Maelstrom isn't a member of the industry.

He's some dude that rants on a blog and somehow managed to garner a following through it ( which isn't surprising, history is full of madmen that managed to garner followers).

Haha holy crap I was actually going to come back and post this exact thing! Remember when 70-79 meant it was a great game if you're a fan of that genre and 80s meant you had to innovate in that genre? 90+ was almost unheard of.  I hate to pick on MW2 because I haven't played it, but from everything I'm hearing the best score it would have gotten would have been a 79 back in those days.

I mean even looking back at PS1 scores, Silent Hill got a 86 overall score in 1999.

Here's a SH review blurb:

"No game will freak you as much as this game, and I truly believe you will enjoy it no matter what genre you're into most. If you don't have this game, buy it, and while you're there, pick up a set of briefs. You'll need em'!!"

Score: 80

Read that sentence and score again, and tell me what it would have gotten with that kind of reception today.

Actually he garnered a following from his articles which have been consistently right on the industry and gaming.

Calling him a madman doesn't change the fact that he's been more right than any analyst in the market this gen

Just my 2 cents. on the nature of this article & posting.

First developers likely don't like the idea. They want it to be done, but there is a lot of stress on a reviewer potentialy lambasting their game. Even a shovel ware game that get's ridiculed actually takes serious sweat. Ask any artist, programmer, marketing, producer about their work on Price is Right 2 or Ninja Bread man 28. Regular schedule, difficult work. So when you get a reviewer coming in to take an early look. Who potentially will impact your games sales. Well it can be stressful.

As for the writers side. To be fair, yes it is very posh to have an all expenses paid trip. Being treated like royalty. Of course they are. The company is trying to buy favour. Then again trips across country are stressful. Given some luxery will put them in a good mood and more receptive to give favour.

Having said that. Yes the corruption is in there. It's just not so shallow. it goes Write(:P) down to the core. If you site/mag... get's paid heavy Ubisoft ads/sponsorship. Then the company is likely to hire someone who is favourable to Ubisoft like games. So when the Ubisoft fan/writer get's a posh trip to their office to try a certain game. They are inclined to think more positively because they were hired to be predisposed. So what's happening is that reviewers aren't being hired for their unbiased journalism. They are being hired for their biased opinions that will back the sales to see more profits. So writers do require good literacy skills and able to express their opinions well, but theres no way around it. They are just a cog in the machine.

Ail Posted

"Maelstrom isn't a member of the industry.

He's some dude that rants on a blog and somehow managed to garner a following through it ( which isn't surprising, history is full of madmen that managed to garner followers)."

Actually Maelstrom is part of the industry. Just like you and me though. The industry is based on production to consumer. So there is the production side of the industry and a consumer side of the industry. Much like Yin and Yang. If there is no producer then the consumers can't buy and thus there is no industry. If there is no consumer then there are no purchases and thus there is no industry. Maelstrom isn't part of production side of the industry.  Also business analysys does not require an individual in the industry. Is Maelstrom good and business analysys. It's questionable. Though his BOS associations fair better. His rants are typiclly tripe. So to say a consumer is not part of industry is incorrect. But I suspect you were talking about being on the production side, but I thought it might be important for readers to consider the situation a little more deeply.

Damn thats exactly what i thought, i remember when i used to buy gaming mags and skim reviews except for the ones with 75+.

Now i can't trust any review, even games that get 10/10 usually aren't that great.

I looked at 70+ cause some games were just damn...

I can admit without problem that I,'m just a little bit biased against Malstrom.

About his agenda, I oversimplified: he's so infatuated of his own theories that each time PS3 or XB360 look like they're reacting well to Wii disruption, he gets bonkers and he tries to bend facts to show he's right, and it's the world that's actually going wrong (just like, regarding another one of his theories, when he repeated ad nauseam that cutting price was a wrong move for Nintendo, but actually it worked quite well, even before big games launches, BF and Xmas approaching made Wii do even biggere leaps). And I realize just now, and just as I phrased the thing this way, that he's becoming worrying. In a psychiatric sense.

Last I checked to be considered part of an industry you had to generate some kind of revenue or be a paid member of said industry.

That or I could just make a blog somewhere and claim I am part of the NFL( i watch games on Sunday !), the Space Industry( i watch the shuttle launch !), the Auto industry( i have a car !) and so on......

This is not how it works........

You're not part of the industry simply from being a consumer. I'm not part of the movie industry, music industry, car industry or the meat packing industry just because I make use of their product. That's almost like claiming I'm a part of Microsoft because I use Windows on my PC.
We are part of the market but not the industry and that's a major difference.
All (or almost all) products go;

Manufacture - freight/distribution - retail/outlet - end user

The industry in most given examples are only involved on the first or first and second part of this process, after that the goods have reached the market and a new venue entirely before it ever reaches us. If the system was made up such that we could order everything directly from and do commerce with the industries, our entire economy and monetary system would be radically different, removing all the links between (except freight in most cases though). Management and distribution is divided into several smaller outlets for a reason (imagine Nintendo shipping all their Wii's directly to end users without stores or handlers in between for instance, the micromanagement levels would be staggering and impossible to mount for nearly any industry).

ZOMFG! They banned the sheepman just before sales data for NSMBW Japan release week are published! How cruel!!!   
Who'll be Malstrom's plenipotentiary when he's most needed?