Poll: Is Yahtzee serious?

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GotMalkAvian

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Like any comedian, Yahtzee more than likely starts with genuine opinions and then exaggerates them until they're funny. If he genuinely hated as many games as he seems to, I don't think he'd still be doing this for a living.
 

Prosis

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I like watching Yahtzee's videos, since he will always say what is wrong with a game.

Generally, it seems like he rates games highly if they A) are much better than what he expected them to be or B) do something new and original, or have an interesting twist. Also, another stipend is game length. Any game that takes 20+ hours usually gets ragged on pretty hard, being that the "fun per unit time invested" is rather low in comparison to other games (which is understandable being that as a critic, he can play just about any game on the market without concerns of price).

Is he serious? I don't think he actually regrets playing most of the games he plays, even if his ratings are really negative. Nevertheless, I do think he does have a legitimately high bar.
 

Luke5515

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While he exaggerates a little for comedic effect, I'm pretty sure he's serious about all the hate.
He's a critic, that's what they do.
 

Thaius

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He exaggerates for the sake of humor, but he is serious about the points he makes. You see this especially if you read Extra Punctuation; he has some legitimate interactive art theory behind what he says, he just overstates it comedically for the videos. Some of what he has to say is actually pretty good, though the "interactive storytelling is only good if the player is part of EVERYTHING!" thing still strikes me as stupid and even dangerous.
 

JPArbiter

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at the risk of saying something that has already been said, Mr. Croshaw does not give any game a free pass, and does not gloss over things that other reviewers do (for example poor narrative.)

if there is a flaw he will point it out, period end of story
 

artanis_neravar

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Mxrz said:
He has his opinions same as everyone else, and he certainly isn't alone in his 'hate.' So he bashed some game you liked then? Yeah it happens. Deal with it. But if people despise him, then I'm not sure why they'd come to this site since he's pretty much the main attraction.
I come here for Escape to the Movies, The Big Picture, No Right Answer, Drinking Games, Critical Miss, Name Game, Miracle of Sound, Unskippable, and Jimquisition. Yahtzee started off funny, even when he based games that I liked, but lately the humor has gone for, even when he is bashing games I don't like. The only time I have laughed in a long time from on of his videos was the Resistance 3/Half Life comparison.
 

Jimbo1212

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erttheking said:
This is something I have been thinking about for some time now, Yahtzee has stated to hate a lot of games and when I try to remember it all I recall him hating, third person shooters, first person shooters, real time strategies, RPGs JRPGs and just about everything the Wii churned out, and that's just off of the top of my head. I've seen a couple of people say that he's in character during his reveiws while others say they're his honest opinion and frankly I'm a little lost here. 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. 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.

I get the feeling there is no right or wrong anwser to this so what do you think?
Why is he not serious? I agree with him on 99% of his reviews as any gamer who did not grow up on this generation of shit would appreciate just how bad games have become. Devs no longer add anything original or ground-breaking any more (eg. storyline, gameplay, music)and all they want is a guaranteed revenue for their investors and share holders.
 

davros3000

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If you're wondering this because he seems to be picking on games at the moment a lot more than when he started reviewing games a few years ago, its seems he's partly found his niche (see points about critic not reviewer) but also because games are just so dull at the moment. the lack of any real invention in the medium is something he's been banging on about in his escapist columns.

Really, with the exception of Deus Ex, not a single fps/rpg this year has really bothered me, and certainly nothing from an established series. I get the feeling that with most games YC feels the same; you can tell he enjoyed driver sf because his tone seemed lighter. Or maybe he was just hungover.
 

Nemesis729

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I think it's just his opinions, just greatly exaggerated, also he has made some positive reviews, recently he seemed to like Resistance 3 if I recall, plus he loves Portal, Silent Hill, Half life, I think he's just hard to impress lol
 
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Depends on what you mean by serious.

Does he believe in what he says? Probably yes. Does he believe it to the extent that he says? probably not.

I remember reading about the folks at That Guy With the Glasses, and they all say roughly the same thing, 'my character is me but exaggerated.'

It's probably the same. Does Yahtzee hate jRPGs? Yes, undisputedly. Does he genuinely spend every day lamenting that they even exist, standing on clifftops bellowing at Japan to just pack it in, as his persona would suggest? No.

I would guess (I obviously don't know the man personally) that 'Yahtzee' is Benjamin Croshaw, but with the inhibitions removed. Whenever I've seen videos of him just being him, he is a lot less of everything.
 

Erttheking

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RT said:
erttheking said:
This is something I have been thinking about for some time now, Yahtzee has stated to hate a lot of games and when I try to remember it all I recall him hating, third person shooters, first person shooters, real time strategies, RPGs JRPGs and just about everything the Wii churned out, and that's just off of the top of my head. I've seen a couple of people say that he's in character during his reveiws while others say they're his honest opinion and frankly I'm a little lost here. 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. 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.

I get the feeling there is no right or wrong anwser to this so what do you think?
He is. As he said, "All the good things is what I'm not talking about", or something like that. Any way, sometimes he does praise games. Portal, Batman: AA, Psychonauts, stuff.
To be blunt, that's why I find him to be confusing sometimes. He mentions a couple of times that if he didn't mention it it's good, but sometimes he mentions good stuff anyway. So is it didn't mention it = pretty good and praised it = damn good?
 

Princess Rose

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erttheking said:
I get the feeling there is no right or wrong anwser to this so what do you think?
Well, since 95% of pretty much everything IS bland, unoriginal crap, it doesn't surprise me at all.

When I go into a game store, I see at least 95% crap. The 5% that isn't crap is what I end up buying and populates my game shelf.

Of course, to someone else, much of that crap isn't crap - that's the ***** about personal preference. Just because I think it's crap doesn't mean it isn't someone else's favorite game.

When I listen to a Yahtzee review, I firmly believe that everything he is saying is the truth, as far as he's concerned. I also know that he and I have some tastes in common, and some that differ.

For instance - I hated Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. I loved the Prince of Persia reboot. (I liked that one because I liked having infinite lives, so I could enjoy playing around in the giant Parkor sandbox the game presented without worrying about running low on "sand"). Yahtzee liked the infinite lives (it and the parkor was about his only compliments for the whole game). He hated the JRPG overtones - I loved them.

Anyway, I digress. The point is, I have no problem believing that he hates most games he plays because he plays WAY more games than the average person. If he only played the ones he liked, then he'd play far fewer games. If I had to play a new game every week, I'm sure I'd hate most of them too.
 

Erttheking

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Selvec said:
erttheking said:
This is something I have been thinking about for some time now, Yahtzee has stated to hate a lot of games and when I try to remember it all I recall him hating, third person shooters, first person shooters, real time strategies, RPGs JRPGs and just about everything the Wii churned out, and that's just off of the top of my head. I've seen a couple of people say that he's in character during his reveiws while others say they're his honest opinion and frankly I'm a little lost here. 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. 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.

I get the feeling there is no right or wrong anwser to this so what do you think?
He actually likes a variety of different games. He doesn't hate particular genre's, he just hates boring games with no backstory or fun. He likes Saints Row 2 for example, Silent Hill 1 & 2, Driver San Fransico & many other games. He just isn't into boring games, least boring to him.

By the way, probably not the best time to go into yahtzee hating since it will just feel like your a GOW or Warhammer fan who's buttsore.
At what point did I even imply that I hated him? All I said was that he confused the Hell out of me, and frankly I like Halo 3 Halo Reach, Red Dead Redemption, GTA 4, and GOW 2, games that Yahtzee has torn apart and I enjoyed his reviews there.
 

DarkhoIlow

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I don't know why you really expected from Mr.Croshaw(Yahtzee).

He is a critic and likes to nitpick and point out every problem of the game he "reviews" in a comedic way,that's his thing and that's why we enjoy watching his videos.Some of his points are on the spot and I can fully agree with him.Keep in mind to always take his videos/Extra Punctuation with a extra grain of salt.
 

Erttheking

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HardkorSB said:
erttheking said:
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.

erttheking said:
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.

erttheking said:
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?
You're not being overly helpful here. Also I have played games such as COD, Halo, GOW, Fallout and GTA. While I may not have spread out enough to see the massive blandness that you and Yahtzee have such issues with, I believe that every game has it's own style that makes it unique. But then again, like what you and Yahtzee say, that's just my opinion.
 

Erttheking

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Jimbo1212 said:
erttheking said:
This is something I have been thinking about for some time now, Yahtzee has stated to hate a lot of games and when I try to remember it all I recall him hating, third person shooters, first person shooters, real time strategies, RPGs JRPGs and just about everything the Wii churned out, and that's just off of the top of my head. I've seen a couple of people say that he's in character during his reveiws while others say they're his honest opinion and frankly I'm a little lost here. 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. 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.

I get the feeling there is no right or wrong anwser to this so what do you think?
Why is he not serious? I agree with him on 99% of his reviews as any gamer who did not grow up on this generation of shit would appreciate just how bad games have become. Devs no longer add anything original or ground-breaking any more (eg. storyline, gameplay, music)and all they want is a guaranteed revenue for their investors and share holders.
As someone who grew up playing my Dad's old super nintendo and NES rather religiously, I throughly disagree with him. Hell, my dad's a COD fan, and he's fifty.
 

Erttheking

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Princess Rose said:
erttheking said:
I get the feeling there is no right or wrong anwser to this so what do you think?
Well, since 95% of pretty much everything IS bland, unoriginal crap, it doesn't surprise me at all.

When I go into a game store, I see at least 95% crap. The 5% that isn't crap is what I end up buying and populates my game shelf.

Of course, to someone else, much of that crap isn't crap - that's the ***** about personal preference. Just because I think it's crap doesn't mean it isn't someone else's favorite game.

When I listen to a Yahtzee review, I firmly believe that everything he is saying is the truth, as far as he's concerned. I also know that he and I have some tastes in common, and some that differ.

For instance - I hated Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. I loved the Prince of Persia reboot. (I liked that one because I liked having infinite lives, so I could enjoy playing around in the giant Parkor sandbox the game presented without worrying about running low on "sand"). Yahtzee liked the infinite lives (it and the parkor was about his only compliments for the whole game). He hated the JRPG overtones - I loved them.

Anyway, I digress. The point is, I have no problem believing that he hates most games he plays because he plays WAY more games than the average person. If he only played the ones he liked, then he'd play far fewer games. If I had to play a new game every week, I'm sure I'd hate most of them too.
So, Sturgeon's Law is in play for him? I guess that would make sense, I guess the moral here is to not overload yourself with games.
 

Erttheking

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Jesus H. Christ, I did not expect this thread to get a fraction of the attention that it did.
 

Frankster

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Rangerboy87 said:
Frankster said:
Those that take his opinion seriously though...Well they are the reason we can't have nice things xD
I don't know about that. I do take his opinion seriously when considering whether a game is worth getting or trying out. I have watched enough ZP now that I can figure through tone and what he says whether the game is ok or horrible without him having to give a recommendation.
I'd hope you base your prospective buys on more then just yahtzees approval though ;)
 

Lunar Templar

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thaluikhain said:
Bearing in mind that he has had to play a new game every week for the last 2 years or something, his honest opinion about games might be a bit different from most people.

But, he's british, he's obliged to be snarky.
i thought it was mandatory ....

but yeah, pretty sure he's serious.

and as the quotee, point out, 1 new game, a week, for 2 years. 'him hating everything' is less surprising and more expected, pretty sure I'd start hating every game that came out if i had to play all the shit he has.