![]() ![]() Certainly people often have genre or style preferences, making them more likely to enjoy a game with those elements (or more willing to overlook other flaws). As with most lies there’s a kernel of truth. ![]() I don’t think anything illustrates this problem better than the lazy “if you like x you’ll like this game” statement. Typically the relationship between the game and the experience is stated plainly: “there were a lot of worker placement spots and therefore a lot of decisions.” I believe the problem isn’t recognizing form, but an anemic understanding of it. While there is a good amount of discussion about the form of games–the pieces that combine to make it what it is–there is hardly any analysis about how those pieces impact the experience of playing the game. “During any given week it’s possible to read tens of thousands of words of evaluation and analysis about this show or that movie, in reputable mainstream publications with strict editorial standards and on personal blogs where writers are theoretically free to write about whatever they want, in any manner they choose, without ever coming across one sentence that delves into form in any detail.”īoard game criticism suffers from a similar problem. Matt Zoller Seitz wrote a wonderful article/rant a few years ago imploring film critics to actually write about filmmaking itself rather than the content of the film. I actually waited until I forgot any specific reviews that upset me to write this because I didn’t want to attack anyone in particular. ![]() I’m not thinking of any people or any reviews in particular, so please don’t think I’m “subtweeting” here. It’s the kind of review that tries to be everything for everyone and therefore fails to be anything at all. What’s a flat review? It’s one that has no perspective no conviction. I fully admit that I often fail to meet the standards for which I’m about to argue, but please allow me to make this humble plea: stop writing flat game reviews. This particular topic has been on my mind a lot over the last few months. I think a lot about how to review board games.
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