The 1st of August marked the one year anniversary of the launch of GamesCastLive. That’s right, GCL is only the tender age of a 1 year old, but it’s been a year full of interesting experiences and uncommon occurrences. The GCL staff has entered a diverse and intriguing field from the get-go, and due to the dog-eat-dog world out there, we’ve all had to adapt pretty fast. So without further adieu, here are the Top 5 Things We’ve Learnt about the gaming industry.
Free Games are Awesome
Ok so they’re not really ‘free’ per se, as we do review and get some exposure for them, but it’s awesome to get the chance to play a wealth of titles without liquidating your house (and pets). Promotional copies help a substantial amount and we couldn’t be more happy to play, review and talk about some of the phenomenal games we’ve had the chance to experience.
Launch Parties kick ass
Every now and then, distributors, publishers or even hardware manufacturers throw party in celebration of their new title or product, and if you crack an invite, prepare for some fun. Getting to party it up with fellow gamers, colleagues and industry personnel are some of the highlights of the job, and the fact that some gaming is thrown into the mix, makes any launch parties memorable.
StarCraft 2 Launch Party Lesson #1: Things get out of hand
Be prepared to play some terrible games
Being give the chance to play the majority of the games that hit the store selves on ( or even sometimes prior to ) release is a dream come true and we don’t take any of it for granted. This isn’t a complaint, just more of a warning. If you aspire to become a game reviewer, be prepared to play some atrocious games. As gamers, we are all s fortunate to have such high quality products these days, but when the time comes ( and it will come ) to play Fashion Party on the Wii, you’ll know you’ve made it.
Knowledge is key
Anyone can essentially ‘review’ a game, but it requires an effective us of the English language to convey the correct message. More importantly than that, game reviewers need to really know past and present games inside out, and we mean really know. Reviewers also have to understand that not all games can be compared to one another. People believe if you score anything higher than Modern Warefare 2 – prepare for bloodshed. This isn’t the way forward, as reviewers must be objective and open minded about every type of game out there, and know how to review it. Saying: “Killzone 2 is teh graffix!” is not necessarily going to captivate readers.
Not exactly an ideal review. Click to enlarge, and laugh
Everyone is a critic
Well, this is more applicable to the internet (and society) in general. To put it bluntly, people are going to hate, whether they like you or not. Any writer or website owner will tell you, that the amount of negativity and stupidly pessimistic feedback is ever prevalent, and there’s only one thing you can do – take it on the chin. Because at the end of the day, every negative comment is outnumbered 100 to 1 with positive responses and participation from awesome gamers out there, and that’s what make this all worth it.
Even Kermit has an opinion
On behalf of GamesCastLive, we’d like to thank all of the distributors and awesome individuals for all your support for what we’re doing. With your help, we are, where we are. Continue being awesome and thanks for checking out the Friday Feature.
