What's With Wii's Low Review Scores?

[Bodhesatva]

Edouble24 said:

Gnizmo said:

I wonder why all the mods on this site get off on trying to belittle everyone. It's really a great way to make everyone feel welcome here. I was merely pointing out that every medium will have a huge number of fans that go against reviewers. No need to call me ignorant for that because what I said is true. Whether or not Wii Sports falls into the same category as date movie or not is up to you, my example was just showing that the mass market often times clashes with reviewers to the point where a movie with the worst reviews can still make a ton of money without issue. That was my point, not that game reviewers are just as fair/not as fair/equally as fair as movie reviewers.

If you think he is belittling you then I would say all the mods are just pointing out how what you said is false rather than insulting you. You are clearly ignorant on what he is talking about and that is easily demonstrated by you completely missing his point. Movie critics review based on a list of easily definable and observable features. Date movies don't get low reviews because the reviewr didn't like them, but because they were poorly made. Wii Sports is a very well made game that got low reviews because reviewers didn't like it. See the difference?

Ok this is obviously an opinion not a fact, see the difference?

 

No. No. That is the problem here. Again, I apologize for insulting you, Double, because this is a fairly subtle distinction, but that's the whole point of professional criticism.

Professional critics are not supposed to give their own opinions. They are supposed to ground their reviews in objectivity and fact, on rigorous critical standards that can be applied to their specific medium. Professional reviews are intended to be as little opinion-based as possible.

Read my post above, double. Without going into critical theory in detail (it really is something you should read up on for such discussions), the most tangible distinction to be made here is that movie critics don't descriminate based on genre or audience, while video game journalists do. The best action movies get the same reviews as the best kids movies get the same reviews as the best artsy-fartsy ones. In gaming, "casual" titles are uniformly lower in review score, and moreover are constantly derided by critics as "non games." Some have even gone so far as to say that Wii Fit is hurting gaming in some fashion. 

There are no casually-oriented titles that have reviewed well. None. Wii Sports, Wii Play, Mario Party, Raving Rabbids,  Here is the review that Dan Hsu, director of EGM, gave for Wii Play:

"Play is for people who don't really play games, and as someone who really does, that's a problem."

That is the best example I can find of how gaming criticism is fundamentally flawed, and does not follow critical theory. He is explicitly admitting here that he is judging a game intended for a different audience by what he personally prefers. Again, that simply isn't how professional criticism is applied.