Reviewing Games

1
Reviewing Games

• Andrew Williams
• A.Williams_at_bolton.ac.uk
• 01204-903839

2
The Usual Rules

• Turn up on time to your classes
• Switch off your mobile phones
• Dont eat anything in the labs
• Dont drink anything in the labs
• Take care of our nice facilities!
• Do not miss classes
• Check my web page regularly
• http//www.bolton.ac.uk/staff/adw1

3
Timing

• Lecture on Monday in this slot
• Open access to the labs on Thursday from 1300
  until 1700 in C1-08
• This session is for all of your GAD studies
• Add this session to your timetable NOW
• Critique session (attendance required) on Friday
  from 1300 until 1500 in C1-08

4
Work Regime

• You will need to do at least 6 hours per week on
  this module alone in order to pass
• Approximately 100 hours of effort before the end
  of January
• This is half of what you need to do for a normal
  module
• Because Games Reviewing is 10 credits

5
Assessment

• Assessment is 100 coursework
• You will produce a number of things for me and
  place them on your blog
• You will be assessed on the content plus the
  presentation
• Spelling
• Punctuation
• Clarity of expression

6
Assessment

• You will also be assessed on two other aspects of
  your work
• The regularity of it
• The extent to which you are able to critique your
  work and the work of others
• Plagiarism
• Do not copy anyone elses work

7
Resources

• Magazines for reviews and styles of reviews
• Edge
• PlayStation, Xbox, GameCube magazines
• Basically, any magazine that reviews games
• Newspapers
• The Guardian has a regular games review section
  on Thursdays

8
Resources

• Books
• Eats, shoots leaves the zero tolerance
  approach to punctuation by Lynne Truss (6.99 at
  Amazon)
• Web
• There are hundreds of sites which review games
• www.ign.com
• www.gamespot.com
• etc

9
Why Reviewing Games?

• We got asked this during the Validation for Games
  Design
• Many young people simply cannot write English
  properly
• Reviewing games is a good way practise!
• Games journalism must be a cool career!?

10
What will you be able to do?

• You will be better at writing in English
• You will be able to write clear and interesting
  reviews of games, bearing in mind the target
  audience
• You will be able to critique the writing of other
  reviewers of games
• You will have a body of your own writing

11
New Games Journalism

• There is a lot of talk on the internet about the
  New Games Journalism
• Have you come across this phrase before?
• What does it mean to you?
• Is it something you enjoy?
• Is it a useful concept?