Hello everyone! It's been a while since I last posted here, so before I jump into things I would like to give all of you reading a little timeline rundown.
First off, I’ve finished almost all of my picks for January! I have a few posts I want to make before I release my reviews/critiques for them, so I'll outline a rough timeline for you all below.
Late January
Next: Post on rating scales
After: A Hat in Time Review/Critique
Anyone who knows me knows I am passionate about rating scales and think they matter a whole lot so before my first review I want to let you guys know what rating scale I will be using, why I'm using it, and why I think rating scales matter in the first place.
After that I want to release a review as a sort of teaser for how my reviews will be structured going forward. I just finished "A Hat in Time" so it was my obvious pick.
February 1st
Picks for February
Early February
January picks reviews/critiques
Alright now, with that out of the way let's get into the post!
On the Semantics of Review and Critique
I was inspired to write this in response to a video by the Youtuber Snoman Gaming titled “A Creator’s Opinion is Implied”. In this video he discusses a very important topic for anybody who has ever critiqued anything in their lives (or has known someone to critique things), and that is to keep in mind that all of his opinions are, surprisingly, just his opinion. For anyone who does not know this channel, Snoman Games has a series titled “Good Game Design” and “Bad Game Design” and unsurprisingly some of his Bad Game Design videos catch more than a little bit of flack. He even highlights his like to dislike ratio within his video “A Creator’s Opinion is Implied” as he believes people are misunderstanding that all of his ideas on what makes a game good or bad are “just his opinion!” He as well shows countless comments of individuals telling him to “stop stating [his] opinions like fact.” Now I can sympathize with Snoman Games as I am frequently accused of stating my opinions as fact, and I will likely do so (to the anger of many readers) in many of my reviews, but I think Snoman Games is missing the point as to why people end up downvoting some of his videos more than others. It’s not because people are forgetting that everyone has a different idea of what’s bad, it’s because diction matters.
If I were to go up to any random group of video game enthusiasts (or gamers is what I think they refer to themselves as in the business) and tell them “I believe Mario Odyssey is a bad game” I can guarantee you some people would be upset. Even if I presented overwhelmingly definitive evidence justifying my position, I am confident a large percentage of people who like Mario Odyssey would still be upset, but by Snoman Games’ logic they shouldn’t be upset because “that’s just my opinion.” But what I think Snoman Games is forgetting when presenting his argument is how big of a difference there is between the statements “Mario Odyssey is a bad game” and “I do not like Mario Odyssey”. Now I want to preface by saying that Snoman Games is not alone in doing this, he is just the person whose video most inspired me to speak up about it. So many reviewers love to say things like “Gex is bad” or “Ocarina of Time is the best game ever made” and then pretend that those comments are the same thing as saying “I did not like Gex” or “Ocarina of Time is my favorite game”.
When you say something is bad, even though it’s true that it's just your opinion, you are inadvertently saying that those who think it's good are wrong in their opinion on the nature of that things quality. Now I feel like the natural progression of how people will respond to what I have just said is that “people can have different opinions and neither is incorrect” and I want to let you know that I agree with this statement. There is almost never an objective good when it comes to reviewing media, and many people have vastly different tastes; however, being able to see what makes something that you don’t like appealing is part of what it takes to be able to accurately review and recommend media to people, and that is why the phrases “I like” and “I don’t like” are so important to use, and are not the same as saying “___ is bad” or “___ is good.”
This is why I believe if you say something is bad, or something is good, you have to have a good well thought out reason, otherwise you are just stirring the pot. No amount of “in my opinion” will change the fact that by saying something is good or bad you are throwing your hat into the ring of productive discussion, and presenting a statement of believed truth about the quality of a particular piece of media. At the end of the day, what makes the two phrases “I don’t like Mario Odyssey” and “Mario Odyssey is bad” so different, is that one is a matter of taste, and one is a matter of quality, and if you say that something popular is of low quality and can’t back it up well enough, you should expect to take some heat.
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So now I will leave you with this disclaimer which I would like to make preceding any reviews and critiques I will release in the coming future.
If I say that I believe in my honest, humble, sworn, righteous, personal, and of thoughts that are only my own, opinion, that something is “bad”, I am stating that even after distancing myself from what I personally find fun or engaging, I believe this piece of media is of low quality, and you are free to get heated if you disagree with me.
If I say that I didn’t like something, it probably just wasn’t for me. I may think something is of high quality and I just did not enjoy it. These two opinions do not conflict, I may personally love something I think is a dumpster fire. For me these two statements are incredibly different, and should be interpreted as such.
In addition I will try to use the defense “that is just my opinion” only when referring to my own like or dislike of something, and never when somebody contests my opinion on the quality of a piece of work.
Feel free to hold me accountable for the above.
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The next blog post I have coming out is on rating scales, their purpose, why they are important, and which rating scale I am going to be using. I wanted to bring that up here, since people may be confused whether my ratings will be based on “like/dislike” or on “good/bad”. The most honest answer I can give to you is that I will try to keep in mind both opinions when giving a rating. I know I won’t be perfect; however, if I believe my favorite thing in the world is a piece of trash I will not give it a perfect rating, and if I can’t stand something I believe to be good I will not give it the worst rating possible. It will likely be more nuanced, leaning more towards rating based on my personal like/dislike than the latter.
Thanks for reading until this point, until next time!
- Malachi
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