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[PoV]

Derek, Graham, Russell.  Apparently we're all so very bad at this game journalism thang, that a team got together a wrote a book to tell us what we're all doing wrong.   

http://www.gamestyleguide.com/

Actually to be honest, it's not a bad read thus far.  Thoughts?

[DrDerekDoctors]

I am perfect at reviewing and will hear none of this nonsense!

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

In Soviet Russia, games review YOU!!

[Guert]

I like the idea of a guide for journalism. I read the introduction and it looks very interesting.
I'm actually thinking of purchasing this. It's always good to know how to write about your favorite topics. 

Thanks for the link!

[Anthony Flack]

I guess that a style guide is a useful thing to have made, but if you really want to raise the quality of games journalism in general, I think the important things to address are:

Know your history
Play the games properly
Show some personality
Talk about your honest reaction to the game - did you REALLY enjoy it?
Put a few jokes in there
Don't be a shill for your advertisers

If you do all of that, then you can write xBO-x for all I care.

[Robotacon]

It might be a good read but I'm a little confused about what people think is game journalism.

Reviewing games is one thing ie expressing your own opinion and that shouldn't be a journalists first obligation. I wish there were more real game journalist that were reporting on actual game reated news.

Game reviews are best written by actual gamers that know how to write well and that don't exaggerate what they are feeling about a game.

If you want to be a great journalist learn something about journalism in general.

I used to work for www.goodgame.se that had two great journalists on the staff and a bunch of testgroups of various ages that did the actual testing. The journalists were in charge of helping the test groups write the reviews but did not try and change their view of a game. I think that's how they still operate even though they're now going into e-sports.

[PoV]

Anthony and robotacon, you basically summarized what book says. 

The book also seems to be mostly a glossary of terms and history defined exactly they should be, with a few better writing articles mixed in.

[DrDerekDoctors]

I guess that a style guide is a useful thing to have made, but if you really want to raise the quality of games journalism in general, I think the important things to address are:

Know your history
Play the games properly
Show some personality
Talk about your honest reaction to the game - did you REALLY enjoy it?
Put a few jokes in there
Don't be a shill for your advertisers

If you do all of that, then you can write xBO-x for all I care.

Shit, it was all going so well until that last point...

[Ryan]

I wanna read this book but all I can concentrate on is Scott Steinberg's head.

[Musenik]

The issue that worries me is, there are so many types of games, and so many types of game players, how does a journalist convince a reader to respect his observations?

The same can be said for movies. I shopped around until I found reviewers who seemed to mimic my tastes. I'm not sure how to do that with game reviewers. They aren't the 'personalities' movie reviewers are. Rotten Tomatoes aggregates movie reviews by author. They aggregate game reviews by publication, like every other game review aggregator.

In general, game reviewers tend to be young, and tend to enjoy more action in their games, and they like challenging games because they're powerful gamers. I'm older and have abandoned most action games. Some of that has changed with the Wii. But I digress.

Today, when I read game reviews, I feel like a stranger in an industry I've worked in for nearly twenty years.

[PoV]

If reviews are considered important in picking and choosing game process, I'm convinced the best "reviews" aren't reviews at all.  It's a well constructed gameplay trailer.  From that I should be able to understand the core gameplay, and find merits to peak my interest.

Like most developers, I'm not a normal gamer.  I've learned that I really can't trust a "gamer's" opinion.  I cat take hints, games to check out, but digging through somebody else's analysis is a waste of my time.  Gimme a minute long video, and we can go from there.