Destiny - Don't defend it like it is your child, the reviews are not wrong...but neither are you.

I decided to type up this blog tonight reflecting on the recent Destiny reviews and the user reaction on N4G regarding said reviews. It has sparked a great divide and controversy within the community of N4G and has worryingly led to some outright delusional viewpoints and comments.

The rallied defence for Destiny really does show how loyal a fanbase it already has and having only been out for a matter of a few days it is remarkable to see consumers turn around and lambaste review sites.

I have seen a lot of average - good scores for Destiny and I am going to leave my personal opinion out of this blog for good reason. It seems to as though people are stoutly defending their purchases when they purposely click on a review for the purpose of defending the title or are trying to evoke a sense that the given opinion is wrong.

It is truly amazing to witness people make comments like "This game is nowhere near a 6, it is 8/10!" and "Score the most marketed game of the year low, this is clickbait!" It is worrying when people cannot accept other opinions, I am a victim of this on N4G were sharing your opinion which is strongly against something is regarded as "trolling." This frightening behaviour really has to end and gamers really need to get a grip of themselves.

Essentially people do not like being told or feeling like their money has been wasted or spent wrongly, frankly it amazes me that people even begin to feel like this over a mere opinion in the first place. Like it or not a review is just an opinion, it is why they there is a variation and no if there are consistencies it is NOT a bandwagon, that is just your defensive side kicking in.

You should not view this as a bandwagon to "hate" on Destiny, you should view this as finally some honest reviewing and critique being done for a hyped up triple A game release. We all know if this released last gen it would have received disingenuous 9/10s across the board. It is a good thing the gaming press is being more critical NOT a bad thing.

Consumers should not let review scores affect them if they personally enjoy something, I go to see films all the time irrespective of reviews or scores if I like the look of it and I have been pleasantly surprised some of the time and the same is true for games.

But it is wrong to attack publications for not sharing your view, it is akin to claiming an opinion is wrong and it is downright delusional behaviour.

Next time you see a 6/10 Destiny review just keep on scrolling and ignore it; Activision does not need cheerleaders and nor does a game that recouped its Development costs of 500 million within 24 hours. Save that for smaller games you enjoy, they need the support, not big AAA titles.

The review scores highlight another interesting point as does the debacle over the scores, 6/10 or 3/5 is NOT and I repeat this again for those less willing to listen; NOT a bad score.

People are not understanding the full spectrum of the score and a 6/10 is an above average - good game! The maelstrom and torrent of abuse for what really is a good score is completely unwarranted and the more people that come to understand 1 through to 10 is not 5 through to 10 then we will already have a better world.

If you enjoy Destiny more power to you and ask yourself if you are having fun, enjoying the game, looking forward to the raid updates then does it really matter all that much what other opinions say or think? No it really does not!

So in hindsight stop defending Destiny like it was your child! and learn to be comfortable with your own opinion and I promise; I 100% guaran-damn-tee you if you start looking objectively at review scores you will enjoy the games you enjoy that much more!

Thank you for taking the time to read my first, poorly written blog.

[NewMonday]

also don't hate it like it killed your dog

it's a fact most sites rely on click bait to get hits and the bigger sites also live on big add deals and special previews that gives them content and Destiny went over their heads so they will strike back at it

and the biggest culprits are the websites with the rap sheets, Polygon are bankrolled by MS and the same reviewer gave Titanfall a 9 when the game had the same issues he complained about himself. and Gamespot infamously fired someone for giving bad scores to a game that had a publisher that bought big adds.

a group of websites have cross affiliation and share co-sponsorship deals with big publishers, the deals depend on a steady stream of big add money, if a game doesn't pay it due it will be ganged up on by these affiliated websites, it's a racket.

these websites are also connected to metacritic and they get score multiplier to give them a bigger effect on the aggregate score.

[Ducky]

Destiny is a $500m franchise with Activision as a publisher. If review scores could be bought, then Destiny would've been scored 10's across the board.
Yet it didn't.

Funnily enough, weren't you the guy who was in almost every titanfall article spewing negativity? Guess you had a change of heart.

[MrPink2013]

I wish we could collectively act like gamers with no bias at all where the games are the focus. Not the publishers, not the hardware supplier and none of this I need to choose sides because of such and such a reason therfore my opinion is going to be skewed when talking about this game.

Destiny is being linked with Sony while Titanfall is in relation with Microsoft. Even though Destiny is on non Sony platforms. This is why so many are defending Destiny and I imagine why some defended Titanfall. Needless to say many sites have given Destiny low reviews and it had nothing to do with some fanboy conspiracy theories.

[Godmars290]

You're in a blog that asks not to treat an opinion different than yours, possibly negative towards something you like, as trolling, and here you are sidelong accusing a comment of trolling. Regardless that its not about this actual subject.

We learn nothing.

[NewMonday]

unlike shotgun haters my opinion of Titanfall was in particular aspects that I said would turn off a segment of gamers never said it was a bad game, same thing for Destiny and the story aspect.

and the issue here is the corrupt media and it's the very same particular websites over and over again, if this is how they act all the time then great, but they will sell scores again.

and notice how everyone is ignoring the facts about them and metacritic and Polygone with MS and the Gamespot score selling and the controversies of #GamerGate

[MrPink2013]

Does Giant Bomb also support your conspiracy theories? The same site that gave The Last Of Us a perfect 10?

Give it up, no matter how much you despise Microsoft, which is very evident in your comment history, they don't control Metacritic reviews. Ever stop to think for a moment that not everyone likes the game? If you enjoy the game that's great but don't sell us your bs because you've got personal issues with Microsoft. This blog seems to highlight people like yourself.

[FriedGoat]

I wasn't looking for the story or single player aspect of this game. I've levelled to 20 through the crucible, and it's the most fun I've had in a PVP Console FPS multiplayer since Halo 3.

The shooting mechanics are the most solid I have seen in quite some time, and it's really made me reconsider getting the Master chief collection as H3 is going to feel REALLY dated now.

That's all I wanted, not really bothered about the other stuff.

[NewMonday]

@MrPink2013

GiantBomb give low scores more often than others, they actually use the whole scale and don't have double standards.

and it looks like you are fine with Polygon and Gamspot practices, why defend them and sidestep the issue?

gamers need to start making their own judgement and stop blindly following the media, if you want to be a follower that's your thing.

[gangsta_red]

C'mon, when we have actual players on this site who have said the game is lackluster, even before hand when we had a good number of people on this site who did not like the beta how can you still sit there and try and defend this game? Are we still to believe the reviews are biased when we have actual gamers who have said the same thing.

And of course we have the tried and true tin foil hat conspiracy theories that MS paid off websites and that these reviews are bias because god knows why. It's the same shill over and over again. And why ... for this game which is a multiplat game for every current console?

And speaking of who not to trust...

Like a certain person who went out of their way to say Titanfall was overhyped before the game was even released. Posted everywhere that the beta was lackluster and the 6v6 pvp was underwhelming and the bots killed the whole game.

How can one sit there and say reviews are paid off and such, when the very person giving us this supposed info has his own one sided views and opinions. I also can't help but think that this person and certain others are defending this MULTIPLAT game because Sony poured much more money and resources trying to make this game look like it was the definitive version on their system.

[SuperLupe]

Gaming site reviews = poor scores

User reviews = poor scores

Before the hype got out of hand a couple of months ago = genuine questions from people as to what makes Destiny special ... Besides Activision and Bungies PR, nothing.

For some reason though you have this "group" of people who wont admit that the game is simply average
Enjoyable to you ? Ok but the general consensus is that the game is average, not horrible but far from being spectacular.

I have a feeling that if it wasnt asscociated with the PS4 since the very beggining and treated by some fanboys as PS4 exclusive, we wouldnt be seeing such hardcore defense from this "group" of people.

[Einhert]

You completely missed the point.

My point was that there is a group of people who cannot enjoy a game simply on its own merit without having to use a review as a yard stick to make them feel comfortable with their own enjoyment.

[SuperLupe]

Dont worry, I got your msg clearly. It was actually a response to NewMonday.

[MysticStrummer]

"Gaming site reviews = poor scores

User reviews = poor scores"

Except… that's not true.

"I have a feeling that if it wasnt asscociated with the PS4 since the very beggining and treated by some fanboys as PS4 exclusive, we wouldnt be seeing such hardcore defense from this "group" of people."

I have a feeling that if it wasn't associated with PS4 we wouldn't be seeing so many people trying to convince others that an average over 7 is "poor" or "garbage".

[nX]

If you call this game average then I'm interested in hearing your opinion about the last CoD, Battlefield, Halo & Killzone release and even more Titanfall.

[jts1891]

The user scores are actually high, once you adjust for all the trolls who gave the game 0's as soon as they could post their 'reviews' on sites like Metacritic.

[MacDonagh]

Good blog. It's nice to hear a call of sanity sometimes. Just doubt that many people will hear it. My view on Destiny is that it's merely another false dawn for the "next-gen" which makes it about 3 now.

Titanfall, Watch_Dogs and Destiny are all failing to meet the expectations that have been put forth about them and I wonder who's truly to blame for that. Is it the marketing teams hyping them up too much or the gamers who are too ignorant to see past the flaws which were obvious from day one?

There is no real evolution in Destiny and until they update the game and throw out all the DLC; it's not going to improve by then.

Oddly, the AI is worse than Halos.

This video covers it well.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[TFJWM]

How would any of those games be ''the dawn for next-gen'' when they are all cross gen?

[George Sears]

Good blog. I agree people have been really giving this new IP a hard time but it just really comes to show that marketing hype can really falter what could have been an above average came to the second coming of Christ.

When you have devs proclaiming ten years of support, proclaiming it to be the next big jump on FPS and MMO integration, people will meticulously look and compare what it does good, what it does bad and what it doesn't do at all to other AAA games that fall into its genre.

I also believe that big gaming sites are a tad bit butt hurt by not being able to review the game in advanced like other games and feeling somewhat left out in there relevance towards the industry. They are killing a potential great franchise simply because of there childish mindset.

[BillytheBarbarian]

The community is split because Sony fans that never played Halo enjoy it.

The Xbox fans have been there done that and were hoping for something revolutionary.

Good game but it's not having the impact people were excited for.

[coolbeans]

"We all know if this released last gen it would have received disingenuous 9/10s across the board. It is a good thing the gaming press is being more critical NOT a bad thing."

That's the thing that bothers me the most when I touched on critic reviews a while ago. The "glorified hype validaters" sensation many commenters here stated about AAA game reviews last generation now seems to be scaled down to a greater degree. We can actually have a great portion of the community find a massively-budgeted title to be UNDERRATED by critics. Somebody pinch me.

Heck...I find Destiny to be a tad bit underrated on meta but I still applaud those being harsher for their openness on the matter.

[Highatus]

Good blog!

My belief is that review scores themselves are overrated, I don't even look at them anymore. I base my opinions on previews and demo/betas.

As far as destiny is concerned and any other game for that matter, people are completely entitled to their opinions and everyone's opinion will vary.

The question I ask myself before making a purchase is, is the game fun? Does it look fun from previews and demos? If I find that it is something I may enjoy then I will make the purchase. In the case of destiny I enjoyed the beta and knowing that a beta is a good show of what the final product will be I made my purchase.

People need to ask themselves what they are looking for in a game. Is it story? Longevity? Graphics? Gameplay? Instead of blindly following hype or certain review sites. It is within everyone's power to make a judgment without seeing a number from their favorite site. I do understand people have their favorites based on having similar views. But convenience will be our undoing not just in games but life in general.

Going into destiny I was not looking for story, I was looking for gameplay. And having played all the Halo games I new bungie could deliver, cause to be honest I don't care for the story in Halo at all. The games are fun.

I remember back in the 90's reading Gamepro and I would mark a game for their fun factor scale.

I play on all systems to play games I find fun, nowadays it seems people just play reviews and console wars for their fun, which is sad because this isn't what gaming used to be about.

I think scores should be abolished cause too many people knee-jerk to the number instead of finding out what is good and bad with the game they hold interest in.

[jts1891]

My problem with the Destiny reviews aren't the scores. I could care less what arbitrary number they slap on a game. My problem is that the reviews aren't judging Destiny on what it is, but instead on what they thought it should've been. This leads them to being irrationally critical. For example, a common complaint on gaming review sites I've seen is that the RPG elements are underdeveloped because the classes 'aren't different enough'. Having played all three classes, that couldn't be further from the truth, but because Destiny doesn't take the easy way out and limit certain weapons to certain classes like most games (Mass Effect comes to mind), they claim it's 'underdeveloped'.

Then you've got the story. It gets blasted for not providing enough information, meanwhile, it gives more information than major franchises like Halo and Gears of War did in their first games.