Poll: Is Yahtzee serious?

[Jezzascmezza]

I've always looked at his reviews more as comedy/satire rather than actual reviews that I would take into consideration, seeing as if I took his reviews seriously word for word, I'd probably only end up buying two games a year.
That's not to say he doesn't bring up some decent, truthful criticism at times, but he does often nitpick.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Option #3 : YTZ doesn't care that much. Also : eccentric.

 

[Weslebear]

Truthful opinions exaggerated to hilarity.

Hyperbole is the comedians friend good sir.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

He's not a reviewer, he's a critic. A reviewer will take a balanced look at a game and deliver an unbiased report. A critic will examine a game and pick up on all its flaws, glossing over the good and emphasizing the bad.

Yahtzee exaggerates for comic effect, but he's pretty on the ball when it comes to finding a game's weak spots.

There is no such thing as an unbiased report. There is also no difference between a critic and a reviewer in real terms.

Seriously, I get really tired of every time someone disagrees with one of Yahtzee's videos, they trot out one of two lines. 1) "Yahtzee's just a critic; it's his job to hate everything, so therefore it can't be as bad as he says." 2) "Yahtzee's a comedian; it's his job to exaggerate flaws for the jokes, so therefore it can't be as bad as he says." Both of these lines are basically a carte blanche to avoid having to engage with his arguments and just dismiss them outright as part of his attempts to get more traffic.

The amount of times I hear someone come out with a third line, ie: "I personally liked the game, but he's entitled to his opinion, now I'm going to do something productive with my life instead of telling him why he's wrong for not liking it," is ridiculously small.

You've missed the part where I said he's good at what he does. Please don't put words into my mouth and then give me grief for them.

I was responding to the part where you suggested that he deliberately 'glosses over the good.'

 

[plugav]

I won't say anything new: he exaggerates but most of his arguements are valid. It's simple satire.

 

[lacktheknack]

I'd say serious, but exaggerated for comedic purposes.

Exactly. Where's the "Partly" option in the poll?

Besides, if Psychonauts taught him anything, it's that no one likes him when he's being nice. So why would he be nice?

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

He's not a reviewer, he's a critic. A reviewer will take a balanced look at a game and deliver an unbiased report. A critic will examine a game and pick up on all its flaws, glossing over the good and emphasizing the bad.

Yahtzee exaggerates for comic effect, but he's pretty on the ball when it comes to finding a game's weak spots.

There is no such thing as an unbiased report. There is also no difference between a critic and a reviewer in real terms.

Seriously, I get really tired of every time someone disagrees with one of Yahtzee's videos, they trot out one of two lines. 1) "Yahtzee's just a critic; it's his job to hate everything, so therefore it can't be as bad as he says." 2) "Yahtzee's a comedian; it's his job to exaggerate flaws for the jokes, so therefore it can't be as bad as he says." Both of these lines are basically a carte blanche to avoid having to engage with his arguments and just dismiss them outright as part of his attempts to get more traffic.

The amount of times I hear someone come out with a third line, ie: "I personally liked the game, but he's entitled to his opinion, now I'm going to do something productive with my life instead of telling him why he's wrong for not liking it," is ridiculously small.

You've missed the part where I said he's good at what he does. Please don't put words into my mouth and then give me grief for them.

I was responding to the part where you suggested that he deliberately 'glosses over the good.'

Ah, right. He kinda does though. He's mentioned it himself in a few reviews - whenever he gives positive feedback he doesn't get the same responses, so he deliberately focuses on the negative aspects of a given game. I don't think it's particularly out of line to mention something that he's already publicly owned up to.

 

[MCrewdson001]

He is serious but includes lot's of humour as well.

 

[HardkorSB]

If he is in character I can't help but notice that he practically never breaks it on this website and quite a few people has begun to despise him.

I don't think he cares.

On the other hand if he isn't in character it's rather jarring that he honestly hates so many of the games out there and truly beleives them to be bland and unoriginal.

Maybe it's because (here's a real shocker) they are bland and unoriginal. You play them, you enjoy some more and some less and forget about them not long after that. If you play the same kind of game, only with different textures, setting and voice acting, you stop enjoying it and just feel nauseous.
I, for example, like Gears of War. However, after playing Army of Two, Resident Evil 5 and several others that I can't even remember at the moment, I like it a bit less.

I get the feeling there is no right or wrong anwser to this so what do you think?

If you think that way then maybe you should rephrase the question?

 

[AnarchistFish]

I think he does believe what he says but he exaggerates them to make them comedic. I don't believe he hates games as much as it appears cos otherwise why'd he have this job?

But you don't have an option like that so I can't answer.

 

[Anthan]

He's hilariously blunt.
Saying the things no-one else dared to, or wanted to, or even just thought of. And you have to laugh because even if you like the games he's said are bad you have to admit that he hit every bad point about it entirely.

 

[Evil Top Hat]

I recall him hating, third person shooters, first person shooters, real time strategies, RPGs JRPGs and just about everything the Wii churned out

I don't remember Yahtzee ever saying that he hated all wii games, first person shooters or RPGs. He gave the first Modern Warfare game a glowing review, he loved No More Heroes (wii game), and used to like final fantasy games before FF7 and enjoyed KOTOR, from what I can gather.

The only genres I remember yahtzee saying that he totally hated were (modern) JRPGs and RTS.

I think Yahtzee just gets bored of repition easily. He doesn't mind first person shooters, but when the fact that most modern shooters are all the same is what annoys him. He doesn't mind 3rd person shooters, but the fact that so many games just totally cash it in by copy pasting GOW gameplay with no original ideas is what irritates him.

Yahtzee clearly exagerrates for comic effect, but I don't think his "character" is totally made up.

 

[Mechanix]

What he says is his opinion, but he delivers it in such an exaggerated manner that you should not take it seriously.

 

[Gluzzbung]

Some of what he says is valid and I believe what he says is mostly said in complete sincerity but some of it is so inconsequential that I think he's just trying to entertain us and make it up to 5 minutes.

 

[mightybozz]

I find it strange that these threads keep coming up asking if Yahtzee is "serious" or a "real" reviewer the day after each video. He's a man with a great deal of knowledge of the games industry and a few other subjects, with the comedic talent to be able to present his opinions in an amusing manner. Most importantly, he's a gamer like the rest of us, so he knows whether he thinks a game is good, and why.

I don't even think he ever exaggerates an opinion for comic effect. His metaphors and writing style comes up with some foul and surreal stuff, which makes us giggle. But the critical points and opinions he presents in his reviews are usually solid. Hell, you rarely see any other reviewer admitting that their opinion is probably invalid if you're a fan of a genre which he either knows little about or dislikes (such as the Driver:SF review and FFXIII).

Games journalism is in a pit on most sites these days, happy to slap 80-100% scores on anything which had enough hype before it came out. ZP is one of the few reviewers which I trust to give an actually intelligent, considered opinion.

Having said that, I thought he was far kinder to Gears of War 3 than it deserved. That game killed its franchise for me. Gears 2 was great, 3 is a soulless mess which I can only hope is supposed to be a satire on shite videogame story writing.

 

[Crazycat690]

Well, yes, sure he jokes about it, but most of his points are valid. I mean sure you can joke about how bad it hurts to be on fire, but it doesn't change the fact that it hurts like hell? IMO, people who says he isn't serious at all are fanboys who can't accept the truth.

 

[Matt Hancox]

I believe that they are his opinion, but exaggerated. Like he said after his Portal review "Nobody likes it when I'm nice to a game".
I don't go to him for an honest review of the game, I go to be entertained.

Some people (see his "Mailbox showdown" video) take his videos too far.
A lot of the games that I genuinely have enjoyed he has slandered, namely Halo Reach. But his review hasn't made me question my opinion of the game, and was actually very funny. Splinter Cell too; the experience he claims to have had with Thief was one that I had with Splinter Cell, a series which he apparently didn't have the same experience with. And finally Smash Bros Brawl, which I genuinely enjoyed. However his review failed to spark any anger towards him.

However what some people haven't caught onto is that if you ask something of these internet people (can you stop example here so I feel better about my choices in life etc), they will more likely resent you for telling them how to do their job.
And this isn't just Yahtzee either; to quote John Gabriel, "Given annominity and an audience, an otherwise regular person can become a total fuckwad". And that applies to the trolling masses that respond with pitchforks and torches whenever their precious console of choice is challenged.

 

[Ryengu]

He delivers serious points in a frivolous manner, often resorting to hyperbole and overgeneralization for the sake of humor. He's as much an entertainer as he is an informer.

 

[Rarhnor]

The problem is a bit of both worlds. People not believing in him taking himself seriously, and him taking himself too seriously.

 

[SidingWithTheEnemy]

Of course he is, why shouldn't he be?

The much more interesting questions is:

Is he right?

But that question is entirely subjective to your own opinion.