Do you still care about critics when consuming something?

[JellyjamLu]

No, though it's interesting to read and sometimes laugh at, IGN for example, but all that matters is your own point of view. I feel if anything, if your really need a review, I recommend much smaller Youtube channels.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

Critics? Pffft why should I care? Brother i don't even care what you or anyone else thinks of X game , only MY and MY opinion matters anything else is of secondary importance to or not important at all

If i enjoy this game then that's all i need to play it , everything's else can burn in hell for all i care

 

[SoThankful SoThankful]

Critics are a good way to get perspective when viewing media, but letting them weigh too hard on your opinion of anything is a good way to kill any and all fun you could have with it.

 

[Dyne]

lol, no.

 

[HexGramarye]

When I look at a score on Metacritic, my opinion on a game is a bit more likely to align with the critic score than the audience score, except I tend to be much more charitable to indie games than critics are.

I never 100% agree with any review, but post-indiepocalypse, reviews do really help put games on the map for me since there's just so many releases every year. And I find the print media environment to be a cozier way to stay caught up on games than the internet these days.

I find a lot of newer YouTube personalities aren't really qualified to talk critically about games (but they make hourslong videos anyway), and it's much more of a profit-driven thing for people than the small cottage community it used to be, so I don't really use YouTube anymore for gaming stuff.

 

[Cuestionador]

I dont' pay attention to reviewers these years, here's some of the reasons why:

In pandemic years and before, i did a ton of articles about comic-books from different countries (including my own, Argentina), some of them were better done than others, but i always try a personal approach informed by another things like literature, politics and so on, to give a new point of view about the work. Years of reading newspapers and magazines have been a powerful source of knowledge and inspiration not only to know more about the current events: the cultural sections were the place to discover new books, records, and movies.

My father owned an space on Radio Nacional Mendoza in the late eighties when he talked about art and poetry. One of the things i learned from him it's that the best review of anything it's still a subproduct of the source material, and even authors i don't really care (like Zack Snyder) are making things in his own, and deserve to exist: the movies/books/albums/comics i don't like deserve to exist and be read/heard/listen, sometimes even a b-movie have enjoyable moments and technical achievements well worth the watch.

It's very sad that much of the public discourse in my country (and i suppose, in the world) it's about a social-media tweet or comment. I'm honest here, there are tons of reviewers (there are tons of local comic-book podcast where the local artists struggle to sell 1000 copies of anything) in my country who don't really have a clue about anything beyond themselves and her own ego, in a podcast dedicated to Wally Wood some months ago i heard that the man don't have a proper style of drawing. Some months ago i gifted a facsimile of Frontline Combat to my drawing teacher (who is in his eighties), there was an untitled story and he asked me if i know the name of the artist, i answered: "That's Wally!". I was right

A good critique or review about something requires years of previous knowledge, when i decide to write about comics i was reading them from at least 20 years, and today there's people who jump into conclusions fishing in a pool of absolute ignorance, and proud of it. I don't buy any of that.

 

[shaggi shaggi]

No. Sometimes i looks how peoples score something, but for most cases i like to try something myself rather than believing someone's opinion.

 

[Onicat]

do you still care about "expert reviews"?

No, almost always. The only exception is when the game is discussed by people who have achieved some success in that game or genre (PhiDX for Tekken, for example). Especially when their sponsors aren't around It's really interesting to hear what they have to say, even if you don't agree with them. After all, they are hardcore videogame nerds.

The review industry (of anything) has really gone south in recent years. On the one hand thanks to big corporations, on the other thanks to politicians.

From about 2001 to 2009, I was a anime/gaming journalist in online/offline magazines. I think there was only one magazine whose editor-in-chief had a relevant college degree. The rest of us just loved video games and, somehow, knew how to write about them. And the proofreader fixed the errors for us. I was actually invited to join the industry because I made the fewest errors in some anime magazine's IRC chat :) Those were good years.

Then video games started becoming socially “trendy” and game magazines, especially big ones, began to be infiltrated by people for whom the pinnacle of video games was Match-3 puzzles. They weren't hardcore gamers, they had different... "virtues", the ones politicians need :) Those were the days of widespread "quota for incompetent" implementation in Western companies and that’s when the exodus of videogame nerds from newsrooms began. And then things got worse. Nowadays, to become a socially approved “gaming expert,” all you have to do is dye your hair blue, get some cheap tattoos, and start acting like a victim.

It's all trendy and hype of course and they probably get paid well for it too but what about rocket jump? Can we resurrect Aerith? What can you tell us about the new Dragon Quest remake? How do I do ewgf???

 

[Sheepy765]

I haven’t given critic scores too much stake in the past and I still don’t even now.

 

[ShinnAsukaYESTaylorSwiftNO]

In a similar vein, I refuse the concept 'consuming' games / movies / music / etc. I play games, watch movies, listen to music, not 'consume'. There's a difference I like to defend.

Exactly
I feel like that kind of thinking just encourages the profileration of more slop. And those pushing it tend to be the same kind of folk that automatically (unironically) dismiss anything using AI as slop.

 

[Hsp_Kolo_HsP]

Regardless of whether it's movies, anime, or games, do you still care about "expert reviews"? I ask this because with each passing year I care less and less about it myself. It's probably just me, but I see more and more biased criticism: every indie game is better than a triple-A game, every Marvel movie post-Endgame is bad, every anime with a character with even slightly large breasts is fan-service and misogynistic, every indie animation on YouTube is better than any modern cartoon (adult or not). Instead of criticism helping to shape my opinion, it seems like it wants to give a 100% "reliable" and concrete answer. I know, there are things that are undoubtedly good and bad just by looking at them or knowing a little about them, but I often find myself liking and hating things that many say the opposite. That movie wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I found that 9/10 game quite boring, I didn't find that trendy anime that interesting, etc... etc...

In general, I just give them the "Okay you have something to say but Imma weigh it against everything else" mentality, don't rely on them, take their words with a bit of salt but don't ignore them.