the people making the game, like Bastion. Or they put disclaimers on things like when Blizzard offered to fly them to Korea to report on pro gaming when SC2 was released.
You can't provide coverage of these games without having some relationship with the publishers and developers. Otherwise your coverage will just be canned PR statements, which no one wants. And all of this is driven by ad revenue, which is paid for by video game publishers.
If you don't trust people any more, don't listen to them. But don't begrudge them by taking a job to pay the bills now and again.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0KsDurd.png)
