Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, NFL players not liking their boss (*cough* Brad Childress), Gwyneth Paltrow going country, or Sarah Palin’s cookie loving, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Way back in Coffee Talk #4 I wrote about my peeves with the incredibly unnatural process of reviewing games. In addition to the cram-a-thon sessions most game reviewers have to engage in, the occasional “review event” pops up every now and then. I was having a Twitter conversation with two game journalists at Games Radar about the matter. The “payola” factor of review events doesn’t bother me, since most writers can see past that (and in many cases, care more about playings games than enjoying luxurious surroundings). My problem with review events is that it affects the process. I am of the opinion that adding foreign surroundings to an already unnatural process alters perception.
The example that a lot of people are bringing up is GamePro’s Tae Kim’s review of the Call of Duty: Black Ops. Check out his opening paragraph:
The Ojai Valley Inn and Spa sits in the tiny town of Ojai about two hours north of downtown Los Angeles. Built in 1923, it features a full 18-hole golf course, a luxury spa, and 308 deluxe suites situated on a 200 acre plot with picaresque views of the surrounding forest and mountains. It’s hard to top in terms of amenities and creature comforts, and it seemingly offers everything you could ever want in a vacation spot. It’s utterly fitting, then, that this is where Activision chose to hold its review event for Call of Duty: Black Ops; the lavish surroundings were no doubt meant to lend a measure of sex appeal and ‘wow factor’ to the proceedings, but it was also a good metaphor for Black Ops: The game is a veritable playground that, like the plush resort where I and a handful of game journos from various outlets were sequestered for three days, seems to offer everything you could ever want in a console first-person shooter.
Forget the fact that I learned more about the Ojai Valley Inn than Call of Duty: Black Ops from the opening paragraph. Taking a gamer out of his/her natural environment alters perception, whether game journalists want to admit it or not. Playing games in your living room is natural. For staffers at gaming outlets, playing games at a desk or in a game lab is natural. Foreign environments — no matter how luxurious — change perception. Similar to how setting often changes the experience of listening to music, sipping wine, or enjoying coffee, setting changes the experience of playing a videogame.
Anyway, that’s my annual rant on review events. What do you think of them? Does it bother your that game writers are sequestered at luxury spas? Does it bother you that they have to review a game in a short period of time in a foreign environment? Or do you think that it’s not a big deal?