Jason Della Rocca, outgoing head of the Independent Games Developers Association, wrote a mini-rant for the GDC developer's rant which he then posted to his blog. While it's been described as a 'back-handed apology' he addresses an issue that is very relevant to the Critical Distance project and videogame criticism in general. He apologises for
…not bringing critics under the tent and getting them to work at improving things.
Which I think hits on an important point: we criticise because we love, and because we actually want to see things change.
It's almost common wisdom, however, that while there are lots of people vocalising for change and “innovation” they often complain about the end result and the games usually suffer from poor sales (okay, huge generalisation, but you get the drift).
But I think what gets missed is that often us critics really like these (often buggy) weird, innovative and refreshingly different games. Pick a game that has been vilified by the general press, one that probably only scored a boring 60% in reviews, and I'm sure you'll still find at least one critic that loved it, that saw through the bugs and appreciated t less for what it was than what it dared to be.
So the message to game developers is this: Critics: we're here to help! Really!
It’s impossible to take YET ANOTHER street corner critic seriously when he insists on getting the details wrong: it’s INTERNATIONAL Game Developers Association, you buffoon.
Check yourself next time.
“Example Post 1″, oh holy one! Please bear with us while we settle in. After we launch, every single post will be going through another person so that we are sure to catch this exact kind of typo or hurried mistake. And our intention is not to be another small soapbox, but the townhall and noticeboard. In this metaphorical game critic community. It’s kind of like The Sims, except we won’t pee our pants if you ignore us.
A slip of the tongue! But thank you for pointing it out.
I should equally point out that we are not just another new street-corner critic. There is a significant number of us, and we have all been around in the games crit space for quite some time. Check the list of contributors page across the top for the full list.