So I’ve got two rants today for you..

The first involves game reviews, specifically children’s games.

I get a lot of games for kids for review, especially those for the Wii and some for Xbox360, when you review a kids game you cannot review it from an adult perspective, it just won’t work, and it’s not correct.

I’ve got kids so I’ll play and game and then let them play it as well. I want to play to the game for the review of course, but I want my kids to play it so I can know what they think of it.

Being a reviewer I look around at other reviews, I’m curious to see what they have to say, and I’ve noticed a trend in kids games that show pretty much all of them getting a low rating. I also noticed that these reviewers are not viewing them from a child’s point of view, nor are they even letting kids play them. They are reviewing these games like they would an adult game, how can you judge, let’s say Call of Duty and something like Marvel Super Hero Squad on the same level? You can’t do it. They’re two totally different things. I also have to ask how can you even review a child’s game if a child doesn’t get to play it? I can bet most of the reviewers don’t have children to even see if the kids like it.

There’s a problem with the rating system or review process of review sites. I just reviewed Marvel Super Hero Squad for Nintendo Wii over on TestFreaks, and I gave it an 8 out of 10. I think it’s well worth that rating because my kids enjoyed the game, they found it fun and enjoyable. Now I looked at other reviews and see the same games gets like a 5 rating, and even lower, but reading the review you’ll find they didn’t let kids play the game, nor did they get a child’s view of the game. This is bad PR for these companies like THQ that put out the game,consumers rely on reviews of products, but how can you review a product like a child’s games without factoring in everything?  Sure it’s not a game for adults, I accept that fact and I even mention it in the review, but from a child’s standpoint it’s a good game, it’s made for kids and they’ll have fun playing it.

These companies send their games out and haven’t they noticed that the trend is low ratings for kids games? I don’t understand it, something is broken and needs fixed..

Rant # 2 involves YouTube and their DMCA dispute system.

I wanted to review Guitar Hero Van Halen, I took the time to play it, finish it and get lots of videos of the game play. I uploaded them to YouTube and Warner Music flagged them as a copyright violation because it contains their music so the video is there but no sound. This was about two months ago, I disputed the claim since I and most others would consider it Fair Use. Guess what? They never responded to the claim, surprise, surprise right? So they left me with the only choice of deleting the videos since they’ve got now sound!!! Look around on YouTube though, you’ll find many other GH: Van Halen videos, but for whatever reason they’re not flagged, they have audio, but mine got picked to be censored.

If you’re gong to have a system like this where copyright violations can be reported then it has to work efficiently, from what I see it’s broken and needs fixed. You can’t just flag things at will and then not respond back to the dispute. It’s a two part process where both parties have to comply wit the rules, but they don’t apparently. it’s totally one-sided from what I can see, they flag the video and then never respond to the dispute, they get what they want and the little guy gets screwed over. Just because I’m the little guy and they’re this mega corporation they think they can just stomp on our rights. This is a problem, and I don’t foresee it ever getting fixed or changing.

So, today, about two months later I deleted the videos rather than have them there with no sound, they’re useless to me now, I can’t do the review with those videos to show the game play of the game.

I guess I’ll just use screenshots for the review. I do have one video left that didn’t violate their copyright apparently, but it’s just of the menus and such, so I guess I can use that.