Why do people get upset when something is over-praised or over-criticized?

[Soviet Heavy]

I mean, what difference should it make to you? I bring this up because of Moviebob's latest review had people moaning in the comments about how he's probably overhyping Elysium like he did Pacific Rim. Now, I disagree with Bob a lot of the time (particularly when he starts accusing other people of ruining his movie experience, see: The Expendables review), but if you are getting so pissed off that someone who loved a film set *your* expectations too high, then I think you need to step back and consider how much other people's opinions influence you.

Look at Half Life and Mass Effect 3. One game is praised so much that the only threads we get nowadays are people asking "why do you like this so much, it didn't meet the insane expectations you guys set!". The other game has been driven into the ground with criticism (that I myself have added to), and you get people arguing against the majority again.


Honestly, I don't get why this is such a big deal for people. If you were disappointed with a film or game, fine, say your peace and be done with it. But when you start deciding to discredit other people's opinions or start accusing others of painting a false image of something you enjoyed/hated, you're toeing the line between expressing yourself and attacking someone.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think he needs to compensate for his more scathing reviews, so whenever something averagely decent shows up, he fawns over it like it's the Second Coming. A critic's bottom-line job is to give you as objective an appreciation as he can muster, and everything else is up to you. You can love it, hate it, whatever. Nobody's comparing notes, this isn't an exam. If a critic has "failed you" then switch over to someone with similar tastes to your own.

 

[ThatQuietGuy]

I've thought about this at some length and the conclusion I've come to is that saying x is overrated is a pointless and in a way a bit pretentious. Who are we to decide how much someone else should enjoy any particular piece of entertainment? We can't objectively define any metaphysical limit as to how good something is to the general public, or how much interest it should have.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Because this is the internet, where everything is offensive and we're supposed to be angry at things. You have an opinion and it must be heard because it's better than everyone else's.

 

[Kenbo Slice]

Because they don't think those things are as good as everyone else says it is. Everybody has different tastes man.

Ex: I think The Dark Knight is overrated, clearly Batman Begins is the superior film.

 

[Kenbo Slice]

Ex: I think The Dark Knight is overrated, clearly Batman Begins is the superior film.

This ^^^ incidentally.

When something is overpraised or overrated, things of superior quality get overlooked. It's as simple as that.

It's not that TDK is a bad film, but I felt like Begins was a more proper Batman film. I also hate that almost everybody shoots me down when I say Begins was the best film of the trilogy. I honestly only know one other person who prefers Begins over TDK and TDKR (which was just terrible).

 

[Legion]

Personally it doesn't bother me as long as people are not rude about it.

If somebody really doesn't like something that I do then that is fine, we all have differing tastes. It is when they word it in such a way that suggests that I am an idiot for liking or disliking it, that I get annoyed.

A lot of the time when I see people criticise or praise things, it comes from the position of claiming to be superior in some form for holding that position, and looking down upon those who do not feel the same.

 

[DoPo]

The word "overrated" should be banned from the vocabulary of...well, everybody. It's meaningless. On the surface, it means that other people rate something higher than they should, while it's usually the person using the word who just doesn't like the piece in question. So, when they say "it's overrated", they actually mean

Spoiler: this

Because obviously it's everybody else wrong for liking something too much - they should like it less, right? That's what "overrated" tends to be used as. So henceforth, I shall only refer it as "the O-word".

 

[Diablo2000]

I am a person who thinks Evangelion is utter garbage, I know there's people who loved this show and I don't flaming them because of it (only if you are being a prick about it). they liked it, I didn't, simple as that. Though I would like to get this off my chest "NO, EVANGELION DID NOT CREATE THE GIANT ROBOT GENRE OF ANIME, IT WAS MERELY THE HIGH OF IT'S POPULARITY", can't believe how many actually tried to argue that with me.

I think it's stupid to not watch\play\read something because people praise it too much or hate it too much, go have your own fucking thoughts on it, the only one losing something is you, because they hating or loving it... Guess what? You actually might like it.(Or hate it, whatever)

 

[Zhukov]

*raises hand*

Yeah... yeah, I'm guilty of this.

There have been times when I've played a game and been decidedly unimpressed. (No, not saying which ones. Time enough for that elsewhere.) Then I've come across a bunch of people saying how great it is. Then all of a sudden I find that my opinion has changed from "unimpressed" to "it was a wothless, execrable shit stain!"

And yet, despite doing it, I don't know why exactly it happens. The only thing I can think of is that it's the result of an effort, possibly subconscious to 'balance' things out. You know, "there are lots of people who disagree with me, so I must make my position more extreme in order to compensate for their (perceived) numerical superiority."

As for getting annoyed when people criticize something I like? Well, that's pretty straight forward. I like something. Someone says the thing I like is a piece of shit. I am now having less that friendly thoughts toward that someone. It doesn't help that people tend to be incredibly undiplomatic about it. Also, criticism on gaming forums is all too often accompanied by the implication (or outright statement) that anyone who likes the subject of the criticism has bad taste, is "ruining the industry" and should be ashamed of themselves. Is it really a surprise that people get irritated by this?

People like to say things like, "Your own opinion is the only one that should matter to you", or "why do you care what other people think?" That's bullshit though. We're social creatures, we value the regard of our peers, even the ones we don't like. (Maybe even especially the ones we don't like.) Only the most self-assured people are immune to the opinions of others, and even they will be worn down eventually.

 

[DoPo]

"NO, EVANGELION DID NOT CREATE THE GIANT ROBOT GENRE OF ANIME, IT WAS MERELY THE HIGH OF IT'S POPULARITY", can't believe how many actually tried to argue that with me.

That gave me a pause to process it. How can a work that is a deconstruction of a genre create the genre? Deconstructions are there when the genre is already established. That's why they are deconstructions - all the pieces and tropes and stereotypes and everything is in place, i.e., it's "constructed". And yes, deconstructions do come about at or around the height of the popularity of a genre. That's also a thing deconstructions do. Why could somebody claim otherwise is beyond me.

 

[Zhukov]

I just find it fucking annoying. People thought Half Life 2, Bioshock and Blade Runner were these uber amazing pieces of film and gaming. I thought they were all fucking shit, now I do have valid reasons but everyone constantly going on about how amazing they were didn't help at all.

It's even turned me off trying other games. People have painted this image of The Last Of Us being a perfect game with such an amazing story and it drives me fucking insane. I haven't even watched any gameplay from it but I haven't picked it up yet and I love Naughty Dog.

Okay, this makes no sense to me.

It's one thing to get antsy over someone's opinion of something that you disagree with, but quite another to get annoyed by someone praising a thing that you don't know anything about.

Should people refrain from praising anything in case you don't like it? Is nothing allowed to be fantastic?

(And yes, I probably am just picking on you because I liked HL2, Bioshock and The Last of Us. Ambivalent on Blade Runner. No idea what Breaking Bad is.)

 

[Erttheking]

No idea what Breaking Bad is.)

It's a live action drama series on AMC about a 50 something year old pasty white high school chemistry teacher. His wife is pregnant with an unexpected child, his son has Cerebral Palsy, and he makes around 40,000 dollars a year, so he can't really afford to pay the medical bills. Oh, and he has inoperable cancer, so add kemo therapy so he can live for a few more years bills to the pile. His brother in-law is in the DEA so one day at a party they're watching a news program on a recent drug bust he made, and it's mentioned 700,000 dollars were seized, which gets the gears turning in Walt's head. He meets up with an old student of his named Jessie already involved in the Meth trade and starts cooking it himself.

It's well liked because it's a very dark show. Not the Game of Thrones "5000 people got killed, 2000 people mutilated and 1536 people said the word fuck" dark, though Jessie does cuss a lot, it's dark because as time goes by, Walt's inner darkness starts to come out. You see, right out of college Walt and some of his friends started a company called Grey Matter, but he got cold feet and sold his shares for three months worth of rent. Grey Matter is now worth millions, but despite his friends meeting up with Walt, flat out offering to pay for his bills and even offering him a high paying job, he doesn't take it. Walt slowly stops being Walter White and becomes more and more the drug kingpin Heisenberg. In the first few episodes, he's forced to kill someone in self defense and is reduced to a sobbing wreck. Towards the end of the series...that empathy is gone. Also Walter White is played by the same guy who played the Dad in Malcolm in the Middle.......

http://i.imgur.com/ti9meB9.jpg

It's a very good show, I'd recommend at least giving it a shot. Although I must warn you that there are a few scenes of Walter White in his underwear. His age shows.

OT: I think like it's been said before, when it comes to conveying their opinion, people don't tend to be very diplomatic about it. Like the recent critical miss said, it's either "This game is the greatest game ever" or "This is the worst piece of fucking shit ever!" The lack of middle ground tends to lead to a fair bit of hostilities. It doesn't help that more often than not people get all hoity about their opinion and if you dare to disagree with the main majority you sometimes get accused of being a hipster that's just trying to be a special snowflake, which is a good way to fuel resentment.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Because they don't think those things are as good as everyone else says it is. Everybody has different tastes man.

Ex: I think The Dark Knight is overrated, clearly Batman Begins is the superior film.

Hello new friend.

Seriously though, I totally agree. And don't even get me started on Rises.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

When it comes to reviews, I couldn't give less of a shit about a bad reveiw for a game/movie/thing I like. My only problem is when the review is contradictory or filled bullshit that doesn't really back up said opinion. As for things that are overrated, it only bugs me when people feel the need to rant/discuss one thing or make a thread about it. Talking to your like minded friends about why Half-Life 2 is overrated is fine but making a thread about how its overrated is stupid because its just an opinion and no one on the Internet cares that you don't like a thing

 

[Nazulu]

I don't know exactly. I've asked many people and what I usually hear is everyone feels strongly about certain things, and entertainment can be a very big, even the biggest part of our lives.

For example; with angry Star Wars fans. They have invested so much of their lives into this fantasy, following it around and learning everything about it. Then the new movies came out and changed how some things worked (I can't remember what) and to them it feels like it wasn't taken seriously, just changed for convenience or something. There is also a lot of hype that plays into this too which can also ruin anything.

That's just one side to it I'm sure you know. There is plenty of other reasons while they will take it so seriously..

I believe there is a little too much generalisation in this thread. Just remember everyone will give you different answers or a different wording of said answer because we all see things differently. Though, it is a common habit for a lot of people to write down their first thoughts which are usually the most aggressive.

Edit: Actually, there is one thing that does so often contribute to the over-reactions, and that's labels. Fuck labels. We've all been called fanboys or elitists, or any of the other 100 you can of, and this is the quickest way to dismiss others opinions. It still ticks me off to be called nostalgic. This is one of the biggest sources of why people become LOUD! You see it so commonly in many other forms as well like haters, cynics, apologists, etc. Everyone wants to be heard and they WILL become more aggressive the more they are generalised. Movie Bob has done this many times before, so it doesn't surprise me at all that people are doing it back to him.

The word "overrated" should be banned from the vocabulary of...well, everybody. It's meaningless. On the surface, it means that other people rate something higher than they should, while it's usually the person using the word who just doesn't like the piece in question. So, when they say "it's overrated", they actually mean

Spoiler: this

Because obviously it's everybody else wrong for liking something too much - they should like it less, right? That's what "overrated" tends to be used as. So henceforth, I shall only refer it as "the O-word".

It's not meaningless, you know exactly what someone means when they say it. Probably what you don't see often is someone backing it up well. If everyone could be patient and not get so sensitive when discussing this type of thing, we would all get better answers.

You are basically doing the same thing right now. You don't like the word so you believe no one should use it.

 

[Angie7F]

I think it is had something to do with the American culture assuming that your opinion counts.
reading online rants about movies and stuff just makes me want to say "Just get over yourself!". lol

 

[Rariow]

To me it's simply because I find it heartbreaking when something not so good's being praised when there's so many wonderful things that get little or no praise. That's the reason why it makes me sad seeing people talking about how great Dragon Age 2 was (Albeit, not on these forums, that's for damn sure) whilst there's a myriad small indie titles that deserve the attention way more struggling to make any sort of money.

That said, I try not to go on in and talk about games that I consider overrated (Breaking my own code as I do this, but I try not to complain about modern military shooters, for instance). If you like a game that I don't, I'm genuinely envious: You're having a good experience that I just can't enjoy for reason of thinking it's kinda shit. More power to ya.