Does Gamespot Have a Commercial Bias?

Does GameSpot have a commercial bias? That is to say, do they overlook indie titles and focus only on top-tier commercial titles?

I just came across a great little turn-based strategy game called Armageddon Empires. Self published by a guy called Vic Davis at an indie company called Cryptic Comet.

A recent review in Games of Windows Magazine gave it a whopping 9/10, which is (if I recall correctly) the same mark they recently gave Portal (!).

However, Armageddon Empires isn't in GameSpot. Not only is there no score or rank or anything, it isn't even there.

So I wonder... does GameSpot have a bias (intentional or otherwise) against self-published titles? Or did they just overlook this game by mistake?

And is there some way for the user community to add games to the GameSpot databases?

I'm just askin' is all.

Halo 3 got a 9.5...

Do you need more proof of a commercial bias?

Come on, all major review sites like IGN, Gameapy, gamespot are unreliable for reviews, they review games that they get paid to advertise. That has been apparent for years. People are to naive and believe everythign they hear. Media is a lor of bias, propaganda.

When games like halo 3, which never even get nominated or even mentioned for GOTy, yet gets crazy high 9.5 review scores, u know something is up.

While the answer is yes, one thing you have to realise is that Games for Windows magazine is a specialist PC magazine. That's 100% of their resources into PC stuff. And that aside, maybe they just needed some filler - it can be pretty hard to fill a 100+ page magazine with PC stuff at times, unless you start covering stuff that people don't really know (or care?) much about.

GameSpot, on the other hand, is a multiformat site. That means that 100% of their resources are not focused on PC gaming. The reality may be closer to 15%. They also have to cover 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS, hardware and more besides. The site simply cannot cover some unknown game from some unknown developers for one of their smallest customerbases around.

If you want specialised PC content, go to a specialised PC site. That is all there is to it. GameSpot does not exist to please us, as much as we would like it to. All multiformat sites and magazines have a commercial bias - they simply don't have the resources not to.

Halo 3 got a 9.5...

Do you need more proof of a commercial bias?

D9-THC

Agree what a load of crap...9.5 come on the graphics are sub-par.

I wouldn't say a bias exisxts. I mean SOASM got a really good review and its a now so widly known game. filmography

I think you've got it backwards...it's not that they don't rate unknown games...it's that that over-rate highly advertised games in order to make the advertising companies happy that are paying the wages of Gamespot employees.

Manufacturing consent is the name of the game...

They put more attention on games that they are getting paid to advertise for. Now I doubt that translates into review scores too much like all you tin foil hat wearers would insuate especially considering all the editors who have left. They would have left a long time ago if they were just writing reviews to make sales happy. However, especially now there is a heck of a lot more pressure on them to go easy on high profile games that advertise on GS. in the future in wouldn't surprise me if they got to the editors more then they used to. However people who think advertisers on GS are simply "buying game scores" are wrong. Though GS is a huge corporate machine the editors at GS are still people who take pride in what they do. The sad thing is though that games that are obscure and don't advertise will get less coverage but that doesn't mean they will be scored unfairly. Advertising buys coverage and presentation not review scores. At least not yet.

After all the issues with Jeff, and the leave of a few other personnel my faith and trust towards impartiality of Gamespot is just not there. Besides, a few of the reviews as of the past year really left alot to be questioned.

You may be right, they may not be here to please us, but without the viewer base this site wouldn't exist.

I think its a mix. You are likely to find great games (but not well-known) like the Witcher get a great review score, and those are the honest reviews.

The top-tier games that get alot of ads are usually bias imo.

Does GameSpot have a commercial bias? That is to say, do they overlook indie titles and focus only on top-tier commercial titles?

I just came across a great little turn-based strategy game called Armageddon Empires. Self published by a guy called Vic Davis at an indie company called Cryptic Comet.

A recent review in Games of Windows Magazine gave it a whopping 9/10, which is (if I recall correctly) the same mark they recently gave Portal (!).

However, Armageddon Empires isn't in GameSpot. Not only is there no score or rank or anything, it isn't even there.

So I wonder... does GameSpot have a bias (intentional or otherwise) against self-published titles? Or did they just overlook this game by mistake?

And is there some way for the user community to add games to the GameSpot databases?

I'm just askin' is all.

Dracogen

Halo 3 got a 9.5...

Do you need more proof of a commercial bias?

D9-THC

YES THEY DO

Thanks for all the responses. Seems like most agree that there's a commercial bias. Which is too bad, really, because some of the freshest stuff comes from the smallest shops.

But back to the case at hand (Armageddon Empires). I have no formal involvement with the game. (I'm a night gamer with a day job working for a financial company.) But I really do think this is an overlooked gem, and that GameSpot is doing their community (i.e. us) a disservice by not even listing it.

Is there some way to rectify this? Is there someone at GameSpot I/we could write and ask them to include the game?

I'm not expecting them to devote resources to reviewing it or anything. I just think there should be a way for the GameSpot community to request the addition of new games.

Does GameSpot have a commercial bias? That is to say, do they overlook indie titles and focus only on top-tier commercial titles?

I just came across a great little turn-based strategy game called Armageddon Empires. Self published by a guy called Vic Davis at an indie company called Cryptic Comet.

A recent review in Games of Windows Magazine gave it a whopping 9/10, which is (if I recall correctly) the same mark they recently gave Portal (!).

However, Armageddon Empires isn't in GameSpot. Not only is there no score or rank or anything, it isn't even there.

So I wonder... does GameSpot have a bias (intentional or otherwise) against self-published titles? Or did they just overlook this game by mistake?

And is there some way for the user community to add games to the GameSpot databases?

I'm just askin' is all.

Dracogen

I do not believe Gamespot has a commercial bias, I think that commercial games are better than indie games almost across the board.

Thanks for all the responses. Seems like most agree that there's a commercial bias. Which is too bad, really, because some of the freshest stuff comes from the smallest shops.

But back to the case at hand (Armageddon Empires). I have no formal involvement with the game. (I'm a night gamer with a day job working for a financial company.) But I really do think this is an overlooked gem, and that GameSpot is doing their community (i.e. us) a disservice by not even listing it.

Is there some way to rectify this? Is there someone at GameSpot I/we could write and ask them to include the game?

I'm not expecting them to devote resources to reviewing it or anything. I just think there should be a way for the GameSpot community to request the addition of new games.

Dracogen

Seems to me they have one. Didn't you just do what you wanted, brought attention to an indie game to GS subscribers. My idea would be to add a place in the forums for these games for people to check out and review.

Everything is biased to some extent. We all bring with us our own reality that isn't exactly objective. I see alot of the pot calling the kettle black in these forums. I wouldn't want it anyother way. I find it entertaining and sometimes enlightening. Always take things through a filter.

Maybe all the PC gamers should get together and make their own website focusing on a wider range of PC titles, including indie games and mods. There's too much focus on high profile titles all the time on this and other sites.

We should take more responsibility as gamers anyway. If we see a great-looking game that has little or no promotion, then we should take that on board ourselves by posting on sites like this. Guys like Adrian Werner can only do so much to inform the masses on this forum, for example.

Bottom line is, if you play a great indie game - tell other people about it, don't keep it to yourself. And don't rely on sites like this to cover them, because they are driven by ad revenues.