The most compelling case should be for game-ness

An excellent article, especially in the last two paragraphs.  Overall, I think I agree with most of the points in the article, especially the notion that games should be considered an experience in their own right, rather than having to specifically measure up to already-established art forms.  And while I’ve certainly done the traditional “review” style in the past, I can definitely see the point of evaluating a game based on what it’s like to actually play it, not how all of its different elements can be broken down into a strict numeric score.  In that sense, as much as I do occasionally rely on Metacritic for at-a-glance game ratings, I do appreciate reading reviews by sites such as RPS, where the goal is to explain the experience of playing rather than simply assigning a grade.  While my own reviews do usually have a specific focus, I hope that they also take this into account, that it’s a description not just of what the game is, but what makes it compelling (or not) to play.

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