To Hell With Comments

[omega 616]

"The practice, that is, of allowing anyone to speak their mind about a piece of content and leave it for all to see." ....Glass houses.

Is it slightly odd I am commenting on an article about how shitty comments are?

Anyway, comments are for people to discuss the content, "this is what I think of ..." and for people to have a conversation, though on things like youtube, where you have a set character limit, having a discussion is hard.

For content creators it must be a nightmare to drudge through endless crap, such as "this" or a couple of hundred "first" comments.

 

[Dragonbums]

What the hell kind of rant is this?

This basically says fuck comments because mine is clearly superior. Have you ever thought that there are other journalists out there who think your own articles are nothing but paid trash content on a website? And what is stopping the unwashed commenter pleebs from simply posting their own stuff on their own blogs.


If find it funny that you have people hating Anita for say- blocking comments on Youtube on her videos, yet here we are all more or less agreeing with you that we should admonish comments because you don't deem them worthy. This is especially true in the journalism business where feedback is pretty damn important.

Your entire article basically says- My words are more important than yours because I get paid to do it. Yours means nothing therefore I don't want to see it.

You then proceed to complain even more about the stupid comments feature in SM3DW. If it really bothered you that much, just turn it off.

Likewise, if you really hated the Gampad for Pikmin, then use the blasted Wii mote instead of complaining about how annoying it is when you had the option to use an alternative the entire time you played the game for review.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

SM3DW's comment system is pretty much where comment systems cross the line. Nintendo has a track record of not understanding how to use the Internet or how to use it well, and it's just another misstep in this long line of mistakes. Remember the modem for the Gamecube? You were more likely to find the one that was designed for 56k dial-up, and those days people were migrating to broadband and Ethernet cable.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

The way I see it: don't read comments unless you're prepared for shit. On certain videos with decent communities comments can be genuinely entertaining, but 90% of it is garbage.

But I don't think they should be removed outright, just not shoved in your face. It should be made clear to everyone how terrible they are, and that most people would want to avoid them, but not fully removed if just to appease the cries of censorship that will inevitably occur.

 

[Mahoshonen]

Wait, the ratings system in ACIV was real? I was convinced it was a joke. Like, since you're playing a code tester for AE, of course they'd ask focus questions of you. But you're telling me those ratings are actually going back to Ubisoft?

With everything being online, I'm pretty sure Ubisoft at least has the ability to collect the data if it wanted to. And yeah, I took the rating system to just be meta-commentary about the state of the games industry, just like the letters and database arguments regarding historical accuracy versus entertainment. If you don't buy that the developers are that sophisticated, than it's just another irritant.

And for those crying hypocrisy, the difference is just as you put it. He gets paid. Ergo his words have monetary value. I'm not being paid to type this comment. So by comparison what I am writing is worthless. It's not hard.

And do think that the Escapist in particular can use a good fumigating.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

The comments on the Escapist are relegated to a separate section of dedicated discussion (a forum if you will) and as such do not intrude as much on the media. This was true until those fucking Facebook comments were enabled. It undermines the accounts and community system. They were a horrible idea and they need to go.

As for social media content/crossover in games. It's simply embarrassing. Hang your head in shame industry.

I have to agree completely with you here. Facebook has been one of the most detrimental influences for websites, video games, and the whole world really. Not everything that someone has to say is important and Facebook has allowed people to think that everything they have to say is more important than anything else. And now the rest of the world is encouraging them by letting them use it on various websites; so now video games think that's a great idea because "that's what most people want."

The bottom line is that unless I'm playing an MMORPG (and sometimes even when I am) I'd rather not think about other people. I play games for myself and I'm guilty of using them to escape reality. Unfortunately, it won't be long before we see video games embrace this bullshit completely and every game will have a little window that streams your friends' accomplishments to shove in your face. Who gives a shit if a friend just unlocked an achievement in Madden 20XX? I'm trying to play Bioshock.

 

[Mike Fang]

Another EP where Yahtzee shows us that side of himself that proves that the hyperbole he uses to put down his own audience is, in reality, exactly how he feels. No, people, he's not just saying those things because he's trying to be entertaining, he really DOES think 99% of us are shit. He thinks it of me and he thinks it of you. Yes, YOU, whoever-is-reading-this-at-the-time, don't think your on his special not-shit-list, because you are, along with the rest of us. It's times like this I really feel misgivings about watching his stuff. He's entertaining and often informative, but by God, he can also be bitter and hateful.

 

[Objectable]

"He hates unfunny hecklers?"
"His self loathing must be starting to manifest!"
"DOHOHOOHOHOHOHOHO"

 

[Mikeyfell]

You'd think this article wouldn't have any comments on it...
Crap I'm part of the problem

There I go extending the joke to death just like the fucking twat I am. Yahtzee was right about me...

 

[-Dragmire-]

Well... um, nice commentary on the state of things displayed on the internet for all to see...

 

[Dragonbums]

I enjoyed your second comment as well, by the way. Just keep in mind that it is just a rant.

I know it's a rant. But I personally think it's a very selfish, self centered, stupid rant where he doesn't even really acknowledge that perhaps his stuff may be deemed by others to be a waste of digital ink and he should shut up.

That's the vibe I get from his article.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Of all the hideous manifestations of Web 2.0 ooh-let's-all-be-friends-together huggy-muggy your-opinion-matters bullshit, it is the most egregious and the most pointless.

Odd, the general attitude towards comments I frequently see isn't "huggy-muggy your opinion matters" but the opposite, in that they're worth less than bathroom graffiti. It's why that tired cliche "Opinions are like assholes...etc" is repeated so often it's practically the mantra of the internet.

Ignoring the incredibly rank "irony" of the article...
I really do not want to see any mandatory social media horse shit in any game I play.
At best, it will be useless "noise", at worst it will be spoilers.

I avoid social media already. It's a cesspool of endless fake-friend requests, tired memes, status updates and intellectually bankrupt jabber. It's just noise; digital social noise.

The only use I can find is that maybe someone could turn social media interaction into a gameplay concept as a form of self-authoring meta-commentary; that is, base a game itself on social media and comments.

Well... um, nice commentary on the state of things displayed on the internet for all to see...

The hypocrisy of the article is delightful isn't it?
Then again, hypocrisy doesn't necessarily mean he's wrong either. (it's a logical fallacy to use hypocrisy alone against someone's argument, but nobody on the internet seems to remember that nor care.)

 

[Quantum Glass]

Kinda a long-winded way to say, "Here's something I don't like."

I mean, I'm not particularly fond of mayonnaise, but I probably wouldn't write an article going into the details of why I dislike it, or alternative condiments that I enjoy. Maybe a paragraph, if I were in the mood.

 

[DeaDRabbiT]

I feel the same way about the comment sections on news sites. What, exactly, does a comment section add to a news story? The ability for random uninformed assholes to put their opinion on the same level as an actually researched story, and then for other assholes to have their shitty opinions reinforced by the first assholes.

Yes, yes, commenting on this article is ironic, let's get that joke out of the way early.

Commenting on news stories, is no different than having a discussion about a news article on the train when people used to read the same newspaper as everyone else every day. It's an outlet for conversation and reflection.

Yes, I agree that there is a lot of stupid on the internet, but to disparage such a wide swatch of people (as Yahtzee has here) is simply moronic.

And it's not the commenting on this article that is ironic, it's that the article itself exists in hypocrisy. It's an article full of comments about comments on articles.

*Time space barrier EXPLODED*

 

[Foolery]

Yahtzee is essentially a one-man paid comment section occasionally presented in a video format.
Eh. Can't say this article bothers me. His work is centered around opinion pieces, not facts.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I'm used to insults like this by now but how long until we all can't take enough of others being egotistical and bullshit?.

 

[AdagioBoognish]

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Bob is building an army of twats to comment on your articles, videos, and Mario 3D loading screens.

Feels like Yahtzee is trolling in this one and yet his sentiment matches my one when it comes to youtube comments. I wish there was a way to keep youtube comments on subject so we could discuss some of the videos in the same way we discuss things on the escapist.

 

[Undomesticated Equine]

Well most of my youtube comments are on LP videos and they mostly say: omg you are playing it wrong or you should have done this. I am part of the problem yay.

 

[Duder Dudeson]

I don't know. I kind of like it when I see someone with a powerful voice use it to self destruct on the little things. I should probably feel bad but I don't. The best part is that from my days of trolling I know that anyone upset enough to write two pages complaining about comments is also probably obsessed enough to read this one. I waste your time Yahtz I waste it!

 

[EvilRoy]

Your entire article basically says- My words are more important than yours because I get paid to do it. Yours means nothing therefore I don't want to see it.

Thing is though, that view is basically correct. Journalism and criticism in general require a fair amount of qualification in order for it to have any weight or value.

What Yahtzee has to say automatically has more weight than any opinion of yours or mine simply because he has both a face and a name. By having both of those things he is made to be accountable for things that says, and he develops a backlog of opinions that qualify all his future opinions. So he has reason to avoid saying things that are tremendously biased or false, and we have a sizable backlog of information to go back to that might help us interpret his opinion and weight it appropriately in context to his preferences vs ours.

Earlier in the thread you mentioned that comments can be good because they can call the author out on a falsehood or bias, but the problem is that is you are choosing to question an author with a face, a name, and potentially something to lose based on the opinion of a person with no face, no name, and nothing to lose. Yes its good to question and confirm information for yourself, but you should be doing that with or without the input of some random who may or may not have any clue about what they're saying.

Hell take our own comments as an example, yours and mine. From the second half of your post I can see pretty clearly that you like Nint quite a bit, so I'm not really going to give much weight to your opinion on that particular company. Likewise when you read my comment you have to question the validity of the conclusions I'm drawing because I'm some faceless jackass with zero attachment to this account or place. I could be talking out of my ass for no reason better than "I'm bored" and you would never know.