It seems like gamers consider it a personal attack against them if someone else has a negative opinion of their favorite game, and I wish it would stop.
On Reddit if anyone mentions a popular game but gives reasons as to why they dislike it, it’ll get down voted no matter how reasonable their logic is. The same thing happens anywhere else a negative review may pop up. On Xbox store just look at any negative review on a popular game, you’ll see more thumbs down than you will see thumbs up on positive reviews.
Here’s a short list why we as a community need to stop doing this.
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It’s okay to not like something just as much as it’s okay to like something.
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Criticism no matter if you agree with it or not can only help improve the game or at least future games put out by the company. Developers and game designers won’t learn that thier game has flaws unless gamers point them out.
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It’s okay for me to point out a game doesn’t have a feature that I want, like the option to pause a single player game, without it affecting you. If you don’t want to pause then don’t use it, but don’t make it so I can’t pause.
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At the end of the day majority will rule. If more players are unhappy about a feature that you’re happy with, well the game developers are in no obligation to cater to you. Also if fewer players are unhappy about a game that the majority like, then that minority will have no affect anyway, so let them have their say.
Here’s my take on it.
It is absolutely okay to not like a game. Not every game is made for everyone and especially playing a game in a genre that you don’t play often is going to have an adjustment period as you become literate with that style of game and sometimes that’s more than what people want to invest in a game to have a good time. However, you have to understand that you not liking a game doesn’t mean you’re better than other people who did. This is where “it’s all subjective” actually counts.
However, once you take that extra step and say “____ game is bad”, you had better be ready to back that up and be ready for people to critique your critique. When criticizing a game, something people fail to realize that what they wanted out of the game no longer fucking matters and to properly critique a game, you have to meet it on its level. What experience is the game attempting to provide? What methods does it use to achieve that effect through game design? These aspects are honestly fairly objective, as it’s just stating what the game is. How effective those methods are at achieving the game’s goal and how much value that ultimate goal has is somewhat subjective, but you do have to give your own take on how a game’s mechanics influence how a player interacts with the game and how that drives the experience, which is way harder than just saying “game is boring” without anything to back that up.
That being said, we definitely need to be more open to openly discussing games and breaking them down. It’s good to break down and analyze games you both like and dislike. Nothing is gained when the whole thing devolves into a shouting match of insults