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So what exactly is the best video game to buy? Well that depends on what you read or who you ask. If you like to read the game reviews that are written in the gamer magazines the answer is easy. Often times the game that is most heavily advertised and promoted will usually have a good review about it. After all the editors don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them and with advertising budgets shrinking in all media forums I’m sure there is some correlation to the rating a game gets. I am not suggesting that the editorial staff will compromise their integrity on reviewing a game but since it all is subjective to a certain extend maybe the terminology used to describe a game might not come out so harsh or a 6.5 might get rounded up to a 7 or 7.5.

You can also visit the independent gamer web sites and read their reviews. If they are not sponsored by any game publishers and are committed to gamers you can get a fairly honest review of most games. One of the sites that I like to visit for all types of information on gaming is gamasutra.com. It’s not about game reviews but more on what is going on in the industry. It’s also a great resource for those wanting to get into the gaming business. If you know of other game review sites let us know and we will post them. This brings us back to the reason I started this post. How do you know what the best games are to purchase?

According to a recent study by Waggener Edstrom Worldwide and its partners, all you need to do is ask a friend. That’s right word-of-mouth was the most influential form of getting a game to be purchased. The study gathered information using Moments of Influence™ proprietary research tools and was conducted during the month of July consisting of 507 video gamers. The research data showed that friends where twice as likely to influence the purchasing decision on a video game over traditional retail, online demos, reviews and other forms of advertising and promotions. The initial opinion I expressed over the other forms of media bias was born out in the survey as friends where also among the most trusted form of influence. From the research it seems that the 12 billion dollar a year industry wastes a lot of money trying to influence gamers to buy their games. You can read more on this startling research at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide.

The bottom line is that we the gamers still have a major voice in the games that are made and played more so than we think. In fact this research strongly reaffirms my belief in that the gamers who actually play a game from top to bottom and really get into the game play should be the ones reviewing the games. A site like gamerrated.com is a great website that gives the power back to gamers. Here you can rate the video game from being the “bomb” to “it sucks” and also leave comments about the game. Check out Gamer Rated.com and empower yourself!