I’ve been noticing a bunch of gaming sites which have “Previews” for games that are not even in beta yet. How are the authors creating previews? Most of the articles all carry the same information, which can be found on the Game’s Fact Sheet the company hands out.
Is there more to this?
Are previews just a re-wording of the fact sheet in the authors words, accompanied by the authors thoughts on the game?
Thanks,
Div
I’ve only done a couple previews for sites other than my own and the order of the day was to restate previously known info. I remember one place in particular would give the previewer links to existing previews at places like gamespy and gamespot, official fact sheets were used as well. I asked around and found that a large number of previews from websites were handled in the same fashion.
But the larger games sites and magazines probably have a better system that actually gives the author some hands-on time with the game.
I’ve only done a couple previews for sites other than my own and the order of the day was to restate previously known info. I remember one place in particular would give the previewer links to existing previews at places like gamespy and gamespot, official fact sheets were used as well. I asked around and found that a large number of previews from websites were handled in the same fashion.
But the larger games sites and magazines probably have a better system that actually gives the author some hands-on time with the game.[/quote]
If they don’t get hands-on time with the game, they normally at least get new, heretofore unrevealed information about the game and access to the developers for quotes.
Smaller sites may just rehash existing information. It may not be a case of laziness as much as that’s all the information they have to work with and they want to do a preview to offer more complete coverage. Just imagine if you go to a site and decide to see what they say about Half-Life 2 and can’t find anything. Your reaction might be to write them off as a crappy site.
I’ve been noticing a bunch of gaming sites which have “Previews” for games that are not even in beta yet. How are the authors creating previews? Most of the articles all carry the same information, which can be found on the Game’s Fact Sheet the company hands out.
As already mentioned above, many previews are only based on information provided by the publisher. Sometimes websites ask them for some information sheet, sometimes previews are simply based on information a company sent around to the press or witnessed at some press event.
Bigger websites and mags are naturally in a better position, so their previews in fact might be based on actual hands-on experience. Gamestar, for instance, once in a while visits studios like Ion Storm, Raven et al.
I think it’s usually quite obvious when the author of a preview hasn’t played a game. And I tend to skip these since - as already mentioned - like 90% of them are just a rehash of information I’ve already read at other places. I find interviews to be more informative in that case.
An excellent point.
The German magazines actually like to send guys out for hands on days on-site at the developer. The US mags sometimes do this, but usually only for bigger stuff like cover stories. The publishers also send games around on press tours - visiting 3-6 game mags and sites over a day or two to preview the game for a writer at each location. On such tours, the game is usually presented by a producer or sometimes designer from the game developer.
There are many, many small afternoon/evening events in San Francisco (and LA) on any given month. The events usually involve a short presentation, some terminals to get hands-on time if you’re lucky, and of course, unlimited food and drink.
There’s also the press tours where the publisher will fly a couple of the dev team members around to various cities with a build of the game for some one-on-one time with each outlet.
Bigger, commercial sites either have offices in these cities or they have professional freelancers available that attend the events.
If you’re reading previews that seem like rehashed fact sheets, then you’re not reading sites involved at a professional level in the industry.