Why do people hate IGN?

[Ryallen]

I get that IGN is the mutual center of hatred for reviews. People make fun of IGN for giving really high reviews to otherwise bad games. I get that. What I've never understood is why. Beyond their Call of Duty reviews, they have never given a score to a game that's higher than what seems reasonable. They haven't given good reviews to games that are terrible, at least to my knowledge. And, my main complaint, no one in IGN has ever called Far Cry 3 "Skyrim with guns". That was Machinima, and yet, ignoring any sort of evidence or proof otherwise, people continue to ridicule IGN for a quote that was made by Adam Kovic, one that he has actually admitted to making and defended.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

they are complacent to the shit of this industry, is not rare to see them promoting pre-order bonuses and shit

to be honest, even gamespot, the site that was once accused of firing one of their reviewers because of pressure from publishers, does better fucking journalism

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gamestops-involvement-in-development-is-another-bl/1100-6421040/

http://www.gamespot.com/videos/the-point-yogscasts-cancelled-kickstarter-the-miss/2300-6420305/

their editorial has more integrity

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

They're seen as too big to be honest or high quality anymore. They're pretty much the #1 game informant on the whole Internet now, bigger than the likes of PC Gamer or Machinima, and I find it really, really hard to believe they aren't living in the pockets of big video game publishers while shunning or straight up not acknowledging smaller indie games. I've heard of (but can't currently find evidence) of them constantly stealing news stories from other sites and rewriting as their own original stories, even if it means taking the exact same picture a smaller site used and cropping it to remove watermarks that aren't related to IGN.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I used to read IGN's reviews way back on PS2 when their reviews were 4-5 pages long and I could actually learn a thing or 2 about the game. Of course, you can't forget IGN's review of God Hand at a 3/10 while then listing it as one of PS2's best 100 games with the following description, "It's easy to mistake God Hand for a terrible game. But look past the rough exterior, the abrasive presentation, the comically bad environments and tongue-in-cheekiness of the characters, and -- we promise -- there's a diamond of gameplay to be found."

Spoiler

Game reviews are just so bad across the board and IGN is just the epitome of it all as they seem to rate games slightly higher than everyone else while being the most known. There's only a few people like Jim Sterling that even properly review games. Even Yahtzee's reviews (which really aren't reviews) have more credence than most professional reviews.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

From my limited experience with them, they've said a lot of stupid shit or things that are just plain incorrect. If you don't even know what you're talking about yet talk anyway, well, you're already in my bad book, regardless of any financial details.

 

[nevarran]

Because they're sellouts.
Most of the big gaming sites are like this tho'. If they don't get payed for the promotional materials they do, they are doing it just to earn devs/pubs favor.
Ask the tough questions and you don't get invited for the next preview event. Hype their stuff and you're their favorite "journalist".

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Besides the condition of their journalistic integrity already mentioned in this thread, I hate how their ads were so obnoxious, with annoying flash pop-ups and auto-playing videos. I gave them up about 8 years ago because it would slow both my mac and my dell to a halt(granted they both were old but still) when most other sites worked just fine. I'm glad I did it then because that was before their reviews really started brown nosing the highest bidders.

 

[William Fleming]

Spoiler

That image in the spoiler sums everyone's hate of IGN up perfectly. 7.5 for obvious Wii shovelware? Seems legit. Though the good thing about IGN is that if you want a good review from them, all you need is some loose change.

 

[Wasted]

I think the dislike comes from the problem with all gaming websites. They are there to sell a product first, and inform the consumer second. So there are huge conflicts of interest between reviewing a game while having its advertisement plastered all over the website. Review embargoes also do nothing to benefit the consumer while giving publishers a substantial control of information. Gaming websites essentially need to ask permission of the publishing companies on what they can and cannot show. It is no surprise that the most advertised games usually get more favorable reviews.

Could you imagine if the film industry had his much influence over their critics?


With the huge surge of gaming channels on YouTube I feel that finding a few people that share your gaming interests is the best way to inform yourself. Unfortunately, gaming publishers know this so they are trying to control large gaming channels as well (i.e. EA Ronku).

Either way...

"Believe the Hype"

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

A number of controversial reviews coupled with a general distrust for internet success.

 

[BraveSirRobin]

Personally I just don't agree with a lot of their reviews and find them fairly inflated and uninformative. I'm also not a fan of their editorial content. Not that this translates to hate on my part, but it definitely keeps me from reading their stuff.

 

[Vivi22]

Corporate shills. Industry apologists. Lack of actual criticism in their articles and reviews.

Take your pick. They give people lot's of reasons to choose from.

 

[moggett88]

I can't speak for anyone else, but the reason I dislike IGN is because of the low quality of their reviews. The reviews I've watched have been delivered awkwardly and in a dull monotone, which is fine for a solo reviewer earning his wings on Youtube, but not for a major operation like IGN. They have condemned games and given them "terrible" scores of 5/10 (the lowest score possible apparently) for next to no reason, such as "I wish that function was mapped to the X button rather than the A button", and championed other games for equally silly reasons, such as "the story reminded me of a book I like". I get that reviews are entirely subjective, but I feel like when you're as big as IGN you have to consider that what you say will probably directly influence sales, which will directly influence the lives of the people who made the game. Again, were they smaller, this wouldn't really be a problem, but since they are so big I think they should act more professionally.

 

[CriticalTortoise]

I don't personally hate IGN. Actually, I still go on there -- but I don't really pay attention to their reviews, most of what I look at is the insanely stupid comment section to cheer myself up and remind myself that I'm not the dumbest person in the world. I suppose I do also sometimes go there for news on games, specifically Xbox One games. Sadly, while they're the only major site I go on that isn't constantly trying to convince me I should like the PS4 more, the quality of their "reporting" still does kind of suck.

EDIT: I just realized I said "news" twice. The first mention was supposed to be "reviews," and I've changed it accordingly.

 

[Kiardras]

Can't spell ignorant without IGN.

Basically, they are hated because they review bad games highly, and good games either ignored or poorly. They are a mouthpiece for bad publishers to hype up the latest Call of Assassin's Fifa.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well if their stuff seems reasonable then you can't really ever have a problem with them.
But people who can cut through the bullshit will quickly notice this is a house of salesmen pretending to give independent insight... If you are selling shit then just fucking say so, don't try and hustle me because after that I can't trust a single damn thing you say.

 

[Ryallen]

I don't even care that much about IGN. I read their posts about upcoming games, but I rarely bother to read most of their reviews.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

I read it just for the movie and gaming news. I know people have issues with their reviews and if they write great reviews for money. But people can just ignore them or just go to other sites that they trust.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Summarising IGN is very easy.

So far they have put up 1'996 articles, videos and promotions for Titanfall, most of them before the release date.

One Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Six articles.

IGN published more content about Titanfall than there is content in Titanfall.

That's really IGN in a nutshell, if a publisher gives them money they will say anything about anything and they'll keep saying it until the money stops, which was about a month after release in Titanfall's case.