Carpenter said:
If you feel the need to discuss this, can you at least be mature about it?
Starting with "calm down" (implying that I was angry or excited) is a pretty overused troll tactic. Not saying you are a troll, I only bring it up because it's just presumptuous and rude.
Yes, you did sound quite angry to me, especially with the opening line about how it bugs you so much and much of your follow-on text sounded like a response in irritation. You quite explicitly included me in a group that is a source of your current irritation, therefore, it seemed quite reasonable to me to presume you were angry in your post. It is not rude or presumptuous if the person responding has reason to believe that you may be a bit peeved over the issue. Trying to imply that I'm a troll doesn't help. Saying that someone is doing something is indicative of them being X but you're not calling them X is a bit cowardly, in my opinion. Either you believe I'm being a troll or not. If you believe I'm being a troll, then just say so, but if you don't actually believe I'm being a troll, then please don't use phrasing that sounds like an indirect accusation (and, yes, I'm actually a bit irritated by this). Further, just because someone doesn't have agreement with you or make counterpoints against your post doesn't mean that they are engaging in trollish behavior. It simply means they disagree.
Carpenter said:
Did you read my post? You are asking questions that I already answered with my comments earlier. Yes if you have never played the game all you have to go on is the opinions of others, that's why it bugs me when people that are payed to play video games and give their opinions make claims about a game that are demonstrably false. It would be no different than reviewing Fable and claiming that it delivered on every single promise made in development. It's misleading and unprofessional.
Yes, I read your post, the one that quoted me and directly included me as one of a select group that is a source of irritation for you concerning this game.
Greg Tito is not the only one who has the opinion that the story is pointless and unmotivated. One poster in this forum who has also played the game echoes the same opinion as Greg Tito; this person right here:
TheMoD1234 said:
Wow didn't think I'd find a review like this one on the internet .. This is basically what I've been thinking most of the time while playing it ! It's just so sinister . I mean GTA 4 wasn't very lighthearted either, but GTA 5 is different .. I guess soulless is the word I'm looking for . Noone really has any believable emotional bonds to anyone else . Come to think of it Max Payne 3 had a very bleak and depressing feel to it aswell . Almost makes me think Dan Houser might be going through some rough times and it influences his writing or something
So, the claims are not necessarily demonstrably false, and I suspect he is not the only person that holds such an opinion. Just because others don't agree with your opinion doesn't necessarily make them factually wrong.
Carpenter said:
You are asking why you would want to buy the game if you have no interest in it. I don't know, why would you? Why are you asking me that? I never suggested you buy the game if you have no interest. On that note, if you have absolutely no interest, why are you here sharing your opinion on the game you have not played?
You specifically take exception to someone reciting the opinion of another, specifically a game reviewer, when the person reciting the review has not themselves played the game. In that sense, you are asking the person reciting the review to play the game first before they are allowed to weigh in on the game. I did not recite the review but offered my interpretation of the review. I predicated that interpretation with "If the review is to be believed..." in an attempt to show that I was not taking a stance one way or the other on the veracity of the review. I admit that this may not have been sufficient to impress that onto the reader; never the less, that was the intent.
Carpenter said:
Yes I enjoy the game, if you think this is me complaining about an opinion I don't agree with then maybe you just skimmed my comment. This is about a person being given money to review a game and then making claims that are demonstrably false. The things he claims are not matters of opinion, such as his claim that the Life invader mission is given no context and no reason and that you are not told what you are doing until it happens. Every one of those claims is false.
No, I did not skim your post. It sounded quite clear that you did not agree with the review, and you do not agree with someone giving an interpretation of the review. In fact, the very statement from you that I have quoted above is a disagreement.
Carpenter said:
I could just as easily say that if you are not interested in the game you shouldn't care what my opinion of the review is. You are here presenting your opinion, accept that I am doing the same.
I don't care what your opinion of the review is. I care that you included me as belonging to a group that is causing you irritation. Further, you included me in that group on the basis of what I perceived as a misunderstanding of the nature and intent of my post. I responded to your opinion to clarify to you the nature and intent of my post so as not to be included in such group. Even further, the only reason I'm responding now is because in the very beginning of your last post you make what I perceive as a back-hand accusation to call me a troll.
Carpenter said:
The opinions of others is not detracting from my enjoyment of the game, your comments seem pretty in line with the community's behavior right now in defending the escapist, constant strawman arguments. I am not claiming that everyone or anyone has to enjoy a game I enjoy, as I have made clear several times this is about a person who is payed to review a game making false claims about that game.
Yet, you seem quite bothered by these "false claims", as you call them, concerning the game and seeing the need to defend the game from them.
There is no way I can argue with you on the veracity of any claims one way or the other, either yours or Greg Tito's, as I have not played the game myself. I did not take Greg Tito's review on faith because I know better than just go by the word of a single reviewer (goodness knows if I did that with Yahtzee's reviews, I'd probably never play a single game ever again). But, that is not the intent of what I was trying to do in my post. In my post, I was only trying to present my own interpretation and distillation of Greg's review in an effect to understand the conflict people were having, nothing more, nothing less. If you have a problem with his review, that's fine, but don't include me as one who is taking the review on faith that it is the gospel truth concerning the game and thus being one contributing to your irritation. Also, I don't like being called a troll, not even indirectly or with language that has partial implications to the effect. (BTW, if this all sounds angry to you, it's because I actually am, to a small degree.)