My biggest pet peeve when reading video game blogs or listening to gaming podcasts is when someone expresses a firm opinion based on a negligible amount of play time. I get particularly irate when the commentator is passionate in their belief, and slags/praises a title with nerdlike glee despite their obvious ignorance. The problem is only amplified when the blog/podcast is a group effort, and the majority of the contributers do take pains to ensure that they are informed.
Now, far be it for me to tell someone how to produce their free content – I’ll be the first to admit that I dislike it when people try to tell me how to pursue my hobby – but I cannot even begin to comprehend the myopic ego-driven mindset that it takes to publicly pass judgment on a game that you have invested a mere handful of minutes in.
Quite often a video game turns me off immediately, but instead of writing up a scathing attack based on my paltry playtime, I quietly sweep it under the rug and never mention it unless directly asked. Not only that, I’ve always felt that expressing my personal bias for or against a title was an important piece of the puzzle without which my opinions on a game (or demo) cannot be properly understood. Often these nerd attacks seem steeped in kneejerk opinion rather than considered thought.
I can’t change the offenders – most refuse to admit that they’re being disingenuous when they talk from a position of obvious ignorance – all I can do is tune them out, whether that means unsubscribing from the blog/podcast feed or just skipping past their contributions without ingesting them.
4 Responses to “Three point five for fifteen”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
While I’m not keen on all the kneejerk reactions and especially the scathing flamefests some people write, if I remove that from the equation, aren’t “opinions” what blogs (and their audio equivalents, podcasts) are all about? Bloggers are, by their very nature, not biased journalists. There is no need to even write “in my opinion” or “IMO” on your blog because the entire blog is your opinion which may or may not have any factual basis to it.
Just sayin’…
I completely agree with the sentiment, however a lot of bloggers (and podcasters) try very hard to convey information with their articles. In the realm of video game analysis, this takes the form of reviews or impressions (I prefer the latter).
One of the big things that I read gaming blogs for is to help inform my buying decisions. Over time it is possible to get a sense for whether or not an author’s tastes mirror my own, at which point I can use their reviews/discussions in the same manner that many people use professional gaming reviews.
That’s why expressing opinions on games from a point of ignorance gets under my skin so much – it totally undermines the reason I consume the person’s output in the first place. Once I suspect an author is analyzing games based on negligible playtime I start distrusting everything they say; it’s a downwards spiral.
Of course, this is all just my opinion, your mileage may vary. ;)
I still think it’s fair to let the reader’s know if I can’t enjoy the game within the first half hour. It’s a completely legitimate complaint and they may have the exact same experience when playing a game.
If I write up what I don’t like about a game without playing a lot of it I always make sure to put that in the post and I try to keep the post short. I try not to write a giant scathing review over a game I gave up quickly, instead I’ll write a quick paragraph about my experience and why I stopped playing.
Isn’t that a valid way to go about the problem?
Fair enough, but what has set me off is people who, with 15 minutes playtime, assert that a game is a 3.5/5 (Elemental) and expect to be taken seriously. Or, after playing five minutes declare that it sucks (FF XIII).
Another podcast I used to listen to often did full “reviews” of games after an hour at most of game time – that’s just impossible to do with any sense of fairness.