Editor explains retracted NWN2 review

by Alan Rose { Nov 7th 2006 at 2:05PM }

Games For Windows magazine editor Jeff Green has posted a lengthy explanation on why Matt Peckham's now infamous review of Neverwinter Nights 2 was pulled from 1UP last week. Green's commentary offers some detailed insight into the new editorial process that will unify 1UP.com and GFW product reviews -- a system that seemingly left all parties involved with their backs up against the wall. In this excerpt, Green discusses his gut reaction after reading Peckham's review:

"...when I read it, I was unhappy. I felt that right from the start, it read more like a bashing of the genre rather than a review of this specific game. I could see valid criticisms of NWN2 in the text, but I felt that the overall tone made it seem that [Matt] was just so sick of turn-based D&D RPGs that the game never had a chance on its own. I felt, if I was a reader, my first question would be: 'Why the heck did they let him review it then?' I felt that what he was saying in general was perfectly valid -- but just not for this piece."

In summary, the GFW editor reaffirms 1UP's commitment to gamers, which is what drove the decision to remove the NWN2 review. Nothing like a little controversy to help kick off a publication relaunch, but in choosing to share the lessons learned by his organization, Green's retelling of these unfortunate events can benefit other trade publications.

Tags: 1up, dungeons and dragons, Games For Windows, gfw editor, Jeff Green, Matt Peckham, Neverwinter Nights 2, nwn2, rpg

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

pete @ Nov 7th 2006 2:19PM

so whats gonna happen to matt? fired? suspended? no more rpg for you

Bundy @ Nov 7th 2006 2:37PM

He was a freelance writer, I think a lot of game reviewers are. Most likely they'll just ask him to review games in genre's he's more interested in. Sure, it's fine to hear a review some someone who isn't interested in that type of game. But most of the people who want to play NWN2 are likely already familiar with it's predecessor and liked it. So it wasn't a very useful review, imho.

frodo @ Nov 7th 2006 2:45PM

There's no excuse for a writer to write a completely biased review like that. Even if you aren't interested in that genre, you should review the game based on its merits, not on whether or not you like games like it.

Sounds like the guy is just a shitty reviewer.

eM @ Nov 7th 2006 2:55PM

Gears of War's high scores and the NWN2 debacle lead me to wonder: Should genre-games be rated differently than more general-appeal games? More specifically, should they even be rated on the same scale?

For example, let's say NWN3 [somehow] turns out to be an absolutely flawless translation of the d20 system. Is it fair for reviewers give it 100%s (or close enough) across the board, making it "THE best game ever" (by the Metacritic/GameRankings) approach, even though most gamers couldn't care less about it? What does that score really mean?

Feel free to replace NWN3 with Madden or WoW or NetHack or whatever genre-piece you wish; the question still stands.

Matt @ Nov 7th 2006 2:55PM

I don't have a problem with them pulling the review, I had a problem with the review itself. It looked absolute atrocious, shit I could write a better review, and my background is much less than that of a professional writer.

R2P2 @ Nov 7th 2006 3:07PM

If the article really seemed "more like a bashing of the genre rather than a review of this specific game", maybe they should let the guy rework it into an editorial.

pete @ Nov 7th 2006 3:11PM

no i do not think games should be reviewd and scored by genre. if you see a game, insert name here, it got a 9.5 or 95% whatever floats your boat. that is a good game not just for the genre its in but as a whole people who play those types of games will flock to it and appreciated for what it is, to the casual gamer that score says, hey i usually dont pick up that type of game but dang reviews look good i might like it. if you segregated the reviews by genre people will loose aportunitys to plane great games, okami, phsyconauts, and besides all these websites now a days always has the little note, platformer, rpg, fps, so whats the point. but i do agree that those 100s should be few and in between a 10 or 100% scores says a whole lot and i dont think many games can live up to a perfect score. and besides all reviews are relative.

Jesse @ Nov 7th 2006 3:16PM

Kudos to Jeff Green! That review was terrible. Just hope in the future he'll more readily trust his instincts.

daver @ Nov 7th 2006 3:47PM

the review should have stood.
a second opinion would have suficed and given 1up a little more critical credit. as it is, between this and the gears of war 10 they have lost my clicks.

darko82 @ Nov 7th 2006 3:57PM

@daver, it's hard to make an argument that the review should have stood when it's now clear that it never should have been posted to begin with. Like Green said, it was a lose-lose situation and they were screwed no matter what action they took. Peckham's bias against D&D-style roleplaying means NWN2 never even had a chance at a fair review. It was doomed before the draft was even written. Those kinds of opinions we can do without, as bias should be reduced as much as possible before a game is reviewed.

gehrig @ Nov 7th 2006 4:07PM

I can't possibly agree with Green's reasoning. Not all genres are created equally, and if there's serious flaws with D&D games then a reviewer should expose them. It doesn't matter if there's a small niche that is very forgiving of those flaws.

Green is just being kind to the writer I suspect. The real reason it was pulled should be that it was terribly written.

eternal @ Nov 7th 2006 4:22PM

I think we should be praising this guy, while the review wasn't exactly what we are used to it was at least an honest opinion (biased or not).
Take a look around, according to all the review sites we are being inundated with near perfect games on a daily basis.
Using a possibility of 10 that means a 5 is average (which is about where NWN2 is, maybe a bit higher) but all these crap games coming out are getting 8's, 9.5's, or god forbid 10's! I mean come on, perfect or near perfect games?
I haven't seen one since HL2 or FF7.

Bundy @ Nov 7th 2006 4:39PM

Games, like all other forms of art are completely subjective to the consumer. To judge them against one another will always have issues. There's still a good game and a bad game, sure. But you see, I certainly would not rate HL2 or FF7 as "near perfect". Not even close. I didn't like either of those games.

Petrie @ Nov 7th 2006 4:40PM

@ Eternal

So in the case of FF7, perfection in gaming can be produced by misleading people to believe your game looks better than it really does using pre-rendered FMVs? I love FF7 but it is nowhere near perfection. It isn't even the best of the FF series.

darko82 @ Nov 7th 2006 5:14PM

@eternal and gehrig, you're missing the point. Peckham's review, in addition to being poorly written, did not rate NWN2 on its own merits. Instead, he chose to condemn the sub-genre that is D&D-style roleplaying. Green explains that in his commentary.

What was Obsidian supposed to do - completely change the combat and leveling system, or do away with all the rules Peckham complained about? Then it would no longer be a D&D game. Reviewers should try to approach every game with an open mind.

I don't recall anyone giving Oblivion a 50/100 because its combat system is hokey and it uses the same voice actors over and over again. These have been issues in the Elder Scrolls series since Morrowind, but the reviewers didn't bash the game because they were fed up with "that style" of play.

mandarin @ Nov 7th 2006 6:03PM

I just read the review...
What the heck was this guy on? He sounds like as if he was either high , drunk or dumb? 1up really screwed up by just tossing this stuff to him. There has to be many other more qualified writers out there.

gehrig @ Nov 7th 2006 7:01PM

darko, if a reviewer thinks a game is boring because it follows certain rules of a genre then he should give it a harsh review.

What is the point of catering a review to the niche of consumers who are completely forgiving of those flaws by assigning a writer who is as well? The review is completely unneccessary to those consumers.

darko82 @ Nov 7th 2006 7:12PM

Thank you for making my point, gehrig. You're right, Peckham thought NWN2 was boring because it followed certain rules that make a D&D game a D&D game. Knowing that he already hates the D&D sub-genre before he even plays NWN2, does the game have any prayer of receiving a good, or even a decent score? Will it get a fair shake? Absolutely not, as the editor for the magazine made perfectly clear, and I agree with his decision to yank the review.

If you want to see negative comments about NWN2 that are appropriate and within context, read the other reviews. They cite plenty of flaws without bashing the genre.

eM @ Nov 7th 2006 7:28PM

"What is the point of catering a review to the niche of consumers who are completely forgiving of those flaws by assigning a writer who is as well?"

Good thing they don't have me rating sports games, huh? Madden's garbage for forcing me to stay on my side before the ball is hiked. And all those boring penalties -- I should be able to tackle who I want when I want. And why do I kick the ball over to the other team? I'd rather hold onto it myself.

Oh, and PGA Pro Tour? I should be able to club the other players. Where's the XP grinding and the FMVs? More trash.

darko82 @ Nov 7th 2006 7:29PM

Amen, eM.

Starsmore @ Nov 7th 2006 7:38PM

My only question is if the review stunk, why'd it get posted in the first place? I thought editors were there for this type of situation, to keep an article from going up if it doesn't meet standards or anything of the like.

Granted, it is a website, but you'd think they'd have some kind of process to check articles before they put them out into the wild.

The ZeroCorpse @ Nov 7th 2006 7:43PM

Yeah. My Final Fantasy review (for any version of it):

This game is just so bland and silly. Big-eyed anime people in cinemas that, frankly, bore me to tears (I'm sorry, but this stuff is only exciting and dramatic if you're twelve) and a bunch of turn-based/hack-n-slash combat. "Epic" story? More like the same story from the last game, just recycled with slightly different locales and names! Why can't the characters look more western-styled? Why can't the gameplay be more like a western RPG instead of this tired Japanese style?

You see. . . Sometimes, you want someone who agrees with your love of a genre to rate a game based on its merits WITHIN THAT GENRE instead of trashing the whole genre and the game by default.

gehrig @ Nov 8th 2006 12:22AM

Video game reviews are just consumer guides. The ideal reviewer is one that reflects the average tastes of his audience. Having a reviewer that reflects the average taste of the reader who is going to buy the game regardless of what the review says is self-defeating.

kpluck @ Nov 8th 2006 12:52AM

Well I am little late to this party but I thought I would throw my 2 cents in...

The problem I have with pulling the review is this, if the review had gone the other way, overly praising the game because the reviewer loved the genre, it would not have been pulled.

The review was what it was. Let people read it and judge it for themselves. If they were that concerned about it they could have sought out a reviewer that loved the genre and had him/her post their viewpoint.

deceneu @ Nov 8th 2006 7:35AM

I have to agree with kpluck. I am also a reviewer and I've been writing for seven years now and, of course, during all this time, there were some articles pretty much like this one. They still stand firmly on their websites for everyone to see them. It's not bad to make mistakes, it's just hard to accept them and pulling the review proved they can't do it. If you had the cojones to post it, you must have the cojones needed to keep it. That's how you learn. I haven't read it, so I can't tell if the review was flawed or not, but this shows me that 1UP doesn't have experienced people who should decide if a review is posted or not.

rpg_gamer @ Nov 8th 2006 10:48AM

@deceneu, there's a larger issue to consider here, and that is the 1UP and GFW magazine reveiws will now be in synch. This means the faulty review is the one they would have gone to press with for their debut issue next month -- the one that features BioWare's Dragon Age as the cover story. What do you think that would have done for the integrity of GFW to have a review like that when the rest of the trade press is praising NWN2? The editor also mentions this in his post.

Yes, there are sales to consider, but when you read Peckham's review, it really was poorly written. Not a great way to kick off a magazine launch.