First a quick history lesson. A long long time ago there was no game reviewers there were just people that made games, and people that brought them. Most games made back then were trash but they sold because they had some IP we liked like Ghost Busters or Ninja Turtles. Eventually people got angry, like the Angry Video Game Nerd and started actually reviewing games. Developers still made trash games but almost nobody brought them because there was a whole media division of Quality Control professional game reviewers that could tell us if a game was good or not before we brought it.
Now I'm not picking on any particular site or blogger, as I know a lot of you guys try your best. But the community is outraged once again at the lack of quality MMOs being released. And players want to blame the developers to stop making bad games, but that's never going to happen because we keep buying them! So why do we keep buying bad games? Because the gaming media bloggers and reviewers tell us these games are GOOD and we should buy them! I'm outraged at the lack of Quality Control that time after time has mislead people into buying completely overhyped, underdeveloped games. It hurts gamers pockets and it helps big developers make money off a bad product.
My case in point is how SW:TOR not only got great reviews but even got called game of the year by many publications despite only being out a few weeks! Fast forward to Tera, a game that majority of players would consider a better then SW:TOR but has a drastically lower score. Now a lot of publications are backpedaling on SW:TOR's outrageous scores, saying stuff like it was fun at the time, and that they didn't know the game wasn't good. Well guess what? It's your JOB to know if a game is good or bad. I don't get paid to play games for a living, and even I could tell that SW:TOR was drastically overhyped. Just like every other AAA MMO that came out after WoW was ridiculously overhyped.
I'll tell you exactly why Tera got a worse score then SW:TOR. If you look at both reviews of the game you'll see the same issue and that's the fact that the reviewers themselves only played one portion of the game! If you take SW:TOR's leveling and compare it to Tera's leveling portion of the MMO, then the scores make sense, because that's all that was actually taken into account. But if the reviewers actually did their jobs and played both the leveling portion and the endgame portion of the MMOs they would have given an more accurate review.
TL;DR
Should SW:TOR's score be drastically lower? Would Tera's have been drastically higher? Is the next big MMO going to be more overhyped garbage? We'll never know because there's No longer any Quality Control. The reason why I'm angry and you should be too is because we're back to the bad old days of gaming where developers can make a trash game, slap an IP on it and make millions of dollars because players keep being suckered into buying it. People think that the problem is the industry itself, but my argument is that it's the lack of a reliable Quality Control medium that used to help players make smarter choices, and protect us from big developers that like to rehash a poor product, slap an popular IP on it, and charge full price for it. But what we have now is bad reviewers, overhyping bad games, made by big bad million dollar businesses, which is bad for our pockets, and bad for the industry.
Bigbadwlf
Member UncommonPosts: 117
Comments
Your history lesson is sorely lacking in history. The Atari 2600 had game reviews. Go away.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
Wrong, people buy bad games because they buy them without actually playing them first. You can blame reviews and bloggers all you'd like but anyone that trusts someone aside from their own judgment is asking to pay for shit.
Gamers are already whiners and that is an admission just as much as it is a observation. Thing is SWTOR did try to make a good game and so did Tera and to many people they are just that. To other people who find themselves as part of a niche market that has been ignored for years it's not enough and companies should be appealing to them instead. What you have to remember is these games take about half a decade to make and that both Tera and TOR did offer something new and better than the exisiting stock which millions were already enjoying, it's just not enough, quick enough for some people. Gamers appetites change quicker than these games get made but to say that no effort is being made to make good MMOs is incorrect.
Tera offers zero that is new. Not a single thing. Its so called action combat is not new either...there are other action MMOs with virtually identical combat.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
Care to name them?
Wrong, as usual.
Reviews are sometimes biased. Agreed.
Game creation is hardly perfect and some shoddy games get released. Agreed.
Some reviews are biased in favor of shoddy games. Agreed.
The bigger the budget the more tendency for review bias. It wouldn't surprise me.
It's all some damned conspiracy to extract cash. Welcome to marketing.
Rebel, thats all you ever say...because you seem to be unable to actually refute anything. Try naming a single thing the game does that is new...you cant, because it doesnt.
Ozmono, Vindictus outside of dodge being directional double tap...want to now try to name something Tera does that is new?
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
lol...
Remember Old School Ultima Online
And once again, vindictus isn't an MMO IMO.
TERA is an open world MMO as big as Vanilla WoW, stop trying to compare the two.
Okay fair enough. I haven't played Vindictus because I'm an Australian and they never released it here, infact they IP block us.
As for what Tera does that is new, can I say it's package? That would mean the action combat in a wow skin with politics involved. That would still count as a "new and better" game just as much as people claim wow was right? Afterall wow just packaged the thing right.
Swtor fooled almost everybody...
IGN is a walking testament on how to be a bad reviewer. This is in part why I decided to do writing for MMORPG instead, the site is pretty untouched by the tendrils of big companies.
Stop drinking the koolaid and research games for yourself more, its not anyone elses fault people are getting duped into buying games they do not like themselves. Game reviewers or Devs do not hold guns to peoples heads to buy these games, its up to you the consumer to check things out before you purchase, just like everything else in life you buy.
I have no trust in any writer or any site for reviews of games, all reviews are self opinionated, and my believe is all sites and magazines are bought. My opinion on that will never change.
Jesus christ, I just read IGNs review of TERA, who the hell is paying them to shoot it down.
Diablo 3 graphics get a 9, SWTOR gets an 8.5 and TERA gets an 8.
Alright IGN, your credibility(if you had any) just official flew out the window.
Anyone still gives a crap about reviews?
As someone else said reviews generally don't get any better elsewhere. I read some crappy things here over the years too and it''s bound to happen sooner or later when your reading what is essentially someone elses opinion. Especially reviews about graphics, peoples preferences are very subjective.
TERA players sure are butthurt about their reviews.
To be honest I really liked SWTOR at first, and I still to this day dont get the ridiculous 'its a single player game, not an MMO' nonsense because it doesnt remotely lineup with my game experience (I was constantly running into people and doing group quests/flashpoints with them and had a large guild that helped each other with crystals and crafted purples which were actually useful while leveling), I would have given it an 8 at launch. Now Id give it about a 7. Its really not as bad as its made out to be, but theres better games on the market.
For me, TERA isnt one of them. I only made it to the mid 30s, but I would give it a 6.5. Fun (but not amazing) combat but the art style does nothing for me so the graphics dont rate that high for me. The class selection was bland, the customization within the class was weak, the questing was brutal, the BAMs were not difficult just time consuming, and overall the game was not captivating in the least.
Bought when you disagree, but fair and well written when you agree right?
You are entitled to score Tera how you like and given that you are scoring a game that you like (so much that you are defending it) a 7 only your scoring is probably fair for your taste. That said Tera isn't just some game with nothing new going for it that has skated by with excessive marketing like the OP would have you believe. It's still a step forward regardless of how small people think it is.
As I tried to point out these games take about half a decade to make which meant learning from wow at the time would have been a smart move. Even now with Wow subs starting to drop I still think it's a smart move. Is the questing to my taste? Definitely not but just because it doesn't suit me doesn't mean it doesn't suit everyone and just because they learned some things from wow doesn't mean the game is a wow clone that has nothing of it's own going for it. and only stupid reviews and marketing is making it remotely successful.
PS I am aware that you probably won't suggesting that but the OP was.
not the person you replied to but... it isn't wrong. they use the same spell system using the number keys since EQ, they just shift the combat to use wind up in addition to cool down. and the 'action' aspect of the game to make combos while perhaps not quite as augmented, it has been around since buffs were invented. just now in the same action (god of war) style there are microbuff combos.
as for the original topic... if you read a glowing review from someone who has a ventured interest (like advertising, or otherwise a portion of sales) in the success of the product, you are a moron.
Not the person you replied to but ... you can put a clever spin on anything to make it appear uninteresting and dull. Yes, similiar combat has been used in a single player game before but that has no significance. Many games try to convert single player mechanics like bioware and their whole "story" aspect. Getting it to work in a MMO is something completely different
As for the original topic and the rest of what you say I agree completely.
Basically the only way you can review most games is to play for several hours...I'd imagine with a game like SWTOR that the people reviewing it played 30 minutes then decided it was a great game.......
Perhaps if people weren't so focused on getting ahead on the end game, then they wouldn't buy the game on pre-order to get in on the ten day head start, and suckered in on paying full price on the hype, and paying for the collector's edition at that for the two frilly bits they never use anyway, and then find out they don't like the endgame when they get there.
They'd wait a week for the serious suckers to get to the end game, find out it sucks, rage quit, and save themselves a week of pain and $120.
Wouldn't that be simpler? It's what I do.
It doesn't seem like rocket science. A couple hundred thousand ragequitters can't be wrong can they?
I mean, NO ONE HAS TO BUY THE GAME ON PREORDER.
NO ONE HAS TO BUY THE GAME THE FIRST WEEK.
NO ONE HAS TO BUY THE GAME THE FIRST MONTH.
Get a life, or at least a clue. The reviewers do not run your brain, your opinions, your wallet, or even any particular weekend. They do not dictate the peer pressure in your life.
Those pressures are within your own grasp.
Take control, padawan.
I bought SWTOR a little while ago. I treat it as though it is "KOTOR with Friends." I haven't reached level 50 with any of my eight characters -- I'm exploring all eight storylines. I love it. It's made for people like me. Couldn't give a good god damn about the end game, personally. Love the crew skills. Love the social point system. Intrigued with the legacy system. Want to see what happens around, maybe, 1.5 when they get to what Bioware intended 1.0 to be.
MMOs are a business. If you don't like the product and the process, find another hobby -- take up fishing, maybe, it's better for the blood pressure. Or write your own games and find a different better way to produce and market them, that we'll all be happy with, even better.
Enjoy!
Shava