Poll: Is Yahtzee serious?

[mightybozz]

I find it strange that these threads keep coming up asking if Yahtzee is "serious" or a "real" reviewer the day after each video. He's a man with a great deal of knowledge of the games industry and a few other subjects, with the comedic talent to be able to present his opinions in an amusing manner. Most importantly, he's a gamer like the rest of us, so he knows whether he thinks a game is good, and why.

I don't even think he ever exaggerates an opinion for comic effect. His metaphors and writing style comes up with some foul and surreal stuff, which makes us giggle. But the critical points and opinions he presents in his reviews are usually solid. Hell, you rarely see any other reviewer admitting that their opinion is probably invalid if you're a fan of a genre which he either knows little about or dislikes (such as the Driver:SF review and FFXIII).

Games journalism is in a pit on most sites these days, happy to slap 80-100% scores on anything which had enough hype before it came out. ZP is one of the few reviewers which I trust to give an actually intelligent, considered opinion.

Having said that, I thought he was far kinder to Gears of War 3 than it deserved. That game killed its franchise for me. Gears 2 was great, 3 is a soulless mess which I can only hope is supposed to be a satire on shite videogame story writing.

 

[Crazycat690]

Well, yes, sure he jokes about it, but most of his points are valid. I mean sure you can joke about how bad it hurts to be on fire, but it doesn't change the fact that it hurts like hell? IMO, people who says he isn't serious at all are fanboys who can't accept the truth.

 

[Matt Hancox]

I believe that they are his opinion, but exaggerated. Like he said after his Portal review "Nobody likes it when I'm nice to a game".
I don't go to him for an honest review of the game, I go to be entertained.

Some people (see his "Mailbox showdown" video) take his videos too far.
A lot of the games that I genuinely have enjoyed he has slandered, namely Halo Reach. But his review hasn't made me question my opinion of the game, and was actually very funny. Splinter Cell too; the experience he claims to have had with Thief was one that I had with Splinter Cell, a series which he apparently didn't have the same experience with. And finally Smash Bros Brawl, which I genuinely enjoyed. However his review failed to spark any anger towards him.

However what some people haven't caught onto is that if you ask something of these internet people (can you stop example here so I feel better about my choices in life etc), they will more likely resent you for telling them how to do their job.
And this isn't just Yahtzee either; to quote John Gabriel, "Given annominity and an audience, an otherwise regular person can become a total fuckwad". And that applies to the trolling masses that respond with pitchforks and torches whenever their precious console of choice is challenged.

 

[Ryengu]

He delivers serious points in a frivolous manner, often resorting to hyperbole and overgeneralization for the sake of humor. He's as much an entertainer as he is an informer.

 

[Rarhnor]

The problem is a bit of both worlds. People not believing in him taking himself seriously, and him taking himself too seriously.

 

[SidingWithTheEnemy]

Of course he is, why shouldn't he be?

The much more interesting questions is:

Is he right?

But that question is entirely subjective to your own opinion.

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

He specifically stated in inFamous that "[he] paints the majority of gaming as the bland garbage that it is to highlight the few glittering bellydancers that rise above."

Odd choice of words aside, Yahtzee thinks a lot of games are bland and unoriginal (not that they can't also be fun- the same way that bland summer blockbusters can be fun), and his goal is to point out the flaws in current gaming so that people will learn to demand more from their games and push the medium into its new potential. He doesn't want gamers (or developers) to get complacent, because then nothing new or interesting will ever come out of the process.

 

[Gamegeneral]

Generally, I assume that he's got to bullshit 15%, exaggerate 10%, and just be honest in a funny way for the remaining 75%.

However, I'm pretty sure he wants to see gaming taken in a different direction than where it's going, so he's going to apply the brakes until his foot falls off.

Then again, who am I to know?

But if you love something, you help it improve. At least that's what I think.

 

[CRRPGMykael]

He's a critic paid for being a critic(I.E. overexaggerating every single negative aspect in something). Although he also overexaggerates everything for entertainment purposes, but his oppinion is something I agree with 90% of the time.

 

[Jnat]

He's obviously overreacting, but he does it for comedy!

 

[Davey Woo]

I think he's seriously tired about how games aren't really very innovative these days, much like all of us, but he definitely exaggerates and nit-picks games for comedic effect. Basicaslly he plays a game, makes a list of bad points and talks about all of them, and if he can't make a long enough list of bad things then he'll praise it in his reviews. Or just not review it.

 

[Aprilgold]

He has his honest opinions and them says them in a comedic manner which may be a hyperbolic representation of what he believes. So ... yes.

Sorry, but that is it right there, can we just /thread besides posts containing opinion

 

[Inkidu]

This is something I have been thinking about for some time now, Yahtzee has stated to hate a lot of games and when I try to remember it all I recall him hating, third person shooters, first person shooters, real time strategies, RPGs JRPGs and just about everything the Wii churned out, and that's just off of the top of my head. I've seen a couple of people say that he's in character during his reveiws while others say they're his honest opinion and frankly I'm a little lost here. If he is in character I can't help but notice that he practically never breaks it on this website and quite a few people has begun to despise him. On the other hand if he isn't in character it's rather jarring that he honestly hates so many of the games out there and truly beleives them to be bland and unoriginal.

I get the feeling there is no right or wrong anwser to this so what do you think?

As serious as a triple-c***ed hooker. ;D

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Serious but with comedic hyperbole applied, purposely ignoring good points because "you don't come to [him] to hear about how a game is good."

 

[Mikeyfell]

This is something I have been thinking about for some time now, Yahtzee has stated to hate a lot of games and when I try to remember it all I recall him hating, third person shooters, first person shooters, real time strategies, RPGs JRPGs and just about everything the Wii churned out, and that's just off of the top of my head. I've seen a couple of people say that he's in character during his reveiws while others say they're his honest opinion and frankly I'm a little lost here. If he is in character I can't help but notice that he practically never breaks it on this website and quite a few people has begun to despise him. On the other hand if he isn't in character it's rather jarring that he honestly hates so many of the games out there and truly beleives them to be bland and unoriginal.

I get the feeling there is no right or wrong anwser to this so what do you think?

It's not really that he hates the entire genre in the way you think. He hates that they fall into trends that they don't escape from.

Like he doesn't hate Third Person Shooters he hates brown repetitive cover-based shooters with bad writing. He hates the militaristic FPS's for iron sight fetishists. he hates when RPG elements are used to pad gameplay instead of to add depth. he hates that JRPGS feature unrelatable androgynous teenagers as the lead cast. He hates very specific things that have become so commonplace that it's just faster to say he hates the entire genre.

And I think he is serious about that (I would find it hard to believe that he secretly loves Gears of War and just put up a bad review to save face). I'm glad he reviews games (I almost bought Dead Island sight unseen) Yahtzee is really one of the only people who's standards about games is as high and unreasonable as my own. Also he's just damn funny.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

He may or may not be serious, but that isn't the problem. He's entitled to his opinions how ever warped they may be. The problem is the people who start taking it seriously. Who realistically use his gaming hatespeeches as consumer advice, or worse even, those who become a Yahtzee parrot. Which is honestly about the worst thing a gamer can become.

Yahtzee parrots plague gaming forums these days and it never fails to make me sad. I think he's a funny guy. I think his show is entertaining. But I almost never share his bleak outlook on the gaming industry. Yes, there are plenty of legitimate problems in gaming. But no, I don't hope that developers are listening to him for guidance on what gamers want from the products they consume.

 

[Denamic]

It's his job to find every flaw in a given game and then rag on them.
He's semi-serious.
As in, what he say is basically true and are his actual feelings, just exaggerated and sharpened to a razor edge for comical effect.
Some people just can't take any negative feedback against something they personally like.

 

[Dutch 924]

He's a critic.
He wouldn't be very good at his job if he didn't hate stuff

 

[Mafoobula]

Sometimes I think you have to read between the lines to get a better idea of what Yahtzee thinks of a game. For example, when talking about Deus Ex: Human Revolution he made it a point to mention the joyous ability to throw vending machines at people. I thought maybe there was a deeper meaning to this, and after a few moments I got the opinion of "for all its seriousness and grim&gritty crap it still knows how to have its awesome fun moments and that's a big damn plus in my book."
Emphasizing the negative is a fairly common trait amongst comedic reviewers and it's typically done for the lulz. I highly doubt a lot of the games Yahtzee has bashed are truly as terribad as he made them out to be. Also, whenever he grudgingly admits that a game was actually good, it's usually done near the end after he's picked on what negatives he could find.

In short, take what he says with a grain of salt. Plus a small handful.