NyxQuest and Gentle Game Reviews
Last February, I received the following message:
Hi,
Today I watched this review from our game NyxQuest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7ljSOYqtz8…and wanted to say “thank you!”. I’m glad you enjoyed our game. We spent a lot of *love* into that project.
Keep the good work,
This was in response to my thumbs-up positive review for NyxQuest. I wanted to share this message for two reasons:
1) I think we occasionally need the reminder that there are real people behind these games. When we vivisect a game, we could be crushing the spirit of a game designer. With that in mind, we should be gentle in our negative reviews, and abundant in our praise during positive reviews. You might be on the other end of that review some day, and you will appreciate it when people share the same courtesy with you.
2) I will soon be posting my thoughts on Brutal Legend, a game (read: THE game) that I was most anticipating following PAX 2009. I thought it wise to prepare myself with a post about gentle criticism.