I had my reply written up, and then I realized I needed some clarification. How are you defining a reviewer versus a user? Most reviewers, though not all, are also users for one thing. Are you talking professional reviews? Reviews on amazon. When you say player consensus, how are you getting that consensus, a couple guys on a board saying this game is great or something else? Thanks.

I would suspect that he's talking in very general terms about a lot of different things. I know of a couple games that were given good reviews on websites and then did something to alienate their fan following, but other than that I don't usually pay attention to what the majority of gamers think about a given game, however that opinion is revealed (by polls, forums, chatting with my real-world friends, and whatnot).

Reviewers tend to take a more cursory look at games- and often aren't huge fans of the genre.

Players tend to have bought the game, and are often huge fans of the genre, and don't have other deadlines to worry about, so they can see more of the game in depth.  Someone I know reviews games for a commercial game mag, and she often has 3-5 games to work one at once- and some of them require legitimate time investments, while others are shovelware.  It's hard to go in depth as a commercial reviewer, unless you're at a specialist site.  

Pro reviewers are great for casual fans.  User reviews are more useful for fans of the genre.

That said, I don't trust pro reviews of games with large budgets due to payola concerns.  

Plus, there's the fact that the most vocal players of a lot of games are hard-core fans of the series, and will thus both notice and care about things like continuity and contiguousness that reviewers who aren't painfully familiar with the storyline wouldn't pick up on.

I personally don't pay much attention to either.

Well they both have advantages and disadvantages. You've got fanatics that will give anything attached to their favorite series or publisher or developer a ten, and you've got pro. reviewers knocking down games for reasons the fans actually like the series.

I will certainly say between the two, I've managed to save my money and not wind up with a game like Spore.

I can speak from some experience on that.

It takes a lot of time to review most games properly, especially strategy games. Unfortunately, that's time that your average gaming journalist doesn't have given the sheer quantity of garbage games you have to give fair play to before trying to find new and interesting ways of describing them as 'derivative crap' while trying to avoid working 50-80+ hours a week.

This game complicates matters due to Stardock rewriting core mechanics as they go. That's going to leave the critic with a dilemma. Do you review it for what it is now or for what you think it's ultimately going to become? My solution would have been to score it as it is now and if it was less than I expected it to be in the future to promise to return to it in a couple months.

I've never understood why nobody does follow-up reviews. I think it's perfectly reasonable to allow for first impressions being a lot less accurate than the ultimate experience you have with something that you could end up doing for 100s of hours. The first 10 hours of Oblivion were pretty damn spectacular as I recall. Now all I see is a pretty but hopelessly busted RPG with absolutely no replay value whatsoever.

I suppose it does pay off then.

The reason I don't pay much attention though is my opinion generally seems to conflict with most reviewers/gamers in any case - though I suppose they are useful for learning more about games but in general those arbitrary numbers at the end of a review mean nothing to me.

I'd be happier if the number system were either removed entirely or something else took its place. I value 1 star and "max" star reviews for details and specific issues mentioned, not the score.

It's no different than movie reviews really. Some of thest best selling, crowd pleasing movies don't sit real well with critics, and vice versa.

There's a few issues I think.

1. Some games are deceptive, and most critics don't spend very long with them. Civ 5 is a great example. The first playthrough is quite good. It's only after you get good at it that you start noticing things like how the new happiness and luxury system doesn't scale to large maps and works really badly the larger the map is. Or that puppet states which sound great on paper are in fact a disaster and will bankrupt you if you actually use them. Or that worker automation should never be used. Or that annexed cities also suck and don't get many bonuses from social policies (the optimum way to play is to actually raze everything you can and just build a new city in the best spots). Or that the AI is TERRIBLE, doesn't know how to deal with the new combat rules, barely builds ships, and pretty well never builds airplanes.

Once you do know that, the game gets boring quickly because it's just so much easier then Civ 4. Very few critics will ever play long enough to realize that and most of them don't know the game well enough to see any of it. Tom Chick's review describes what happens almost perfectly though. Users on the other hand play a lot and study the game, so they do notice it.

2. Reviews like certain genres more then others. This is a lot like in the movies, where there's critic movies, and movies that are actually popular. In the last few years they haven't overlapped very well (to the point that they added 5 more nominees for Best Picture Oscar due to viewers turning out after years of nothing anybody had actually seen being nominated). Users on the other hand only tend to buy and review genres they like.

3. Some games just get a pass due to their name. I'm looking at Final Fantasy 14 as an example. This review talks about what is flat out dealbreaker stuff, but gives it over 80% despite that. I mean, how do you end a review with "We can’t recommend that you spend $50, and then $12.99 a month after the first 30 days, on a title that has as many flaws as FFXIV does" and give it 84% at the same time? (Final Fantasy 13 got equally easy treatment for what if it were called "New Franchise RPG 1" would have been absolutely demolished for being the worlds prettiest hallway simulator.) 14 is a buggy, flawed, broken mess with some of the worst controls a PC game has ever seen. This is amateur stuff that was bad when it was called FF 11, and in a MMO landscape post WoW is simply unacceptable trash. The users are getting it right and the reviewers are out to lunch, because a Final Fantasy game really can't be rated that badly.

4. When the users hate the DRM, they rate games into oblivion no matter what they think of the game itself. Reviews don't tend to do that.

cash money vs. fandom in that exact order.

I too was completely baffled at my experience playing FFXIV's beta, and the defense of the pos menu system they are using, on top of keeping all the servers in Japan making a slow menu even worse with lag plus the fact the game is clearly, clearly designed for a controller. Most of the pro. reviewers are giving the game the sound pounding it deserves. The review you've mentioned is not the first time I've seen a reviewer write something like: not fit for consumption but then give it a pretty good score. Gamespot gave it a harsh review so did Game Trailers. I enjoyed Game Trailers' review best, maybe because he speaks well, and as sad as it was to experience some of the flaws, he made me smile a few times as he pointed them out. http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-final-fantasy/705893 . I think between the two XIV is getting a  mixed bag review when it should be pretty down there. Maybe they're listening to the begging of not reviewing the game at launch from SE... hmmm, where have i heard that before?

This is because devs pay for the score but usually don't bother to look at the actual review so the reviewer gets away with saying that the game isn't good without losing the advertising dollars from the devs.

Take a look at Grand Theft Auto IV.  Huge budget, massive advertising campaign leading to its release and every website in creation dedicated articles every day to anything remotely connected to GTA IV.  It was a critical and financial smash, with some reviewers calling it the future of video games.  It has one of the highest Meta-critic scores in histroy, and sold a bucket load of copies on its openeing day.  Every single aspect of the game was hailed as perfect.
Fast forward till today, and see how the 'general consensus' has changed.  The boring fetch quests, the annoying mobile phone, the weak sub-stories and conflicting themes and the loss of the over-the-top fun that made San Andreas one of the all time greatest games.

Now, take a look at Deus Ex.  Not a critical smash, not a huge financial success, minimal advertising and a modest budget.  Called an 'interesting mix-up' upon its release.  Critised for it's visuals, cliche plot and glitchy A.I.
Fast forward till today, and now Deus Ex is widely considered the greatest game ever made, with all of it's perceived faults merely adding to its charm and wonder.

Reviewers in recent times tend to have two review score systems.  The first caters to any normal release; it ranges from 1-9.  The second review scale caters to high profile releases, such as installments in major franchises.  It ranges from 8-10.
Final Fantasy XIII is widely considered the worst FF game ever made and certainly has been mocked enough for being a boring, long winded game with little to no actual gameplay.  It's boring plot, cliche one-note characters and annoying voice acting combined with the total lack of exploration left fans with a bad taste in their mouths.  Despite this, it received 8's and 9's on its release, and sold pretty well.  In hindsight, many reviewer publications refer to the FFXIII as a terrible game, yet their review doesn't reflect this.
Part of it is simple; Square Enix buys a lot of advertisements, if you piss them off they are less likely to buy adds in your magazine/website.  The other part is also simple; the reviewers get caught up in the hype.  Modern Warfare 2 is a prime example; some websites had coverage of the line forming to buy the game at release, interviewing people who had simply bought the game - they hadn't even opened the box to play it yet!

I trust User Reviews, nothing else.

Generally speaking, reviewers will not give low ratings to established franchises and games with considerable hype.  There are exceptions, but the game has to be a complete disaster for that to happen, and it'll still score quite well given its actual state.  I'm sure we could argue to death the 'why' of it, but I suspect it varies on a case-by-case basis anyways and there are lots of underlying factors.

Frankly, balanced reviews are hard to come by these days, and I usually put in at least 3 hours of research before buying a new title.  If I'm satisfied after viewing gameplay videos, trailers, and reading multiple opinions, I'll give it a whirl.  This approach has been very successful, and since I don't buy games very frequently it's easy for me to put in that kind of research, but it's totally impractical for people who buy a new game every few weeks.