reviewing games on gamespot

hello guys, we all know that reviewing a game only indicates the reviewer's point of view in the site, even professional reviews only review their games based on their opinions "as far as I know"

But when you review a game that you love or hate and you get thumbs down for whatever reasons. do you feel bad or just say that's their opinions.

I tend to write a lot of reviews, and honestly I don't really care if I get thumbed up or down. Simply because I think that a lot of it goes towards bias on the person's opinion of the game. When I rate a review, I give thumbs up or down depending on how well the review was written.

Let's say I loved Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (because I do) and I read a review that said "omg bezt game everz!" and that was pretty much that, I'd give it a thumbs down even though I enjoy the game. If someone rated it a 5.0 and wrote a good amount why he or she didn't enjoy it and listed their valid concerns, you deserve a thumb up.

Its nice to see when someone agrees with me, but are they agreeing on the score or did they actually enjoy my review?

Yes, that's my point too. I read the review if it's well-organized and well-written too. I usually pay attention to the score but only according the review itself.

Recently, I've been getting thumbs down and got me a little worried. Maybe I have an odd opinion about the games I play.

Good explanation. I agree with that. I hate seeing reviews that are a huge block of text with no paragraphs, even if they're praising a game I love. Reviews should be for those that can write/type properly.

I've written a lot of reviews in the past and lot of them have gotten thumbs down, but I don't really care because these reviews are my opinion of the game and nothing more.

The main reason i write review is so that all my friends that track me can have another reference if they need to inquire about a particular game. Also, i have noticed that i have helped certain "underappreciated games" gain a little more praise and popularity among otherwise not interested gamer base.

Most people give thumbs down because they disagree with your opinion, which is really missing the point. Thumbs down should be reserved for poorly written or mis-informed entries.

I have written quite a few reviews recently, Dead Space, Limbo, Fable III, Darksiders, Alan Wake. When I get thumbs up it does please me I'm not going to lie. When I get thumbs down it doesn't really bother me, everyone has an opinion so not everyone's going to agree with you. I space my reviews out into parographs and into different sections, Story, Graphics, Gameplay, Enjoyment. I mainly focus on my reviews being well written and explain my reasons. When I thumbs up/down a review it's normally about how well the review is written not about if the score matched my score.

It's a minor annoyance when I review a game and it gets thumbed down because someone didn't agree with the review score, but I don't lose sleep over it or anything.

Sometimes you get thumbs down just because you made someone made in the forums. They'll go to your profile and then to all of your reviews and rate them poorly.muthsera666

That happened to me once last year during the "All Time Greatest Game Villian" tourney that was going on. One day I went into my profile and saw that a whole page of my reviews had gotten a thumbs down suddenly.

@ Jack_240

By the way, I read a couple of your reviews (Mass Effect 2 and MAG) and found them helpful. You laid out what you liked and didn't like about each title. I can pretty much guarantee that Mass Effect 2 was thumbed down by someone who disagreed with the high score you gave it and not the review.

I tend to write a lot of reviews, and honestly I don't really care if I get thumbed up or down. Simply because I think that a lot of it goes towards bias on the person's opinion of the game. When I rate a review, I give thumbs up or down depending on how well the review was written.

Let's say I loved Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (because I do) and I read a review that said "omg bezt game everz!" and that was pretty much that, I'd give it a thumbs down even though I enjoy the game. If someone rated it a 5.0 and wrote a good amount why he or she didn't enjoy it and listed their valid concerns, you deserve a thumb up.

Its nice to see when someone agrees with me, but are they agreeing on the score or did they actually enjoy my review?

IndianaPwns39

I agree. I find it difficult to fault someone for their opinion on a game, and more so tend to judge a review on the basis of quality of writing and of them making an attempt to critique the game while still trying their best to view it objectively. I'll usually only give a thumbs down if (I've been guilty of this myself) information about the game is inaccurate and they're faulting it on false premise or if they give no support for their points.

Sometimes you get thumbs down just because you made someone made in the forums. They'll go to your profile and then to all of your reviews and rate them poorly.muthsera666

I had this happen to me after my review of Halo: Reach. Someone went and gave every one of my reviews a thumbs down. However, some of my info was incorrect (I ended up deleting it) so I can't really blame them for being pissed off, but still....no need to do that to EVERY review. It's amazing how personal some people take things around here.

I don't think you can worry too much about it. If you get something like 10 negative, and no positive then maybe you should start looking at what you put that would bring that on.

I know for one I look at games quite differently than others. Alot of diverse players of games in many ways out there.

I know I hit some things others never consider at all. Example of this would be like online play. Even if a game is considered awesome,I would list something like you get knocked off you mount constantly if it made game play bad. Or better yet, development teams activity in game fixes etc, and if it caused a devastating result to game play. Examples like this should not be avoided even in a awesome game, if the mechanics are fine, but these things cause issues. Anything like this though is definitely going to have opposite views to it.

Though most real poor reviews almost automatically get some negative thumbs, if you explain why, a reader will get that knowledge of something to look out for. Fans though will still hit ya up. I am just as guilty, many times I look at the most poor ratings to find out why? The explanation is it has bad graphics or wow is better etc. I will thumbs down it myself for a waste of time.

@ Jack_240

By the way, I read a couple of your reviews (Mass Effect 2 and MAG) and found them helpful. You laid out what you liked and didn't like about each title. I can pretty much guarantee that Mass Effect 2 was thumbed down by someone who disagreed with the high score you gave it and not the review.

IndianaPwns39

Thank you, that should make me a better writer

I don't think you can worry too much about it. If you get something like 10 negative, and no positive then maybe you should start looking at what you put that would bring that on.

I know for one I look at games quite differently than others. Alot of diverse players of games in many ways out there.

I know I hit some things others never consider at all. Example of this would be like online play. Even if a game is considered awesome,I would list something like you get knocked off you mount constantly if it made game play bad. Or better yet, development teams activity in game fixes etc, and if it caused a devastating result to game play. Examples like this should not be avoided even in a awesome game, if the mechanics are fine, but these things cause issues. Anything like this though is definitely going to have opposite views to it.

Though most real poor reviews almost automatically get some negative thumbs, if you explain why, a reader will get that knowledge of something to look out for. Fans though will still hit ya up. I am just as guilty, many times I look at the most poor ratings to find out why? The explanation is it has bad graphics or wow is better etc. I will thumbs down it myself for a waste of time.

poisonelf1

sure, some people would even say "it's not like COD" for example and start comparing a game with other games like Call of Duty or Halo. I think that's wrong. Look at HomeFront, I didn't personally play the game, but I've seen player's reviews saying "COD Rip-off!!!!!!" I didnt even thumb it down, I left it alone. lol

[QUOTE="muthsera666"]Sometimes you get thumbs down just because you made someone made in the forums. They'll go to your profile and then to all of your reviews and rate them poorly.Rekunta

I had this happen to me after my review of Halo: Reach. Someone went and gave every one of my reviews a thumbs down. However, some of my info was incorrect (I ended up deleting it) so I can't really blame them for being pissed off, but still....no need to do that to EVERY review. It's amazing how personal some people take things around here.

I write a few reviews - The one where I've had the most mixed response is DA2. I think that's because the game had become so divisive due to the perceived "consolisation" going on that some people weren't willing to entertain that it was a good game even if it wasn't quite up to DA: O standards.

But I do use paragraphs, so be sure to look me up :P .

I should write more reviews; I currently have 3 up and only one (Lego Battles) has one thumb down. Maybe its because I gave it a hich score (8.0) and someone didn't like it lol. Yet I have 13 DS games and only 3 reviews. Kinda sad actually.

But I do use paragraphs, so be sure to look me up :P .

LordRork

I don't think people understand how important this really is. I don't care how well written a review is, I won't even bother to start reading it if I'm confronted with a huge block of text, which seems to be 75%+ of all reviews.

I write a few reviews - The one where I've had the most mixed response is DA2. I think that's because the game had become so divisive due to the perceived "consolisation" going on that some people weren't willing to entertain that it was a good game even if it wasn't quite up to DA: O standards.

But I do use paragraphs, so be sure to look me up :P .

LordRork

I've read your Crysis 2 Review and I thought it was a good review. you clearly stated every category about the game, visuals, AI, gameplay and also compared it to its predecessor.... keep up the good work mate.

[QUOTE="LordRork"]

But I do use paragraphs, so be sure to look me up :P .

Rekunta

I don't think people understand how important this really is. I don't care how well written a review is, I won't even bother to start reading it if I'm confronted with a huge block of text, which seems to be 75%+ of all reviews.

Agreed, I wish there was a way to indent though. I might just start double spacing because my reviews look too "wall of text" for me.

I've written over 50 reviews for this site, and looking back I notice that the ones that get the most thumbs down are the ones that give 'low' scores to popular games: Wind Waker, LoZ, Quake II 64, all of them got like 4 thumbs down. They aren't written differently than my other reviews, so I cannot imagine people thumbed it down for another reason than the score. So no, I don't really care about it. Of course it's nicer to have lots of thumbs up, but in the end it doesn't really matter. I'd prefer a comment box, so that, if people don't like one of my reviews, they can tell me why. That way, I can take their criticism into consideration (given that it makes sense) and I can use it to improve myself.

When I thumb down reviews myself, it's usually because they're poorly written, or because they praise or criticise a game without backing up their opinion. 'I hate this game because it sucks' is not a good argument.

I've written over 50 reviews for this site, and looking back I notice that the ones that get the most thumbs down are the ones that give 'low' scores to popular games: Wind Waker, LoZ, Quake II 64, all of them got like 4 thumbs down. They aren't written differently than my other reviews, so I cannot imagine people thumbed it down for another reason than the score. So no, I don't really care about it. Of course it's nicer to have lots of thumbs up, but in the end it doesn't really matter. I'd prefer a comment box, so that, if people don't like one of my reviews, they can tell me why. That way, I can take their criticism into consideration (given that it makes sense) and I can use it to improve myself.

When I thumb down reviews myself, it's usually because they're poorly written, or because they praise or criticise a game without backing up their opinion. 'I hate this game because it sucks' is not a good argument.

DraugenCP

it would nice to have a comment section for players' reviews just like the official one.

Saying "best game ever" isnt gonna cut it for me too.

it's always nice to have people agree with you, but for me, I usually say "maybe they thumbed me down because it's an odd opinion for this game or the high-rated score as mentioned before"

as Iv just became a memeber on this forum I rlt haven't done any reviewing myself, I will soon shortly..

But getting a thumbs up feels nice, as there are people out there that feel as I do with my kind of respond, a thumbs down won't bother me at all as we all have all kind of diffrent like's and dislike's ...

When I write a reviewing I'm like other people on this thread, I won't judge it when it say's "Best game ever" as you can't rly judge it via that way, I like when there are details on the reviewing, that will catch your eye's and intrest too the game!

it's always nice to have people agree with you, but for me, I usually say "maybe they thumbed me down because it's an odd opinion for this game or the high-rated score as mentioned before"Jack_240

You'll find that that is often the truth. Posting a well-written review with a low score will generally 'earn' you more thumbs down than a poorly written review with a high score.

No one ever reads my reviews so it's not an issue to me... READ MY REVIEWS.