I cant freaking wait. This is going to be so amazing. From what the "Coming Soon" looks like, I think this will be a great addition to the Channel Awesome team.

I wonder if Blistered Thumbs will accept Let's Play contributors. I have a ton of stuff I'd like to share!

it'd be about time for you to join the official contributors page, you're awesome

Wow, thanks a lot!

wow CalmJoe/AverageJoe is scary... He seems like a mad man to me =D

I love how red his face went there right before he exploded =D

Personally I think number ratings are relatively useless. They don't actually give you an idea of the content of a game, or why you might like/hate it. They're pretty arbitrary. By the time I get to the end of one of Joe's reviews and he throws his score up, I already know what he thinks of it, and have gathered enough info to make a judgment about whether or not I want to look into the game further.

If you absolutely MUST have a rating system, let it be a blow by blow of the game's features, such as:

Music: 7/10
Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay:4/10
Pricing: 5/10

You guys, this is going to be AWESOME. I especially love the journalism feature. I've been working on makin' videos but I JUST HAPPEN to be an experienced text-based impromptu journalist who JUST HAPPENS to be acquainted with a few game developers for a few games I know people are very, very well acquainted with. So I think I'll just get right on that and see if any of them would like to do an interview. =D

Also, though, here's a thought... obviously, I have NO IDEA how the site is going to be organized but I think it would be a really great idea to categorize content by game genre. I expect the really big-name RPGs are going to get preference, which makes sense, because the games most people play are obviously going to attract the most content and the most attention from site visitors. But I also think it's worth giving some attention to games that AREN'T the big sellers, award-winners, and nostalgic classics. I'm especially talking about having a way for people to look at reviews and other content relating to simpler, single-player games for things like the DS... You'll see on TV that Nintendo is itself marketing the DS for adults, and especially adult women. There are a lot of games available for the DS which are geared towards adults and particularly adult women or just a generic adult casual gamer crowd that are worth covering... I mean things like Pictocross and... that one that teaches you how to cook. I'm sure there will be plenty of snarkers who want to cover the really absurd little girl games like friggin'... Hannah Montana and that drowned-in-Barbie-pink crap. But hey... what about a way to let people look at content relating to games that are designed for casual gamers?

Maybe you guys have already thought of that and maybe it's not as big a potential audience base as I think, but hey... just a thought. =D

Totally jazzed to see the new site launched!

I wonder if our logins here will carry onto the new site, sort of like a Channel Awesome login instead of a TGWTG and a separate BT login.

Also, I'm curious if this is just going to be a review/news site or if you guys might be interested in some more analytical stuff, like ludology or academic/artistic study of games.

It'd be highly convenient if the logins carried over.

With the various rating systems available, I would find a simple 1-10 rating system to be ideal. Of course, that makes a dead-average game a 5.5, which involves half points. I don't like half points. I think it would be entertaining to have 5 be slightly below average, and 6 be slightly above average, and, in the (hopefully rare) occasion of an actually completely average game, it getting noted, specifically and separately, as completely average.

I like Joe's rating system
1-10 and 5 is average because that's the middle ground

My thoughts:
-Use the 1-10 system
-Bring back the view counter. I miss seeing how my views my posts got so I could gauge whether people were interested in that topic. 1000 views speaks more than 10 comments.

I'm not sure if I agree with that. Views mean that the title attracted people, but comments show that people actually cared about your post.

These journalists you're looking for: is it absolutely vital that they've been through some sort of journalism school, or can "amateurs" be offered a journalism gig on the website without any formal training as long as they can write?

As far as reviews systems go, I'm generally opposed to them, but the Angry Joe Show ?/10 system works fine by me. 5/10 should be the average score, something a lot of gamers don't seem to get, strangely. I don't want Blistered Thumbs to turn into another GameTrailers.

It really depends if you're a great writer and know the games industry you will have a shot. It's about knowing how to write about anything gaming related and give facts.

Good video Joe, I give it a 7.8. =D
A couple of questions: Will the Blistered Thumbs content move off TGWTG and only be available on the new site?
When's your planned launch date?

Obviously exclusive content is essential to get the traffic flowing to the new site - my only slight concern was if it was going to be sufficiently different to what we get on here to keep people interested.
Going by this video, it sounds like you've got that covered.

PS: I actually work as a journalist myself, though whether I'd have enough time to play games and review them is highly debatable.
For anybody else who's interested, what's the best way for them to audition for the new site?

[b]BT producers will still be on TGWTG.[/b]

Awesome! I know a lot of people were wondering about that, myself included.

But, as for Uberpig's last question: how does one audition for Blistered Thumbs? Or ThatGuyWithTheGlasses for that matter?

Have a peek at the forums, there's a whole long post about submission guidelines there posted by Rob if I remember correctly.

[b]BT will have its own submission guidelines soon. You can find it at launch![/b]

Yeah, I'm all up for the 1-10 rating, when it comes to 1-5, it's slightly constraining and the scores can have a number of interpretations, not a problem with 1-10.

And the idea of you becoming a bit of a news room for the video games community sounds interesting.

I look forward to the future.

[color=green]I am definitely looking forward to this launch.[/color]

Why do you need a-whole-nother website when we can all just swing by here? I mean granted sifting through a menu on TGWTG isn't all that pretty, but it's serviceable. Why can't any of these ideas be filtered through this website?

[b]You're talking about combining two universes of content together, thats very hard and some people dont want to have to wade through content they dont care about to find what they are looking for.[/b]

You're doing it wrong. You need to get paid by the game developers that make this trash before you can calm down.

Also, why haven't you guys reviewed League of Legends yet? Or have I missed that review. Just seems a bit strange the best online game at the moment could be overlooked.

It's hard to believe this is finally happening. It's been a long time coming, and I'm excited for what having a separate site will bring for Blistered Thumbs. =D

As for the rating scale, I'm going to have to agree with the majority of commenters here and say a 10 point scale with whole numbers and 5 being average would be for the best. It's one of the simplest scales one can use and it gets the point across of how good or bad a game is quite easily.

It's also cool to hear about the site being a mecca of sorts for all the interesting news, reviews, and the like that comes to the video game world. I already go to a few different websites to try to get information along those lines, but it would be even better to have a site with you guys there.

I'd also like to know how you're going to go about getting journalists for the site. Doing a review series or something similar for the site definitely sounds like an interesting thing to at least try and the more support and content the site has, the better. =)

I should probably cut myself off before I get too long-winded, so I'll just say "Here's to Blistered Thumbs and another step toward Channel Awesome dominating the world!" :evil:

Seriously though Joe, it seems as though "4 hours!!!" is your Bat Credit Card. :snicker:

http://tvtropes.org/ pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ BerserkButton

Do not press it!

Hey, I'm a long-time viewer, but this is my first comment on a video. Just thought I'd throw my two cents in.

I think the site should have three tabs regarding games. [Reviews], [Updates], and [Gaming News]. [Reviews] for (obviously) reviews and list videos. [Updates] for news on particular games that are of great interest (confirmed characters for MVC3 for example). And [Gaming News] for gaming in the media, news on EVO or other such tourneys, research into gaming, etc.

Really looking forward to the site. Hope everything goes according to plan.

[b]I think you will be happy with the tabs we've got then![/b]

Rating system?

Do NOT use numbers stars etc, non of that.

Just give your opinion, tell people its good or not.

[b]We live in a day an age where theres a group of people that like quick looks and others who like long reviews - we can serve both with a summary section and a score in addition to the full review. How does it hurt either side - it seems great for both![/b]

If you go for numbers, make sure that every number means something and is actually used.
And never give out a 10! ^^
(No really, a 10 is supposed to be something like a perfect game, a game tha anyone will like even if they dislike the genre, I've NEVER seen one of those! ^^)

I personally don't care for numbers, as what is actually said in the review is much more important (and interesting!) then some arbitrary number.

What I would do, if you want a uniform way for the website, is for the reviewers to give a "thumbs up" "thumbs down" or "mediocre" to the game, and let the numerical rating be done by the fans.

I am really looking forward to this and am sure you guys will do a great webzone :)

[b]1's and 10's will require site wide agreement and approval. They will happen so rarely id assume.[/b]

Please, no law section, that's too regional.
If it is a very important law, ok, but no little things cause for the asian and europian readers it has no meaning, and most of the time a law depends on interpretation so it's too hard to understand for normal people.

I hope you give news about games, movies of games and hardware.

Greetz and good luck

I'd still like to see them telling us about new censorship laws made by paranoid governments from around the world from time to time.

But I'm really not looking forward to this. I understand the need to expand, and I know this site is getting a bit crowded, but I'm going to miss having everything in the same spot. I mean, having game reviews, movie reviews, and all sorts of other stuff was awsome, IS awsome.

It's going to seem a whole lot different with all the video-game content someplace else. Sigh.

[b]Everything will still be in the same spot, dont worry. Let me know what you think when we go live.[/b]

about logins:
i think you should implement OpenID.

about news feed:
RSS, kinda like it right now on TGWTG - mixed and per author, per theme for selection.

about rating rules:
it's tough. i like how Sage does it and don't go in numbers because good games nowadays are mixtures of great deal of script, sound, code writing, various designing (art, model, level, etc.) and bold but carefull leadership of project managers, producers, directors, etc in balancing all the work.

even one of those things, if done with quality, can make game stand out but several or all of them automatically sends it to classics and gives cult status. and it's really sometimes unfair to judge such games harsh because of minor setbacks.

it becomes more of "humanities" thing, an art, along with music and movies. and it can not be rated because it's a thing of tastes and tastes are unratable. like russian saying goes: "they don't judge about tastes".
because it can never be an objective opinion, so rating is meaningless out of scope of rater's mind.

so, you may _try_ to be more objective by rating each aspect of game separately and not just give away "summary". and to implement separate "summary" user rating for site members.

arty stuff is not measured in numbers, only sorts of crap are.

PS: main thing - just don't allow site to become averbloated with java, flash, "achievement"/penis- contest "features" and all other slow & retarded shit.

[b]You got it! We dont want to slow the site down either[/b]

Alright, man. Here's my thoughts:

For the user generated content you should create like shows, a la Screwattack, where multiple users can post blogs under one single blog.
And give user generated content the chance to be promoted on the main site, and not just under the user generated content section.

The 0-10 format is where you should go. Seeing as there can be games that are worth the perfect rating of ten, why can't games be considered a 0.
What you could also do is have a Buy it/Rent it/F it system.

About the news, have a main news feed that displays all of the news and then have buttons on there that shifts from all the news to only gaming news or something.

And if it's possible, get a phpb3 forum

[b]0/10 games would be completely broken and unplayable. I dont know any games like that.[/b]

So, every game that was released for the Atari Jaguar CD?

There was a game on PC called Over the Road Racing or something, it holds the lowest score ever on Gamespot and drove Armake21 crazy.

A "never-before seen" user rating system? Awesome! Wonder what it'll be though. How many different ways can we rate stuff?

[quote=Greyarch]
What you could also do is have a Buy it/Rent it/F it system.[/quote]

Ain't that ripping off Screwattack much?

[color=red]Don't forget to review PONGO![/color]
[img]http://www.oblivion- graphics.com/home/images/ pong-250px.gif[/img]

Will there be a section for Wii and DS reviews?

Why would there be a separate section? Unless there were sections for all individual systems, I mean.

[color=red][b]To be honest the whole number rating system is only there to appease publishers for quotes Etc.

You could even make it simple and give thumbs up/down. As a game is either good average or bad. How does .1 of a point make one game better than another?[/b][/color]

[b]Larry, a Number Rating system wasnt "created to appease publishers" thats just untrue. Gamers created it in order to compare games and give a relative value quickly for a game.[/b]

[quote=Wolfaxy] [quote=Greyarch]
What you could also do is have a Buy it/Rent it/F it system.[/quote]

Ain't that ripping off Screwattack much?[/quote]

Screwattack didn't exactly pioneer that idea xD But it's a good system that's straight to the point. So then why not "rip it off" :P

I agree its sorta the best system, some games are worth full price, some games are only worth a rental, some maybe 10 years from now a dollar in the bargain bin, others it'd be better to flush your money down the toilet

LoL [i]Average[/i] Joe XD

Also .net ?

[b].com is taken [/b]

The man himself, Doug, had a truly unique and fair system for when he did written text reviews on Xomba.com (which I don't think a lot of people have read). He wouldn't have an integer or star summing things up, instead every review would end with three points:

-So who'll like it?
-Who won't like it?
-My thoughts...

I liked this system above all others as it solves most of the major problems. When you have a 6/10, yeah the game is flawed but there is a minority who will enjoy it despite its flaws, and so if you could adress those people directly and say "Hey this game is your kinda thing" then that's great, and on the flip side even if the game is an 8 or 9 out of ten but it belongs to a genre that isn't universally adored then people will be able to identify that it's a game that, despite it's good quality, just isn't for them for one reason or another.
And the 'my thoughts' thing ties into something you said in an episode of Transmission Awesome Joe about how despite respecting the opinions of Lee and the Sage on not giving ratings, sometimes at the end of their reviews you don't have a clear picture on whether they liked the game or not or whether they could recommend it. By summing up your own personal feelings on the game at the end of a review it saves you time on skimming through the gritty details and possibly might encourage you to read more rather than just look at a 3 star and give up. I mean whenever I pick up a copy of Empire etc. and I flick through their reviews my eyes always dart first not to the star rating but to the summed up review which basically gives me the impression I need on whether it was good, bad, OK or to an aquired taste.

If you do decide to go with stars of numbers however, I think you should adopt a system along the lines of Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic in which all the ratings of all the site reviewers are compiled and an average rating is produced. That way at least the rating covers a broad range of opinions and reviewers and if there's a mixed opinion then site viewers will feel compelled to see why one reviewer liked the game when another did not.

That's a good idea, Prodigs, though I'd hope the number or star rating would encourage people to check out the review and not blindly follow it (at least for our fellow TGWTG fans). To be fair, it'd also be helpful to know which genres each reviewer likes (thinking back to old Nintendo Powers). I'd probably find a review of the new Dragon Age game more helpful from the RPG fan as opposed to someone who prefers action games. In any case, I think a summary along those lines might be good and avoid all the messy numbers. However, some people like their numbers so it's probably a necessity.

Unless I'm mistaken, RT uses a percentage of positive reviews. While that can tell you how many view the game more favorably, it doesn't give you a good idea of how much so. I've seen positive reviews that don't think too much of the movie, they just don't find it bad. With movies, they're something most people watch once and never see again. They don't invest in it unless they really enjoy it and want to buy it later (which is independent of review scores and possibly dependent on bonus features). A game, however IS something most people invest in. However, even if almost every reviewer on the site has a positive review of a game, you may not want to buy it if it's only a '6/10.'

As for Metacritic, maybe that's something. They assign the scores themselves and weigh them themselves, so it's a biased system. We probably natuarally have a preference for certain reviewers and automatically value their opinion more. I don't think we need that kind of system.

Now after all that, I really did think you had a good idea.

Thoughts about the rating system? Well... how about rating games like Sonic 4 episode 1, Comic jumper and others not 1-10, but 1-5 (those games which are almost all can be downloaded)
btw awesome video! =D

Actually, that's not a bad idea. Not necessarily specifically that, but something along those lines could separate games out. You could have 2 really great games: one for a console and the other to download. All things being equal the downloadable one would not be as good as the console one, but they are both just as great on their respective platforms. An '8/10' for one and a '4/5' for the other are mathematically equal, but they are ranked on a differnt scale.

Well my main thought is that the gaming systems that people review on should expand. We mostly see PS3 and Xbox 360 reviews, with handheld or Wii titles only appearing in Game Heroes' top 5 lists. So it would be a good idea to appeal to a wider audience.

Another thing is the rating system. Joe's is perfect, with the 10 not being perfect but instead being of an extremely high caliber. If the whole site were to implement this system, instead of all the reviewers using different ones it would be a lot cleaner and more professional.

Lastly, I think a good idea would be to talk about DLC more. I somtimes jump into the frey a little too willingly when it comes to things like that and we only get reviews for DLC that's expansions, such as DA: O's Awakening. If there were more reviews of map packs and other DLC, I wouldn't mind it, even if it's just articles.

[b]We will have a lot of the other systems. Mobile, DS, PSP, Wii, PC, and eventually Retro.

The issue is finding good people to fit these positions.[/b]