Can reviews be objective?

[Darklord Rooke]

“Pursuit of objectivity” my arse! ‘Pursuing objectivity’ is just that, pursuing objectivity, not watering down the concept so you can use it as a freaking buzzword as to why your reviews are better than someone else. Who falls for this shit?

[TexasDice]

And you can disagree as much as you want, but I'm not going to budge from my position, that the audience is more important than the author. And not considering the interests of those who don't overlap with your one-dimensional opinion, is a waste in my book.

[solidbatman]

3 minutes ago, TexasDice said:

And you can disagree as much as you want, but I'm not going to budge from my position, that the audience is more important than the author. And not considering the interests of those who don't overlap with your one-dimensional opinion, is a waste in my book.

I'd be more than happy to let you write a guest review for the Reviews Blog if you'd like. 

[starlessn1ght]

@TexasDice, right, I got your point. I just don't think it's good to label those kind of reviews objective, because people will understand something completely different (like the MAL elitists' definition of objectivity). A lot on my reviews is influenced by my personal tastes, and I'll try to make an effort to make what is heavily based on my tastes more clear next time I review a VN. However, personal bias will still integrate my ratings, and I don't think one should try to get rid of it. Because my tastes can be similar to other people's and sometimes people's opinion on a certain subject does not differ that much, with some exceptions.

Also, do you read Clephas' blog entries? His comments are exactly the way you want. He always makes it clear when there is a definite bias on his opinion on a certain VN. He hates moege, but calls some of them kamige, etc. Plus, his opinions on VNs evaluates them with its own terms and not with some pre-conceived-so-called-objective notions many anime fans use.

[Deep Blue]

No it cannot be objetive if a human is writing the article, a human by nature cannot and it's not objetive in anything that's what it means to be human.

[TexasDice]

25 minutes ago, solidbatman said:

I'd be more than happy to let you write a guest review for the Reviews Blog if you'd like. 

Thank you for this offer - I really do - but at this moment in time, I feel like I still need to learn a lot before I can write reviews on a professional level. While I am confident in my approach and devotion, I don't feel like having the necessary competence yet. (especially in regards to grammar and how to even formulate my thoughts. Keep in mind that my english is completely self-taught)  

I know Fuwa Reviews are not written by certified critics who went through years of writing school in order to talk about their favorite porn game, but I don't like to half-ass things and I feel like I need to learn more before I can meet my own standards. 

23 minutes ago, starlessn1ght said:

Also, do you read Clephas' blog entries? His comments are exactly the way you want. He always makes it clear when there is a definite bias on his opinion on a certain VN. He hates moege, but calls some of them kamige, etc. Plus, his opinions on VNs evaluates them with its own terms and not with some pre-conceived-so-called-objective notions many anime fans use.

Currently not, but now I might check them out in the future. 

[Deep Blue]

30 minutes ago, TexasDice said:

Thank you for this offer - I really do - but at this moment in time, I feel like I still need to learn a lot before I can write reviews on a professional level. While I am confident in my approach and devotion, I don't feel like having the necessary competence yet. (especially in regards to grammar and how to even formulate my thoughts. Keep in mind that my english is completely self-taught)  

I know Fuwa Reviews are not written by certified critics who went through years of writing school in order to talk about their favorite porn game, but I don't like to half-ass things and I feel like I need to learn more before I can meet my own standards. 

Currently not, but now I might check them out in the future. 

You can always write a review and then let another user do a QC for it and help you fixing some grammar or sentences that are not 100% "understandable". (I know some users do this and english is their main language  )

[Soulless Watcher]

1 hour ago, TexasDice said:

And you can disagree as much as you want, but I'm not going to budge from my position, that the audience is more important than the author. And not considering the interests of those who don't overlap with your one-dimensional opinion, is a waste in my book.

That's kinda the problem, we as a human being can only see something from our perspective. There are billions of people in the world and therefore billions of unique perspectives. So I ask what is the point of making the effort to try and develop a false persona to conjure up a false second perspective, when there are almost certainly dozens of actual perspectives (reviews) on the same work?

Who would you rather review a first person shooter? Myself (who hates them in general) and my alternative fictional persona Stacy (that totes luv dem 4ever), or Myself and Steven (an actual person that loves fps)? 

I don't see how you can serve the customer by lying to them.

[Clephas]

All reviewers with a working brain know there is no such thing as an objective review.

[VirginSmasher]

I think that reviews really shouldn't be objective. I feel that reviews should have some bias because if all reviews were objective, they'd be the exact same thing for each and every review.

[Valmore]

Completely objective? Probably not. I think one can come close to it, depending on the subject matter and one's personal bias for or against it, but it's hard to not put one's bias into a review somewhere. The question is can you contain that bias enough to give a fair review or not.

[Chronopolis]

Objective? No. Reasonable, and traceable back towards what standards they are judging the game by? Sure. If you want something that's more grounded, look at what they say, not the score they produce at the end.

When you give a review in/outside of a fandom you probably don't have the forsight to anticipate the rating other parties would give. You're job isn't to do that. A good review imo alludes to what standards and measure you are measuring, and a non-biased (balanced, to be more precise) reviewer is open to other standards.

The reason why reviews are useful is that many people use a piece of the same measuring-stick. I might react differently to Euphoria then Decay's review on it, but when I read his review I can be like "huh, indeed this was a good part", or "no, I don't think that really matters", or "no, I don't think that's even the case." It gives you hints for were you could judge them. It's a expression of interpretation/opinion/assessment  that allows the reader to compare their standards for goodness and preference.  "Euphoria was GREAT/SHIT" is fun, but it's not useful.

[onorub]

They can, as long as you can differentiate a "favorite game" from a "best game". For example, i believe Umineko is better than Higurashi objectively, but my favorite of the two is Higurashi.

[Kawasumi]

no.

thats everything I have to say.

[Bolverk]

I think a reviewer's job is to write about what was interesting about said work and what was bad. You can write whatever you want, in whatever fashion, artistic freedom and all that. Frankly I find that rather pointless when I am reading a review. I want to get something from a review. If the reviewer hates the genre of said work. And produces a long review about everything he doesn't like about the genre he sees in the work. His review is quite useless. Who wants to read something like that? Aside from the bashing fun. If you actually put some effort into being objective you will make something that is more practical for others. You can never be completely objective and neither should you try to. Rather gain the insight that you will see things in a different light. In addition to your personal view.