The ridiculously interesting Gamers With Jobs has an excellent editorial by Elysium on OXM (Official Xbox Magazine) giving Fight Night 3 a perfect score of 10 in their review. Or, more accurately, he has a response to the response of Francesca Reyes, the editor-in-chief of OXM. It's another high-quality article by Elysium, and you can find it here:
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/23549.
It's also important to read the link to her response to the "controversy" over at Next-Gen:
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2718&Itemid=2.
So why do I care enough to write about this? Well, check out a few excerpts from her Next-Gen "letter":
This business is built around a hobby — just like cycling, freshwater aquariums, or anything else...
Geez, people, when did we get soooo incredibly serious about our games? God knows this is a multimillion-dollar industry, so there’s a degree of seriousness to be had if we want to keep it healthy and alive — but when did we lose our sense of fun, wonder, and need for a little put-the-brain-on-hold gaming? Why are we so afraid of saying that a game provides an amazing experience without it having to openly challenge our perceptions of narrative, etc.? Isn’t there room in this world for both Fight Night Round 3 and, say, Shadow of the Colossus?
Okay, maybe I’m ranting a bit here, and maybe I’m being overly sensitive to the strong reaction to our score. But it got me thinking: What are we looking for in our games as professional game critics and gamers? Are we losing our sense of what makes games fun in our chase to be seen as thoughtful and progressive? Or are we so intent on our industry being taken as “seriously” as other entertainment mediums that games that don’t push obvious envelopes (other than graphics) can’t be lauded as excellent?
Wow. If being stupid makes you high, she's soaring over Cleveland right now.
Now I don't know anything about Francesca personally. She's probably engaging and nice. I'm sure she spends all her free time bathing orphaned puppies or some suitably admirable pursuit. But based on these excerpts, it's totally unfathomable how she ascended to the position of Editor-in-Chief. What--were there no jobs available at Teen Beat or Tiger?
We're not serious, lady--we're just not stupid. You've confused the two.
I haven't lost my sense of fun or wonder. That doesn't mean I want you to shove a 10 rating up my ass for a game that had serious, deep flaws in its career mode. It's got nothing to do with wonder--it has everything to do with being able to play a game and evaluate it with some semblance of competence. And the rating is far less of a concern than the lack of perspective in your response.
Do you know why it matters that your magazine reviews games with some degree of competence? Because those games cost sixty dollars. Apiece. And look--maybe gaming is a hobby, but your job is not. You get paid for it, remember? And you seem to want a check without having any accountability. Sorry, it doesn't work like that in the grown-up world.
Fight Night Round 3 was a 10, actually--for the first five hours. Maybe that's as long as you guys played it. After about 15 hours, though, it was bleeding like an old fighter with tissue paper for a face.
Here's a thought: maybe your reviewers should start telling us how long they actually played the game when they review it. Not that it matters now, really. Your response has all but guaranteed that your magazine has lost whever credibility it might have had. Maybe you can adopt a cartoon rating system like Gamepro, complete with eyes bulging in astonishment over just how freaking great the newest My Little Pony game turned out to be.
I actually have a subscription to OXM, due to some horrible accident that I can't even remember now. So I went to the mailbox yesterday and there was the new issue, and what did I see on the front cover?
Lara Croft's boobie.
That's right. It was a full page ad for the new Tomb Raider, with the ad copy "SEEING IS BELIEVING," and what we're mostly seeing is a low-cut top exposing vast amounts of Ms. Croft's boobage.
Classy.
What's coming next month? Camel toe?