Reviewing Reviewers: Are Game Critics Fairer than Movie Critics?

[mike_intellivision]

I think this paragraph shows the strength and the weakness of the argument:

Perhaps the most interesting difference between movie and game reviews is that game critics/reviewers actually tend to be closer to their audience than film critics. How often have you seen old, disenfranchised film critics reviewing stuff that's strictly for kids, or giving poor scores to situational movies such as horrors that are clearly not their cup of tea. Gaming is still a relatively new hobby, so even the older game reviewers are still comfortably within the 18-34 year age demographic, and a game review site tends to hire or enlist the help of people who spread their tastes amongst all genres; it would be silly to make someone who only plays RPG's play a racing or sports game, yet we see that in film review all the time. It's not uncommon for a movie reviewer to have absolutely no interest in the movie he's reviewing but still have to put their head in the mindset of the intended audience, and it often backfires and in the end the film's review scores are completely out of touch with the intended audience. Adam Sandler movies regularly get poor or flat out atrocious reviews, yet almost every one of his comedies has been a blockbuster.

The difference between movie and game critics is consistency. Both have biases. But if you read/follow the same movie critic for a period of time, you learn what their scores mean and can filter them accordingly. Meanwhile, few game reviewers tend not to be there for enough time to build up a track record to follow (or because of the sheer number of games that have to be reviewed compared to other media, you get different critics reviews even from the same source).

That being said, gaming (and gaming reviews) tend not to be aware that its audience is not just males 18-34. The average age of a video game player in the US last year was 37 (http://www.govtech.com/newsletters/Question-of-the-Day-for-101211.html) according to NPD research. That is outside of the target demographic listed. And reviews tend to play to that demographic and even a subset of it which like certain types of games/productions.
Related to that, games which may target a different or wider audience often can be more harshly judged, especially if it is not done in the same style/motif as other games (see some of the critiques of Wii games.)

Finally, I don't think there has been a recent case of a movie reviewer being fired for giving a blockbuster a deserved less than stellar review. Video games cannot say the same thing.

Mike from Morgantown