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Topic: If your staff can't review a fanservice game correctly, I'll do it.

Posts 1 to 20 of 67

KromCompany

So that most recent Gun Gun Pixies review was the most laughable review I have read in a while. The staff here must have a boobphobia or something. That was the most anger baiting review I have read in recent times. I thought that this site was better than that. It is just embarrassing that you guys would just let that be posted as a serious review with how the language and bias was. I'm sorry Nintendo Life, I know the game was not that great but that review could have been executed way better.

3ds FC: 2921-9956-8417

KromCompany

@StableInvadeel When I finally finish the game, I just might start writing one. I actually finish games before reviewing them unlike most "journalists" nowadays.

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HobbitGamer

I actually got a light hearted chuckle out of the writing style in the review, and thought it did touch on the basic gameplay elements.

I was in no way offended or felt that I needed to speak up about anything. If we can’t laugh at words about video games, then the hobby has gotten too serious for me.

#MudStrongs

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ollietaro

You'd like a review of a booby game to have integrity?

ollietaro

cryptologous

Came to the forums to see if someone had made any posts about it here. I think my main problem with the review is the fact NL have an entire mini reviews series that would work perfectly for this kind of game, yet they chose to still give a game that CLEARLY no one on staff is willing to write on without throwing potshots a full review. If you drop out all the potshots at the people who play these games, the review is actually ridiculously short. PJ touches on one small aspect of the game on average per paragraph. Paired with the Twitter post he made before posting the review which says "Looking forward to the comments on my latest review.", it would be silly to assume the review was written in good faith.

This is not to mention Damo's consistently stunning and brave contributions to NL discussion in the thread;

"I love boobs, but there's something called "good taste" which seems to lost on the people supporting this kind of dross. If you'd play this with other people in the room, then more power to you! You must have VERY understanding friends and family.

Amazing that people are defending this game more on its subject matter than the quality of its gameplay, which to me speaks volumes."

Ahhh yes. Good taste. You'd figure someone who's had to defend the subjectivity of a 9 vs a 10 rating likely dozens of times would understand that "good taste" is not an objective truth. My friends and family are similarly understanding when I decide to play Layers of Fear in the living room. And absolutely, the entire comments section (see: a small minority) were purely defending the subject matter of the game, and weren't at all being critical of PJ's substantively lacking and needlessly passive aggressive review tone! I'm so glad a formative senior of the site can grace us with his well considered and morally acute observations yet again.

It is undoubtedly a funny piece, and PJ has quite a way with words, but it is a review of a game, not an opinion piece on a demographic. Mini reviews must exist for some reason, no? I feel a more productive way to go would have been a mini review of the game, and then (maybe?) a discussion article on fan service in games and the numerous forms it takes. Fan service isn't just boobs. It's jump scares. It's musou-esque gameplay tropes. It's cameo appearances. It's cultural pandering. Etc, etc, etc. There are ways to discuss the topic without feeling boxed into a corner (ironically due to one's own lashing out) which might come as a great shock to some of the staff at NL.

Edited on by cryptologous

cryptologous

Toy_Link

I don’t know whether all or any of the anime fan service games that NL has reviewed are good or bad. I think it’s just weird that a/multiple NL reviewer(s) seem to have contempt at the audience for these games and make multiple pot shots towards that fanbase in multiple reviews.

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KromCompany

It is truly unfair how the staff act toward these niche games.

3ds FC: 2921-9956-8417

DenDen

I agree, not a fan at all of this type of games, BUT they do deserve the right treatment, so they should fine someone who is willing and interested to play this kind of obscure games

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Eel

I guess if the reviewer simply doesn't like the subject and finds the gameplay mediocre there's not much you can do. It's not like you can force them to enjoy something.

In the end though, a review is just an opinion and its value is completely subjective, specially with niche things where the regular fan has to know they're not for everybody. So I'd personally recommend to find places with reviewers more in sync with your tastes.

Edited on by Eel

Bloop.

<My slightly less dead youtube channel>

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Heavyarms55

@KromCompany I generally like this site quite a bit and I really do think in most cases they do a pretty good job. But when it comes to this sort of Japanese fan-service type game they generally are excessively harsh. In addition to this style of game I feel they do the same disservice to most anime games as well.

Over the roughly 2.5 years I've been following this site I can only think of one other review that wasn't an anime or a fan-service game I've largely disagreed with (Cities Skylines on Switch). Over the time I've come to this site I have come to feel they just have a strong bias against fan-service games and anime in general, even in games that are only stylistically similar to anime like Xenoblade 2 or Tales of Vesperia, treating that similarity like it's a downside.

@Galarian_Lassie This site in general has a bias against anime, anime fans and any sort of Japanese style fan-service. Even in games that they have otherwise praised like Xenoblade 2 or Tales of Vesperia they take shots at the style and their fans.

Gun Gun Pixies doesn't look like a good game, but it also doesn't look like a 3. Other 3s on this site have been barely functional train wrecks that were borderline unplayable. I feel if the entire game were changed so you were shooting regular bullets at monsters instead, NL would have given it a 5 at least.

Edited on by Heavyarms55

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KromCompany

I'm not saying Gun Gun Pixies is really any good. It's just that the review was so surface deep that it was painful.

3ds FC: 2921-9956-8417

cryptologous

@StableInvadeel You don't seem to be addressing the main point of issue a lot of users seem to be having, that being the fact it is less of a review and more of a criticism of a set of players. NL's tended to avoid giving shovelware reviews for the most part, yet for some reason they chose to give shovelware in a niche that the site's slammed repeatedly a full length review (not to mention mini reviews are now a thing???). There've been a fair few people (myself included) making this argument who similarly find no enjoyment in the niche.

"In the end though, a review is just an opinion and its value is completely subjective, specially with niche things where the regular fan has to know they're not for everybody. So I'd recommend to find places with reviewers more in line with your tastes."

This undermines the purpose of a review quite significantly. There's a good reason why your staffers can't just write "Game sucks, 2/10", hit publish, and call it a day. Why even use the word "review" if "opinion" would suffice? A review inherently is opinionated, but it should aim to be opinionated within the realm of the subject. The first definition for "review" on Google is "a formal assessment of something with the intention of instituting change if necessary", and if you think moral grandstanding and divulging opinions on things external to the subject matter is "formal", or has the "intention of instituting change", I'd implore you to reassess your definitions.

By comparison, Google's first definition for "opinion" is "a view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge", ala "Game sucks, 2/10". There is zero requirement for justification, and if NL were an opinions only site, spending half an article slamming a community would be of zero consequence but that unfortunately (fortunately?) isn't the case.

cryptologous

Eel

@cryptologous Just to be clear, I am not a member of the main staff and nothing I say on this subject has any importance in the grand scheme of things. I personally believe you might be giving too much formality to these reviews, in the end it's all opinions about video games. By your definition though, they still technically count as reviews, even if the "change" they're trying to "institute" might not be what you have in mind.

However, I do admit I may be diminishing it's impact myself, which is probably a side effect me not really caring about the whole thing. So I'll give you that.

On the more cynical side of things... Aiming jabs at the fanservice games and their audience clearly brings them activity and clicks, though I obviously can't say they do it on purpose, since I am not them. But if you want to stay one step ahead of them...

Edited on by Eel

Bloop.

<My slightly less dead youtube channel>

SMM2 Maker ID: 69R-F81-NLG

My Nintendo: Abgarok | Nintendo Network ID: Abgarok

cryptologous

@StableInvadeel Oh apologies, my mistake for throwing you into it. I'm not sure what constitutes "staff" around here as I frequent another site where mods are counted as main staff! Didn't mean to throw any shade your way.

Maybe you are right. But not all opinions are funded. I'll clarify that I didn't mean to insinuate PJ's writeup wasn't a review, but the review function of the writeup certainly felt secondary to making quips at the expense of an audience. Most of my favourite reviews online are satires that include making fun of certain demographics, but often that's because the reviewer has a level of insight that only someone with a deep understanding of said demographics could muster. I'd imagine NL would be apprehensive about getting a writer who doesn't enjoy car games to review an F1 title, and I'd imagine they'd be even more so apprehensive if said writer pitched a satirical review of said F1 title, irrespective of the score slapped down the bottom. This'd go double if said reviewer had moral concerns about tyre abuse, and spent half the pitch detailing punchlines at the expense of anyone who thinks its okay to senselessly shred rubber. None of the mocking jabs would double as useful critique because they aren't about the game in any form, even if they were funny to behold.

By comparison, if the reviewer was able to criticise something like the driving AI with a racing euphemism, it would simultaneously show the reviewer has insight from experience, and is also able to keep a comedic tone, all the while providing a useful critique of the game's AI. Reviewers do such things all the time both on NL and elsewhere. Yet the approach is almost completely pushed aside for certain titles, and the end result is aggressive rather than critical.

I don't really want to think its purely a clicks thing given I have quite a lot of respect for NL's YouTube channel staff and also I'm already much too invested in this narrative damn it but you are probably right >:///////

cryptologous

Anti-Matter

Btw, Fanservice games are not always about sexy naughty girls.
It also the shirtless six pack guys.
Those games should be reviewed equally as well.

Anti-Matter

cryptologous

There really only are two truths in the observable universe.

2 + 2 = 4

and Anti-Matter showing up in a thread to talk about shirtless men.

cryptologous

HobbitGamer

@ThanosReXXX Even though you've pointed out an option in linking that review, I vote the thread stays open until @KromCompany delivers on their review

#MudStrongs

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ThanosReXXX

@HobbitGamer Well, I like to have several sources to base my opinions one, so one doesn't exclude the other, and it also wasn't really my intention to close off this thread by giving that link.

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

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Sorry, this topic has been locked.