LET'S (NOT) RESPECT EACH OTHER?S TASTES (OR: "THIS GAME ISN'T FOR YOU, AND THAT'S (NOT) OKAY")

gyrobot_v1legacy

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https://moegamer.net/2019/09/17/lets-respect-each-others-tastes-or-this-game-isnt-for-you-and-thats-okay/

A couple of days ago Pat o'Reilly from Nintendo Life have given multiple titles. Latest on the lampoon list was Gun Gun Pixies. A port of a VITA game that hallmarked the waning years of Vita as nothimg more than a handheld for niche fanservice games instead of quality titles.

https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/nintendo-switch/gun_gun_pixies

Pete Davison, being the one of the few to openly admit his love for Ecchi games have tried to get Pat to respond only to be blocked by Pat along with several of Pete's followers on Twitter who were also blocked.

As for my take on this...

I disagree with this statement as Pete Davison is defending low quality games as something to defend and expects critics to not say their tastes are awful. Critics exists for a reason beyond affirming your tastes as good, if your tastes in gaming is shit. Then either accept it or change your tastes like I did from neptunia to Yakuza.

So what is your take on the situation. Should critics respect their tastes or continue to be actual critics and not give a single inch to this audience.
 

McElroy

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Defending ecchi games says less about the game and more about the one defending it. From the moegamer article:
Games like this have not affected my worldview in any way other than teaching me what I know I like, and through bringing me joy with their bright colours, energetic characters, cheerfully silly stories and total confidence in what they are.
You like trash, Pete. O'Reilly gives a good review of that trash and even writes that if one enjoys trash like it and is willing to gloss over it being a bad game, it can be a joy.
 

Drathnoxis

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What? I don't understand what you are talking about. Is this some sort of Internet Drama thing? Can we stuff this kind of thing in Current Events as well?
 

Dreiko_v1legacy

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I don't see the conflict between being a critic and also having a taste for any sort of game. The issue isn't as much that this or that critic doesn't respect some niche's tastes but rather that there seems to be a sort of opinion-bubble in a lot of big critic places which doesn't include the critique of people who actually think different, of those who would for example, not find this gun pixies game "trash".

At this point, it's less "take heed of my feelings cause I'm your audience" and more "you clearly have a bias you're either unaware of or you are fond of and are refusing to do anything about it, so I'll look elsewhere for critique".



The notion that any working game that doesn't crash all day or destroy your device is objectively "trash" is patently ridiculous. Similarly, the notion that a fanbase has to acknowledge the trashiness and just say they enjoy trash, simply because some clique deemed it so, is equally ridiculous. If this clique is expecting MONEY from the people they deride, in the form of clicks to their websites, well, they've got another thing coming lol.


Finally, some fanservice games, like all games, are good, others are bad. The only thing that's definite is that no entire genre of game is universally "low quality", so anyone attempting to make that case is already by definition wrong. You see, one could easily make this same case for most franchise based games (outside of like, db fighterz and the new digimon games), they could make the case for sports games, they could make the case for anything with an established IP that's making a mediocre cash cow game that'll sell just because of the ip. Thing is though, those games don't come with a side of kink-shaming the fanbase of those games, with a side of those not in the fanbase feeling superior to that fanbase generating clicks. So they're much less lucrative articles to do and opinions to hold. At this point, one has to look honestly at what's taking place there when an article is written about games that maybe 20k people in the country are even aware the existence of, and dismiss it accordingly.
 

CaitSeith

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Let's respect each other's tastes. That includes not getting angry when someone else doesn't enjoy what you like, ok? This is my main problem with Pat:

Whatever a creator decides to create, we should respect their intentions. And, by extension, we should respect the audience it ends up attracting
Err... those two are unrelated (just compare MLP's intentions with the audience it end up attracting; or the Room's intentions). Besides, it's ironically hypocritical that he asks to respect other people's tastes, and then implies that disliking ecchi content means to be a hater who shames the fans and causes considerable harm and distress. Or does he think that dislikes aren't part of someone's tastes?
 

Trunkage

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CaitSeith said:
Let's respect each other's tastes. That includes not getting angry when someone else doesn't enjoy what you like, ok? This is my main problem with Pat:

Whatever a creator decides to create, we should respect their intentions. And, by extension, we should respect the audience it ends up attracting
Err... those two are unrelated (just compare MLP's intentions with the audience it end up attracting; or the Room's intentions). Besides, it's ironically hypocritical that he asks to respect other people's tastes, and then implies that disliking ecchi content means to be a hater who shames the fans and causes considerable harm and distress. Or does he think that dislikes aren't part of someone's tastes?
What does 'respect' even mean in this context? Is he suggesting that, becuase you critique or dislike something, that you are not showing respect? That's not how respect works. Respect is where you don't insult someone even if you disagree with them.
 

gyrobot_v1legacy

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trunkage said:
CaitSeith said:
Let's respect each other's tastes. That includes not getting angry when someone else doesn't enjoy what you like, ok? This is my main problem with Pat:

Whatever a creator decides to create, we should respect their intentions. And, by extension, we should respect the audience it ends up attracting
Err... those two are unrelated (just compare MLP's intentions with the audience it end up attracting; or the Room's intentions). Besides, it's ironically hypocritical that he asks to respect other people's tastes, and then implies that disliking ecchi content means to be a hater who shames the fans and causes considerable harm and distress. Or does he think that dislikes aren't part of someone's tastes?
What does 'respect' even mean in this context? Is he suggesting that, becuase you critique or dislike something, that you are not showing respect? That's not how respect works. Respect is where you don't insult someone even if you disagree with them.
O'Reilly made a rather harsh review on several mediocre ecchi game titles and then he blocked Pete for "asking politely" to debate with him to ask for respect.

https://twitter.com/MoeGamer/status/1174228170217857024

And in my opinion, I think Pete should accept the fact his games will never get the respect it "deserves" from the press instead of passive aggressively ranting about how critics hate ecchi games and more about making MoeGamer a profitable venture.
 

Dreiko_v1legacy

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trunkage said:
CaitSeith said:
Let's respect each other's tastes. That includes not getting angry when someone else doesn't enjoy what you like, ok? This is my main problem with Pat:

Whatever a creator decides to create, we should respect their intentions. And, by extension, we should respect the audience it ends up attracting
Err... those two are unrelated (just compare MLP's intentions with the audience it end up attracting; or the Room's intentions). Besides, it's ironically hypocritical that he asks to respect other people's tastes, and then implies that disliking ecchi content means to be a hater who shames the fans and causes considerable harm and distress. Or does he think that dislikes aren't part of someone's tastes?
What does 'respect' even mean in this context? Is he suggesting that, becuase you critique or dislike something, that you are not showing respect? That's not how respect works. Respect is where you don't insult someone even if you disagree with them.
I think he's talking about the tone some reviews have that treat certain games as inherently unserious or frivolous, implying that only creepy weirdoes would ever play them, irrespective of their qualities beyond fanservice simply due to the inclusion of a certain unspecified amount of it. Even full fledged fighting games like DoA don't escape that smear and nobody can argue that series plays "low quality" in any sense.


You can respectfully list the issues you have with a game without making liking it into a personality flaw.

Also, ideally, you'd wanna judge whether a game is good or bad on what it's actually trying to be. Lots of reviews go "this is an ecchi game, which is bad" and not "this is a bad ecchi game". The former is a useless opinion for every single audience member because it indicates that no matter how good the game, it being ecchi automatically makes it bad in the eyes of the reviewer. Whereas people are reading the review with the expectation of learning which of the ecchi fandom's hopes does the game meet and which it does not. A competent and respectful review will be actually cognizant of these hopes and in some fashion at least ATTEMPT to address them in critiquing the game, not outright reject them as faulty and tell people that they shouldn't be hoping for what they like because it's immoral according to the reviewer.

Nobody gives a damn about the reviewer, we're just trying to figure out the ratio of panties to bounces in this game ffs.
 

Specter Von Baren

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Looking over the review of the game, I don't see how you don't see that the maker of it did indeed review the game purely because they felt it deserved ridicule because it is an ecchi game.

Now I don't know how good this game actually is, I didn't feel like it was my kind of game but I have many games with ecchi content that do in fact have deep moments and are worthy of respect but won't because of these things.

One such game, and I've talked about it here before, is Criminal Girls. It has a mini-game that involves a lot of light bdsm. It's also one of the most pro women games I've ever played.

You play as a silent protagonist and your contribution to the story is almost entirely just that you are the one that makes decisions for combat. All of the primary characters are female, they have real world issues that they are dealing and these issues are resolved because of them supporting each other after going through a lot of conflict.

It also has very unique gameplay where you do not directly control the characters in fights but rather give them "suggestions" on what they can do, the only thing that you can do on command is direct one of the characters to put up a super guard and use items. Every character has a different role and all of them are useful, they are the fighters, they do the work, they have the character development.

It is a very good game that is never going to be recognized because of the ecchi element. I'm fine with that, that ecchi element can be a deal breaker for some people and that's fair and a fair review of the game would point this out if they felt it was an issue that people should be aware of when considering to get the game but that's different from someone looking at the game and deciding it's easy kudos to bash a game they are not interested in.

There are lots of reviews that have a certain genre or type of game that they prefer, atmospheric games, horror games, shooter games. If this reviewer isn't interested in this kind of game then why are they reviewing it? Would you ever trust a review from someone like MovieBob on the quality of a shooter game when it is well known that they HATE the genre from the outset?

I remember how not too long ago people would say about games like walking simulators or very niche indie games about topics like depression that they aren't for everyone and that if it's not your kind of game then you don't need to play it and it's just not for you but those same people will drop that argument when it comes to something they personally don't like.
 

Dreiko_v1legacy

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Specter Von Baren said:
Looking over the review of the game, I don't see how you don't see that the maker of it did indeed review the game purely because they felt it deserved ridicule because it is an ecchi game.

Now I don't know how good this game actually is, I didn't feel like it was my kind of game but I have many games with ecchi content that do in fact have deep moments and are worthy of respect but won't because of these things.

One such game, and I've talked about it here before, is Criminal Girls. It has a mini-game that involves a lot of light bdsm. It's also one of the most pro women games I've ever played.

You play as a silent protagonist and your contribution to the story is almost entirely just that you are the one that makes decisions for combat. All of the primary characters are female, they have real world issues that they are dealing and these issues are resolved because of them supporting each other after going through a lot of conflict.

It also has very unique gameplay where you do not directly control the characters in fights but rather give them "suggestions" on what they can do, the only thing that you can do on command is direct one of the characters to put up a super guard and use items. Every character has a different role and all of them are useful, they are the fighters, they do the work, they have the character development.

It is a very good game that is never going to be recognized because of the ecchi element. I'm fine with that, that ecchi element can be a deal breaker for some people and that's fair and a fair review of the game would point this out if they felt it was an issue that people should be aware of when considering to get the game but that's different from someone looking at the game and deciding it's easy kudos to bash a game they are not interested in.

There are lots of reviews that have a certain genre or type of game that they prefer, atmospheric games, horror games, shooter games. If this reviewer isn't interested in this kind of game then why are they reviewing it? Would you ever trust a review from someone like MovieBob on the quality of a shooter game when it is well known that they HATE the genre from the outset?

I remember how not too long ago people would say about games like walking simulators or very niche indie games about topics like depression that they aren't for everyone and that if it's not your kind of game then you don't need to play it and it's just not for you but those same people will drop that argument when it comes to something they personally don't like.
The thing with criminal girls is that you can actually SKIP the bdsm minigame after you do each form of it once lol. It's intended as a time-saver cause it's the game's form of cashing out your experience and leveling up but if you're one of those people who dislikes fanservice but likes deep stories and interesting characters you can use it to preserve your fragile psyche too.

No, these are just excuses people make to get something catchy to be upset over and get clicks at the expense of the fandom they're supposedly trying to serve with their reviews.

The best part about criminal girls is the way in which it integrates story progress in combat, since initially those "suggestions" you allow the girls to move forward with tend to be cold or antagonistic whereas as the story moves on these same actions receive new lines. Later on you get a bevy of cool teamwork quotes and girls calling eachother by name (or nickname) to perform their combo super moves and so on. You feel like you did a lot of good work rehabilitating them and bringing joy to their lives, which is a success for a game about redeeming sinners from the pits of hell.


The other elements of this game are well, a lot like persona. In a way I enjoy seeing those same people squirm as they have to give praise to stuff like P5 in order to not be laughed out by everyone, when they have spent all this time berating less known/popular games with pretty similar themes. It's a good direction that we're moving towards with games like P5 and Nier and Monster Hunter. They're just popular enough where the grifter critics can't attack them and not expect a proportional response.
 

McElroy

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Dreiko said:
Also, ideally, you'd wanna judge whether a game is good or bad on what it's actually trying to be. Lots of reviews go "this is an ecchi game, which is bad" and not "this is a bad ecchi game". The former is a useless opinion for every single audience member because it indicates that no matter how good the game, it being ecchi automatically makes it bad in the eyes of the reviewer. Whereas people are reading the review with the expectation of learning which of the ecchi fandom's hopes does the game meet and which it does not. A competent and respectful review will be actually cognizant of these hopes and in some fashion at least ATTEMPT to address them in critiquing the game, not outright reject them as faulty and tell people that they shouldn't be hoping for what they like because it's immoral according to the reviewer.
In the case of Gun Gun Pixies O'Reilly does indeed address the possible joys of the game.

In general what makes ecchi games trash in the eyes of the critic is that they have to review it. Gun Gun Pixie might endure a toy review, but past that it's a cringeworthy piece of media. Video games being toys at their core is the reason why a critic can give GGP 3/10 instead of 1/10.
 

gyrobot_v1legacy

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CaitSeith said:
Dreiko said:
The blogger is just salty because the review's tl;dr was: this is bad even for an ecchi game.
And he also deleted a comment from someone who disagreed and argued on O'Reilly's behalf in saying that his opinion means less in a professional capacity because he makes way less than NL does

Fans of ecchi games have a severe persecution complex from what just happened
 

CaitSeith

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Specter Von Baren said:
Looking over the review of the game, I don't see how you don't see that the maker of it did indeed review the game purely because they felt it deserved ridicule because it is an ecchi game.
Because he doesn't get to choose which games to review.
 

gyrobot_v1legacy

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CaitSeith said:
Specter Von Baren said:
Looking over the review of the game, I don't see how you don't see that the maker of it did indeed review the game purely because they felt it deserved ridicule because it is an ecchi game.
Because he doesn't get to choose which games to review.
The thing is most sites dont even consider this on their backlog of games to cover. Yet when the weebs get bashed for poor tastes, they cant afford to take a hard look at the mirror and ask themselves "Why do I have bad tastes?"
 

CaitSeith

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gyrobot said:
CaitSeith said:
Specter Von Baren said:
Looking over the review of the game, I don't see how you don't see that the maker of it did indeed review the game purely because they felt it deserved ridicule because it is an ecchi game.
Because he doesn't get to choose which games to review.
The thing is most sites dont even consider this on their backlog of games to cover. Yet when the weebs get bashed for poor tastes, they cant afford to take a hard look at the mirror and ask themselves "Why do I have bad tastes?"
There is this part in the blog in which he compares how normal people criticize walking simulators, but only reviewers criticize ecchi games. I kinda agree, but just because normal people would rather pretend that ecchi games don't exist (or really don't know that they exist) than talk about them (a luxury that professional reviewers can't afford).
 

gyrobot_v1legacy

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CaitSeith said:
gyrobot said:
CaitSeith said:
Specter Von Baren said:
Looking over the review of the game, I don't see how you don't see that the maker of it did indeed review the game purely because they felt it deserved ridicule because it is an ecchi game.
Because he doesn't get to choose which games to review.
The thing is most sites dont even consider this on their backlog of games to cover. Yet when the weebs get bashed for poor tastes, they cant afford to take a hard look at the mirror and ask themselves "Why do I have bad tastes?"
There is this part in the blog in which he compares how normal people criticize walking simulators, but only reviewers criticize ecchi games. I kinda agree, but just because normal people would rather pretend that ecchi games don't exist (or really don't know that they exist) than talk about them (a luxury that professional reviewers can't afford).
But Polygon, IGN and Gamespot stopped talking about ecchi games. Hell the Vita port only had Nintendo life reporting it
 

McElroy

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gyrobot said:
But Polygon, IGN and Gamespot stopped talking about ecchi games. Hell the Vita port only had Nintendo life reporting it
I'd guess Nintendo is the key word here. Nintendo Life wants to be thorough.
CaitSeith said:
There is this part in the blog in which he compares how normal people criticize walking simulators, but only reviewers criticize ecchi games. I kinda agree, but just because normal people would rather pretend that ecchi games don't exist (or really don't know that they exist) than talk about them (a luxury that professional reviewers can't afford).
There is a good reason for normal people to talk about walking simulators. They were getting goty-awards at that one point in time.