Haven't given feedback for about a month.

Congratulations on the power and prestige!

There is some truth to that. I do feel the power and the prestige, but there is something else that motivates me. When I chose to give video game journalism a crack, I did it because I wanted to help the common man decide what to buy. I sincerely hate to see the person next to me in Gamestop or EB Games or whatever buy The Guy Game. It may be selfish, but I yearn for the stimulus of other people telling me that I'm actually helping them. And if both sides are sincere about it, I'm fine with it. When I give feedback, I write it with the hope that the person is ummmm... helped. I guess the great thing about it is that if they reply saying "thank you", they did it on their own - you know, free will and all. Sometimes I forget that my reviews serve to inform and assist, not fire artistic style and technical intricacies at the reader. Let's hope I don't forget again.

I also feel that until the site sees my reviews as high-quality

You know, you really need to give yourself more credit. You're an awesome writer, one of the best here, as well evidenced with your recent Indigo Prophecy review. If the poetic style you brought in with that piece is a sign of things to come, you'll be a force, no doubting.

If you want to stop giving feedback for whatever reason, you can; no one's making you do it, but we appreciate it when you do. But don't let the reason you stop be because you think you're not worthy. Because you are.

Yeah, I have always had a confidence issue. I found out that it's called "self-sabotage" - maybe I should have a list of questions next to my bed so that every time I hop into bed, I can ask, "How do I deceive myself? How do I self-sabotage?" And then live the next day going against it.

Thanks, lasthero. I really needed that one.

^_^ Anytime.

You don't need to be the best reviewer to give feedback. I fucking SUCK at reviewing and I just held that tourney thingy. Anyone can have an opinion, regardless of skill level.

One other thing: it doesn't take a 'professional' or highly talented reviewer to know when a review isn't really working. If you read a review and it leaves you with questions that should clearly have been answered, you know it's a bad review. If it seems to you as you read that someone is trying too hard, they probably are. The opinion of readers is every bit as important as the opinion of other writers. And given the reason people should be writing reviews, I'd say it's even more important. Critique reviews as a reader, as someone interested in hearing about the game the review covers, and you'll never be doing anyone a disservice, even if they can write circles around you (and as lasthero suggested, the number of people who can write better than you with any sort of consistency is far from significant).

Ah ha ha. Guy game... that's funny. Congrats on your new position. Does this mean I'm going to have to switch to gamespot if I want to see some more of your critiques?

No, no, no... I think that after the comments here, I will give an effort to give more feedback on honestgamers. Of course, my first priority is my union at Gamespot - just feel that I should be responsible for something that I helped create, but if I have the time, I will give some critiques here.

Sincerely, thank you everyone!