What is Nitpicking?

[Mikeyfell]

Nitpicking is something monkeys do when they all sit in a row and eat the bugs off each others backs.

It's also when you draw attention to the minor issues in something like a movie or game or series.

What ultimately qualifies as a "minor issue" is subjective though.

I often get accused of "nitpicking" for pointing out continuity destroying plot holes, terrible exposition or incoherent character motivation. While other people act like it's their divine right to point out every clipping issue in animation (Something I qualify as a nitpick)

So the take away from this is that if anyone accuses YOU of nitpicking it means they don't care what you think

 

[HoneyVision]

Yeah it's when you criticize something/someone for very very trivial reasons. I hate it because often it's a sign that the person has no awareness of the bigger picture and is most likely nitpicking out of duty, more than out of practicality.

 

[Something Amyss]

It was all about the first impressions for me. I played the first Dead Space (whee I'm on a scary space ship!) and to it's credit, it was a good horror game. Then I met my first jump scare, and then I realized I could read the Terms of Service Agreement in the time it took to traverse a corridor, and then I realized I'd spent ten minutes just stomping on bodies...

Maybe nitpicking really was the wrong word for it. I was, uh, disappointed, I guess? I realize now I'm not a good nitpicker.

Yeah, I don't know for sure, but those sound like they could be legit criticisms. It all depends, I suppose.

Sometimes, it's hard to tell. And soemtimes, a thousand little things can make for a bad game/movie/whatever. I think the problem is more with criticising the small stuff when it doesn't lead to a greater whole.

Criticism in itself is a tough thing, especially these days. You can't say anything potentially harsh in the first place, most of the time. My girlfriend and I have fun riffing on certain elements of the Harry Potter franchise, for example, but we don't hate it. Far from it. We're both fans. I note these things more because I enjoy the series that I've read and watched the installments so many times. And the fact is, none of the criticisms large or small really change that.

Hell, it's fuuuuuuuun. It actually probably brought us together. We do the same thing with a lot of shared interests, but the one that springs to mind is Harry Potter at the moment.

I digress. I think of nitpicks as trivial things. Triviality can be hard to judge objectively, though, so there's some wiggle room. There's also context. Something that might be trivial in one product might be a big deal in another. You expect a weak plot in porn, but not in a prestige flick. You expect bad voice acting in Dynasty Warriors, but not so much in Grand Theft Auto. You expect weak handling in a survival horror game, but not so much in a platformer. And then a matter of degrees, etc. etc.

A nitpick should not have any level of significant impact, I guess I'm trying to say.

 

[Evonisia]

It's when little things that don't really affect anything important get brought up front and used against a story or process.

I liked Doug Walker's idea of it though: We nitpick because the medium didn't engage us enough to let us forget it. It's why for EG I could watch Spider-Man 2002 and not get upset about the numerous little mistakes made in continuity, but I have a hard time watching Amazing Spider-Man 2012 because more major things are keeping me from enjoying it.

[sub] And now let's wait for people to accuse me of being Moviebob under a pseudonym.[/sub]

I did like that video, however I'm not sure I could agree with one of his examples, that being "we can ignore Citizen Kane's plothole". Yes, the film does fine if you can look past it but from a story standpoint the plothole's just a little too large, just one line of dialogue or stage direction could have saved it but alas, it was not meant to be.