Just one thing: (Gaming)

by cheapLEY , Wednesday, August 09, 2017, 18:38 (2673 days ago) @ Korny

On the difference between reviewers' opinions and the general audience's opinions:

Game reviewers live in a weird little bubble. The ones that work for big sites, and even some prominent independent youtuber types live in a world in which they play the vast majority of noteworthy releases, and they often play them for free. I always have a feeling that they look for completely different things than a lot of people. They've played or had the opportunity to play almost everything--it's literally in the job description. They are much more likely to be on the look out for new, interesting, surprising things.

I want those things, too, but on the other hand, I give up my hard earned money to play games, so yeah, I'm going to spend $60 on Destiny 2, which I'm 99% that I'll really enjoy, rather than on Nier: Automata, which got rave reviews, but still only looks moderately interesting to me (and the demo did absolutely nothing for me).

As much as I want new, cool experiences (hence taking a chance on Pyre!), I'll always put my money on the the sure bet that I'll get hundreds of hours out of, versus the new, interesting thing that I might hate. I have enough disposable income that I can pretty comfortably buy whatever game I want nearly whenever I want, but I don't think most gamers realistically fall into that category.

I think there's a pretty huge difference between what reviewers value in games, due to them playing so many and seeing the same things so often, versus the average consumer that can't afford to play everything, so they'll always buy CoD or Battlefield or Madden or whatever, because they know they like it, and $60 is a lot of money to some folks. Something new and weird will always stick out to a person who's job is to literally play the same old tired shit all the time.