Videogamer.com changing review policy to remove "wall of text"

One UK consumer games site has revealed plans to change its review policy to offer more bite-sized information to readers.

VideoGamer.com has revealed that starting from its July 22nd review of Pikmin 3 on Wii U the site will shorted its reviews to around 300 words instead of bombarding you with a wall of text”.

There are many reasons for this change, the major one being that when it comes to reviews, many people just want to know a simple thing: is the game good or not,” the site explained.

Hurling thousands of words at you feels like a hangover from the days of magazines and as times change – and as online and mobile continue to shake up how we all consume our media – we feel it’s time to move with them.”

It adds that it will not be reducing its per title content – instead, it will now supplement it with more articles about each title that will focus on elements we believe need to be talked about or highlighted in order to have a true appreciation, or the opposite, for the game in question”.

The reaction amongst games writers on Twitter has been mostly negative, with accusations that the move is a further step in the perceived ‘dumbing down’ of games writing and journalism in general.

This is arguably a harsh appraisal. Readers who want detailed essays about games will still have plenty of options open to them across a range of very good websites. Consumers who simply want to know, on a fundamental level, whether a game is good and worth dropping upwards of 50 on may find this new approach services them very well, however.