Do some sites actually get paid for the good reviews?

[Lordstar]

I guess i am still educated as I educated myself on a lot of things. I guess the wording would be that im not academic.

IcyCalm would be a good point to prove that reviews in the games industry do have a habit of sitting in there ivory towers thinking they are somehow a the scribes to our gaming lives of what we should like and not like. then again people are so passionate about there games its untrue. I know people who wont even play the SFIV becuase it went to 3D. Come on we all have guilty gaming pleasures

I can't tell, are you giving icycalm as an example of somebody sitting in his ivory tower, or that he's critical of people who do? Because it reads right either way.

The first. from what ive read of him on here he just seems to jump in and so say NO your point of view is wrong and this is why! Everyone is entitled to there point of view. Just like your allowed to dislike X-men arcade when i think its one of the better scroling beat em ups. ity all comes from these fucking part time profesionals. with there shitty ass blogs and such. . . speaking of which im working on the visualisation of my blog right now lol

[Jockel]

Dear Lordstar,

i really like and respect you.
But for fucks sake, learn to use "their", "there" and "they're" correctly.

XOXO
Love, Jockel.

[Skykid]

it all comes from these fucking part time profesionals.

Icycalm isn't a professional, he just talks a lot of shit on a website he made. You can tell because the grammar, editing and layout of his copy isn't up to scratch.

An example:

Because of slow connection speeds and high webspace and bandwidth costs, these sites were at first rudimentary, containing little more than a handful of screenshots and a few paragraphs of text, but it wasn't long before those technical difficulties were overcome, and official websites became extremely sophisticated, capable of delivering more information on each title, and of a much higher quality, than any all-purpose gaming site or magazine.

The commas after 'overcome' and 'quality' are all unnecessary and the sentence is much in need of some ';', or more '.'
One or the other.

This crazy comma tripping is when someone writes like they think, but not necessarily how others read. Also, professionals, part time or otherwise, don't throw CAPS LOCK sentences into their work for effect. Ask Charlie Chong.

[Jockel]

Icycalm isn't a professional, he just talks a lot of shit on a website he made. You can tell because the grammar, editing and layout of his copy isn't up to scratch.

Damn -- right.
It's always hilarious to see his writing style.
Especially because he thinks his writing is superb.

[austere]

Also, professionals, part time or otherwise, don't throw CAPS LOCK sentences into their work for effect

I bet they're tempted to do that sometimes, they're just too uppity to admit it.

Seriously though, your best work will be the one you enjoyed writing the most. As you said, he's not living off his writing so it wouldn't make any sense for him not to enjoy himself. The quality of his work will certainly suffer if he writes the way certain people want him to. Maybe I'm the odd one here, but the dude really cracks me up with his jokes/style so I'm not one of them.

[njiska]

Also, professionals, part time or otherwise, don't throw CAPS LOCK sentences into their work for effect. Ask Charlie Chong.

No kidding. There's a little thing called bold for the times when you need to stress something in print.