L.A. Times on Game Reviewer 'Playola'

madmancarman writes "Celebrity parties, target practice with automatic weapons, and free trips to spend the night in haunted castles are just some 'perks' game reviewers enjoy as described by this article from the L.A. Times. The reviewers say this has no effect on their reviews, but we've all heard politicians say the same thing with respect to their jobs. Maybe Ion Storm should have spent some more money on Daikatana junkets?"

Comments

Game Reviewer Finance Reform!!!!

[lcorc79]

Ok, this is perfect !!!!

See, since they finally passed some sort of campaign finance reform bill, congress just has wayyy too much time on it's hands, and is doing things like the CBDTPA.

Well - all we need to do is get them a bit sidetracked - and this is exactly what will do it! Game Reviewer Finance Reform!

Whohoo! *grin*

Re:Game Testers

[malfunct]

I knew a game tester for a major company personally. His description of game testing is basically this: You play the same 10 seconds of a game 30 million times just to make sure "something wierd" doesn't happen.

Its UI testing of the most henous kind. Its a testers nightmare because reproducability is next to none. To quote my friend "It makes you hate playing games."

On the other hand being a game reviewer would be total rock, you get to play the game a few times and tell the world what you think.

In short the parent post is 100% correct, testing sux, reviewing is much cooler.