In the last post I talked about how game reviewers often approach their reviews of games as if the games are consumer products. They evaluate each feature in isolation from the others, and at the end assign a score based on some attempt to objectively determine the "quality" of the game. This is in stark contrast to reviews of other media, such as books and film and music, which are reviewed based on the reviewer's subjective opinion of the work.

Actually, it's not just reviewers that assume this attitude. Just look at the back of the box of any game: the game is invariably described in terms of the features that it contains. Consider the "Product Features" section from Amazon.com's page on Resident Evil 4 for the Wii:

Advanced AI makes enemies smarter than ever and use their cunning in deadly attacks

Use the Action button for better player control

New 'Aim and Shoot' targeting for zeroing in on enemies with your weapons

Behind the camera view for intuitive movement

Conversations and monologues can be heard in real time

Now, in addition to being pretty poor English, this list of "features" fails really dramatically to effectively describe Resident Evil 4. They are similar to the back of the box (though the box at least contains a few plot details). Now compare that list of features with the product descriptions of the first Resident Evil film (a synopsis of the plot is given), the Resident Evil soundtrack CD (samples can be listened to), and even this Resident Evil book (the first page can be read). All of these other forms of entertainment give some sort of information about the content of the work, not just a sterile description of "features." The game page is much more similar to the page for the Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Controller, which is a consumer product and, as such, contains a list of product features.

So the games-as-products mindset doesn't begin and end with reviewers. Games are advertised this way, and marketing makes a big deal out of the special features that each game contains (consider the common tactic of releasing a "game play video" to show off some unique mechanic; Alone in the Dark 5 is a recent example). Reviewers are not solely to blame for this product-oriented approach (and actually, I think that many reviewers try very hard to give readers good information without realizing that their style of writing is vasty different than other forms of media).