Games Testing
Being able to give someone or something a good, a well rounded example of criticism is something I regularly dream of wanting to do. Maybe its in my nature I naturally need to voice my grievances about something, the weather, the traffic, perhaps that director who made that one film I find utterly deplorable should be sacked from the job and blacklisted in the industry, its everywhere. So hopefully this article I have uncovered regarding how to give good criticism is helpful.
The article in question that I have found is titled Giving criticism, the good the bad and the ugly! by The Closet Entrepreneur. the article goes into detail about the psychological study of criticism and how we can provide helpful criticism instead of poor unhelpful criticism that merely serves to stroke egos.
One important point he brings up is that constructive criticism is criticism which offers up valid feedback be it both good or bad. In other words, it is considered good criticism. He further mentions the great impact this style of critiquing provides: it makes you more credible and demonstrates your expertise more clearly, with people more likely to credit you to successes they may experience.
The author then states that when you are giving your constructive criticism it should be based on solid feedback that will offer potential improvement and not criticism that merely exists to satisfy personal desires, he also suggests to keep your criticisms consistent and clear, if it becomes too ambiguous, then the conversation will inevitably spiral out of control.
After reading this article, I decided it would be best to further dig into more articles discussing this. The first article I discovered for myself is How to give criticism without sound like a jerk by Alan Henry. Henry addresses the 'Sandwich method' a diagram on how to provide useful criticism to people without triggering offence. The idea is that you are 'sandwiching' a criticism between two positive pointers to soften the blow without outright blasting the person with criticism. The mixing of feedback will meant that person receiving the information is more likely to listen to you and everything you feel needs to be said.
The next reading I examined was How to give constructive criticism: 6 helpful tips by Celestine Chua. The fourth point discusses that you should focus on things that a person can do something about or fix, not something fully out of their control. by critiquing the former, your criticisms start to become more focussed and valid, however should you start making critiques on the latter it merely makes the other person feel worse. Whilst you are not completely prohibited from making negative comments about the latter, you should still try and bring it back to reality. I personally feel this is especially important and will help people better with what they might be experiencing trouble with.
My last reading I was able to find was Writing your first freelance game post. by Freelance Writing. in the article a particularly good point brought up was that as you play your games you should start jotting down notes as you play, so you have references for later on what you wish to discuss with people. these could be what did you like about the controls, any glaring visual mistakes and much more. I find this article in particular may help with writing posts for my classmates as to how they can improve or work on their games.
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