Is The Technical Quality of a Review's Writing Important?

[bahn]

Originally posted by Zondaro

I'd like to think that a good editor can hammer any writer into shape.

Ya...especially when you're an editor yourself. Grammar is misspelled.

(sorry, couldn't help it)

Bio: Heh. Don't let MarkRyan see this thread...he'd disagree with you in a heartbeat.

[Zondaro]

GrammAr... I mean, spelling doesn't matter to me anymore. I'm just a writer now. No more crazed GCW staff members. Just lots of red ink from my editor.

Any game can be nit-picked to death. I try to remember that whenever I start a review. All games have good sides... except for the piece of crap known as Turok Evolution. I can't believe it got scores as high as it did. *shakes fist at Acclaim*

[haohmaru]

That Grand Theft Auto review is a painfully long winded summation that could've been accomplished in two pages. Video game and theatrical reviews should never be that long. Hell, reviews on gargantuan novels aren't that long.

I think the writing has to be competent and the reviewer MUST be a gamer first, not a writer first. The rest can follow after a bit of practice.

[Jeremy]

Very true.

[bahn]

Originally posted by Zondaro
GrammAr... I mean, spelling doesn't matter to me anymore. I'm just a writer now. No more crazed GCW staff members. Just lots of red ink from my editor.

<hr>
Ross "Zondaro" Fisher
Editor In Chief
zondaro@gamecubeweekly.com
The founder of GCW and a daily victim of Super Smash Bros Melee beatdowns.
<hr>

Don't look now, but that looks like you're still in charge to me.

As for Turok, rant away: http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/s...threadid=11354

And why don't you care about spelling anymore -- seems like a cop-out and pretty one-sided to be critical of other writer's material when you're not conscious of your own writing quality. Or am I wrong here? Sorry, but that just seems like the wrong thing not to be caring about, being a writer and all...

[Chakan]

Easy, bahn. It's a forum, man.

I don't expect much out of people on a forum. I'm happy with 95% of their posts even being comprehendible. Tons of people head to forums after long days at their respective jobs just to read, relax, and respond. Hell, lots of folks seem to post between orders, on their lunch break, or whenever they just have some free time. You can't expect everyone to devote more than a moment or two to each and every post, especially on a forum with many active discussions to partake in (like TNL, for example).

I know I certainly don't do more than a quick reading of the majority of my posts on any forum once I finish typing them up. Hell, even then, I usually just read it to make sure I got whatever idea I was trying to express across. I don't necessarily check for spelling, etc; though I will correct something if it catches my attention.

I don't mean to specifically mini-rant on you, bahn, but this is something that begins to annoy me more and more every year. This is directed at all of the readers of this post.

I frequently see people insulting other people, who are - most of the time - just as intelligent as the flamer, just because of a word that's misspelled or a sentence that's goofy. More often than not, they were trying to do you a favor by laying out another opinion on something or providing someone with the information they asked for. Like I stated earlier, not everyone has the time (and in some cases, the patience or care) to do that in perfect form every time they post.

[Diff-chan]

Originally posted by haohmaru
That Grand Theft Auto review is a painfully long winded summation that could've been accomplished in two pages. Video game and theatrical reviews should never be that long. Hell, reviews on gargantuan novels aren't that long.

I think the writing has to be competent and the reviewer MUST be a gamer first, not a writer first. The rest can follow after a bit of practice.

I kinda-sorta agree but not really. I dont think that anybody needs to be a gamer first, or a writer first, or a writer second, or whatever. One can easily be both first. A writer that plays games... a gamer that writes...

Ive read far too many horrible, horrible reviews on IGN or professional mags or whatever to lead me to believe that being a gamer isn't necessarilly the most important thing. Being a writer is of equal importance if you ask me. I actually liked NextGen's reviews the most out of any mag or anything. Why? Because they were short as hell but told me whether or not the game was good. For the most part they were also cleverly written and conveyed a lot of info in a *short* short space.

Sure, on the internet, you have no space limit, but since when is that an excuse to make your reviews big, bloated, and full of information that you can get from the manual or from playing the game for 10 minutes?

[Jeremy]

Good point. But, the lack of a space limit also gives the writer a chance to branch out and explore some of the often-unseen parts of the game. Much like most things out there, it's a double-edged sword.

[Viper]

Personally, I feel that grammatical and writing skills are important, but only as important as a reviewer's enthusiasm, intellect and personality are when it comes to their reviewing.

A writer should be able to craft a readable and grammatically correct review, but at the same time, they should be able to inject a good deal of discerning taste, enthusiasm, intelligence and personality into it as well. Technical skill's important (very important, in fact), but it shouldn't be considered the be all and end all of reviewing.

[Jeremy]

I'd rather someone be a gamer first, and a writer second. At least then you know that they know what they're talking about.