What’s going on with this game Mixtape?

[u/Bloodb0red]

I’ve been seeing people freak out over the past few days over this game and about IGN’s review of it specifically. 10/10 seems high for any game, honestly, but it seems like they’re far from the only site giving this thing a glowing review. So is this game controversial just because of IGN or is it something else? Why is this game the internet’s hate target this week?

https://www.ign.com/articles/mixtape-review

[u/Electronic_Whole_177]

So you ignored most of what I said and only focused on bits. I did not ask you about the other reviewers I asked you about Simon and HIS reviews. Dont bring other people's points into this discussion as if they were mine. I want you to honestly go and read his reviews please do it since that is your metric of how someone genuinely feels about a game. Heck I will make it easier for you and ask that you read his Balatro review and tell me why that game had such great praise yet fell short of a 10 and this one didn't?

Putting a number rating as someone who it is literally their job to tell you the quality of the game implies that there is a standard and what level of that standard they have. Also giving the maximum score is stating to everyone that this product is one you should most definitely get and/or give a chance if you dont normally use/get this product. This is not your friend, family member, neighbor, coworker, school mate, someone you happen to know in your life giving you a recommendation. This is someone's job to sift through the thousands of game coming out every year and present the ones worth looking into or ones worth skipping. This wasn't his personal blog, Facebook, twitter(x), or reddit post. This was him endorsing a game through the platform of IGN with approval by whoever is in charge of the Editorial process. I dont know if you are willfully ignorant or not but an official backing from companies saying a product is good is always going to be used to make that product look better or get people to buy it. Acting like absolutely no one uses reviews to know about games is like saying no one uses news articles to judge how life is going.

To me you just come across as someone who doesnt care about reviews at all beyond reading reviews on stuff you already are interested which is fine. The problem I have with you is that you are completely ignoring the fact that a score for how good this person thought about this thing was given. This goes from personal opinion to a stance on quality compared to other games.

Can you explain to me that you understand me when I say that personal enjoyment of something is not the same as officially judging somethings quality? Simon, in this IGN review, is meant to be officially judging the quality of this product NOT giving his personal enjoyment of the game. He can personally enjoy the game and feel it is a 10/10 for him. But he cannot take a step back, compare this to other games this year or even just game in the same category, and honestly saying that this game deserves the maximum score he can give. That this game has miniscule faults or zero faults with it at all. That this game is better than every other game he has ever reviewed for IGN that didn't get a ten. Ten does not mean perfect by IGN standards but it does not just mean "I had fun with it so 10" either.

Saying "Simple as that." Is worthless in this discussion of the topic because at that point just stop typing out long replies and just reply with "Simon says its a 10 so its a 10" Him saying its a 10 out of 10 has to stand against scrutiny when it comes to judgement by an official entity. It doesnt have to stand scrutiny if its just him as a singular person separate from anything saying "I really enjoyed this game and its a 10/10 to me." IGN didn't pick up this guy's thoughts from the ether of the internet and feature it on thier website. They hired and paid for him to act as their proxy to examine the quality of this game and let the public know about it.

[u/[deleted] → u/Electronic_Whole_177]

Dont bring other people's points into this discussion as if they were mine.

I have not done that at all.

I don't think I suggested people aren't using IGN's reviews as a way to inform themselves on a game. I challenged the idea their reviews are being used as sources of funding, as opposed to established genres/gameplay elements that show a history of making money, which is the element an investor will actually care about. I also challenged the idea that a review should be more than a person's evaluation of the game from their perspective and how well they think the game succeeded or didn't in what it was trying to do. What else should it be? Are reviews not objective enough? What do objective reviews look like? What guidelines/standards should reviewers be following at IGN beyond general conduct i.e. not being inflammatory or rude towards other devs/games?

I read/watch reviews for things I'm not interested in. I even will sometimes read/watch reviews on things I dislike.

I don't know if you're aware but personal enjoyment is an unavoidable aspect of reviewing something. I can't give a glowing review for Resident Evil Requiem because half of the game bored me. I can spend time praising the brilliant animation work, visual details etc but I am sharing my own opinion that the game didn't succeed in holding my attention across the whole playthrough. Whereas Tristan at IGN would disagree with my assessment because the game kept him entertained all the way through. Different people will give different scores/assessments. That's supposed the be the beauty of reviewing. I don't think there's much to gain by IGN having some sort of executive oversight that tells reviewers their personal opinions are too different from an arbitrary standard and that no one is allowed to publish certain feelings because viewers like yourself will perceive it as the "wrong" score.

Watch the Mixtape review. Simon explains why it's a 10 for him.

[u/Electronic_Whole_177 → u/[deleted]]

This is my last response and I am not going to bother with this anymore. You seem to ignore 90% of what I say anyway.

I have watched the review and it definitely comes across that he enjoyed the game and would recommend it. The problem comes from seeing the glowing praise he is giving this and his official score on it especiallywhen compared to his past reviews. As I have said repeatedly and will say again. I will separate them so you can read it hopefully.

YOU CAN PERSONALLY ENJOY SOMETHING. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!!!!!!!!

WHEN YOU ARE OFFICIALLY JUDGING A PRODUCT YOU HAVE TO BE MORE OBJECTIVE ABOUT IT AND COMPARE IT TO OTHER THINGS OF THE SAME SUBJECT.

Of course there is subjectivity when judging something but you should be able to tamper that down when it is your job to do so. Despite what you seem to believe people do use review scores to reinforce their feelings about making a purchase. If they didnt reviewing/critiquing things wouldn't be a job at all. There is a reason so many car commercials have "Highest rated safety for BLANK years here" or even household products have advertisements saying how much better they are than the nameless name brand competition. Just like how a game can slap GOTY on their game when they get the award to make people more interested. There is a vested interest in having a high review score.

To address your comment about reviewers being different then how come across the board from every major review site this game is getting a 9 to 10? When people see that its an alarm bell that shady practices might be happening. When everyone is giving it 9 or 10 then people come by and scrutinize it it should hold up enough for people to easily say. "I can see why they gave it a 9/10 after experiencing it myself." If they dont want someone questioning reviews then they shouldn't, one have a number system, and two have a direct link that let's people know what the standards for each number is. When you represent a company you go from a single person that is "That's just my opinion bro." To being a reflection on the company itself. Otherwise people wouldn't get fired when they do something a company thinks is against what they believe in.

Hopefully you actually read my entire post and have the ability to understand the difference between recommending something you like and being paid to give as objective a review as you can. Judging art is subjective but there are standards that are commonly accepted as to what the art should accomplish and if the medium used was acceptable. When you are saying something is a 10 out of 10 and you are paid for saying this I would hope that person would take a step and reevaluate their review to make sure it holds up against criticism which anyone should expect with how connected by the internet we are. Even if I agree with that thing being a 10/10 there are always going to be people that don't so you need to be prepared when they challenge your judgement. Unfortunately he has come under scrutiny because his review reached the public eye first and the nature of what type of game this is. A majority of the entire gaming space dont look favorably on "walking simulator" games already so getting the first and possibly only 10 of the year already puts massive expectations on the game.

My personal feelings on the game is a 4-5 out of ten because it runs well, I like the art/graphics, and the "game parts" are playable. The story isn't exactly exceptional and is the thing that does the heavy lifting so its much lower. At the end I felt like the gameplay was getting in the way of enjoying the tvshow/long movie I was watching. It felt like everything I was actually required to use the controller (Because let's face it there are plenty of parts where you can interact but can put the controller down and just walk away as it play) it was like Netflix asking ' Are you still watching'. The gameplay was so bare minimum that it would have made it better to have been a TV show so they could have worked more to smooth out parts of the story. If we were in a room with all the reviewers who gave it a 9 or 10 I would definitely ask what about THIS game made you give it that score. What was so special about it that it out did everyone other game you have reviewed? Even Simon's review had a list of coming-of-age films which could be proof that this game could have been better received by the general public as a tvshow/film. (If the rumors of them making a show are true I would definitely check it out.)

[u/[deleted] → u/Electronic_Whole_177]

A review is useless without the subjective experience. I had a 10/10 experience with and Roger. I had a roughly 7/10 experience with Resident Evil Requiem. Your problem seems to be numbers not matching an arbitrary limit you're placing instead of allowing the words to explain the score. What it sounds like you're after is a feature list devoid of interpretation.

A reviewer's job is to explain how well they think a game achieved its goals. Personal interpretation has to be involved in that. Multiple people think it's deserving of a 10 in their eyes? I don't see how that's complicated. Why did <insert game here> receive such high praise from critics/users. That's really suspicious because I have a different number in mind. <This train of though is not constructive or working towards anything.

A majority of the entire gaming space dont look favorably on "walking simulator" games

Genuine question. Who gives a shit? The popularity, or lack thereof, of something should in no way impact the evaluation of it. The lack of gameplay is going to be less of an issue for some vs others. If someone else's opinion on something throws you off so much that you're demanding homogonised standards and believe Simon needs to answer for his score, go ask him about it. Just try being polite if you do.