Stop liking things I don't like - Relativism in games critique

[xVolloxx]

Stop liking things I don't like - Relativism in games critique 

 

I was talking about this to quite a few people and friends today 

and had a nice discussion about it , but this video 

sums up the title perfectly hope you enjoy

 

[Omar]

Lightning Returns instantly came to my head after watching like 2 minutes of the video lol nice vid

[antithesis]

Great video Volloxx, thanks for posting

The key word in the entire video is "consensus", which is why no single review or opinion should be taken as gospel and you should always seek a 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinion. Equally, it's why no single review or opinion should be considered entirely invalid, it just means previous experience has shaped their opinion and your own, for better or worse.

I disagree with the reviewer's view that "Metacritic should die". Metacritic exists as a means of dulling the inherent bias of reviews to provide a more objective perspective of the entertainment value of a game, movie, book, album etc. If 9/10 reviewers, users or peers consider something as "good" or "bad", the consensus view implies that you'll formulate a similar view, and there's a 90% chance you're less likely to piss your money up against the wall. That doesn't eliminate the risk entirely -- you could be the 1/10 e.g. Dead Rising 2 has a Metacritic rating of 8, yet I hated the game -- but it goes a long way to defining the objective value of an experience.

Edited February 25, 2014 by ant1th3s1s

[xVolloxx]

Great video Volloxx, thanks for posting

The key word in the entire video is "consensus", which is why no single review or opinion should be taken as gospel and you should always seek a 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinion. Equally, it's why no single review or opinion should be considered entirely invalid, it just means previous experience has shaped their opinion and your own opinion, for better or worse.

I disagree with the reviewer's view that "Metacritic should die". Metacritic exists as a means of dulling the inherent bias of reviews to provide a more objective perspective of the entertainment value of a game, movie, book, album etc. If 9/10 reviewers, users or peers consider something as "good" or "bad", the consensus view implies that you'll formulate a similar view, and there's a 90% chance you're less likely to piss your money up against the wall. That doesn't eliminate the risk entirely -- you could be the 1/10 e.g. Dead Rising 2 has a Metacritic rating of 8, yet I hated the game -- but it goes a long way to defining the objective value of an experience.

 

Opinions are supposed to be Complex and that's why the 1/10 scale isn't a very good form of calculating it 

he said Metacritic should die because certain developers most of the time tend to aim for high Metacritic ratings 

like make sure the game gets a 70 or your fired and that's the kind of mentality some developers have 

months ago i posted the video in a fourm and it's from the same guy , this guy lol he hates Metacritic 

but again everyone has their own thoughts and opinions whether you choose to listen to it or ignore it is your own choice 

 

If you look at comments sections of reviews of any kind there's always people fighting about whats right and wrong 

but the truth is neither person is , everyone's right and wrong and it's this sort of close mindedness that drives me

up walls on a daily basis and not just with video games with everything , iv'e just learnt to deal with it .

[PREDRAG-K]

I disagree with the reviewer's view that "Metacritic should die". Metacritic exists as a means of dulling the inherent bias of reviews to provide a more objective perspective of the entertainment value of a game, movie, book, album etc. If 9/10 reviewers, users or peers consider something as "good" or "bad", the consensus view implies that you'll formulate a similar view, and there's a 90% chance you're less likely to piss your money up against the wall. That doesn't eliminate the risk entirely -- you could be the 1/10 e.g. Dead Rising 2 has a Metacritic rating of 8, yet I hated the game -- but it goes a long way to defining the objective value of an experience.

This.

I used to care a lot about reviews, but not anymore. Metacritic is the only thing I look at now, because it takes the averages. For example, before I played Gone Home last year I only read Polygon's review (10/10) and decided to buy it. I hated the game, it was the worst game I played last year. Afterwards, I went to Metacritic and found the game has an 8/10 average with critics, but a 4/10 average with regular people. Had I just gone to Metacritic first, I wouldn't have wasted $20. Since then, I don't care what any individual site rates a game. I only care about the average.

[xVolloxx]

This.

I used to care a lot about reviews, but not anymore. Metacritic is the only thing I look at now, because it takes the averages. For example, before I played Gone Home last year I only read Polygon's review (10/10) and decided to buy it. I hated the game, it was the worst game I played last year. Afterwards, I went to Metacritic and found the game has an 8/10 average with critics, but a 4/10 average with regular people. Had I just gone to Metacritic first, I wouldn't have wasted $20. Since then, I don't care what any individual site rates a game. I only care about the average.

 

I personally loved Gone Home , but as you just said you didn't

it's better to form your own opinion on everything , but like i said i don't believe a score 1/100 can breakdown someone's opinion 

especially on Metacritic since generally official reviews aren't very reliable and user scores are just fanboys and haters fighting 

someone puts 1 and another puts 10 etc ......... the only person you can trust is yourself .

[RisewithBane]

This is a topic which will always have people up in arms. You just have to look at GameSpot's review of "The Last Of Us" on YouTube to see what I mean. It has a staggering 8,600 thumbs down with only 1,300 thumbs up. The gaming community is VERY vocal when their favourite game gets a less than stellar review score. Having said that, I have to agree that The Last Of Us should've been given a higher review score. It's a masterpiece. Ironically, Tom McShea gave Left Behind dlc a 9/10. Go figure.

[PREDRAG-K]

I personally loved Gone Home , but as you just said you didn't

it's better to form your own opinion on everything , but like i said i don't believe a score 1/100 can breakdown someone's opinion 

especially on Metacritic since generally official reviews aren't very reliable and user scores are just fanboys and haters fighting 

someone puts 1 and another puts 10 etc ......... the only person you can trust is yourself .

If every game had a demo, I wouldn't use reviews at all. Then I could just try the demo and if I like it, I buy the game. Unfortunately less and less games have demos now, so I have to look at other people's opinions before spending my money.

[Arkthur]

TB nailed it. We sometimes forget the line between defending our opinions and trying to push out thoughts into other people's minds. Great video.

[xVolloxx]

If every game had a demo, I wouldn't use reviews at all. Then I could just try the demo and if I like it, I buy the game. Unfortunately less and less games have demos now, so I have to look at other people's opinions before spending my money.

 

So true i remember when nearly all games had a Demo , very rare nowadays .

[Arkthur]

So true i remember when nearly all games had a Demo , very rare nowadays .

And even the ones that do, don't show much anymore. Castlevania 2 demo was just the tutorial, you can't make a good idea of the game by just playing the tutorial imo. At least games like DmC and Mass Effect released very good demos that gave a more truthfull experience of the whole product.

[Wolvie_181]

I like Tomb Raider & DmC.

I respect game reviewers opinions on my favorite games.

Even when I don't agree with their reviews.