Why does everyone hate IGN?

[-Drifter-]

I had my own reasons for hating IGN. Mostly, it was the 9's and 10's they kept handing out to games I thought were basically shit. Something occurred to me though: that's a stupid reason for hating a site. As much as I may disagree, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and reviews are just that: opinions. It seems asinine to let a critic's personal opinion get me so up in arms. Besides, it's not like their reviews are badly written (well, not most of them, anyway. I'm looking at you, Clementz.) I certainly preferred Erik Brudvig's review over Russ Pitt's.

Basically, I just don't understand why IGN gets as much hatred as it does. It seems a bit childish to me.

So, do you hate IGN? If so, why?

Also, if you're interested...

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/109/1090380p1.html

 

[Angry Caterpillar]

Because I only scored a 66 on their ultimate Halo fanboy quizzimajigger.
It's rigged I tell you!

 

[Julianking93]

Already a thread about this.

OT, because they're a bunch of biased pieces of shit who hardly ever know what the fuck they're talking about in reviews, have been systematically trying to disregard the PS3 as a system, they suck the balls of Microsoft, only give popular games positive reviews and they're responsible for this:

 

[antipunt]

lol X-play.

Oh wait, this thread is about IGN?

 

[wadark]

Why is it that every girl in gaming news is just a semi-hot girl with no gaming knowledge and the list of this years newest internet memes?

 

[EBHughsThe1st]

Because a girl who looks somewhat attractive is put as the head liner for girl gaming but knows very little and still get's her own action figure of the whole "controller lick" thing.

 

[PopeJewish]

I have a problem with them and Rockstar. They consistently give Rockstar games perfect or near perfect scores while citing flaws with them. That's not quite right, in my book. Now, I disagree with their opinions about a lot of things (their recent review of Blur cites many things as problems that I actually found to be the thigns I liked from the demo) but again opinion is opinion. It's just obvious that they get paid off to promote huge games (just as every other major reviewer does) whether it be in money or just the ability to get their review copies before the game goes live is a different conversation, but it does happen, and favors are given.

Personally from the few hours I've played of Red Dead Redemption it's NOT a 9.7. A great game, sure, but there are several things that it so obviously does wrong, from menu systems to finicky controls, that any reviewer worth his salt should dock them more than three tenths of a point. You can't skip repetitive animations (like skinning animals) you can't compare weapons in teh shop to weapons you already own until after you buy them, the cover system is broken, the controls are glitchy, etc etc. Again, it's a great game, but it's not all that close to being perfect

 

[Firetaffer]

I don't mind them, they do seem try-hard but at least they aren't as bad as Gamespot.

 

[Mr.Black]

They seem like the company that gets paid to give give games higher scores than they deserve.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Because IGN is a silly name.

And their video reviews have inferior design compared to gametrailers!

 

[The_Deleted]

Didn't they fire some guy for slating a game that was heavily sponsoring the site {read:advertising}. They have 0 integrity and for that alone can fuck off.

 

[MMMowman]

IGN is only good for cheats...

NOTHING ESLE!

 

[Mr Companion]

Already a thread about this.

OT, because they're a bunch of biased pieces of shit who hardly ever know what the fuck they're talking about in reviews, have been systematically trying to disregard the PS3 as a system, they suck the balls of Microsoft, only give popular games positive reviews and they're responsible for this:

Oh gods that actually hurt! I don't even like internet jargan anyway but just hearing the way she said 'Wiiin' is enough to give me cranial cancer.

 

[Julianking93]

snip

I know. It's awful. I can't even stand to look at it, that's how bad it is.

I'll click on it and listen to it, but I can't look at it.

It's...just too horrible

 

[blalien]

I got pissed off at IGN right before the Japanese release of Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Nintendo was doing these teasers, where every day they'd reveal a new character or stage or such. And the IGN Wii site, every day, simply copied and paraphrased these teasers. Really, IGN? Trying to mooch page hits off of something anybody can access? Too lazy to do some goddamn journalism? Maybe interview some developers, bribe a disgruntled employee?

Around that point I realized IGN was nothing but watered down corporate schlock. There's nothing offensively bad about the site, but there's absolutely no reason to visit it either.

Oh and by the way, can somebody please explain the point of IGN TV's reviews? The reviews have spoilers for the episode, so you can't read the review until after you've already seen the show.

 

[KeyMaster45]

I never found IGN to be particularly informative when it came to the information I desired on games. When I first encountered it, I found that many of the trailers and videos they had for games they wanted you to subscribe to them in order to watch(IE pay them a monthly fee or no trailerz for joo) least that's how it was when I stumbled across the site back in the early 2000's.

That's not to say I don't drop by their site now and again when they have articles on things like they did for Arkham Asylum, but other than that I get my info through sites like the escapist, official game websites, my local gamestop's employees(great bunch of ppl who've yet to lead me astray since I started shopping there in 97), and game-trailers.

I've known for awhile there's some animosity between IGN and the greater fan-base, but to my knowledge that was because of them switching to that subscription BS. I think the fact they don't have the content I desire in an easy to find and accessible manner is a very valid reason for disliking them. I don't vocalize this to the world every chance I get, however, cause it's my opinion. I just point people to the escapist or somewhere else, since to be honest, that's just my recommendation.

 

[King of the Sandbox]

I've never really gone there. As for reviews, I use them as a guideline, not the end-all-be-all of the game's rating, and even when I do watch them, it's just for games I'm hyped about to see more footage, not so much for the score they give it.

 

[Yureina]

IGN reviews are too positive and bland for me to really like. It seems like they enjoy every game that they review with few exceptions. It makes my attempting to gain opinions on games from them that makes the site rather... lacking.