Media needs to get rough with MMOs

This could very well just be a perception on my part, but it seems like MMOs tend to get off easy with the game media.  Either they are so bad or small they don't get reviewed at all, and you are forced to check youtube for info - or they routinely get 70-85%s just for launching and showing up (even if the mechanics are identical, boring, etc).

There seems to be an attitude among game journalists that "if your an MMO player then you'll play this because its an MMO that starts up and works."

Clearly it isn't the only reason, but maybe if the media held these developers feet to the fire a bit more and exposed what a pathetic derivative and overly monetized scheme it has become, there would be more change on the horizon.  Because lets face it - most MMOs are terrible games with great logistics.

So wait, they should get more tough on previously ignored MMO's by wasting time on them?

When a game is released for PCs that charges money and is being marketed, I would like to see the game press give it a paragraph.  If its a derivative time-sink, I would like to see if exposed and scored accordingly.

Is that really an idea you HATE and want to argue?

The reason most sites don't do it is because of the time involved. Most games you can sit a reviewer down for 2-3 days to burn through it and give him a day to write a review and he is done with it, or 5-6 days if it's a long RPG. With MMO's however, the golden rule amongst reviewers seems to be about a month. For sites with a small staff that's a long ass time to lose one guy doing reviews. 

I would like to see more MMOs be reviewed honestly.  When you get into an MMO, you know there is going to be a timesink element.  I want reviewers to say if it's a FUN timesink, rather than kinda shirk the genera entirely (Unless it's WoW for some reason).  Where's the Rift review?  Where's the Everquest 2:  scars of velious review?  I know this is a pipedream but I'll put this on the shelf along with Megaman Legends 3 for the ps3/360 and a sequel to Threads of fate. :(

Kotaku post weekly update/impressions on  MMO for 4 weeks and then post a review the follwing week

Ive never heard of it, but do they dish out low scores when games fail to innovate and just want your cash?

*edit*  checked it out - the blog format was difficult to navigate and I wouldn't call that "mainstream"

But isn't it kinda impossible to review an MMO at launch? Not as many people will be playing, so potential good features could go underutilized, making the game look worse than it actually is.

I sort of agree with your sentiment that MMOs get off easy sometimes. Reviewers tend to compare them to other games in the genre and not to gaming as a whole. DC Universe Online might seem like a decent action game when compared to World of Warcraft, but compare it to something like, I dunno, Batman AA or Assassin's Creed, it's a pile of crap. It's similar to when reviewers would review not-so great Wii titles like The Conduit and say something along the lines that it's good for a Wii game. Your average consumer doesn't care what platform a game is on or what genre it is; they just want to know if it is good or not.

With that said, at least games like FFXIV and APB were slammed appropriately.