companyman wrote:
Oh, how did we decide what games to buy before the internet?
It went one of three ways:
1. Walk into newsagents or (if parents were feeling tolerant) into the Computer Game Shop.
Be hooked by the cover art.
Read the blurb on the back that promised my visual cortex would be melted with the sheer excitement involved in playing this ground breaking piece of entertainment- nay, art....Ignore that the blurry thumb-nail sized screenshots seem to indicate something rather more humble.
Buy.
50/50 if the game sucked or rocked.
2. Read the foaming, near-rabid and not-at-all-corporate-sponsored review in CVG magazine or Gamesmaster (with Sir Patrick Moore no less!)
Spend X months prior to birthday/christmas bugging the crap out of my parents
Game bought for me.
50/50 if the game sucked or rocked.
3. (in later years). Wander into gamestore prior to visiting the pub.
Repeat the basic steps in 1.
50/50 if the game sucked or rocked.
Basically- as now- there's a good chance you'll enjoy a game.
There's also a good chance you'll not enjoy a game.
What I tend to avoid by simply not reading the blogs/forums is the steady drip-feed of content/hype over a period of months- I believe that this pre-prep of the consumer based detracts from the enjoyment of gaming, and simply reinforces these entrenched attitudes that are best described as "LOL- Itz not COD/BF3 so suxxor!".
There was SO much hype about Mass Effect 1/2/3.
I played MS1 for a couple of hours and found the experience to be not to my tastes (heresy, I know). So I sold it on.
I traded the Need For Speed WhateverItWas that came with my Xbox after 3 plays for the same reason- the guy in Game looked at me like I'd had a bang on the head when I handed it to him because it was 'Best gaym EVA!" or something.
My tuppenorth