Reviewing in a Vacuum
Alex says: "Reviewers have a tendency to make comparisons with other examples of a medium. There are many reasons for this practice, but for newcomers to a medium it remains exclusionary. Whether the author is using it as lazy shorthand to aid understanding or from a desire to laud an expansive knowledge over the audience, the reader must be informed about the point of reference for it to be of any use.
This use of references is as common a practice in the gaming press as any other, perhaps more so thanks to the era the industry has grown up in allowing for such a rapid dissemination of products and opinion. Audiences are, for the most part, indoctrinated into the culture; aware through blogs and news sites of every major release they have even a passing interest in. Issues only arise when new people try to enter this impenetrable, elitist culture. A Zelda clone, or even a more generic term such ‘platformer’, must surely prove a near impossible barrier to entry for most newcomers."
