Task 5



The Elephants. Salvador Dali

Well, before I wrote the task, I looked into the mirror and I saw a small NGJ (yes it was me! And I’m not crazy) and he talked to me about things I must know.

Reviewing a game: A powerful art

I can say that it is a very old art. The art of writing something; anything! And in that case, the art of reviewing a game, it seems easy but it isn’t. I believe is a piece of art because the artists can express themselves-and I’m talking about the NGJs- they can create a huge success for a game but easily they can “destroy” it. They have the opportunity to “believe” and support games, and they are doing it with passion, pleasure, as well as to enjoy themselves. Because is a way of living and not a way to live.

The Middlemen

Because of their characteristic to unite the two sides/games and gamers/ in many ways, they have a lot of power, but not always the essential time to use that power as they should. But in the case that they are running out of time, they should compromise as they are only humans and not machines. Because the games and the game developers need good publicity, and so they need the experts for that, them! They are the people that the gamers trust. Of course they have the opportunity to write attractive reviews for a game as well as negative reviews; also in some they can drift the readers just like they can drift themselves. Finally, without the NGJ, gamers and game developers cannot communicate, at least not effectively.

Deceit them!

Give them a nice reason to lose their time. You don’t have one? Then fix one. They are not asking from you to be the best, they only ask from you the basics. But there is a small different between the “basics” they mean, with the “basics” you probably understand! And is not very difficult to find out that basics from the press; the only thing you have to is to read some NGJ articles (and we all know who they are, and if we don’t, them we must recognize them from the way they are writing).
So, first you must read that articles, and then sent a copy of your work. They don’t have much time, so you have to do the “read-see the copy” easy, fast, interesting and creative.

Reflect your work

See you work. And “review” it for them. Try to be concise and clever and you must be objective with your work but not boring. Try to create the curiosity in their eyes/with words or images/and sent them your work. Now you have to realise the nature of NGJ, the chances for your game to be reviewed, famous or unknown are equal. You can avoid the review (bad or good) and be placed in the top 100 games of the internet (but that will not approach the truth) or hold you breath and give your work to the experts. Not all the times numbers are saying the truth, so some rating lists are not the correct place for your work, and definitely they can help you to sold you game for that try to have your work reviewed from an expert(NGJ) and then your game will appear into the experts lists.(but some good reviews are far more good from any kind of list).

Realisation

You have to know what will happen to you. Probably you will be like a NGJ; to be more specific you will be a NGD (“New Generation Developer” with whatever that means) for game industry. Just like the NGJ you will have an “ok” salary, from you main job/for example the NGJ main job is the game magazines, and they maybe have some other activities for which they manage to combine fun with a small amount of money/ with a lot hours of work. But you are going to feel much better from others because you are going to do what you want to do with your life. Enjoy your work.

“So, now I know some thinks.” I said.I looked the mirror again, I watched carefully my self and….I’ve to go to sleep…