racketboy.com

Heey, thanks for all the comments! I got a new job and I'm superbusy so I couldn't reply earlier.

marurun wrote:I think, indeed, the problem is not the accepting the trip fare and whatnot, but the failure to disclose it.

While I think that accepting plane tickets is often over the line*, lack of disclosure is certainly the bigger problem when it comes to trust. People might not like corruption, but what really pushes the audience's buttons is hypocresy.

*Ultimately, I think that accepting plane tickets is problematic for several reasons:

1) Plane tickets are not given out of goodwill, they are an attempt to influence critics
2) They mean the critic relies on game companies to work. In that sense it's like a game company paying a critic's rent or heating bill.
3) People who are critical of game companies or their games get blacklisted and don't even get review copies.

SNESdrunk wrote:Who is the most "trusted" video game critic out there? Is it Yahtzee Croshaw?

Personally, I can't recommend Tom Chick enough. I don't tend to agree with him, but he's a great critic.

prfsnl_gmr wrote:It is actually the racketboy.com "Games Beaten 2017" thread.

You jest, but this kind of threads are great. When I research a game I normally try to read this kind of posts because they tend to be written by people with experience and which are very involved with the game.

prfsnl_gmr wrote:

SNESdrunk wrote:Who is the most "trusted" video game critic out there? Is it Yahtzee Croshaw?

It is actually the racketboy.com "Games Beaten 2017" thread.

That's a good point! I never realized how much I turn to that thread

I've reuploaded my Overwatch review. It's a fun game, better than the average shooter, but its core design prevents it from becoming a classic.



OVERWATCH

Sorry for the delay but I've been superbusy. Got a new job and my free time has almost dissapeared. I still hope to update with a new article soon.

I review a unique game of bluffing, manipulation and time-travel: Tragedy Looper!



TRAGEDY LOOPER


This is the kind of boardgame I'm happy to own: It's fun, it's strategically interesting, has no overlap with any other game and hits the table quite often. It's a good bar, I think.

“So it’s just like Condottiere” I remember thinking when I first heard about Gwent. And when I first saw it on the table and played it, there was no doubt; Gwent was quite literally the same game. Same rules, same cards, same weather-immune heroes and same scarecrow

GWENT: CONDOTTIERE UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME

This is a fairly heavy-hitting piece. Please tell me what you think.

I have played neither of the games in question, but that is a pretty big accusation (which you appear to have the evidence to back up in my admittedly limited knowledge of the games in question). Have you heard anything more since writing this piece? I'm curious if there is an update.

Ack wrote:I have played neither of the games in question, but that is a pretty big accusation (which you appear to have the evidence to back up in my admittedly limited knowledge of the games in question). Have you heard anything more since writing this piece? I'm curious if there is an update.

Hey, thanks for the comment Ack! I've been busy so I couldn't answer earlier, sorry.

Not much has happened since I published the article, my reach is quite small and it has only been read 216 times. That's still about as much as my most popular article since I started to write again but it's not much in the grand scheme of thing. So, in that sense, it simply doesn't have the weight for much to happen.

If it reached NeoGAF, the Gwent Reddit boards or other big places, I guess more could happen. I have submitted it to Critical Distance but, ultimately, I'm fine with it having a small reception so it's ok if it doesn't. I would rather have more people read my work, for sure, b ut it's fine by me.

Other than that, not much. Most people think the article was very good, specially concerning the tone (Which I truly appreciate). A few are baffled that this wasn't talked about earlier as Condottiere is not a very obscure game.

So yeah, that's it.

I think the issue is kind of known, but people generally are used to blatant plagiarism and just don't care about this kind of thing.

There were similar issues with 2048 coming after Threes and being more popular, and many, many more examples of the kind.

Game rules are the sort of thing you can't copyright or patent, at least in the US. You can copyright a particular expression of some rules, but not the rules themselves. That's why so many knock-off Monopoly games exist, because as long as they aren't using the same terminology and expression, they're perfectly find using the same rules or mechanics.

Yep, that holds true in the video gaming world, too. It's why we saw a glut of fighting games copying Street Fighter II, for instance.