Consensus... (Gaming)

by Claude Errera , Friday, January 17, 2014, 10:38 (3966 days ago) @ Cody Miller

No matter WHAT it says, it's irrelevant if someone else decides they like it anyway.

I don't think that's true. Because tastes are tastes, and because there's always going to be SOMEONE out there who will like any piece of trash game (or movie, or album, etc), you'd have me believe that no meaningful critical comparison can be made because of that? There's people out there who hate Forrest Gump for crying out loud, but that doesn't mean you can't say that Forrest Gump is a better film than Madea's Christmas adventure.

'Better' in what sense?

Is Waiting for Godot 'better' than Die Hard? If it is, does it mean that every time I want to watch a movie where those are the only two choices, that I should watch it?

You can say "I think the story is weak and the gameplay is repetitive, so I think the game is bad" - but you can't say "It's objectively bad and the fact that three people with disparate views agree with me proves it." I'm sure I could find three OTHER people (with disparate views) who thought it was good.

People regularly call you out on your absolutist statements ("That game is bad"). Your most common response is "come on, of COURSE what I say is my opinion, so why should I waste space qualifying the statement?"

The answer is actually rather simple, and I just keep forgetting to throw it into a reply. You should qualify statements that are your opinion so that they can be distinguished from actual facts. When you say "This game is bad" and "It is raining" - you are telling us that you believe those two facts are equally verifiable. If you leave out any qualifiers, ever, you're requiring your READERS to guess which 'facts' are really facts, and which are just your opinions.