Bensonrecon.com is a 10 year plan finally becoming a reality.
My love for gaming stems from being an “80’s child” and spending many of my early years in and around the sights and sounds of the boom time for arcade gaming. From Pong to Pac-Man, through the birth of console gaming right through to the current generation I’ve always been in awe of just how much enjoyment (and frustration) can be found from guiding a few pixels around a screen. As I’ve aged my love for gaming is still just as strong as it was as a starry eyed kid only now I find just as much enjoyment in talking about gaming and reporting about stories from that mystical World of developers. I also find myself ,along with many of you, getting frustrated by media outlets writing off everything gaming as “evil” or “a danger to our children” without truly understanding the artistry and potential that gaming has to offer.
So what can you expect from the site?
Well Bensonrecon.com is dedicated to bringing you the latest in all things 360 be it news, reviews or guides as well as promoting discussion among the gaming community through either my own thoughts or by giving YOU a platform. With the birth of networking sites and viral video such as Youtube it’s never been easier. If you have something you’d like to discuss then within reason I’m happy to consider it all and either post your thoughts giving full credit or by embedding worthy videos from places such as Youtube.
Why do you not have a rating system for your reviews?
There are a number of reasons for this.
1. How many times have you read a review and seen a company give a game a maximum score? You get sucked in and think the game is perfect and then read the review and see a number of things criticised. How can a game be criticised yet perfect? Simple answer it can’t! Rating by percentage or out of 10 is a risky business as you will always be setting benchmarks every time you give a brilliant game a score. If you give one game say 99% yet a game comes out later that is better yet not perfect…where do you go?
2.Not everyone likes the same type of games. Rating say a beat em up on the same scoring scale as an FPS or racing game is unfair. No reviewer likes ALL types of games. For example I don’t particular enjoy beat em ups yet I love Open World games and FPS titles. By reviewing a genre you dislike is likely to see you give a lower score a genre you adore will result in a boosted score. It’s inevitable. By doing that you will always put your integrity as a reviewer in question with your followers. There are a number of sources that while reviewing a certain genre will compare it to a game in a completely different one based on the smallest of details.
3. Reviewers are desperate to get their reviews out first. In order to get the jump on other sites or magazines reviewers may miss certain aspects of the game by rushing to get as much done as possible or completely avoiding aspects such as the multiplayer or certain modes. It’s not fair on the readers and just as importantly it’s unfair to the developers and publishers. I’m a firm believer in reviewing games FULLY. If it means my reviews arrive a week after release then so be it. I’d rather be fair to developers by playing their games to death and then giving a complete review instead of giving something thrown together that misses vital parts of the game that developers have spent months or years working on.
So rather than giving you a percentage or mark out of 10 I prefer to focus on what genre or genres the game fits in to and give buying guidelines based on what the game is like. Rather than rush a review I’ll take my time (within reason) to give a full and balanced review. The only time you will see reviews appearing before release date is if I get a reviewable code and I’ve had enough time to test the game utterly.
Will you be doing a guide for ……. ?
I don’t get freebies so every game you see a guide for with my name against it is a game I’ve gone out and bought myself. I will always endeavour to give guides for as many games as possible but running this site on my own makes guides for all games and reviews for every title impossible. You can help though! If you see a good review or guide on a networking site or video site like Youtube then let me know. While Benson recon.com may be my own baby I’m not against letting others get involved. The only thing I ask of wannabe reviewers or guide makers is that it’s your OWN work. There’s nothing more frustrating than spending hours putting something together yourself only to go browsing and find someone has taken your work, put it somewhere else and is getting all the credit. I’ve seen it happen to my own work and wouldn’t dream of doing it to others.
When are your live shows and what will they entail?
Well at the moment I’m getting everything in shape so I can bring you live shows on a set day and time without doing one and then not being seen live for weeks after. The shows themselves will be pretty free form most of the time with me hosting gameplay evenings sometimes solo play sometimes multiplayer so you can get involved. There will be structured shows talking about the biggest news of the week, live guides, discussion and reviews but there is a LOT of work to be done before they come about…including getting trusted co hosts and moderators to ensure things run smoothly. For the time being it’s literally a case of watching this space. Anytime I go live even if it’s just to shoot the breeze I will advertise it via twitter, youtube and a main article on the site so by all means head over to the “Contact” page to find the various means of tracking me down or check back on the site throughout the day to see if anything is planned for that day.
I have a suggestion what do I do?
I’m open to user ideas while I’d rather keep Twitter open as an promotional tool for the site I have no problem with you tube contact methods or emails (both found on the contact page). If you wish to contact me via youtube the only thing I ask is you send a PRIVATE message or comment on the relevant videos as I don’t get updates via email for channel comments and as a result your message may be lost in the ether and not noticed until it’s too late. Of course there is also my googlemail but please title any emails with a subject and not just a “hey benson” I will do my best to reply to all mail or messages but again working on my own at the moment I can not guarantee a reply if I’m busy.