Staff asked for examples...

Mario Strikers Review:

The one area where Mario Strikers Charged still lacks is presentation. The in-game graphics are certainly a step up from the original, with better-looking character models, far more crazy crap happening onscreen, and a frame rate that stays steady throughout.

Gods: Lands of Infinity:

You've got to run a lot of escort missions (which regenerate every few days) and flog a lot of crap to afford much of anything. This even includes a paltry piece of mail to replace the leather halter and miniskirt you wear at the start of the game.

I'll be honest and say that I don't go writing down a list of every word I see that's unprofessional - these are the only two recent usages I can recall off the top of my head. There were others that I've read in the last month or so I think, but I don't remember the game names or who wrote them. Granted, it's only once in each of the respective articles - the usage in the first article is more forgiving - but the usage in the second article sounds off-tone and edgy, which I don't feel belongs in an article of ths type.

Hi,

This has bothered me for a bit now, but it hasn't been extremely noticable until recently. GameSpot is first and foremost a professional news outlet for video games and should therefore have articles written in appropriate language.

I've noticed lately that more and more reviews feature words like "stupid" or "crap" or "junk." While I understand how these words could be seen as accurate descriptions, they're not professional language for a website that provides a worldwide outlet for news. There are plenty of other words to use in place to describe something.

Just a thought. :)

As a website developer and techy, I have to say that the new download manager borders on attrocious.  Aside from my personal reservations about the use of Adobe Flash in this application, the interface is extremely basic and as much as I hate to say it, the program doesn't begin to compete with the likes of IGN's manager.

1. Firstly, you guys should ditch the entire Flash/ActiveX thought train and make your download manager a true application, not just a little icon in the system tray that opens the default browser with a tiny Flash window.  The advantages to this are two-fold: 1) Your application is going to benefit from the performance of the operating system's native GUI and 2) your application is going to benefit from the operating system's GUI features.  The interfaces in Windows XP/Vista, MacOS X, and Linux are far more advanced and flexible than anything Flash could ever do for you and with smart people on your development team, you could easy develop an application that's cross platform without sacrificing features or cutting corners.
2. Going along with #1, you're running a website that sees millions of hits a day and not everyone uses Windows.  Regardless of what your server statistics tell you and what you believe from Microsoft's marketing, Linux and MacOS should ALWAYS be supported operating systems for features of this type on a website this large, regardless of the file type and handle of the majority of the applications that are going to pass through the download manager.  There are people who run multiple operating systems on the same drive - I know people personally that download files for their Windows PCs while they're working in Linux and transfer it to their Windows partition when they're done so they can give it a go.  These people, however in the minority, should be catered to - they do pay for your subscription after all.
3. Adobe Flash is hard on performance.  You have to realize that the majority of the people visiting your website have computers that would be considered below the average.  Adobe Flash is pressing on both the system memory and processor, especially for code heavy applications like this one.  Flash should never be used for complex tasks, regardless of ease of use.

This is off-topic, but my personal opinion is that HTML should be required in the core curriculum of the world's school systems.  HTML is as easy to learn as tying your shoes and it has multiple practical uses that would come in handy for just about everyone on the planet, especially now that the digital age is here to stay.  In addition, CSS and XHTML should be taught as electives.

:D