6 ms·
Jimmy Maher does a great job documenting the history behind these games, but I think he lets in a bit too much personal bias in the second half of his articles
by gryson 5y ago
Jimmy Maher does a great job documenting the history behind these games, but I think he lets in a bit too much personal bias in the second half of his articles where he reviews the game from a modern perspective.
I first started noticing this with his review of Wing Commander III:
"if you ask me whether Wing Commander III is a good game in the abstract, my answer has to be no, it really is not. It’s best reserved today for those who come to it for nostalgia’s sake, or who are motivated by a deep — not to say morbid! — curiosity about the era which it so thoroughly embodies."
Yet his review of the first Wing Commander ends on a very positive note--despite the game's (numerous) flaws, he calls it a "hugely engaging, hugely fun" game that he still recommends to new players.
Being closely familiar with both games, that's a bit of a hard pill to swallow. The gameplay of WC1 (if you can get it to run at the correct speed) is just so much more rough than WC3 that I would never recommend it to any but the most diehard retro game masochists. I would say that WC3, in contast, is still very accessible and enjoyable (if not the most varied space sim ever).
I think what's happening--and this is all too common in these kinds of retro game reviews--is that he's showing bias for the games he preferred/played first when he was younger.
He really seems biased against the later, big production games of the mid-90s: Wing Commander 3, Myst, Full Throttle... and I suspect we'll see more of this bias as these later reviews increase.
https://www.filfre.net/2021/03/wing-commander-iii/ https://www.filfre.net/2021/03/wing-commander-iii/
https://www.filfre.net/2017/04/from-wingleader-to-wing-commander/ https://www.filfre.net/2017/04/from-wingleader-to-wing-comma...
- thaumasiotes 5y ago> I think what's happening--and this is all too common in these kinds of retro game reviews--is that he's showing bias for the games he preferred Isn't that the entire concept of a review?
- gryson 5y agoWhat do you mean? Why should the reviewer's experience playing the game as a kid influence their seemingly objective review of that game? Wouldn't it be a bit silly to say "I think the first Wing Commander is a better game than Wing Commander 3 because I played it as a kid"? I'm claiming the reviewer is couching their review in objectivity but is (seemingly) biased towards games from a certain time.
- pjc50 5y agoThere is no such thing as objectivity in art, and searching for this only leads to ridiculousness.
- wk_end 5y agoIt’s clear that we’re not necessarily talking about true metaphysical objectivity here or whatever; we’re talking about reviews that approach the game on their own merits and are at least conscious of the author’s own biases. That’s absolutely attainable without a whiff of ridiculousness. ...the flip side: like all the best criticism, literally the least interesting thing about these essays are the final judgments the author lays down.
- ajkjk 5y ago> played first when he was younger. was kinda the operative part of that sentence.
- pilif 5y ago> I would say that WC3, in contast, is still very accessible and enjoyable (if not the most varied space sim ever). If you think WC3 is varied and you are into space sims, you should try out Freespace, its expansion and Freespace 2. Better graphics, better missions, much better story, more involved mechanics. And as the engine was made open source decades ago, it’s still being maintained by the community