Critics That You Simply Can't Listen to Anymore

[Darks63]

So I guess the final question I want to ask my fellow Escapists is...has something like this ever happened to you? Has someone that you respected and/or trusted as conduit of helping shape your opinion on something done something immature or just plan awful that you can't look past? I want to know that I am not alone in feeling sad about losing trust in someone.

I know I might Get flak for posting this, but I used to really like MovieBob. His viewpoints could tip me on whether or not to see a movie , but over time as his popularity grew his attitude started to get really shitty. I know that sounds somewhat hipsterish, but he really, to me at least, started as a sort of every man. However as his popularity grew started to take himself way to seriously and as a result he started preaching to people instead of giving criticisms. Another thing that bothered me, and this is just my perception based on things he has said, is that he seems to be one of those people that is still holding onto baggage from high school. I just can't respect people who still hold on to such petty anger for so long. As a result i stopped watching all of his content on this site.

As for TB I used to enjoy him as well until his PC master Race attitude started to grate on me(I'm A big PC gamer too). As well as the video he put up where he was whining about a particular set of vids not getting the amount of views he usually expected. Actually whiny does not accurately describe that vid Desperate does

 

[Casual Shinji]

I've been getting fairly tired of Yahtzee. I've only really been watching ZP for the last few years out of habit, but the spiteful smugness permeating from his recent videos and articles is starting to get rather sickening.

Thank God, there's still Matthewmatosis to pick up the slack.

 

[Pixelspeech]

Recently I've been more of a fan of video reviews or first impressions, such as the ones done by Totalbiscuit. While I think TB is fun to listen to, I pay a lot more attention to the gameplay and form my own opinion based on that. If his commentary confirms that he also likes the bits of gameplay I am interested in, then that is nice, but like somebody else pointed out, I don't really care about his damn option menus.

Aside from that I tend to enjoy written reviews on a few specialized sites and magazines, but I have started avoiding major news sites because they don't cover the kind of games I am into.

 

[Silly Hats]

I've been playing less attention of critics the older I get, I know what I like and if I use my own sensibilities to make up my own mind about things. If I don't like something then i'll stop playing it and if I hate something then I wont buy it.

I generally prefer comedic tinged videogame related personalities like Yahtzee, Spoony or Mega64. People take games way too seriously and it just makes gaming suffer needlessly.

 

[Maximum Bert]

No dont think it has to be honest I tend to never trust a single persons opinion at least professionally and so if I am unsure on a game I get as many different reviews and opinions on it until I make a decision one way or another and these arent always opinions of critics but users as well which seems to be getting more and more important for the AAA titles where it does seem like a lot of the main sites and magazines inflate the score of the product and speak up about the positives while downplaying the negatives.

But I dont follow critics really there are some sources I give more credence to than others ofc but none I always agree with. I probably give a couple of my friends advice the most credence but I know their tastes and they know mine so when we recommend a game to each other we sort of know if the other person will like it and as such we rarely recommend games to each other as we have very different tastes and abilities in games.

 

[not_you]

I don't quite understand how everyone can get so worked up because of someone else's opinions/words/ideas...

I mean, seriously, (I may as well just point to a handful of Jimquisition episodes as they're close to the same as to what I'm about to say)

And it gets largely off-topic, but somewhat related... I've already written it out, so I'm not deleting it.... >.>

Spoiler

Why the hell do people get pissed off with a review that doesn't have their exact opinions on paper? I just don't understand it... People rage about games that got bad scores saying the game was great and other games with good scores that you called crap... Hell, you can say the same thing about movie reviews and the like (Since many people in THIS thread mentioned Moviebob)

Yahtzee said it himself in his SSBB review... Why do you care what I say if you're going to buy, play, and like a game before he says anything about it? That's what the reviews are paid to do! If in their subjective opinion they don't like a game, they have every right to! Like you have every right to disagree with them...
Is it alright to yell and scream at them because you had a different opinion?

NO!

If you don't agree with it, then write your own opinion and make your own review... Join the countless legion of other people trying to break into the industry doing the exact same thing! It's not about you jumping on this person's back because they've had the same opinion as you before, so therefore they must have the same one now!
Hell, Jim Sterling likes the Dynasty Warriors games... A series that has bee criticized for years for making absolutely no progress in gameplay since the early 2000's... Once 3D movement was a staple all they really have done is put in more characters, bigger maps and fancier graphics...

If only the internet could get over itself and fucking LEARN that not everyone will be on your side... You have every right to dispute their opinion, that's fine... A well-reasoned discussion is great in that regard... But flat-out abusing them FOR their opinion is just utter cowardice...

Wow, that got off topic... I really need to stop doing that...



OT: Are there and critics I can't listen to anymore?
No... There are only 3 weekly 'review' columns that I follow (Jim, Yahtzee and Moviebob's "big picture") And All three, while mostly viewed (by me) as entertainment, are yet to annoy me to any significant degree...

 

[SomeGuyOnHisComputer]

Matt Keil's review of Silent Hill Shattered Memories was turning point for X-Play for me. It was absolutely ridiculous. It basically made stuff up in order to bash the game. It was completely unprofessional anti-Wii, Silent Hill (original trilogy) fanboy bullshit.

I would also say Sessler too now knowing he's rooting for the biggest threat to gaming in long time for very petty reasons.

I can't stomach Total Biscuit any more as well. To the point where I actually get pissed off when I'm linked to one of his videos without being told what it is as he's profiting off from it. I can't support someone who opposes used games, I just can't. He complains about anti consumer practices, but then goes on to bash one of the few freedoms consumers have. He's a fucking hypocrite.

 

[Grach]

Considering he's primarily a movie critic here in the Escapist it's not that bad, but Moviebob is someone whose opinion on videogames and the videogame industry I don't listen to anymore. I frankly don't feel like he has something important to say, just shallow analysis.

 

[Pr0]

I don't really listen to critics largely because they're not playing the game at the time they're telling me what their opinions are.

Now this isn't to say that they haven't reviewed the game at all, of course they have its their journalistic duty to ensure they're informed on the subject but the main problem with critical review of gaming right now isn't exactly who is doing it but how they are doing it and how far they are actually behind the medium of games critique.

The simple process of playing a game and then telling people your opinion is kind of old hat at this point. Even if its done in an entertaining manner by a very talented individual its still last centuries method of critiquing games.

Guys like Scott Manley or FrankieOnPCat1080p or Broteam and even Pewdiepie are actually at the forefront of what game critics should be doing today. Don't tell me what you think, show me why you think that. Now of those four examples only one of them actually does anything near to critique and thats Broteam but he at least shows you why he thinks what he thinks in his rather iconic and humorous way. The others don't critique as much as they show you what they're doing and why they like it.

Lets be fair.....critique is for things that need criticism but human beings are capable of making informed decisions simply by being shown good things and shown why they're good. I am more apt to purchase a game played by Scott Manley because he plays games I tend to like and he shows you why they're good. No need to focus on games that are bad because they're bad...lets play what we want to play.

So overall while I realize these people aren't critics as much as they're Lets Play artists, the difference is, I'm buying games I enjoy, at least ones I might not have given a chance initially, because these people are showing me why they're enjoyable...rather than standing behind a podium and warning me off a game that they think is shit cause they're obviously a journalist and thus have more credibility than my own impressions.

So anyways, writing a column or doing a video about why a game is bad and no one should play it is pointless and backwards journalism at this point. It serves no purpose in the "always on" industry of today. All you need to do is show me what you enjoy and why you enjoy it and I have a very high chance of potentially checking it out afterwards...whereas if somethings really bad, you simply don't cover it at all....and thus I never even really pay attention to it and we stay focused on the good bits of the industry, shared from one gamer to another, as compared to all the bad bits of the industry, being basically preached from the pulpit by people who have made it their business to entrench themselves as some kind of authority on these matters that is somehow more qualified than me to analyze the short comings of the games they're criticizing.

So which critics can I no longer listen to? To be honest, I'm not really listening to any of them...I'm listening to non-critics because they show me why a game might be good and its not only entertaining but its informative at the same time.

 

[Eamar]

MovieBob, sad to say. With his film reviews, I think it's just a case of having different tastes or criteria a lot of the time. I just don't find that his judgements tally with my own a lot of the time, so it's fairly useless me using his reviews as a guide to which films to see. There are other film critics whose reviews tend to tally with my own opinions fairly consistently, so I use those instead.

Basically, it's nothing personal, I just don't usually have a use for his reviews so I stopped watching them.

And I know they're not reviews per se, but as far as The Big Picture is concerned... again,I stopped watching a while ago. It's a shame, because I think he can be very eloquent and make some really good points, but when I disagree with him it really rubs me up the wrong way for some reason. It's odd, because I'm usually fine with hearing other points of view. I do get that not everyone has the same opinions as me. I guess it's something about his persona that just annoys me. He can be kinda smug and 'holier than thou', but not amusingly or endearingly so like say, Jim or Yahtzee.

 

[Rastrelly]

MovieBob. He allowed himself to PR his book right after postmortem episode. Unacceptable at least.
Also as common: getting sick of this gender and gay "discussions", where everyone repeat the same shit over and over and think they're soooo smart and soooo on the edge of social progress. It seems West is going nuts.

 

[omega 616]

Well, I have only watched one of Jim's vids and I think it was utter crap.

It was like a "my first video" on youtube, it was awkward, trying to force a gimmick, lame jokes ... it was more cringe worthy than informative or entertaining. Basically, it was just very rip off amateur version of Yahtzee's style (from what I remember).

 

[MrBaskerville]

iI read reviews because i want opinions, i'm not looking for a fact sheet.

I stopped listenening to MovieBob a long time ago, i still watch his stuff for entertainment purposes, but i have realized that i never really agrees with him. When it comes to movies he seems to be looking for the polar opposite of what i look for and sometimes he comes of as a bit immature (Robo dinosaurs = most awesome thing ever... really?). And i don't really care for superheroes, something he seems to be very interested in, but i can still view his videos and accept his opinions while i rarely agree. I dropped Game Overthinker after he introduced that terrible storyline and i was starting to get a bit tired of his points about Call Of Duty, seemed like he rarely talked about anything else by then.

Invisible Walls on Gametrailers, i followed this for a while, but after one of the hosts threw a tantrum because people bashed Residen Evil 6 and said something along the line of: "AAA games can't score lower than 7" i kinda stopped caring about them. Haven't listened to an episode since then, but it might have been underway for a while, it was a guy named Shane (?), he just seemed like a very childish and closed person during that podcast. I also stopped viewing That Guy With The Glasses and Linkara after realizing that i kinda hated their style and found the whole thing to be unfunny. Stopped visiting the site because the bar of entry was set waaay too low.

I read a lot of Movie reviews bevause there's a lot of great writers out there and it can be entertaining while also informing me of a lot of movies i might have missed but i don't read game reviews anymore because it tends to be fairly mediocre and there are too many writers writing fact sheet reviews while i want opinion pieces. And most mainstream reviewers seems to have a very different opinion of what makes a good game than i do, the polar opposite of the general moviereviewer.

 

[Ipsen]

I still watch and enjoy Arin Hanson of Game Grumps... but I hardly respect his views on game design anymore, at least when held up against his Sequelitis series. I don't know if that was a fluke, or that it's just hard as hell to talk or critique while playing games (not that he does this often anyway).

But I guess that's the thing about following critics. They are, in my view, comprised of 'just their own opinions'. Which means, if I value that opinion, or it resonates with me, great! I'm easily curious to see more of what this source of opinion has to say on a different piece. If not...then well, it's hella easy to write off; critique readers don't usually have a persuasive dialogue with the critics.

Or you could just be aware of all of this, and just take in people experiencing games, for good or bad.

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

Any review from, say, IGN. They're there to inform, not to give their personal opinion. I have every right to go on there and complain about reviews if my experience is very different from what was described.

NOPE. Once you go into this territory you get into a very gray area of some things are just going to be opinion. That's it. In this world, people have forgotten what reviews are for. They are reference points. They are not meant to express your opinion and show what you want to be said. Because ultimatley what we end up fighting over was whether DMC had a good story mode or not. Let's just enjoy and talk about them without being too thicke to realize this someone's opinion. Like IGN's reviews of the COD series. They are obviously picking people who like the COD series so they can identify with the COD fans. Now if a COD fan came back and said Ghosts was shit (Like our Jim Sterling did)then that would be some noteworthy shit. Either way, I disagree with you. Respectfully disagree, but disagree nonetheless.

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

I did stop watching TB a while ago.

He's not talking about TB he's talking about GB. Unless you realize that and you wanted to talk about TB. I don't know forgive my stupidity...

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

Most, if not all of them. My tastes in gaming these days seem to be vastly different from the majority of critics. The only one I agree with most of the time is Angry Joe.

Angry Joe seems pretty on par with most critics point of view but besides the point...

 

[The Crispy Tiger]

Well, I have only watched one of Jim's vids and I think it was utter crap.

It was like a "my first video" on youtube, it was awkward, trying to force a gimmick, lame jokes ... it was more cringe worthy than informative or entertaining. Basically, it was just very rip off amateur version of Yahtzee's style (from what I remember).

Ripoff of Yahtzee??? I see this thrown out a lot when someone has a similar style to someone else on Youtube but Jim has been here just as long if not longer doing Jimquistions as Yahtzee has. I love both of them and if you disagree or even go as far as hate either of the two in question for not having an opinion that's your's I can see it. I really do not care but to call someone a ripoff to another person that is not and never has been a ripoff, especially since the two not only have two very different opinions, but also have two different styles if you gave it more thought and didn't go fuck it at the end of the video because your opinion isn't exactly the same.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I did stop watching TB a while ago.

He's not talking about TB he's talking about GB. Unless you realize that and you wanted to talk about TB. I don't know forgive my stupidity...

Did GB release a WTF is of Long Live The Queen yesterday? Pretty sure you could read between the lines there, even if my opening sentence could be read as a typo.

He was actually rather objective on LLTQ too, he admits he doesn't like anime art styles but he knows some people do (cmon it's always adorable, stop lying yourselves haters) and the biggest complaint was the two menus you have to switch between in the skills interface which I will admit is a glaring interface problem.

Still the way he has to rip PC options menus to pieces is a bit annoying. I get it needs mentioning if it's like the new Crysis or Battlefield but come on it's a Visual Novel/Choose your own adventure death sim. There isn't much room for change.

I get what people mean sometimes about Jim too. I quite like the Jimquistion now but you have to get used to his holier than thou, kind of a dick (no offense) persona. I got back into it in the Aliens: CM breakdown episode and he wasn't as abhorrent as I remembered. I still don't agree with everything he says, usually game review related (I hardly played anything on his GOTY list so that's a bit different) but he's fun to watch.