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

[Zetona]

There are seven billion people in the world. With the Internet allowing you to connect to far more people than you ever could before, people are probably more aware than ever of how difficult it is to stand out in such a crowd.

Everyone's entitled to an opinion, but when your opinion goes against the majority, there's now more reason to vent it than ever, because it serves as a quick and easy way of establishing yourself as unique, different from the masses, and standing out is an easy way to make heads turn, among other things.

This covers a lot of cases, but there are definitely others that can come into play.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I don't really care if something is over criticized. That doesn't affect me at all, especially if it's something that I've already experienced and enjoyed. When something is over praised though it colors my expectation of it, so if everyone is raving about how good something is and then I try it and it's average, first of all I'm disappointed, and second, I just spent money to play/watch something that I normally would have passed on or gotten around to when it was cheaper.

In some cases over celebration of a game can cheapen the experience. "The cake is a lie" in context was a silly moment on the surface with darker and more serious implications about the story and the world in which portal took place. Of the thousands of times I've come into contact with the phrase, only once has it ever been in context. It holds none of the same cleverness if it's in any remote proximity of an "XD."

In other cases it can almost completely engulf the original content. I've seen every star wars movie a total of one times. I could probably recite back a full plot synopsis of the original films despite seeing them over 15 years ago, not because I remember them, but because you almost can't browse the internet for 10 minutes without seeing star wars being discussed or parodied.

 

[KazeAizen]

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.

Same deal with Breaking Bad, people going on about how it's the "greatest TV show of all time" and post it all over the goddamn internet, they just come across as twats trying to force it down your throat which annoys me. Countless times I've been reading reviews on episodes of Sons Of Anarchy or some other show only to see "hurr this is shit breaking bad GREASTESTS SHOW EVAR!!11!1!!!1", which is the sole reason why I haven't watched it yet.

Yeah its the easiest way to turn people off games and such. For instance I didn't buy the two Batman games until a few months ago simply because of how much hype they received. That is also why I never picked up Mass Effect. I still have no inkling to pick up The Last of Us either. Its artistic style I've seen a million times and quite frankly its over used these days. Hell that is mostly why I still play a lot of Japanese made games and haven't been turned off buy the millionth iteration in some series. They are seemingly never over hyped, usually have solid game play, and they have an artistic style I don't see as often. By that I mean one that is actually different then the "lets see how many pores we can see on this guy's face" kind.

Hell I acknowledge Avatar is a strong movie and I would be lying if I said it didn't make me smile at parts but while I am smiling I am also secretly loathing myself for it. Avatar was over hyped to death and while its a formula that has been done to death its still formulaic on every level. Its just pretty as hell and nothing more. It wasn't quite a land mark for anything other then 3D. While Pacific Rim on the other hand I think is a far superior movie and is a land mark movie for its genre.

P.S. Also with its success that can only mean that the Eva movie is finally gonna get green lit.

 

[Evonisia]

Because usually when somebody praises something they tend to forget the negatives, so if I (for example) venture into a game with neutral eyes the flaws that said people forgot to mention seem even worse than they actually are.

See: BioShock Infinite's gameplay and story.

Vice versa when something is criticised heavily people tend to forget the positives so a neutral bladdy bladdy blah sees the positives more.

See: Err... I dunno, Mafia II?

It's also nice to know that it's harder to find positives in things, so it feels good to criticise other people's opinions, especially if they're the majority.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

It's simple human nature. We want the things we like to succeed (so that more like it gets made) and the things we don't like to fail (so that the people who made it stop making things like it, and start making things we like). So we say good things about the things we like and bad things about the things we don't like, in order to influence the people around us to agree with us, because when enough people voice an opinion it becomes a truth.

We've been doing this for thousands of years; it's only really since the advent of the Internet that we've all been able to do it beyond the range of our own voices.

 

[Pyramid Head]

Because when uncreative garbage like My Little Pony, Twilight, or Call of Duty gets undue praise it stifles creativity as producers trip over themselves to make more of that samey garbage for the sake of a quick buck.
...well okay i doubt this happens to much of an extant with My Little Pony, but you do see where i'm coming from. I get upset when things are over-praised because frequently the things i see getting over-praised are devoid of creativity.

 

[Reeve]

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.

And then there's the jerks who think that it's smart to be meta and snarky.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Because when uncreative garbage like My Little Pony, Twilight, or Call of Duty gets undue praise it stifles creativity as producers trip over themselves to make more of that samey garbage for the sake of a quick buck.
...well okay i doubt this happens to much of an extant with My Little Pony, but you do see where i'm coming from. I get upset when things are over-praised because frequently the things i see getting over-praised are devoid of creativity.

You forgot IMO. As in "I get upset when things are overpraised because frequently the things I see getting overpraised are devoid of creativity, in my opinion."

OT: ...I'm generally not bothered by people overpraising something I don't care for, or being overly critical of something I do like. What I do have a problem with are those people criticizing me for liking something they don't like, or claiming that by not sharing their tastes, I am dooming all of entertainment to being the same bland garbage with no creativity whatsoever.

...To Pyramid Head, I apologize if you saw this as an attack on you, as it wasn't intended to be. I just found your post to be a great example of what I have a problem with.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Because people on the internet display an irrepressible need to validate themselves against a scale that appears to be solid but in actuality is constantly shifting or doesn't really exist.

OT: ...I'm generally not bothered by people overpraising something I don't care for, or being overly critical of something I do like. What I do have a problem with are those people criticizing me for liking something they don't like, or claiming that by not sharing their tastes, I am dooming all of entertainment to being the same bland garbage with no creativity whatsoever.

This is worth repeating.

 

[Resetti's_Replicas]

Because you start to doubt if you have good taste, and worry people will judge you for your preferences. I'm not going to say I'm above that; I think it takes a rather simple mind to enjoy people like Pewdiepie and Onision

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

I generally ignore it when things get overly praised, although there are some things that really irk me (The Last of Us), but I really hate it when people get overly critical about a game because they worship a past entry in that particular franchise. It's usually the 'rose-colored glasses' problem. Games like Final Fantasy VII, Devil May Cry, and Resident Evil 4 are no where near as spectacular people remember. They were amazing for their time, but compared to today's games, they don't hold up quite so much. So when I see people complaining about how the new DmC is terrible compared to the original... I mean... really? It's terrible compared to a game with frustrating camera controls, silly voice acting, and graphics that show their age even in the HD collection?

I'd really prefer people give things a fair shake and stop comparing, scrutinizing, and buying into (good or bad) hype. I readily admit that Bioshock Infinite - one of my favorite games this year - receives entirely too much praise. But as I always say, you'll never truly know how you'll feel a game until you pick it up and play it.

 

[ShiningAmber]

Personally.

I think it's really hard in this day and age for people to grasp that someone might like different things than you. It's shocking, really. That someone's preferences and opinions might just be different. I mean, there are only billions of people in the world.

 

[Innegativeion]

Insecurity, would be my best guess.

Some people are terrified of being invalidated. Their personal sense of agency becomes threatened if outside forces 'attack' it, so to speak. The idea that the conclusion one reached was "wrong" is horrifying to these people. So they get defensive.

As an aside,

(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.)

I love HL2, Bioshock, haven't played TLoU,

and I was shocked to find Blade Runner rather dull, personally.

On the other hand, I found the novel it was (loosely) based on to be brilliant.

 

[SillyBear]

I don't believe the terms "overrated" or "underrated" even make sense.

When someone says "Bioshock is overrated!" they are really saying "A lot of people love Bioshock but I don't like it". Unless somehow they can prove that all the glowing sales and glowing reviews of the franchise were actually inaccurately reported or in some way skewered - then nothing about its rating process was incorrect. Therefore it can't be over or underrated.

It's just a funny way to say that your opinion on the issue is relatively rare or you think differently to the crowd. It's one of those things we say that doesn't mean a whole much.