No, Video Game Reviewers Definitely Shouldn't 'Suck' At Playing Games

 Written By Erik Kain  Forbes Contributor

It may be hard to imagine or to believe, but controversy has struck at the heart of the video game community. Previously immune to any and all controversies, gamers are now up in arms about a gameplay video of the new DOOM posted at the video game website Polygon.
In the video, the unattributed player does a rather poor job of playing the game, apparently wholly unfamiliar with how first-person shooters work. It’s not as bad as many people make it out to be, but it’s certainly not good. It goes beyond “not very good at this game” straight into “no basic understanding of how to aim” territory.
I’ve touched on this elsewhere, but I feel the need to do so here as well. That’s because my colleague Dave Thier has come out with is own op/ed on the matter, which he’s titled “Why We Need Video Game Reviewers To Suck At Games.”
First off, we have to get the obvious matter out of the way: the headline is absolutely click-bait. Dave’s actual argument doesn’t quite rise to levels of the catchy headline, but no matter. You can lead a man to an article but you can’t make him click.
Outrageous, click-inducing headline aside, what Dave actually argues boils down to this: most gamers aren’t the best, since that’s impossible. Most gamers are average, and so reviewers should present a view of games that matches that “averageness.”

“You need to be able to pick up a controller and figure out how a thumbstick works, sure,” Dave writes. “You need to be able to experience the content of the game on a basic level. Beyond that, it’s free reign. A video game reviwer’s job is not to be good at games, but to communicate their experiences in an easy to understand, informative way.”
He adds that “games are a deeply personal art form, and one person’s experience of Uncharted 4 might be totally different from someone else’s. We owe it to the gaming public to provide a diversity of viewpoints on all levels, not the least of them skill.”
Well, yes and no.
A game reviewer’s job is certainly to communicate their experiences to readers, but part of our ability to do that well relies on us having not merely a basic understanding of the genre, but a basic competency at the games we play.
We don’t have to be “the best” either, but we probably should have a skill level that matches or exceeds that of fans—gamers who have played in the genre or series before, and are skillful. The readership for a review of Dark Souls will definitely be interested in the experiences of a new player, but they’ll want someone with some experience in the franchise, or at least in action games, to review.
If someone with no skill or familiarity in the genre tries to review a game, they won’t have the basic tools necessary to convey information to readers. Reviewers of food should have more than just the ability to chew and swallow to talk about it professionally; car reviewers should be above-average drivers in order to put a vehicle through all the motions to give savvy readers an in-depth take. Same applies to game reviewers

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