Ed Zitron Talks on Reviews
Ed Zitron gave a link to his latest blog entry on Twitter so I decided to check out what he had to say. He is responding to this piece on Slate (a very interesting read in its own right) which explores the reasons for the poor financial results of companies like EA and Activision/Blizzard in a time when video game sales are going through the roof.
The article on Slate makes some very valid points about how the developers have to cut down on development costs which have risen drastically since the new high-def consoles were released. Ed’s problem with the Slate piece is the ending which says that EA should make “1000 Portals” because the Orange Box has sold extremely well.
This leads to Ed criticising an industry which has “staggering tunnel-vision in most products going out there” and that it is “is disappearing up its own arse like a confused ostrich.” Forceful words, but why does Ed think like this?
He argues that the blame must be placed on games journalists who are becoming too serious and are “treating every game like a bloody sonnet”
In short Ed is saying that journalists need to be more honest in their reviews and should treat a game in the same way that the developers wanted it to be considered.
I know that this is something that I certainly try to take into account when I review games. Ed’s piece is well worth a read, you can find it here.
12 thoughts on “Ed Zitron Talks on Reviews”
“In short Ed is saying that journalists need to be more honest in their reviews and should treat a game in the same way that the developers wanted it to be considered.”
Is this really what hes trying to say?
After several of the extremely poor reviews he has given out, i very much doubt it
Ed zitron is a slacker, since the horrific darkfall failed review a lot of people have looked back at previous reviews and discovered more failed reviews, and even some copy/paste work, its awful
I pretty much agree with the previous poster. Zitron has ZERO credibility. Not just for the Darkfall review, but since long before then.
I can’t really take anyone that actually wants to publish anything that he has written, seriously.
How awful to see the dorkfail dorks trawling the Internet in order to find any site referring to Ed Zitron so that they can rubbish him. You sad, sad dorks.
Ed’s comment is true…but Ed may be a hypocrite in this regard.
Too many so-called “journalists” hype up games that are otherwise redundant, poorly crafted or simply missing the fun-factor.
Why? Maybe they got some greenbacks for their trouble? Maybe they were cheaper than that and simply got the game/subscription? Who knows. But certainly there are WAY too many games being praised when MOST of them should be nominal, or middle of the road at best, rated.
Darkfall…I haven’t played it yet; but it does sound like Ed didn’t even play the game…from what I can gather. That is the pot calling the kettle black…how can he judge a game (that took 10 years to make! lol) in under 15 hours of gameplay? He apparently claims 9 hours and the makers claim less than 3 hours and most of that in Character creation.
You just can’t judge a game that fast.
I played Warhammer Online for a couple days before I dumped it.
Ah well, peace.
Ed zitrom is a corrupt worm that picks on small companies. His creadibility is falling fast. You people say he is honest but he wouldnt know honest if it bit him on his ass. Why not go stroke Turbines balls in hopes of a hand out to fill up that shitty hole you call a house
Ed Zitron is no journalist. He is a fraud who writes bad reviews about games to attract attention. I can’t believe anyone bothers with that guy. Ed Zitron is the scum of gaming journalism and should be banned from the trade.
Ed Zitron is a joke. To group him with actual journalists is an insult not only to the journalists but to gamers all over the world. Magazines and websites that actually publish his trash are no better. It’s time you actually had some actual game journalists do the reviews instead of sending some ignorant hack like Zitron to pose and troll forums for his material which apparently is the heart of his “review”.
ED ZITRON IS A TERRIFYING MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE AND HE MUST BE STOPPED
I assume Jazmeister is being sarcastic, in which case I wholeheartedly agree with him!
I just wanted to preserve that combo there. Ed Zitron is… you try!
I think it’s easy to get totally turned off by bad features in a rough game and feel that you’ve seen it all. It might be the case that this isn’t professional, and it certainly doesn’t sound fair to play a game for so little, but I’ve read people who love Darkfall complaining about the lack of polish and cohesion (but they still love it [but it still has problems]). In a perfect world, Ed would have been kinder and dug a little deeper, but probably wouldn’t have loved the game.
Although, in this supposedly perfect world, we wouldn’t have that youtube video.
I have been spending the last day or so trying to figure this guy out. All I can say is, he gave wrath of the lich king a 10/10, yet says in his review for guitar hero 2 that it was more of a step back then forward. Wotlk was nothing but more of the same WoW , i played wow for 5 years, and as far as bugs were concerned the game was nearly unplayable for the month before its release and a month after…I don’t play it anymore.. It was the same grind from 70-80 as it was 1-70, and to boot it took all of a month to finish up most of the content , so I find it hard to understand this guy…seems more like a entertainer to me.
ed zitron is a piece of shit shill and nobody should take him seriously. His Darkfall review proves he isn’t qualified to review games.