He says people should try demo and ask friends but it doesnt feed your narrative...
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Mike Ybarra, Corporate VP of Xbox, says critics of an Anthem area are “whining” and it is “embarrassing to review with such a lack of knowledge”
- Thread starter Proven
- Start date
He says people should try demo and ask friends but it doesnt feed your narrative...
EA went hard after literally every single Destiny streamer & podcaster mid-level and up as influencers, flying them all over, getting them all to do videos, etc. It's fair to point out that there's an agenda in his criticism. A lot of those streamers are motivated to stay positive- or at least neutral - about Anthem because they want to grow their channels beyond just Destiny and don't want to alienate the audience. Many of them have said as much (the wanting to branch out part).
According to Ybarra the game isn't out, why would I ask my friends? Also I assume by demo you mean EA Access stuff right? Doesn't that cost money?
Lol, the guy probably rakes more than the fellow he criticized, I think he's doing good.
So if you're a corporate goon who makes a lot of money that gives you the right to be say stupid things?
And you figuring something out is somehow a rebuttal to the fact the game doesnt have proper tutorials?
When someone says many things and only a couple of those things are bad, it's perfectly valid to criticize only the the bad things. That does not imply a contrived "narrative".
He still has a point though. People are pushing a narrative here by selecting what to focus on while ignoring the rest.
Real talk though that's how I decide if I want to play a game I'm on the fence about and looking at Anthem streams I'll just go with Division 2 when that comes out.
You could probably snag a free EA Access/Origin Access Trial from someone on here easily I'd bet. Many will likely be popping up when this game launches.
He shouldn't have, but he isn't wrong.
Era will dogpile this to infinity just to shit on Xbox as a brand but game reviews by incompetent journalists are a problem. Things like the RE2 second play through and watching video reviews where the reviewer can barely walk in a straight line little on play the game correctly such as what happened with Doom is an embarrassment.
It's like watching Top Gear but the driver slams the car being evaluated into a ditch and then says switching gears is too confusing. That's modern game reviews at most outlets.
His suggestion to look to your friends who's tastes you align with or streamers who actually know how to play the game is spot on. Find sources for information that actually understand the product being evaluated. If in the rare case there's a demo that's the best way of all.
In today's low attention span, clickbait focused, online media landscape professional reviews do not exist. These outlets can't survive on that type of content. It's not even their fault.
huh he seems to like reviews well enough when it's xbox games getting good scores 🤔🤔🤔
You did see that the question was essentially what was his personal review of the game, which he replied that he doesn't do [personal] reviews followed by giving additional options to gather incite on games.
right?
Hard disagree. Watching Top Gear is like watching streams, because it has nothing to do with reviewing cars and more for entertainment.
The bolded part, can be applied to reviewers as well.
If you just take a part of the tweet you want and remove the rest you are dishonest.sorry.
You can watch a stream to see how the game works and ask to friends and try demo to get more knowledge.But thats me I d rather make my own opinion than to rely on review and he is right about that.
I see that we have our daily gaming outrage of today, wow :) Mike should probably be more careful with his tweets, but there are definitely some reviewers out there that should do a much better job of learning about a game and playing it enough to accurately discuss it. I have read plenty of reviews of games that I have played a ton and wondered if they just binged it for a couple hours and called it a day. Subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and the inevitable shift toward such a delivery mechanism should at least help people to just try things (including completely different game genres) out more for themselves and not rely on filtering their buying decisions through the lens of someone online that they don't even know personally.
That coporate mistrust like Eion Musk has shown against journalists has nothing to do with conspiracies, it could be a valid psychological hypothesis regarding his own quotes history or from others of his colleagues.
Despite his title he's just an employee, in the only Microsoft division whose activity doesn't rely on the two irremovable pillars Windows/Office, in a moment where the retail presence of the Xbox has never been so weak.
WTF? What narrative am I pushing? I don't agree with Mike's tweet at all and have expressed that multiple times in this thread. Sorry if I'm not jumping to conspiracy theories or interesting in digging through old tweets to highlight how an exec may not always be 100% to the shock of no one.
Good faith would be arguing honestly, with no hidden agendas. Bad faith would be dishonesty, serving ends other than those you claim.
OK, you helpfully edited out the context there. I was responding to someone who was arguing that criticism of the press was inappropriate, because they're hardworking and under attack. I was asking why the same logic didn't apply to criticism of the hard working and under attack Bioware and EA? My point is that criticism is fair, going both ways.
I'm not against "journalism", I'm criticising Video Game Reviews as a means of informing buying decisions. Its dishonest to twist this into a general thing. And I'm mostly arguing that there are simply better sources of information - watching a stream of the actual game is just a really good way to learn about a game.
I believe that discussion is extremely valuable about rational things, about objective things. You're twisting the specific into the general, again. You can't argue me out of liking a game, because liking a game is not a rational decision. It is subjective. Its like arguing whether a flower is pretty, or food is tasty. Even if every point is sublimely argued and valid, its irrelevant.
Obviously, this isn't a general rule. It doesn't even mean you can't discuss video games or flowers or whatever, it just means that you have to accept "I like X, you like Y" as an axiom if you're going to have a useful discussion.
"Streams" would have been better, but it amounts to the same thing.
If i write a letter to someone taking about random pleasant things and then at the end say "BTW _____,you're embarrassing", would that person be dishonest for focusing on one single tiny line in an otherwise large letter?
The fact that he said some reasonable things does not in any way cancel out the unreasonable things.
How?
Also how poorly do you have to misinterpret his answer to come to that conclusion?
Reminder:
He was asked about giving a personal review
I think it was gamespot that reviewed the recent Crash trilogy and in the review it was said they didnt even play Crash 2 and Crash 3. Like thats insane to me, not only do you not know how they hold up but you also dont know if they have actual issues. lots of reviews are kinda jokes. admitting not understanding a part of the combat in anthem is pretty bad too.
thankfully i personally dont rely on them.
Idk man. I just don't think a tutorial is needed. I thought it was a pretty basic thing to learn that putting together basic attack's made a combo.
I think there is too much handholding in games nowadays. I played Breath of the wild, and I loved that I was discovering new gameplay mechanics 20 hrs into the game.
The job of a critic is to provide an expert opinion on the quality of something. Unfortunately, not everyone who reviews a game actually has any of that requisite expertise.
I think it's okay, important even, to be critical of the work being done by critics.
I think it's okay, important even, to be critical of the work being done by critics.
Old review is not dead. If you don't think Metacritic matters you're in denial. MP focused games can still thrive with mediocre scores, but traditional reviews are far from irrelevant. Look at what they did for God Of War last year. No one was checking Datto or Mtashed for their opinions on that game.
While I don't agree with his viewpoint on "modern reviewers and streamers", Mike approached this conversation in a wrong way.
Don't worry, the game comes out on Friday™
so does trump, does that make trump's twitter outbursts not embarrassing?
yes, I haven't read this 30 page thread. I apologize. But yes, as I said, I wasn't sure if it was a valid complaint or not since I haven't played the game. Thanks for clearing that up.
yes... I have read the tweets. He mentioned a single reviewer being a whiner, probably shouldn't have used that word. But the original tweet mentioned a single review, not ALL reviews. that is a big distinction that the thread title is wrong about. The thread title says "critics" plural. Gives a false impression and people already have their pitchforks out when clicking on a title like that. The exact same headline popped up on /r/Games as well. ResetEra needs to be more careful with their thread titles because other places pick it up. That is my main gripe. Misleading thread titles.
Anyway, yes I have read the tweets. As I mentioned in that post you replied to. There are like 3 or so tweets. He mentioned a reviewer that didn't know the combo or whatever. which I take it from your post above, that its incorrect on Mike's part.
Then he mentioned his preference for watching gameplay or getting game recommendations via friends. That is usually what I do these days. I rarely read written reviews. Some people are twisting that into him saying all reviews are bad?
And then I see he responded to someone mentioning that the game was rushed and buggy. He said it doesn't release until friday. I think its on trial or something until then for subscribers or something right? Is there some other tweet that I am missing?
well, as I said I haven't played Anthem and was just taking Mike's comments about a reviewer not knowing a combo system at face value. If the combo system is not easily taught by the game then fine, that shouldn't be a criticism of the review but of the game. (which seems to be the case and you have mentioned many times). But my point still stands, If I go to a professional reviewer then I'd want them to be informed as possible.
true, Mike shouldn't be worked up about a review. I myself am mainly just worked up about misleading titles to news or threads. Always irritates me. /shrug
I myself know what types of games I like. I have been playing games long enough to know. So i'll watch game play. The streamer's personality does not play a role in if I will like the game or not. I have watched some gameplay of Anthem, looks kinda of boring to me. Anyway, I agree with Mike on watching gameplay and recommendations from friends being more valuable than a written review these days. As I said with gameplay, I know what I like and don't like. As for friends recommending games, they usually know my game preferences and I know theirs. Harder to know a professional game reviewer's preferences.
Except in this case, it wasn't a situation in which the reviewer lacked expertise. Ybarra just took issue with criticism which he characterized as "whining and embarrassing" for no other reason other than it was on a game he enjoys and has an vested economic interest in.
Very different circumstances and poor excuse to defend this awful, unprofessional attitude. Just like a reviewer has a responsibility to put out a informed opinion, a VP exec has one to act like an adult online.
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I know that's not what he meant but it's kinda funny to see both tweets side by side.
But yeah, that's not a good take by Mike Ybarra. I understand that people are saying he is a gamer and just giving his opinion (many exes at game companies are gamers in fact). But normal gamers usually don't have 170k followers on Twitter. He utilized the reach he has as an executive. Many people will see themselves confirmed in attacking the press and reviewers when even the VP of Xbox does it. And this is especially sad, because it seems to me that the criticism of Anthem was completely justified.
No the job of a reviewer for a consumer product is to review that product.
I'd normally be accused of being a Sony pony but people need to take perspective. Mike mentioned 1 reviewer. Had he named checked a critic and encouraged a mob I'd be worried. He does have a point that YouTube influencer probably have a better influence that the traditional reviewer.
Nobody was attacked, why are you sad?
Also, I don't get the commonality between the two tweets, he's using the word to mean two totally separate things in each one.
are we talking generally or are we talking about this specific tweet where reviewers have come into the thread and shown the extent to which such a tutorial exists
In general. The tutorial in Anthem (which I am reviewing myself) is not great. That being said the combo system is fairly straight forward imo.
"Amazed at the whining" and "Embarrassing to review with such a lack of knowledge" is not considered an attack on someone's credibility?
Jump Force too? Yeah, that's not bad luck, it's key decision makers not having a clue who to partner with and buy in.
Anthem, Fallout, and Battlefield at least were all slam-dunk marketing deals to pick up. Can't blame MS for doing so, it really is just bad luck.
I'm not just saying this because you agreed with me, but your username is fantastic.
The first point was aimed at nobody in particular, right? He was amazed that people were whining about a specific quest... I honestly was as well considering in the grand scheme of things it was trivial, and said as much a few days ago, check my post history.
You make it sound like he's using his influence to lazer at someone and that hasn't happened.