Re: Game Reviews: Spoiled By The Internet

On Sun, 22 Sep 2024 11:01:56 -0400, Alan D Ray <nalayar@sccoast.net>
wrote:

>
I don't normally post here, although I read this group almost every
day. Seems to have one of the most heavily trafficed groups within
Usenet with legitimate posts.
As someone who has been computer gaming for a long time (not
console gaming), and as someone who used to get subscriptions
to Computer Gaming World and PC Games, and still has quite
a few back issues (and I also subscribed to some other mags for the
Commodore computers), you are pretty correct in your assessment
of game review, with one big exception.
Computer Gaming World had at one time a contributing writer
(don't know is this person was an editor) by the name of
Scorpia, and had a column in a lot of the earlier issues called
"Scorpion's Tale," where she would not only review the games
(she played RPGs and adventure games), but also gave
some hints through-out her reviews, and she could be
critical, sometimes very critical of some of the games
(the one Might & Magic game comes to mind).
Her thing was that she ALWAYS played the games to
completion, and didn't use ANY hints.
She also (and she WAS a "she") offered hints and
solutions if you were stuck in a game by sending her a S.A.S.E to a
post office box in New York City. This predates the internet by many
years. I did just this several times and always got a reply back.
She was a very private person, and supposedly only the editor/
publisher knew who she was and actually saw her, as well as
maybe one or two others.
She got fired from the magazine when Ziff-Davis bought it.
A lot of the Computer Gaming World issues are on-line at
cgwmuseum.org.
Just throwing this out there.

I remember loving Scorpia's articles back in the day, and I'd be the
first to admit she was one of the better writers. But going back I
find her less useful. She didn't really do reviews, for one thing; if
you didn't know what the game she was writing about was, you'd not
have a clear idea by the end of her articles. They were more
analytical, focused more on her likes and dislikes than the actual
game design. Head and shoulders above what others were doing, but
fairly average to what we can get today.

That Scorpia stands out at all says more about the quality of her
contempories' writing than her own.

IMHO. YMMV.