Uh... We made Kotaku...
- Thread starter Puddleyc
- Start date
Portal 2 spoilers = no read.
I can read it after I finally buy, play, and beat Portal 2.
I can read it after I finally buy, play, and beat Portal 2.
Keero
Tribe of Judah Membership Administrator
It wasn't CGA though, it was CGGR.
True. That said, I wouldn't worry too much about being on Kotaku. I'm inclined to say that most of the people spouting off do so out of their pre-established ideas and feelings, and simply see this article as a chance to rant in the comments box; this would be the case no matter what an article itself had to say.
It's not the first time CCG has gotten such press, and I'm sure it won't be the last. Fortunately, these things haven't really been too big of a deal in practice. A troll or two may hit the forums or send hatemail, but in terms of hurting CCG's mission, it will probably not even matter.
Sometimes, bad press is better than no press. People interested in CCG may actually find a site they didn't know existed as a result of this.
And good or bad feeling toward the site doesn't matter in terms of web traffic, so in come more site hits.
i think im confused.... what happened now?
Simonedes
New Member
That makes me.... rage.
"Oh I was on the internet herp-derpin' around and decided to troll some Christian websites to see if they were as super-spiritual as I thought they were. Instead I see that they leave out really any review of a game and just do a checklist to see if Christians can handle the content of the game. What a bunch of morons."
Tim Chick can go.... buy himself a smoothy.
I really hate overly generalized bull of this magnitude. I really dislike the amount of terrible coverage we've (as a Christian community) gotten thanks to alot of peoples bad run-ins with sect Christianity in th past, but I also like the two or three other people at least trying to share the gospel whilst trying to explain our position and the fact this Tim Chick guy is an incredibly loud mouth bigot and a terrible writer.
GOOD DAY SIR!
"Oh I was on the internet herp-derpin' around and decided to troll some Christian websites to see if they were as super-spiritual as I thought they were. Instead I see that they leave out really any review of a game and just do a checklist to see if Christians can handle the content of the game. What a bunch of morons."
Tim Chick can go.... buy himself a smoothy.
I really hate overly generalized bull of this magnitude. I really dislike the amount of terrible coverage we've (as a Christian community) gotten thanks to alot of peoples bad run-ins with sect Christianity in th past, but I also like the two or three other people at least trying to share the gospel whilst trying to explain our position and the fact this Tim Chick guy is an incredibly loud mouth bigot and a terrible writer.
GOOD DAY SIR!
No point raging over it. Haters gonna hate, trolls gonna troll. In any given day, there's more than enough work to do in the Christian gaming community without responding to the usual brand of trolling.
But having not read the article (I'm avoiding Portal 2 spoilers), I can't make an informed decision on whether Chick is trolling or posting sincere thoughts that seek to initiate a respectful and mutually beneficial dialogue with Christian gamers on how we view popular media.
Simonedes
New Member
No he's honestly just being a jerk about the entire thing. My paraphrase of the article is pretty much spot on aside from spelling out exactly what he was wanting to find. He is a jerk and needs to go get a smoothie....
Elader Arkon
Helped Tek test a thing
I read it, didn't find it nearly as offensive or trollish as I expected from the comments here. Sure there was some sarcasm involved, I can get fairly snarky myself when I go someplace legitimately expecting one thing and and instead getting something totally different that is almost identical to thing's I've already experienced. The only thing really trollish was the title.
Some of the things he expected to see, I wouldn't mind reading myself. I know from experience and other's posting here that CCGR isn't designed for that. But he doesn't. I personally don't read or use the reviews at CCGR or any other numerical review site (metacritic, rottentomatoes, ign, etc.), because I hate the concept of numbers determining the quality of something.
What I'd personally love to see would be Top Gear type thing for gamers/geek culture -but that's beside the point.
Some of the things he expected to see, I wouldn't mind reading myself. I know from experience and other's posting here that CCGR isn't designed for that. But he doesn't. I personally don't read or use the reviews at CCGR or any other numerical review site (metacritic, rottentomatoes, ign, etc.), because I hate the concept of numbers determining the quality of something.
What I'd personally love to see would be Top Gear type thing for gamers/geek culture -but that's beside the point.
CCGR
Member
yeah we've gotten over 35,000 page views in the past couple of days. I've had to delete several language ridden youtube and CCG review comments. I've gotten a couple respectful e-mails, comments and a person wanting to help with the site. We'll see how this impacts us in the long run....nothing the server or my thick skin can't handle
Odale
Active Member
This is directly from the article: "I followed a link to the review because I was genuinely curious to read a Christian perspective on Portal 2 ... Okay, I’m not really a Christian, so it’s not my job to come up with that stuff, but that’s the sort of thing I’d like to read about."
He states twice, that he is unequivocally, genuinely curious about CCG - this means that he was not trolling.
Here is his next paragraph: "Instead, I got a review that’s no different from what I could read on a boring [expletive] secular site like Gamespot or IGN. It’s all stuff that may as well be on the back of a box. Not a shred of insight, much less Christian insight. Which is really nothing new. So many reviews are dryly observational, minus any meaningful perspective, or much insight, or even context."
Here he stated what he actually found and his opinions - he was not trolling CCG or demeaning Christianity.
Most of the final paragraph: "... Instead, the Christian perspective is reduced to an absurd morality score, explained here, in which points are docked based on the presence of occult themes, profanity, violence, homosexuality, or disrespect for family values. In other words, the only potentially interesting observations are reduced to a numerical score that equates Christianity with facile morality. I suppose it’s about as helpful as any review score."
He states that what he expected to find was dwindled down to a score and was disappointed. Notice how he states that it is as useful as any other review method?
Simonedes, I think your paraphrasing of what Mr. Chick said was not so much paraphrasing as it was a generalization through imaginative wordsmithing. If we, as Christians, go around accusing non-Christians for doing things they aren't actually doing, it only makes our job harder.
I think that's what The Escapist is good for... though he isn't very clean, haha (but neither is Top Gear).
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Keero
Tribe of Judah Membership Administrator
Check in the discussion of the article, it has some frank, yet friendly, discussion with CCGR.
Elader Arkon
Helped Tek test a thing
Yeah I spend a ton of time on The Escapist. To the point I have considered making it my default home page (which is currently google)...
Odale
Active Member
I definitely have it bookmarked!
Simonedes
New Member
Here's the thing what he wanted was a super spiritual interpretation of game and didnt find it. Wrote an article about something he didn't find and basically called it a dumpster fire of a review.
The curiosity on his part was just wondering if we were super spiritual Steve's, so that a) his preconceptions could be proven b) trolling purposes c) cuz he was herp derping around.
The majority of the language he uses is not very... nice. "Instead, I got a review that's no different from what I could read on a boring ******oops*******oops*******oops* secular site like Gamespot or IGN."
And reference to Christian scoring:
"No such luck. Instead, the Christian perspective is reduced to an absurd morality score, explained here, in which points are docked based on the presence of occult themes, profanity, violence, homosexuality, or disrespect for family values. In other words, the only potentially interesting observations are reduced to a numerical score that equates Christianity with facile morality."
He is not being nice at all not doing a shred of actual research as to why there is not a "and here is why GlaD0s is like Jesus" review, and then lumps us within the bounds of IGN which is a pretty terrible review site by his own admission by labeling us and them as terrible game reviewers.
So let's just point out the things he said that just doesn't add up (at least from my perspective)
1) I was curious if these Christian review guys had some kinda super spiritual analogy for Portal 2
2) Dang they didn't and their review is worse than IGN
3) Their morals are super strict and typical of religion glad I'm not like them 'bahahaha'
Read any of the comments and that's the general consensus of the meaning of his article.
Odale I love you as a brother but I think this is incredibly naive as to read things on the internet and not expect the worse.
internet + total anonymity = super duper total depravity
I cite 4chan.com for reference of the above equation.
The curiosity on his part was just wondering if we were super spiritual Steve's, so that a) his preconceptions could be proven b) trolling purposes c) cuz he was herp derping around.
The majority of the language he uses is not very... nice. "Instead, I got a review that's no different from what I could read on a boring ******oops*******oops*******oops* secular site like Gamespot or IGN."
And reference to Christian scoring:
"No such luck. Instead, the Christian perspective is reduced to an absurd morality score, explained here, in which points are docked based on the presence of occult themes, profanity, violence, homosexuality, or disrespect for family values. In other words, the only potentially interesting observations are reduced to a numerical score that equates Christianity with facile morality."
He is not being nice at all not doing a shred of actual research as to why there is not a "and here is why GlaD0s is like Jesus" review, and then lumps us within the bounds of IGN which is a pretty terrible review site by his own admission by labeling us and them as terrible game reviewers.
So let's just point out the things he said that just doesn't add up (at least from my perspective)
1) I was curious if these Christian review guys had some kinda super spiritual analogy for Portal 2
2) Dang they didn't and their review is worse than IGN
3) Their morals are super strict and typical of religion glad I'm not like them 'bahahaha'
Read any of the comments and that's the general consensus of the meaning of his article.
Odale I love you as a brother but I think this is incredibly naive as to read things on the internet and not expect the worse.
internet + total anonymity = super duper total depravity
I cite 4chan.com for reference of the above equation.
Elader Arkon
Helped Tek test a thing
Really? I definitely didn't get that from the article, and as such I don't think so.
What's wrong with that? I actually think that is almost a compliment, because it doesn't put CCGR down below anything. It actually counts the site as equal to IGN or Gamespot. Hardly a 'not very... nice' thing. Or, since you (or he apparently) think IGN is terrible, he finds it no different than everything else out there. It's all a matter of wording and perspective... and you're being downright negative.
Hi, here's CCGR's Gamer Reviewing Standard. You literally run through a checklist of morality questions when reviewing the game. It would be dang near impossible for a non christian to NOT consider it an 'absurd morality score'. I actually kindof agree with him on this.
1) legitimate question. Even the secular site The Escapist had a fantastic and deeply thought provoking look at a specific videogame like Mass Effect 2. Why shouldn't he expect more of that kind of stuff from a site that on the surface looks to be dedicated to Christian views on games?
2.) Unfortunately he didn't find what he was looking for, because I don't know that such a site exists. He came, he saw, and like me, found that it was mostly numbers based. I don't care for numbers, and neither does he. Add to that, he is dissapointed, of course he would be a little bit negative.
3. See the morality checklist on their site. Of course a non Christian is going to think that, I don't know that I could find a non Christian who wouldn't think that. Of course the checklist also means it is likely to be the only objective score of a videogame out there for what that's worth...
To read things on the internet and instantly expect the worse is the same as reading it an expecting the best. Both are incredibly naive. The social internet and can be viewed as a large city. Most people in a large city are anonymous but we see everything good and bad that is the result of their work. Bad stuff is easier to find. It is the incredible amount of good stuff that literally keeps the thing running and remains in the background because we naturally expect it to be there. Citing one thing as reference to the total depravity would be like referencing one street in a large city as a reason the whole city is the worst place in the world. Doesn't help your case much.
Neirai the Forgiven
Christian Guilds List Manager
Actually, if I may be so bold I'd say you got it backwards.
The OP seemed to find parallels between the action in Portal 2 and his/her perception of what Christianity is about.
Therefore, he went to CCG because he was curious (genuinely curious) to see what the Christian gaming think-tank thought of the game.
By think-tank, I mean, "scholarly or pseudoscholarly thinking." Not "super-spiritual" but "literary from a Christian stand-point."
What he found was that CCG did not host a "Christian think-tank." Instead, CCG does what it was meant to do: crunch games into acceptability ratings, not comment on them in esoteric and existential ways.
Being disappointed at his lack of success, the OP jumped to the (possibly correct) conclusion that there was no Christian literary think-tank for games, perhaps also jumped to the (dead wrong) conclusion that Christianity is opposed to literary think-tanks, and let his spleen out in a negative review.
Nowhere in his post do I see him wanting a "super-spiritual review." Fundamentally, I think he was saying "I see something here. Do you Christians see something here as well? What do you see?" and got (I'm pulling numbers out of the air) "5.5 / 10 for morality."
Neirai the Forgiven
Christian Guilds List Manager
Where do we go from here?
Maybe our best move is to 1) play Portal 2, and 2) invite the OP over here for some discussions of a) what he saw/thought he saw in Portal 2 and b) what we think of it.
Maybe our best move is to 1) play Portal 2, and 2) invite the OP over here for some discussions of a) what he saw/thought he saw in Portal 2 and b) what we think of it.
Just as long as everyone keeps it civil and uses spoiler tags when appropriate.
Remember, it's:
[noparse]
Spoiler text
to post:
Spoiler text
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