This year at PAX East 2014, I banded together with Susan Arendt from Joystiq and Chris Kohler from Wired Gane|Life to revisit some a few of the game reviews that haunt us — stuff that elicited such a strong reaction that we had to stop and wonder if we’d done the right thing. Here’s the description of the panel and its purpose:
Was I Wrong? Revisiting Controversial Reviews
Every game critic has That One Review that haunts them – too low, too high, or just plain unpopular in the eyes of the public. It’s enough to make the writer wonder if they really made a mistake or if the rest of the world is just nuts. A gathering of game reviewers past and present revisit That One Review to talk about their processes, what they did to weather the storm of controversy, the fallibility of human beings versus the assumed infallibility of the press, and ultimately how to handle criticism of criticism.
I’ve finally uploaded the audio from this panel, so if you couldn’t be there in person, you can still hear all about it. I’d include the PowerPoint but it’s embarrassingly simplistic and ugly, because I made it.
In any case, the file is available for download here. There are a few four-letter words in this panel, so parental guidance is suggested. Share and enjoy!