Dan Amrich
Los Angeles, CA
Male, 41
I started reviewing videogames professionally in 1993, when Genesis and SNES roamed the earth. Over the next 15 years I worked for magazines and websites like GamePro, GamesRadar, Official Xbox Magazine, and World Of Warcraft Official Magazine, while freelancing for Wired, PC Gamer, and many others. In an attempt to guide the next generation of reviewers, I wrote and published Critical Path: How to Review Videogames For A Living in February. Ask away!
Sure, they try. I mean, it's in their best interest to be polite and accommodating and put you in a good frame of mine about their product. The trick is not to let it actually affect your decision. Giving me access to more information -- developer chats, deeper Q&As with the team -- often makes me like a game more than trinkets or trips because I understand more of what's going on behind the scenes for real. I understand the team's goals better and what they are trying to do with the game. T-shirts are nice and all, but if you want to impress me, give me knowledge and understanding instead. :) There is a line that can be crossed, and it's up to every writer not to cross it. For 15 years, I had no trouble seeing and respecting that line.
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No. Games are like films or books -- very much a product of their time. I have a great respect for what came before, but I think if you force someone to play, watch, or read something, they are not approaching it with an open mind and will likely not appreciate it the way you want them to. You can recommend, but shoving it down their throat isn't good. Sorta like a game review -- it's advice, but not imperative commands.
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Not just try -- it's required. It's irresponsible to review a game where co-op or multiplayer is an important element and not properly play those modes. For pre-release games that are not yet publicly available, the PR team will arrange for devs or the QA staff to play in those modes with you. If the game is publicly available, go online. Not having friends is not acceptable -- play with strangers, since that's what other people in your situation would have to do. There is no excuse and no reason why a reviewer could not play a game like L4D in single-player mode as well as co-op mode. Playing a game to its fullest before writing about it is the job. Accept the responsibility or don't accept the assignment.
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I'm not familiar with today's educational games. I have never reviewed them, and I do not have kids, as I mentioned above. :)
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TV Meteorologist
What were your worst on-screen bloopers?
Toll Collector
What's the rudest thing a driver ever said to you?
Stand-Up Comedian
What types of crowds are the worst for you to to perform for?
You're right, I did cover it in the book -- but I think games journalism simply evolved to incorporate more personal asides. NGJ can be very personal and powerful...but I think it's easier to make it personal and self-indulgent. To say something personal that also offers insight and a larger commentary is not as easy as it looks. I recommend getting a handle on OGJ first. Once you know the rules and why they are there, then you are better equipped to break those rules in a meaningful and evolutionary way.
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No console is "necessary" to begin with. We're talking about a form of optional entertainment. And those forms vary wildly; many people simply like having a dedicated machine for their hobby. Could the future remove the hardware and just bundle it all into the display? Sure. I think it's interesting that Steam is working with ways to bring its content to TVs instead of computer monitors, and even then, they are investigating a dedicated piece of hardware, and not just delivering it through a web-enabled TV or an existing device. So...sure, the future is unwritten, and things always get smaller and wind up being combined with other things. But if the market likes the idea of a dedicated console, I'm not going to tell them it's unnecessary.
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Sure -- nobody really likes to be told "you're wrong." I wrote unpopular negative reviews of games other people liked, so I became a target -- and that comes with the job. It's something you have to accept; you cannot be a critic without being willing to be criticized yourself. The problem really becomes when the people telling you that you're wrong have less experience with the topic in question. If I've spent a week digging into a game before coming to a conclusion about it, and the person telling me "that's not right at all" hasn't played it yet...that's particularly annoying. That's just someone wanting the game to be awesome, or someone who has invested emotion into a game they haven't played, so they don't want to look bad to their friends, or they are insecure in some way about their support of the game up to that point. If my negative review threatens your own opinion, I think you're reading it wrong. But if my negative review gives you more information as you make up your own mind, then we're getting somewhere, even if we disagree and you call me names.
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