Can "Genshin Impact" also score 35 points? How did FAMItong turn into "Saiqiantong" step by step?

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Just today, the media rating of "Genshin Impact" was officially lifted. Many players hope that the media will give this controversial "stitch monster" a fair and objective evaluation. However, as Japan's most authoritative and even strictest rating media, "FAMI" actually gave "Genshin Impact" an unprecedented high score of 35 points, making it a Platinum Hall of Fame. This undoubtedly caused strong dissatisfaction among many players.

The previous "FAMI" was the most fair and objective rating media in the eyes of players. Once upon a time, the name "IGN in the west, Famitsu in the east" has been passed down from word to mouth among players. But looking back now, both the former and the latter have been disgraced, which is very sad.

"FAMI Pass" has also been nicknamed "Money Pass" by players. Opening the official website of "FAMI Pass", the promotion of "Genshin Impact" is even "disguised" as an article and appears on the news information page of "FAMI Pass". Only the small word "advertisement" in the lower right corner truly proves that " FAMITong" collected the money.

How did the game rating media, once the most authoritative in the minds of players, gradually "fall" to where it is now? Let us slightly adjust the time machine in our hands to review the growth trajectory of this old game media.

In the 1980s, the Japanese publishing house Tokuma Shoten saw the popularity of the Nintendo FC console (ie the Famicom) in Japan, and prepared to launch a magazine mainly introducing FC games to occupy the market. Player market. So in 1984, Tokuma Shoten officially released the first issue of "Fami-Maga".

Nintendo, which dominated the industry at the time, had an extremely unreasonable royalty system for third-party manufacturers. This system requires manufacturers to submit the finished game to Nintendo for review before it can be released. Thanks to their "friendship" with Nintendo, Tokuma Shoten has mastered a large amount of unique first-hand news. Compared with other media, they can get the news before the game is released, which makes "Fami-Maga" popular among many players. favor.

Seeing that "Fami-Maga" was about to completely occupy the game media market at that time, Tokuma Shoten's old competitor ASCII naturally could not sit still and wait. They also opened a column "FAMICOM" in their magazine "LOGIN" Communication". This column mainly introduces newly released FC games.

The relationship between ASCII and Nintendo was a bit awkward. At that time, ASCII was jointly developing new game consoles with companies such as Sony and Panasonic. Nintendo became hostile. Therefore, no matter how hard the editors work, neither the update speed nor the quality of articles can compare with "Fami-Maga". Unexpectedly, thanks to the charismatic writing style of the column editor Tofuya FAMIBO (pseudonym), the column attracted a large number of readers in a short period of time. With him alone, the sales of "LOGIN" increased significantly.

The success of the column strengthened the confidence in ASCII transformation. After one and a half years of hard preparation, the prototype of "Famitsu" - the alternate weekly "FAMICOM Communication" was officially launched on June 6, 1986, and the person in charge was continued by Tofuwu Famibo.

However, even though "FAMICOM Communication" adopts a humorous and civilian style to avoid overlapping with the serious and formal style of Tokuma Shoten, the publication of the magazine was still due to the long-term "bad relationship" between the old club and Nintendo. No improvement in quantity. ASCII was secretly prepared to leave at any time (including the editor-in-chief at that time, the entire magazine had only 10 editors.). What really changed the fate of this magazine was a game, "Dragon Quest 2".

In 1987, "Dragon Quest II" sold millions of copies in Japan, causing a social sensation. At that time, "FAMICOM Communications" believed that this was also an opportunity for them to "explode", so they seized this fleeting opportunity, "sneaked into" ENIX, and interviewed Yuji Horii, the director of the "Dragon Quest" series, and other The main creator and conducted a lengthy exclusive interview. This series of reports took advantage of the game itself and was enthusiastically received by readers. Exclusive interviews with gamers were rare in Japanese game media in the past, and the magazine’s sales doubled in just four months.

Although this success has given "FAMICOM Communications", which has been "half-dead" by "Fami-Maga" for a long time, there are some signs of "resurrection". However, Hamamura Koichi within the company believed that the magazine could not continue to develop simply by chance to succeed due to the glory of the "national game".

He believes that the top priority for "FAMICOM Communications" now is transformation.

So in early 1988, "FAMICOM Communications" took the lead in setting up "FAMITSU EXPRESS" to report on the latest trends in the game industry. Hamamura Koichi believed that the long-term development trend of game media should not be limited to pure strategy information. Instead, we should take the development path of comprehensive intelligence journalism.

Drastic reforms are still going on non-stop. In July 1991, "FAMICOM Communication" took the lead in evolving from an alternate weekly to a weekly. Tofuya FAMIbo stated in the first issue of the weekly: "The weekly format is a wise decision to cater to the increasingly rapid growth of the video game industry, and it is an inevitable trend." The following year, Hamura Koichi took over as the second-generation editor.

Compared with other game magazines that only position game magazines as strategy and information magazines, Hamura Hiro has built "FAMICOM Communication" into a stage for interactive communication between the industry and players, and extended his tentacles to music and entertainment areas. In early January 1996, "FAMICOM Communication" was officially renamed "FAMICOM". To show separation from the FC host. This approach inevitably angered Nintendo, but it also successfully attracted players from Sega and other consoles.

"FAMI", which has successfully attracted a large number of regular readers through transformation, really established a reputation among players because they were the first to set up a game rating column. During the period proposed by the second-generation editor-in-chief Hamamura Koichi, the "new work rating" section, which evolved from "CROSS REVIEW" (originally weather forecast), gradually became the trump card column of "Famitsu".

In this column, four "game connoisseurs" will rate newly launched games. Each person will give a score of 1-10, and then the four scores will be added up, with a full score of 40 points. According to the score, 30-31 is divided into Silver Hall, 32-34 is divided into Gold Hall, and 35-40 is divided into Platinum Hall.

The early "Famitsu" was very "venomous" in terms of ratings, and could even be said to be "no taboo". Under the leadership of Hamamura Koichi, "Famitsu" fully allows reviewers to speak freely about the advantages and disadvantages of the work without worrying about the "face" of the manufacturer.

Some people may also question it. After all, there are a thousand Hamlets for a thousand readers. Are these reviewers selected by "Famitsu" really representative of the majority of players?

In people's inherent thinking, editing is a job that only highly educated "intellectuals" with professional backgrounds can do. But "Famitsu" bravely abandoned the tradition of Japanese companies that valued academic qualifications. Even if you graduate from the University of Tokyo, if you don't have in-depth research on games, you won't be able to get hired. On the contrary, no matter what your academic qualifications are, as long as you have unique insights into games, you are enough to enter the editorial department of "Famitsu".

Under such a measure of "reducing talents in an eclectic way", the editor who was responsible for evaluating the game at that time can be said to be the person who "truly represents the players". There are many legends among them, such as the famous sharp-tongued editor "Ikebukuro Sara" who was just a gangster wandering around arcades before joining the company, but his love for fighting games is unparalleled. The editorial department, which originally had only 10 people, has become a "player gathering place" with businessmen, students and even housewives.

For a long time, the "Famitsu" rating has not only represented the majority of players, but also demonstrated professionalism and fairness, and has become more and more prestigious in the circle of Japanese players. Even many Japanese game retailers use "Famitsu" scores as purchase considerations.

The extremely strict evaluation criteria of "Famitsu" also caused the rating column to give the first 40-point perfect score to the game "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" 7 years after its creation. Of course, this is well-deserved. The gameplay of "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" laid the foundation for today's 3D game gameplay, and it is a well-deserved masterpiece. The operation and perspective systems of almost all 3D games today have inherited this epoch-making work. It can be said that without "Ocarina of Time", there would be no 3D games today.

Although in the early days, the "Famitsu" rating made manufacturers begin to regard quality as the top priority in development, which to some extent promoted the prosperity of the game market at that time. But more manufacturers have discovered a shortcut - instead of spending a lot of time to improve the quality of the game, it is better to give the magazine money to "buy points" before the release of the new game, which can simply greatly boost the sales of their own games. "Famitsu", which was originally based on a fair and just attitude, will inevitably gradually transform into a "money pass" later on.

The first thing that questioned the authoritative status of "FAMI" was that they gave "Final Fantasy 12" a perfect score. Even FF12, whose producer Yasumi Matsuno was replaced halfway through, is indeed a complete "semi-finished product" no matter how you look at it.

Although the gameplay pioneered by FF12 did seem to be very innovative at the time, giving it a score of about 35 points is considered an act of kindness. After all, its flaws are too obvious. Whether it's the half-cut plot or the poor system, it's far from the honor of a perfect score of 40 points. It was not until the subsequent version "FF12 International Edition" that the original work's career and combat systems were improved, a new mode was introduced, and various important values ??in the game were balanced, that this game could truly be called a game.

If FF12's perfect score is just the beginning of "Famitsu" losing credibility, then the perfect score of FF13-2 has shaken the authority of "FAMItsu". At first, only masterpieces that shocked the entire game industry could be rated as full-scoring games. Later, more and more "mass-produced" full-scoring games were made, and there was even a rumor that "you can buy 1 point from "FAMI Pass" for 1 million."

The game that really made "FAMI Pass" completely fall from the altar was "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle" released on PS3. As a fighting game, "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle" can be said to be unbalanced. The original price is obviously as high as nearly 8,000 yen, and a large amount of krypton gold elements are added to the game. If you don’t spend extra money, it’s a game that can’t even be called a semi-finished product. Whether it’s characters, costumes or combat props, they all require payment to unlock.

Originally, many games with perfect scores that "do not live up to their name" have led to various suspicions and dissatisfaction among players. The perfect score of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle" brought the conflict to its highest peak. Just five days after "Famitsu" gave a perfect score, the average score of the game on Amazon Japan dropped to 2 stars, and 1-star reviews accounted for 49% of the total reviews.

The situation was so serious that the editor-in-chief at the time, Lin Keyan, had to come forward and explain: The four people who conducted the evaluation did not know how many points each other had given. As for the reason why the result is a perfect score, it is simply because the editors, who are JOJO fans, were moved by the love shown by the game makers in the game. We will not interfere with the editor's score. Since they have given this score, we have to respect their judgment.

If "exactly" four fans are selected to use the "fan filter" to rate, it only means that it can no longer represent the majority of players as before, and naturally violates the past "professional and fair" in principle.

Admittedly, even if we have enough reasons to suspect that "Famitsu" has received money, we who do not work at "Famitsu" cannot provide tangible evidence. Today, when online media are springing up and print media has long since declined, it is remarkable enough that this magazine is still "alive". It is understandable to have "just the right amount of food".

The consequences of going against big manufacturers have naturally made many media become more and more "humble": in the past, Spanish media gave FF15 low scores and was blacklisted by SE, and later, domestic media gave God of War low scores and was blacklisted. Sony was blacklisted. It is also difficult for us to require the current "Famitsu" to maintain the "venomous" style of evaluating games as it did in the past.

"Famitsu", which was originally started to compete with "Fami-Maga", had to compromise with the industry in the long-term changes. There has been a saying among players for a long time, "Believe the media for high scores, and believe yourself for low scores." It's just that after almost all mainstream media gave "The Last of Us 2" a very high rating for what players call a "dungeon", players once again wondered whether they should trust the media.

There are also players who believe that "you should trust the media only with low scores." However, "Death Stranding" and "Defense Circle", which have excellent reputations among players, were also given low scores by IGN. In the end, this sentence may eventually be changed to "Believe in yourself for high scores and trust yourself for low scores."