Game Criticism

Greg Costikiyan believes we need better criticiism of computer games, and delivers an instructive sermon on the difference between reviews and criticism.

Earlier, John Gruber pointed to this useful refutation of a critique of the MacBook Air because it has too many internal screws. You see this all the time in tech reviews in newspapers and business magazines: the reviewer will pontificate that the product in question is bound to be hurt because some particular feature they want was omitted. The iPhone will fail because it doesn't have Exchange integration. The Air will fail because it doesn't have a swappable battery. The iMac will be the ruin of Apple because it doesn't have a floppy disk. You know the drill.

It's easy to convince yourself that you could do it better, especially if you don't understand the technical and business constraints that underpin the design.