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Koko Ricky

Everyone's a reviewer these days

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Thanks to the mass accessibility of YouTube and the ease with which one can run their own website, a number of everyday people have found themselves doing video reviews for books, movies, games and other media. Video reviews can be interesting because hearing the person's voice, seeing their gestures and throwing in clips of the media being reviewed can be just as engaging, if not more so, than a written review.

Unfortunately, this means that a lot of awkward, immature, inarticulate, unfunny, uninformed, asocial and frankly low-intellect individuals have flooded the video review culture, and as a result very few are worth watching. Are there any that spring to mind that you enjoy?

The only immediate example I can think of is the Nostalgia Critic. He's not the most clever or biting reviewer, but he clearly knows his stuff and tends to pick very amusing movies to review, like the animated European "Titanic" cartoon, or that creepy movie about young boys seeking out a prostitute, "Milk Money." It's a shame that nearly everyone else on that website seems to be very nearly braindead, as I can't sit through their corn and cheese.

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GoatLord said:

Unfortunately, this means that a lot of awkward, immature, inarticulate, unfunny, uninformed, asocial and frankly low-intellect individuals have flooded the video review culture, and as a result very few are worth watching. Are there any that spring to mind that you enjoy?


/newstuff

I know what you're getting at though. Especially on youtube, my girlfriend wanted to show me that new Rihanna song for some reason, and when we looked up "Rihanna love in a hopeless place" the actual video for the song was on the third page, while the first two pages were people posting their thoughts, reactions, and opinions about the song. Does anybody care about that kinda stuff?

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Not necessarily reviews, but totalhalibut does some good first impressions of games. They usually ignore the later parts of the game though, so some games could get better or worse.

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Zero Punctuation is neat. Also, Ashens's "reviews" are always entertaining as hell. :P

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Most "reviews" are just shortened versions of a film with third party commentary. If you watch most reviews on ThatGuywiththeGlasees, you're essentially watching the full synopsis of the film with the best parts/worst parts highlighted. I can see why some studios are starting to take issue with people making commendable commerce on their films.

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This topic reminds me of this horrible thread I found on the Steam forums last night:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2403726

Prepare your rage face.

ArmouredBlood said:

Not necessarily reviews, but totalhalibut does some good first impressions of games. They usually ignore the later parts of the game though, so some games could get better or worse.

Yeah, I bought plenty of games thanks to his first impressions. These videos are pretty much a public service to the indie community, since its mostly indie games he plays on them.

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Technician said:

Most "reviews" are just shortened versions of a film with third party commentary. If you watch most reviews on ThatGuywiththeGlasees, you're essentially watching the full synopsis of the film with the best parts/worst parts highlighted. I can see why some studios are starting to take issue with people making commendable commerce on their films.


Nobody has ever been able to pull that off successfully. :P

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Technician said:

Riffs aren't really reviews, but most of the videos titled as them aren't either.


Yeah, fair enough. To be honest, I don't really look at anything other than Nostalgia Critic on his site, so I may have a fairly subjective view of the whole thing.

Also, that thread was the most hilarious thing ever after a day of BoI. (Which I still haven't beaten)

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I go by the general rule that people who can't express their opinions eloquently with words probably aren't worth listening to, or to put it another way, I don't watch video reviews.

Every now and then, I might miss someone who uses the format well to do something plain text just couldn't convey, but as you say yourself, the vast majority is garbage ; so I save time and use the saved time to read and reply to your topics on Doomworld. Aren't you happy?

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I don't care if people what to review everything and posts those to youtube. It give those people something to do instead of annoy me.

I like reading really bad reviews but bad video-reviews are just painful to watch.

Now off to eat a whale ton of food.

From the steam thread
"I review games on Youtube, I know what I'm talking about when I say this is a bad game."

Posting on youtube make you an instant expert (reason to avoid 50% of youtube).

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I like reading Christian reviews. Even the idea is entertaining.

I don't care about most reviews, professional work included. I usually get a sense of how well I'll like a game by having a look at the game.

I watch Zero Punctuation sometimes because it's funny.

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ArmouredBlood said:

totalhalibut

Xaser said:

Zero Punctuation

eargosedown said:

Plinkett

None of these are in quite the same category as the kind of video reviews GoatLord is talking about. Whether any of the people involved with the making of any of these reviews have any formal qualifications under their belt, I don't know, but they're of a professional quality where all of them at least have a sense of wit, whether you find them funny or not. And you'll never hear any of them say things like "I know what I'm talking about" non-sarcastically.

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"I wwebsite as on the internet"
"I review games on youtube, I know what I'm talking about"

This week has been awesome for internet spectators.

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GoatLord said:

Unfortunately, this means that a lot of awkward, immature, inarticulate, unfunny, uninformed, asocial and frankly low-intellect individuals have flooded the video review culture, and as a result very few are worth watching.


But are they any better than the "Is X Metal?" subculture?

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On a related topic, I think the /idgames ratings & comments are almost entirely worthless. Maybe the quality would improve if there was a forum username associated with each comment. In fact, it would be better if each PWAD had its own thread in a "review" forum, so that actual discussion can take place. The way it's setup now, I can't take it seriously, and I'm surprised anybody gives it any credence whatsoever.

For bonus points: link each PWAD to its /newstuff review page.

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I don't think anyone ever downloads wads based on the idgames reviews anyway. Its usually just because of word of mouth or because they were on /newstuff.

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I don't think anyone ever downloads wads based on the idgames reviews anyway.


I do. Why not? The way people argue their point, for or against, is often enough to tell how relevant their opinion is.

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Belial said:

That's funny, everyone's defending it by calling it a rogue-like. I'd say the game is meh because it lacks variety and calling it a rogue-like is really stretching it.

Indeed; it has some vague concepts of rogue-likes, especially regarding the randomly generated dungeons and lack of life after death, but beyond that it doesn't really resemble them. It would be equivalent of calling Doom MegaMan-like because the extra weapon pick ups make you more powerful.

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hex11 said:

In fact, it would be better if each PWAD had its own thread in a "review" forum, so that actual discussion can take place.



Sounds like a moderator's nightmare ;-)

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Maes said:

But are they any better than the "Is X Metal?" subculture?


I've been on/off metal forums for years, have watched countless metal videos (as well as read far too many of the comments), and have had detailed conversations with metal fans. The only time I encounter people debating what is/isn't metal is the occasional forum thread where people are trying to make an objective claim about drawing the line between hard rock and mainstream styles like nu metal. I don't think "occasional forum threads" are enough to call it a "subculture."

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Yee-haw Web 2.0. A couple friends and I have a small blog for posting our art, reviews, and short stories. It's only been around since, like, September and even that gets around 300 views a month. I remember when I had a Geocities website and it had maybe 600 hits in its entire five year lifespan. I don't do much with my YouTube account, but it's good to know that if I really wanted to, I can shoot a short film and publish it for free.

When it comes to reviews, I don't really watch/read anyone. I like AVGN and Yahtzee, but what they do isn't really relevant to what I like and buy.

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