Jake Posted January 8, 2014 My unasked for 2 cents: It's stronger without bylines. When the front of the site and its reviews are faceless and nameless, it promotes objectivity. If you put a name on a review which has a score, I think it stomps on the joke because Name + Score = Opinion. Keeping the bank of names on a credits page alleviates that. Don't let sentimentality get in the way of your objectivity! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TychoCelchuuu Posted January 8, 2014 It's not sentimentality, it's basic human decency! If people are working for free they at least deserve exposure! Since people seem to disagree with me, though, I'm strongly considering Ben's suggestion of a separate credits page. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonCole Posted January 8, 2014 As it turns out, the exchange rate for Jake's 2 cents is like 1000 Idle Thumbs bucks. Also, didn't notice the alt-text thing until I was looking in the comments of RPS's Sunday Papers thing. Very brilliant, subtle touch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
osmosisch Posted January 8, 2014 I think the 'writers' page strikes a good balance between keeping the joke intact and giving due credit. I for one think it's more fun that way anwyay. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TychoCelchuuu Posted January 8, 2014 As it turns out, the exchange rate for Jake's 2 cents is like 1000 Idle Thumbs bucks. Also, didn't notice the alt-text thing until I was looking in the comments of RPS's Sunday Papers thing. Very brilliant, subtle touch. I'm definitely having fun with the alt text on each site. Sites that do fun things with alt text excite me, despite the fact that all three browsers I use don't seem to have a good way to let me check it easily, the way I used to be able to check it by hovering over an image. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
feelthedarkness Posted January 8, 2014 May I suggest calling it "The Objectivists" page. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JonCole Posted January 8, 2014 I'm definitely having fun with the alt text on each site. Sites that do fun things with alt text excite me, despite the fact that all three browsers I use don't seem to have a good way to let me check it easily, the way I used to be able to check it by hovering over an image. I used to have a Chrome extension that did that, I'm sure such a thing still exists though I don't use it because I forgot about it until just now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erkki Posted January 8, 2014 +1 for the separate credits page. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bjorn Posted January 8, 2014 You can actually turn the crediting thing into another part of the joke. You can explain that knowing the name of an author might let the reader make assumptions about their gender, nationality, religion, sexual orientation and whether or not they preferred the 6th or 8th Doctor. Even suspecting these details will leave some readers incapable of objectively reading the objective review, and so you attempt to provide some separation to let people read the reviews in the context that they were intended. Oh, and the whole reason I asked about if you wanted people to know that you did this was whether or not you preferred to try and remain completely faceless and anonymous as part of the joke. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erkki Posted January 8, 2014 Oh man, I'm writing one now and it's so fun! Strangely, I rarely ever wanted to write game reviews before this, but now that I can do it objectively, I'm loving it! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
miffy495 Posted January 9, 2014 Have a link to "The panelists" or "The committee" for your credits. You need a good, objective sounding name for them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TychoCelchuuu Posted January 9, 2014 A website wrote an article about the site! The guy even interviewed me. Warning: site is in Spanish. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TychoCelchuuu Posted January 9, 2014 A credits page has been created but won't go online until there are reviews to credit to others. In much more important news I updated the /wizard page to be more impressive. It also no longer automatically redirects - you must click the image. I may change that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nappi Posted January 9, 2014 I haven't read the entire thread, but have you considered adding an objective comments section for each review? It would have to be either monitored or completely fake, e.g. so that only Thumbs contributors can actually post comments while anyone else gets a "comment under objective review" message when he/she tries to post. Something like Commenter 1: This is the first comment. Commenter 2: This was a review of Gone Home. The review was objective. It described the gameplay mechanics of Gone Home. The review contained spoilers, but the fact that Sam [...] was not revealed. The review had one spelling error. Commenter 2: This review has x words. This would probably make the joke more obvious, though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TychoCelchuuu Posted January 9, 2014 People would clearly realize that their comments aren't getting through and it would frustrate them at best and make the joke obvious at worst. The site generally wouldn't work so hot with a comments section, I think, so I've just disabled them entirely. I've thought about adding forums a few years down the line, and the forum would auto-post threads for each review where people could discuss things, but I want to keep the review pages themselves pristine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted January 9, 2014 It would be so glorious to have a heavily moderated forum community where any opinions are immediately deleted and the offending party is punished accordingly. Of course doing that would undoubtedly prevent a community from even existing, but... WHAT IF IT DIDN'T??? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
miffy495 Posted January 10, 2014 That is the best response you could have given. I love how committed you are to this bit. I would have lost patience forever ago. Hats off to you, sir. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
juv3nal Posted January 10, 2014 If you're taking requests, I'd like to see a review of Longest Night (the free stargazing thingy for Night in the Woods). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Leego Posted January 10, 2014 I particularly enjoy the way that the OGR response tweets have a bot-like air about them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BadHat Posted January 11, 2014 That response was brilliant, got a laugh out of me. People would clearly realize that their comments aren't getting through and it would frustrate them at best and make the joke obvious at worst. The site generally wouldn't work so hot with a comments section, I think, so I've just disabled them entirely. I've thought about adding forums a few years down the line, and the forum would auto-post threads for each review where people could discuss things, but I want to keep the review pages themselves pristine. Well, sites for scientific journals have begun disabling their comments as they don't believe they add anything worthwhile to the discussion. Truly, is this site any less objective than they? Suggestion re: the credits page - have author bios, but make them all essentially the same. "Is a human person; consumes electronic video entertainment with scientific veracity in order to arrive at an objective appraisal of their worth." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frenetic Pony Posted January 11, 2014 Ok see now THAT is funny. I guess I'm just incredibly clinically minded most of the time, so I don't "get" this as a joke. Glad others do though. Edit - Idea, objective Let's Plays. You sit there in a monotone voice and describe what is happening onscreen as it happens. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Merus Posted January 11, 2014 Other suggestion: allow the author bios to have opinions, but not about games. Reassure people in the FAQ that people with opinions about a particular topic will not be trusted to write an objective review on games that touch that subject. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erkki Posted January 11, 2014 I wonder if a serious site could actually do reviews like this, then have author's subjective comments on the sideline as thought bubbles or something. Readers could also switch the author if the same game would be reviewed more than once and the main text would remain objective while the thought bubbles change. The score would be on the sideline that has the thought bubbles and would also change when you switch authors. (Just voiced a dumb thought, it's probably too difficult to write reviews like that) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TychoCelchuuu Posted January 11, 2014 If I had infinite money and time and were doing this for a living, I would hire a web designer to whip up a neat thing where the website would have a button floating on the UI, and pressing it would switch between "Objective Game Reviews" and "Subjective Game Reviews." Ever review would be paired with its comrade on the other site. Thus with one button click you could swap between the objective review and the subjective review. The objective review would be basically what it looks like right now, and the subjective review would be a personal opinion/report on the game, free from the burdens of having to do the boring stuff like talk about game mechanics, number of levels and weapons, and so on. Just one of the many ideas about the site. This one's an idea that will never come to fruition - I have more feasible and sensible ideas that I do plan to carry out in the future. In other news I managed to use the word "boring" in an objective review which I'm pretty proud of. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
