This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
I’d like to point out that I think we’re coming to a point where credibility is a mere click of the mouse away, and as more and more social networking websites (The two obvious ones being Twitter and Facebook) are being created, they will lead to the further meltdown or destruction of gaming’s opinionated press as we know it. Look at the film industry. No one cares what Roger Ebert has to say. And although his stature may bear some credibility, there’s truly no effect he has on the film industry, if he ever had any. I must have been too young to notice if there was a time where people listened to film critics. And as evidence from the Transformers 2 summer blockbuster, even if a film critic says "Transformers 2 is a big, dumb movie and it is not an improvement to the previous in any way.", people will look at that and say things such as "What is he talking about?", or simply interpret his opinion as invalid.
If you look at the video game industry, and examine how great the influence gaming journalists hold on their audience, and how tremendous the constructive criticism the journalistic side of the industry has provided, and entirely remove that from the industry, there’s no clearly written or defined assessment to the problems that the developers needs to address for further iterations. Thus, games will seize to progress technologically, from a story-telling standpoint, or in terms of fun. This is especially true when a Twitter user has just as much influence as a gaming journalist, and they’re telling the developer to make some totally boneheaded development decisions. If you look at Infinity Ward’s Twitter site, I have some faith and hope in Infinity Ward that they will be discerning enough to pick out the crap that users have ceaselessly submitted. But comparing how easy Call of Duty 4 is to pick up and play, relative to Battlefield 2, it sure looks as if they are trying to please everyone. I sure hope they aren’t though, because if they try to, they’re headed for failure.
Give me some feedback!