Should Non-Gamers Publish Gaming Reviews?

Gamers generally have high standards when it comes to what they expect from new game releases and in many cases are known as pretty hard to please. You only have to look at the likes of Reddit and discussions around the latest version of Grand Theft Auto to see that lots of gamers have no problem with being vocal with their opinions on games.

However, the latest chatter within the gaming industry surrounds a review of Elden Ring rather than the actual game itself. The New York Times published a review of the game, as they often do, however fans were upset with the quality of the review and some of the comments made; with many feeling that it wasn’t really the place of The New York Times to make such comments.

The Trend of Reviewing Things Online

Reviewing things online is nothing new; people have been sharing their thoughts and opinions on pretty much everything since Live Journal was launched back in 1999. We have seen numerous platforms come and go, but the idea is the same – people like having a platform to share their opinions on.

Over the last couple of years, we have certainly seen an increase in the trend of being a micro-influencer, where you set up a website or on a social media platform with the main focus being sharing your day to day life and reviews of things that you see, try and buy throughout your day. Of course, as these influencers grew in popularity so did the interest from brands; who saw a way of being able to advertise and promote products in a much more subtle way than just placing an advert on the TV.

As this trend grew, so did the need for people to be seen further on places like Google – where they wanted their reviews to be higher than anyone else’s and so worked hard on optimising their content so it would be shaped into something that Google would see as high quality and rank higher. Review based content is something Google has been paying more attention to in recent updates and is something affiliates across a range of sectors have been affected by as Google seeks out more personal and detailed review-based content. Reviews of casino sites have been one notable affiliate sector impacted by this.

Is This Way of Reviewing Things a Good Thing?

If you speak to anyone about social media influencers, bloggers and Instagrammers you’ll generally hear mixed reviews. With plenty of influencers having thousands of followers, it is clear that they are seen as role models and therefore are able to influence others into buying certain products and services. However, many people feel that watching a review from someone that has been paid to talk about a product and share it with their followers isn’t a genuine review – because if you’re being paid to talk about something, how likely are you to share the negative bits? Many people feel that reviews of this nature should be more natural, but realistically journalists have been paid to review things for years so is this really any different?

Should Mainstream Platforms Publish Niche-Specific Reviews?

One of the main problems that people have with reviews like this is that people either don’t have a genuine interest in the product or they don’t have sufficient knowledge to be able to review it properly. The recent New York Times review of Elden Ring certainly shows that fans expect reviewers to have a certain knowledge and experience in gaming before they share their thoughts.

When the New York Times review was published gaming fans took to social media to talk of their anger and upset at the quality of the review. Many comments were about the quality of the gaming shots that were used, which appear to have been shot using a mobile phone rather than screenshot directly from the game. Fans felt that this didn’t put across the high-quality gaming experience that the game offers & therefore should not have been done.

Other comments included the fact that the review didn’t seem to be done by a gaming journalist and that comments about how the game was only successful due to the fact we’ve come out the other side of a pandemic were uncalled for.

The real debate is all about how qualified someone should be before they can review a game? Should they have played the first version of the game if they want to review the second? The truth is that anyone can review anything, but that doesn’t stop gaming fans from wanting more.

The Future of Gaming Reviews

If you look back at past New York Times gaming reviews they have used this style of review before, specifically around taking photos of the screen rather than a high-quality screenshot, and gaming fans have been less than impressed with that too! However, when you consider that typing “Elden Ring New York Times” into Twitter gives you pages of results you could argue that this style of review is going them a favour – after all, isn’t all publicity good publicity?

The truth is that gaming reviews in the future will continue to cause controversy, as gaming fans are pretty passionate about the games that they like. With games having their own sets of fans many of them feel protective of their favourite games & as such will always have something to say when a review is less favourable. That said, with Google algorithms changing and the world of social media influencers growing it could soon be that reviews in mainstream papers are the last of gamers’ worries. If we see a Love Island Star paid to review a brand new game when they have never even picked up a console handset before we could very well see fans of the gaming industry start a gaming revolution. For now, it seems Twitter is the place to go to share your anger at gaming reviews & you’ll find plenty of people there to keep you company.