Imagine if you told me your life story and how you got to where you are. All the problems and joys you’ve experienced along the way. Then as soon as you finished talking I punched you in the face. Obviously melodramatic but sometimes pouring your heart (and money) into something and then hearing it’s not worth all its praise can feel that way. It’s something as a gamer you have to either deal with or yell about on the internet. Which doesn’t help anyone. People praising or hating on something you love isn’t exclusive to gaming. If anything, it’s just as prevalent in movies and television. Some people talk about The Flash as if it’s the second coming of television. And others can’t stand it and compare it to Power Rangers. We dissect everything these days. A trailer drops and people are quick to bow at its feet or spit on it as it fills up their timeline.
Games stand out more just because games and gaming culture exists mostly on the internet. Forums and message boards are in many cases the lifeblood of certain games. Things like Facebook Groups or battlenet harbour like minded individuals. And even though they may be like minded none of them ever agree entirely on everything. It’s a pointless hating something so much to simply say it’s ‘Overrated.’ That adds nothing to an argument, and it won’t affect anyone’s opinion. If at all, it will make them dig in their heels and defend it. The backlash comes in a matter of days now. If you loved something and how it played or how it looked someone somewhere out there hates it for the same reason you love it. Plenty of people probably don’t even hate it that much they are just sick of seeing it clog up the newsfeed that they read. Opinions and speaking your mind are great, but when you consistently shout from the rooftops, it begins to lose its edge. And the internet has entirely dulled people’s edge.
Gone Home is a great example of a game that affected me greatly at the time of its release. I heard one person I trust to talk about it and recommend it, and so off I went to play it. Without any review or online chatter, I went in blind. I played it around the same time the Slender Man craze was at its peak, and had its own game. So once I started the game I immediately thought of it as a horror game like many people did, I’m sure. But playing a game without expectations is something I have yet to come even close too. I see trailers for games every week, developer diaries pop up now and then, Pre-order bonuses are shoved down our collective throats. But Gone Home had none of that. And it impacted me like no other game has. good or bad plenty of people experienced that game in a different way than the norm.
But just like anything that’s well received it has a swift and violent backlash. Movies like The Force Awakens, Games like Metal Gear Solid 5, TV shows like Breaking Bad all have well-received responses but also have their detractors, and they usually pop up during the fever pitch. Someone who says Star Wars: The Force Awakens is overrated after you just said you loved it either doesn’t understand subjective thoughts or wants to tell you that you’re wrong about how you feel. Sure opinions are important and things like Facebook and Twitter give you the option to vomit them everywhere, but ‘Overrated’ does not explain your thought process or ours we are just stuck in a time loop where no one really expresses anything.
Terms like overrated are stupid and meaningless especially when discussion things that are pop culture related. If you don’t like Metal Gear Solid 5 how about we discuss it, or better yet why don’t you give me more than a one-word explanation. Something like “The story doesn’t hold together, and the map feels empty” is a hell of a lot more information than “Overrated.” People complain about gaming journalism and gaming media all the time, but it’s expressions and statements like overrated that spur on the idiotic name calling that fills the comment sections below all that Gaming journalism.
The obvious answer to all of this is “Just enjoy what you enjoy, and ignore everyone else.” But there should be easier ways to talk about games, and if we keep that dialog down to simple one-word answers, We can’t continue a smart and thoughtful dialog about the thing we love. If someone Doesn’t like the game, you like. Try and discuss it like adults but if they tell you its stupid and overrated don’t even bother because that person has already made up their mind and doesn’t deserve to have and in-depth discussion about anything relevant to your interests.
