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Tom Chick: The Man Who Hated Deus Ex
- Thread starter Lost Fragment
- Start date
paranoidfortean
Member
The thing to get out of this: review scores are inflated now.
BuddhaRockstar
Member
I just visited his site, people take this guy seriously? Check out his top 10 overrated games of 2008, if that's not trolling for hits I don't know what is.
http://fidgit.com/archives/2008/12/10_most_overrated_games_of_200.php
http://fidgit.com/archives/2008/12/10_most_overrated_games_of_200.php
He said it's less than average and he's pretty much right. You can have as many great ideas as you want in a game, you pull them off as well as Deus Ex did, and you can still have shitty gameplay that's highest points are based around how you get past doors.
Are you serious?BuddhaRockstar said:
jim-jam bongs
Member
DeBurgo said:
That isn't surprising, by many scales of scoring Deus Ex is an 8/10 game despite being one of the best games ever made. Review scores come in two major categories; those that attempt to score the game itself, and those which attempt to rate the enjoyment that the reviewer got from it. Deus Ex would lose marks for graphics and voice-acting, for example, when the first approach is used. However, if a reviewer takes the latter approach they might score it higher because those deficiencies weren't important to them, and didn't detract from their enjoyment of the game.
BuddhaRockstar said:
Reading:
Tom Chick said:
It's fundamental.
revolverjgw
Member
This guy can write some good stuff... I miss Computer Games magazine. I have no idea why so much of his stuff since then has been mostly just annoying.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Dear god, you people think that comment about consoles saving us from poorly optimized engines is serious? Talk about blatant sarcasm missed. I mean this article was posted on fucking RPS, a site dedicated to PC games.
GitarooMan
Member
I was going to say this, but I wanted to let it go on a bit longer.Stallion Free said:
DodgyGeezerFella
Member
GitarooMan said:
Me 2
jim-jam bongs said:
It's interesting that he feels that way about Colonization. I've never won a game either and I still love playing it. It's a great game but super complex and tough as nails. I have no problems losing everytime out.
I thought I just sucked at it though. Kinda surprised that a big strategy gamer like Chick had the same problems.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
I can only take so many oblivious comments. Jesus, there are some people who don't know shit in this thread.GitarooMan said:
I was one of those he was arguing with back in the usenet days. I remember getting in a very long, very heated discussion on the nature of crates and sewers in Deus Ex and (I think) Half-Life. Thinking back, it was a particularly stupid thing to argue about, but thousands of very sincere words were traded. To this day, I think he is a fool because of it. As wrong as his opinions were, at least he was willing to get up and defend them.
Man, did anyone else know Tomchick was a last name?
http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/findfac/research/0,2357,45730,00.html
http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/findfac/research/0,2357,45730,00.html
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Opinions can't be wrong.Sqorgar said:
BuddhaRockstar
Member
jim-jam bongs said:
Of course I read the first fucking paragraph you dipshits. Are you honestly defending journalism that consists of-
There's making a case for a game being overrated and then there's just listing names of popular games to make people mad and get hits.
Speaking of hits, is it just me or does his site auto-refresh? Wtf is up with that?
CryingWolf
Member
With critics, it isn't really important whether or not you agree with the review. That isn't what makes a good critic. When you read a review by a good critic, you should be able to tell if you would like the game, even if he didn't, and vice versa.
That's why Roger Ebert is still my go-to movie critic. I agree with him on most movies, and even when I don't, I can usually understand why. His reviews are so good that I can know what to expect, even if I don't agree with his conclusion.
This may not be terribly relevant, but I was inspired to write it after reading some of the comments about what makes a "good review."
That's why Roger Ebert is still my go-to movie critic. I agree with him on most movies, and even when I don't, I can usually understand why. His reviews are so good that I can know what to expect, even if I don't agree with his conclusion.
This may not be terribly relevant, but I was inspired to write it after reading some of the comments about what makes a "good review."
i go by the name of timber and i will talk at length about my head-giving theories, technique and experience as long as my opinions are published on kotaku dot com.Gravijah said:
if you like final fantasy 10, you hate gaming and giving head. do you work for destructoid?John said:
BuddhaRockstar
Member
Gravijah said:
Oh, well I just assumed when the article in the OP cited him as-
That articles written by him would be, you know, well written, blog or not.
Stallion Free said:
Sarcasm isn't easily detected in an interview like this. Just because the site is PC gaming based, doesn't mean he still didn't mean the comment. He states the engine ran poorly on release, said it was nice to see it finally running smoothly upon playing it much later than made the console comment.
What was the last PC game Tom has covered on his site anyway? Seems few and far between these days.
Spirit of Jazz
Banned
Who is Tom Chick? I don't think I like him...
beelzebozo
Jealous Bastard
i imagine in a decade we'll have an article titled, "jeff gerstmann: the man who thought twilight princess was just 'really pretty damn good'"
This guy, 8.8., and 7-9 scales are reasons I hate that reviews give games numbers. If reviewers really want people to discuss why they didn't like a game, don't attach a number.
Edit Reply: This guy wants people to talk about why he didn't like the game. Great. Leave a number off the review then. I hate 8.8 because acting like you can be that precise objectively is silly. Hating 7-9 scales is just part of my hate for lack of consistency of different ratings from different publications (assuming we are stuck with numbers on reviews). This guy may have scored the game using a 1-10 scale, but it's not consistent across the board so it just draws more attention to the score. Movies are consistent with 0-4 star reviews that make it easy to compare trends if you actually have to put a number on it.
Edit Reply: This guy wants people to talk about why he didn't like the game. Great. Leave a number off the review then. I hate 8.8 because acting like you can be that precise objectively is silly. Hating 7-9 scales is just part of my hate for lack of consistency of different ratings from different publications (assuming we are stuck with numbers on reviews). This guy may have scored the game using a 1-10 scale, but it's not consistent across the board so it just draws more attention to the score. Movies are consistent with 0-4 star reviews that make it easy to compare trends if you actually have to put a number on it.
BobsRevenge
I do not avoid women, GAF, but I do deny them my essence.
When you are talking about things being overrated that's kind of an auto-troll.BuddhaRockstar said:
edit: I actually played a game of Demigod with Tom Chick. Kind of cool. I was really into The Office at the time, and I understand that he was in a couple episodes.
beelzebozo
Jealous Bastard
the lester bangs of journalism
jim-jam bongs said:
Wait, wait. So he thinks these games are fun and some of the best games of the year and yet is surprised that other people also thought they were fun and some of the best games of the year, which makes them overhyped and that's a worthwhile topic for a list as article... and this is the defense of his writing as a reviewer? That he is shocked that people find similar things fun?
Really?
IrishNinja
Member
Gravijah said:
yup.
lotta truth in these 2 paragraphs. im with the other guy who was on about Ebert & even when you dont agree with a reviewer of choice, you understand why they dont like something.
Zeliard said:
....but you didn't establish anything about his core point, that being the big difference he saw between PC/console DAO was graphics, and why he found other differences negligible.
BobsRevenge said:
...how, though? this mentality leads to sacred cow status, which does no good towards the problems inherent in 7-9 system.
IrishNinja said:
When you describe admittedly fun games as "overrated" simply because they have flaws, you are not really using language appropriately. I would think most gamers -- having played games and all -- know that there is no such thing as a perfect game. That every 10/10 has some kind of flaw.
If all he wants to do is discuss the flaws or lodge criticism against what he admits are great games, you would think "what's not working in some of the best games of 2008" is a more appropriate and less flame baity title. "Overrated" just screams "this title is here to get clicks." It's lazy and not at all accurate to describe some of the best games in any given year as "overrated" just because other people enjoyed playing them also.
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