Topic: Shawn Elliott Symposium - Part One: Review Scores

[idolminds]

Link

Hope you have time to read, its huge.

Introduction
Are reviews primarily a consumer guide, or should they serve another purpose? Do review scores deter intelligent discussion of videogames? Is the presence or absence of a review score the only difference between a reviewer and a critic? What is the role of the reviewer when the Internet is democratizing published opinion? How should reviews and reviewers evolve in light of the emergence and growth of Flash games, small games, indie games and user-generated games?

These questions and more were on the mind of N'Gai Croal, John Davison and Shawn Elliott last summer when they decided to expand their conversation to a number of noted reviewers, writers, bloggers and journalists for a published email symposium on game reviews. (See below for the full list of participants.) The planned list of topics include Review Scores; Review Policy, Practice and Ethics; Reader Backlash; Reviews in the Age of Social media; Reviews in the Mainstream Media; Casual, Indie, and User-Generated Games; Reviews vs. Criticism; and Evolving the Review. Round 1's topic: Review Scores.

Participants

Leigh Alexander, Gamasutra/Sexy Videogameland/Variety
Harry Allen, Media Assassin
Robert Ashley, freelancer
Tom Chick, freelancer
N'Gai Croal, Level Up/Newsweek
John Davison, What They Play
Shawn Elliott, 2K Boston
Jeff Gerstmann, Giant Bomb
Kieron Gillen, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Dan Hsu, Sore Thumbs Blog
Francesca Reyes, Official Xbox Magazine
Stephen Totilo, MTV News

I haven't gotten far myself in reading this thing, but the following quote is great and seems very, very true.

Quick thought regarding the indie/AAA dichotomy, though: I often think that AAA-popular-sequels tend to start with 9/10 and lose marks, while games with less expectations start with 5/10 and have to gain them. And... oh, I'll shut up. More on this later, I suspect./quote]

[Pugnate]

Regarding your quote, I made a thread over a year ago on OW when I started noticing a similar trend on PCG.

[Quemaqua]

It's funny, I sort of find myself growing really tired of analysis, particularly this kind of thing.  There was a time, and not even very long ago, when I'd have read every word and been interested, now all I have to do is look at all the names of the people contributing and I start feeling a little sick.

[gpw11]

Who the fuck is Shawn Elliot?

[idolminds]

ex editor of Games for Windows magazine.

[Xessive]

Wasn't he on GWJ? Maybe they were just discussing him on the podcast.

[PyroMenace]

He was on one of the guests along with Jeff Green that was on the podcast this week. Shawn Elliott now works for Boston 2K I believe.