I am The Video Game General

Until I find a better hosting solution, Blogger is the new home of The Video Game General, a blog/site devoted to video game reviews and essays. Two issues must be addressed right off the bat, to ward of the imminent confusion.

1) The name. I'm pretty sure most people will think the 'General' in the blog title refers to the "non-specific detail" definition of general, but it actually refers to the military rank. While I was in college, I was given the nickname "The Video Game General" due to my borderline obsession with video games, my enthusiasm for the medium, and my infinite wellspring of knowledge for games of all varieties. Note that this does not pertain to my skill at videogames, as I actually suck at them, in general. I pity the fool that PVPs with me in World of Warcraft, as my random button presses and inability to target the correct enemy lead to many sad losses.

2) The rating system. Many game fans regard review scores with a philosophy that makes me livid. As some freakish side effect of the United States public education system, any time some number is introduced in review the reader will instinctively compare it to the completely arbitrary 90A-80B-70C-60D grading system, without any regard whatsoever to the comments of the reviewer or the specifics as to how the score is determined. I have my own grading scale, with a few key factors.

- INTEGERS ONLY. None of that decimal shit here. When you make too many divisions onto a rating scale, it encourages a brand of nitpicking that I'd much rather avoid. For example, say I were to give

-ONE THROUGH SEVEN. I use a 1-7 scale for a few reasons. First of all, I insist that there be a truly average value, one that the 1-10 integer scale does not allow. Second, it is a very unusual scale, so people won't bring their preconceived notions of what scores correspond to what. Lastly, it most matches the tier system that I perceive games with.

-Nostalgia can go fuck itself. Seriously. Nostalgia has no place in video game reviews, and no game should ever receive points just for having been played a long time ago. Conversely, I will be creating a section entitled "Video games that I really like that , in hindsight, actually kind of suck."

Here is a rough outline of what each score means.

SEVEN: One of my favorite games. Depth of gameplay, depth of story and characters, a long game experience, and an excellent soundtrack are the keys to getting a score this high. Not all of these things are necessary, though, but they are the traits that will completely pull me into a game.

SIX: A very good game, but there are enough things that bother me about it to prevent me from giving it a seven.

FIVE: Above average, and generally very enjoyable, though does not have enough to really stand out of the pack.

FOUR: A truly average game, and a mix of good and bad in many categories.

THREE: If a game is normally quite fun but manages to piss the hell out of me over and over, it is probably going to get a three.

TWO: Deeply flawed and frequently infuriating games will garner a two.

ONE: Very rarely do I regard games as bad enough to get a one. There is no real criteria for what makes a game absolutely horrible, but "I know it when I play it."

In addition to a basic review of the game, I will include many general unorganized thoughts on the game that could not fit in the review or include spoilers, hidden via whatever method Blogger allows.

So there is my review system and basic philosophy. I'll try to update this site as frequently as possible, but, being marginally employed and making my way through new games only sporadically, I give no promises to when updates will come. Now, does anyone know where I sign up to start getting review copies of games?