editorial posts

If it's been said once, it's been said a thousand times: the best advertising is word-of-mouth. What's meant by this is that a person is more likely to try a product or service if someone they know has recommended it to them. The reverse is also true: if a friend or family member recommends against something, the referee is similarly likely to avoid it. What makes this phenomenon work is trust. We trust the opinions of those close to us, because we've spent enough time with them to understand in which ways their tastes might overlap ours.

But does this still work with game reviews, when the only way you've come to know the reviewer is through reading their reviews? Can a trust relationship evolve from what is, essentially, one-way communication? Is a commercially-funded review source more or less trustworthy than a writer's personal blog? Can numerical scores relate actual value?

Former GameSpot writer Alex Navarro told MTV Multiplayer an anecdote that paints an embarrassing picture of the relationship between the enthusiast gaming press and game publishers. Navarro had been assigned "a certain Wii launch title" to review. The game's publisher sent him a note, which read: "If the review is 9.0 or higher you can post immediately. Lower than 9.0, could you please hold until launch day, November 19th? Thanks."

According to Navarro, this was par for the course. And there's no doubt this sort of thing is also common with PC games. In the end, GameSpot chose to buy the game at retail rather than use a review copy provided by the publisher. Navarro gave the game a very poor review. He was unwilling to share the name of the game or the publisher, but if you're really savvy with GameSpot's content browsing features, you can narrow it down a bit using the information provided.

This kind of problem is not unique to the video game medium; it's unfortunately common for movie studios to refuse to screen films to critics until opening weekend if they fear those critics might get a little too, well ... critical.