We need more Zero Punctuation's

[end_boss]

The trick to Yahtzee is that he's objective, even in his subjectivity. His opinions are subjectively stated about objective issues, and pretty much always states a certain precedence. He doesn't just deliver his view, but he takes the time to explain where he's coming from. Particularly, in his review of Paper Mario, he clearly defines in the opening moments that he despises the JRPG genre as a whole, singling out Final Fantasy and Suikoden as examples. He'll clearly disclaim that his views may not be reflected by those who do enjoy certain types of game.

When he gets into gameplay issues, he's pretty objective on the whole, though he'll ALSO throw in his personal opinion.

The Angry Video Game Nerd does not entertain me, and his reviews are not useful to me in the slightest. When he shows gameplay footage, he's obviously playing poorly to emphasize his point. Then he runs out of things to say and figures that swearing is funny in and of itself, and makes no further attempts at wit, relying instead on seeing how many different ways he can connect the words "shit" and "fuck" together, grammatically.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

If you can point it out, I'll give you a point.

He's placed a " ' " (I forgot its name, alright) instead of just adding the 's'. This is incorrect as what the OP has used denotes possession, when, it actually refers to plural.

Now, where's my point?

- A procrastinator

Umm, have a cookie point. with 3, you get a shortbread cookie. With 5, you get a sugar cookie. Wit 10, a Chocolate Chip cookie, with 100, a box of Samoas.

Oh, I thought you were going to point out that he said "We need more Zero Punctuation's" but used punctuation in his topic title.

 

[x434343]

If you can point it out, I'll give you a point.

He's placed a " ' " (I forgot its name, alright) instead of just adding the 's'. This is incorrect as what the OP has used denotes possession, when, it actually refers to plural.

Now, where's my point?

- A procrastinator

Umm, have a cookie point. with 3, you get a shortbread cookie. With 5, you get a sugar cookie. Wit 10, a Chocolate Chip cookie, with 100, a box of Samoas.

Oh, I thought you were going to point out that he said "We need more Zero Punctuation's" but used punctuation in his topic title.

You got a point cos you pointed out my point. Get the point?

 

[The Thief]

I take Yahtzee's reviews seriously, mostly. I do not, however, take them as a final deciding factor in the purchase of my games.

I like to read tons of reviews from different sources and different biases before I make a purchase. To make a decision from only one review of a product is just silly since that person is not you, and only you can decide what you like.

Getting to the point, I watch other "objective" reviews to get an unbiased look at the game which helps me get a sense of what it is about, but I read customer reviews and watch ZP for their opinions and to see whether I would enjoy it.

 

[end_boss]

If you can point it out, I'll give you a point.

He's placed a " ' " (I forgot its name, alright) instead of just adding the 's'. This is incorrect as what the OP has used denotes possession, when, it actually refers to plural.

Now, where's my point?

- A procrastinator

Umm, have a cookie point. with 3, you get a shortbread cookie. With 5, you get a sugar cookie. Wit 10, a Chocolate Chip cookie, with 100, a box of Samoas.

Oh, I thought you were going to point out that he said "We need more Zero Punctuation's" but used punctuation in his topic title.

You got a point cos you pointed out my point. Get the point?

The problem is that the punctuation that was used is erroneous. Grammatically speaking, the apostrophe should not be there.

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

On the other hand i actually tend to agree more with objective corporations. Call me a sellout if you must. Those opinions are tailored for the majority, aparently i belong to it.

I totaly agree with you. The "corprate" reviews try to be less bias toward games, while other reviews go on what they have heard and tend to be inflanced by the masses.

 

[AnGeL.SLayer]

..a review IS a personal take on a game...It's only a matter if you trust that person or not. We are the ones who make it personal. The reviewer just states his opinion, you can't hold it against him if he feels the same way about something as another. Two people can have the same opinion on something. The only reason people like Yahtzee is because he hates just about every game and he's entertaining to see him trash it. It's not the same as reading words on a page. You need to take all this into consideration when trying to compare him to all the other reviews.


^_^

 

[cleverlymadeup]

yeah too many yahtzee's would remove his humour and uniqueness that is well him. i personally don't like a lot of reviews because they're ALWAYS good and say how great the game is. the whole gamespot issue pointed out the issue of companies paying for support, ign and ubi had a falling out cause they panned some mediocre games, sorry assassin's creed is good but it's not great.

a good review is hard to find, so best to read several opinions or do like gamespot does and have a critic and a user rating and having a video of game play is good too.

i, like other ppl in the thread have said, don't take yahtzee too seriously, i like to laugh at how he pans a game and points out some of its bad points but is meant to be taken with a large grain of salt. it's mostly tongue in cheek or what ever english-born-aussie-exiled coder-blogger-galahs call that thing on the side of your face, cause aussies have strange terms for everything

 

[boyitsme95]

On the other hand, I usualy agree with reviewers who you can kinda tell what there prefrences are or they tell you. You're absolutly right, but I guess it dependes on your prefrencies.

 

[C-man101]

If you can point it out, I'll give you a point.

He's placed a " ' " (I forgot its name, alright) instead of just adding the 's'. This is incorrect as what the OP has used denotes possession, when, it actually refers to plural.

Now, where's my point?

- A procrastinator

Umm, have a cookie point. with 3, you get a shortbread cookie. With 5, you get a sugar cookie. Wit 10, a Chocolate Chip cookie, with 100, a box of Samoas.

Oh, I thought you were going to point out that he said "We need more Zero Punctuation's" but used punctuation in his topic title.

You got a point cos you pointed out my point. Get the point?

The problem is that the punctuation that was used is erroneous. Grammatically speaking, the apostrophe should not be there.

he's right, and i for some reason like to quote this. and i believe that 1 zero punctuation a week is enough, if there were more my balls would explode because of an overdose of ballstightening-fantastic humor

 

[xMacx]

Entertainment is subjective. You can't deny it. This is why I personally find Yahtzee's game reviews to be more helpful than any others.

Other game reviews attempt to be "objective" about their reviews. But because games are subjective, they inevitably fail. This means most reviews tend to be an uneasy mix of subjective and attempted objective (ie. letting others influence their decision) statements about the game.

On the other hand...it seems like your post assumes that subjective experiences can't be measured or generalized between individuals. Most psychological research does exactly that. And it's done very regularly in the context of games; see "the science of fun" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_73/423-The-Perception-Engineers] in Wired Magazine.



I also agree that most reviews struggle mightily, but not just because games are subjective. It's likely due to attempting to measure using scales that haven't been adequately defined for subjective experiences.

 

[Sabbad]

On the other hand, an entirely subjective review is of zero value to someone who can find no common ground for agreement with the reviewer. An objective review should, if well done, try to provide a review useful for as many people as possible.

To provide an example of a subjective review that helps nobody: "I hate all FPS', therefore Halo 3 is rubbish". How does that inform any gamer about what their enjoyment of the game will be?

EDIT: Interesting thread by the way. I'm loving all the posts saying "one a week is enough" and "loads of funny reviews would make Yahtzee less funny" too.

 

[Karisse]

I don't find Yahtzee's reviews useful at all. Entertaining, sure. But it is clearly more a rant of things he doesn't like about games or what he does like about games, and not a clear weighing of pros and cons.

In other words, listening to one of his reviews never makes me lean any more in one direction of whether to get a game or avoid it than I did before listening to it.

Even if you state objective facts about the game, your selection of what facts to talk about is a subjective choice that affects your depiction of the game. And since enjoyment of a game is pretty damn subjective, trying to be objective about it is pretty futile.

His opinions are undeniably his, and his personally. Why is this helpful? Well, it is only helpful if you agree with his taste in games. If you do, then you can be more confident that any game he likes, you will like.

Weighing pros and cons is the very attempted objectivity the OP is getting at. "Good" and "bad" for the reviewer may be completely different for the viewer, sure, but on the other hand so is the tolerable ratio between "good" and "bad" for the reviwer and the viewer. By simply stating just the things the reviewer likes and dislikes, and to the degree to which the reviewer likes or dislikes them, the viewer can decide how the "good" matches up against the "bad" or if it's time to look to another reviewer altogether.

I also don't think the OP is literally saying there should be more ZPs, but that there should just be less attempts to objectively assign a score to a game and more flat-out likes and dislikes.