I give this article a 7 out of 10

With the continued advancement and popularity of gaming sites, whether it be a blog, forum, or full site. I believe that we can see a change in the way that we as gamers play games. These sites in the past couple years have helped shape the industry into what it is today. Its apparent to anyone that the gaming industry is more widely recognized by a broader spectrum of people today then any other time in its history.

Has this advancement in social media had a negative effect on the way we play our games though? Back before we had these online media outlets I would buy either games that looked fun to me, or that I had played at a friends house and enjoyed. I also would play each new game I bought until I had beaten it a few times at least.

Nowadays it seems that people depend too much on review scores and about what the new hot thing is in gaming. Even I have done this (I'm looking at you gta4), where we buy whichever game is hyped up by the big sites. Sure most of the time they are decent games, but how many of us play through all of these games even once?

Does this mentality spread even to the types of games that are created today? Its no secret that game developers want a high metacritic score and good things said about their game on the blogs and podcasts. Not to say that it is a driving force when creating a game, but I believe developers may worry too much on how their game will fare in this online community more then they should.

I believe the gaming community is very unique when compared to other media such as movies or music. We seem to be more vocal and tight knit and I think developers should try to take more advantage of that in other ways. Instead of having some PR robot give some cheesy line about the game and releasing a few screen shots, they should try to connect more with their consumers. Involve the community early on in the development cycle and keep doing so until release.

Not only would this help promote the game, but it would also allow the developer to share with the community what they are working on and in turn receive feedback from the community that could help shape their game into a better product. We all see game reviews that say how this or that game is decent but it has these few small problems that could have made it a much better game if they were addressed. So if they receive these opinions from the community at an earlier time in the development of the game they can address these things and make a better overall game.

Also they would be able to form a better relationship with their fanbase by sharing and involving in a way the development process with the community. Most of the bigger developers like to be more secretive about the development process, especially with their bigger titles. But with platforms such as xbox arcade and even handheld games, I think there's opportunity for even the bigger more traditional companies to experiment with new ways of interacting with their community.

I must note that Gabe Newell has recently talked about doing such a thing with valve's games in the future. I'm excited to see how they handle it, and to see if other companies follow suit and try something similar.