Bob Colayco Associate Editor	Now Playing: Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (PC), Rise of Nations (PC), Golden Sun (GBA), Advance Wars 2 (GBA), Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (PC) Eagerly Awaiting: World of Warcraft (PC), Half-Life 2 (PC), Doom 3 (PC), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (PS2), the end of the baseball season and the start of football season

Why Read It If You've Already Made Up Your Mind?

I've come to the conclusion that people who read game reviews come from one of two primary camps: those who are looking to learn more about a game before buying it, and those who are seeking justification for their own opinion about a game. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes I fall into the latter category. I'll go around and read several reviews of a game I particularly liked or disliked just to see what other people thought of it. Perhaps there was a specific aspect of a game I didn't explore thoroughly or another style of play that might have given me a different impression. Once in a while I run into a review that I disagree with entirely, but I'm content to let bygones be bygones and leave it alone. I doubt that any critic, be it a food critic, a movie critic, a book critic, or a game critic, has ever had his or her opinion swayed by a ranting letter to the editor, so I've never wasted my time.

If you love this game, don't let anyone convince you to stop playing it.

What I don't understand is why people who find that our opinions don't mesh with their own feel the need to spout off hostilities, insults, and false accusations in our message boards and reader review sections. Your opinion is still your own, and nothing we say should change that. If you really liked Gods and Generals, then go on and enjoy the Civil War between the clones. Don't let us or anyone else tell you differently. Write a reader review and tell the whole world how much you love the game and why. But for goodness' sake, if you're just there to rant and rave, then please, save it. Here are some of my "favorite" rants from angry readers:

"Your review was bought off by [insert company here]."
If only I had a nickel for every time I heard this rant. GameSpot's been in business for nearly seven years now. You don't stick around that long by compromising your integrity and the trust of your readers. I've been writing about games for about five years now, and I've yet to come across a publisher or developer who has offered or even insinuated such a thing to me or to anyone else. If you really believe payoffs happen, then you should put that tinfoil hat back on your head, because the government can read your mind! Hey, are those black helicopters I hear hovering outside?

No one's ever solicited me for a payoff.

"You are biased against [insert platform here]!"
We're a multiplatform site. We cover everything from the PC to the Game Boy to new consoles like the Xbox, the GameCube, and the PlayStation 2, and each of the editors plays and reviews games across multiple platforms. Yet somehow we're more biased than publications that cover only one platform? I'm still trying to figure this one out.

"I'm disappointed in you, GameSpot! I wanted that review score to be higher!"
Yes, it actually happens. Some people think it's somehow our fault that a highly anticipated game turned out to be less than stellar. Do you yell at the newspaper when you open the sports page and find out that your favorite team lost? No? So why are you yelling at us when a game doesn't turn out as you hoped it would? Go talk to the developers and tell them to put out a better product. We're just the messenger.

"The reviewer obviously hates [insert genre here] games. That's why he gave this game a bad score."
Reviews aren't assigned randomly around here. They're always given to an author who has plenty of background and experience in the genre and subject of the game. For example, Alex Navarro has autographed pictures of Roddy Piper and other wrestlers. He even talks to them. As a wrestling fan, he's obviously our man for wrestling games like Def Jam Vendetta.

So if you're looking for an explanation as to why our opinion of a game differs from yours, it's probably because...our opinion differs from yours. It's not a mystery, really. Believe it or not, we may not agree with you on every game. We may not even share the prevailing view on a given game, and we don't promise to do so. We do promise to be honest, and you'll find that all our reviews offer solid reasons and examples to back up our views.