Does this game blows chunks or is it just me?

[the-Wind]

I join a thread or read reviews mainly to find out if I would enjoy a game before parting with my hard earned cash. Forums are a great way to provide feedback for other players and any game developers with their ears open.

So...can we improve on the quality of the dialog...please?

Nobody cares that you hated a certain game. They might care why, so tell us a bit more please.
Peoples' tastes and biases are all going to be different. The game you loath may be right up someone elses alley. Viva le difference! So, when you put in your 2-cents worth how about tell us why you liked or didn't like a particular game. Share your bias with us so we have some context.

Speaking of bias...here the big question: how can each of us determine if the game is just plain bad or if it simply does not appeal to our tastes?

 

[badgersprite]

I'm in agreement with you about those types of threads. People who start threads like that seem to be attention whores or newbies, to be quite honest. Most users either keep their opinions to themselves and only bring it up where appropriate, as in when it's asked for instead of drawing attention to themselves, or, if they actually do want to do a review of a game, they take it to the User Reviews section, like they're supposed to.

People who post "reviews" of games in Gaming Discussion really just want to feel special and different and have everyone see how much they disliked the game everyone else likes (yes, because clearly they're right and everyone else is lying about having a good time playing that game as part of an evil conspiracy to make Bioware and Valve games popular and critically successful), or vice versa (because all these other people are lying about not liking Final Fantasy Whatever).

I just ignore those threads because giving them attention, even negative attention, causes more people to try and act like that.

If you look around the rest of the threads, you'll find there's usually a wide range of opinions about games, and most of them are pretty well-said, and they're often backed up by people freely admitting their biases for or against certain genres, or their experiences with the rest of a particular series.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your time at the Escapist and find that dialogue that you're looking for.

 

[the-Wind]

Thanks. I am here because I have found that the quality of the opinions and such is better than I generally find on game-related sites. Lots of people moving the dialog forward.

 

[VanillaBean]

Well sometimes we as members of society are often rushed and in a hurry therefore we can't always voice every thought (for example my mom is telling me to go to bed right as I type this)

As for your question I'm pretty sure that goes into a long debate that is similar to one my english teacher brought up. She stated "If there is a film/book/band/video game ect that the majority loves does that instantly make it good?" I think we can also take this question to the negative aspect as well, does a video game that the majority find to be terrible make it terrible?

The answer to this question can show alot about someones own opinion.

 

[Mouse One]

I very rarely find that discussing which games/movies/books are bad does any good as either a consumer or creator (well, I'll admit to gratuitous slams on Twilight, but c'mon..). Now, talking about why *aspects* of a game didn't work, can work-- mostly because it's instructive. But still, I'd rather hear about a game the poster enjoys and why.

Lots of crud out there (Sturgeon's Law, anyone?), enough so that I'd much rather hear about the non-crud.

That said, I'm a Zero Punctuation fan. Go figure.

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

Does your grammar blows chunks or is it just me?

But yeah, people are gonna say their opinion on games no matter what. Some people are just bolder than others and say their opinions without feeling the need to spell out the details. And that's really not always a bad thing; sometimes people just want a general opinion without having to read huge walls of text.

Initially, the forum was a place for in person friendly conversation and debate (and a slew of other events, elections, etc.). However, the internet gives us the option to continue to draw out our perspective to an argument ad infinitum and without interruption, and this is a REALLY bad thing. Think about how many times you've been in an argument on a forum and gotten a HUGE wall of text explaining how you were "wrong" about like 50 different things... you don't really have the time to think of counter arguments for each one, and then you end up ignoring important details that contribute to the topic and the conversation degrades into nothing.

I'm not saying that I never do this, or that people should even stop... I'm just saying that sometimes it can be nice to have a smooth conversation in a thread, rather than sending essays to each other.

 

[Cptn_Squishy]

To answer your question in the topic...it might be both of you.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

Speaking of bias...here the big question: how can each of us determine if the game is just plain bad or if it simply does not appeal to our tastes?

By accepting the fact that all reviews of games are biased opinions. If I'm determined enough to play a game, then I'll play it regardless of what anyone else says about it.

 

[rockingnic]

I get CONSTANTLY from my one friend, recommendations for games. My favorite genres are FPS (from Halo to Killzone), RPG (from Diablo to most Final Fantasy's), and action/adventure (from Ninja Gaiden to GTA). Respectively, he suggest BFBC2, Fallout 3, and Saint's Row 2. Now I enjoy BFBC2 time to time but I got bored of Fallout 3 within 4-5 hours (although I enjoyed and beat New Vegas). And Saint's Row 2, he constantly demands me to play it but I keep saying now. I don't know why I don't enjoy SR2 when I enjoyed the first and I love almost any game with character customization. I had the same feeling I got from Fallout 3 that I got for SR2, boredom. I checked and I enjoyed GTA4 and Vice City shortly after and went back to SR2 and just can't get into it. My friend then tells me I'm a horrible person. I don't know if it's the power of suggestion or something else but there are games that sound like they're perfect for me but then I play them and don't like them. Another game was Brutal Legend, I love most rock since I do listen to almost all types of metal, hard, classic and alternative rock. But that's maybe due to the fact I know RTS elements should stay on PC.

 

[lacktheknack]

Bad game: Broken controls, glitchtastic graphics, crashtastic crashiness, Ubisoft DRM.

Different taste: Weird but functional controls, odd art-style, gameplay that you don't enjoy.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

The thing I hate more than everyone saying a game is bad is when a game is marketed to be good when it's just, well...not. It's up to internet nerds to take a well marketed game and bring it down to the level of mediocre that it is. Thinking a game is bad and finding out it's good is one thing, but it's even worse to blow money on a shit game you were sucked into thinking it was gonna be great.

Example: I spent two months hyping over Bioshock 2 when after buying I realized that it was just not very good, which I would normally be ok with me if I didn't spend 60$ on it.

 

[Pecoros7]

Whether a game is good or bad is always subjective. An opinion is only useful to others when it is accompanied by context. "I didn't like ME2 as much as ME1 because I felt that they removed the sense of exploration by simply warping your character to the next location rather than making you travel" is much more helpful than "ME2 sucked massive albatross wang". I provide a reason and an example along with my bias. Readers can decide whether that sounds like it would be an issue for them as well as consider my bias with the statement. "I kind of thought that the travel was boring in ME1. This guy said he didn't like the game; maybe he was just finding things to whine about."

As far as trying to determine if the game is genuinely bad or if it just isn't your style, it helps to look at what reasons you have for not liking it. I didn't like Halo because I'm not very good at FPS games and it's not very fun to suck at things. That's a preference thing. I didn't like Wing Commander: Privateer 2 because the interface was very difficult to use and the graphics made identifying objects almost impossible. Those are still somewhat subjective as someone is free to disagree, but I'm criticizing aspects of the game that simply didn't function as they were supposed to. Those things make for bad games.

It reminds me of a quote from Jerry Halkins, "The game is not challenging, it's difficult to play, and it's taken many years but I'm ready to begin making this distinction."