The Curse of Video Game Criticism

huh i'm so busy criticizing every video game i come into contact with that i can't just enjoy things anymore ah the curse of being incredibly intelligent and funny in 2001 sega released a little game for the dreamcast called sonic adventure 2. i was 3 years old at the time so i didn't play it but when adventure 2 battle released a year later my child brain was slowly gaining true consciousness to the point where one of my first memories ever is when my friend's little sister spilled coke all over my gamecube you don't understand we were playing two-player emerald hunt i was to call my friend was chaos the map was aquatic mine and while i don't remember how the match was going i was probably winning because i'm just uh awesome needless to say sonic adventure 2 solidified itself as one of my favorite games of all time i listened to the music for years on end and looked back on it fondly as i grew up but then in 2016 i made a mistake as a fledgling youtuber looking to diversify my content i decided to revisit the game and make a silly review and quickly discovered that many segments of the game were not as fun as i remembered that or i probably never made it to canon's core as a five-year-old because i sucked at video games i rescind my statement about beating my friend at emerald hunt before the incident despite all this i still love sonic adventure 2 but why well it's about the experience now i don't bring all this up to make an isolated point about the power of nostalgia but to instead talk about a larger phenomenon within the gaming sphere and how it's impacted both the way i view games as a self-proclaimed video essay writer along with the gaming community at large i'm not trying to say that i hate talking about games or that criticism is inherently a negative thing i think it's fun fun enough that i kinda sorta turned it into my job i like criticizing manipulative practices and mechanics i think could be improved while gushing about the things i love but when i play games nowadays i'm so often looking at them with a subconscious lens of how they could be incorporated into a video or what i could say about them in an interesting analytical sense pokemon was one of my favorite things in the world growing up but it's become a series i'm so hyper critical of these days that i look at people that enjoyed legends arceus and i'm like how how did you how do you do that what i am trying to say though is that it doesn't matter how many times i play through sonic adventure 2 and rediscover how rage inducing half the levels are it doesn't matter that i called it objectively bad in one of my old videos and it doesn't matter now what happens i will never give up the fight what i'm trying to tell both you dear viewer and myself if he'd listen is that it's okay for childlike wonder and dumbfounded happiness to win on occasion you can just like something because it's cool or because it has a boss fight where you rail grind on a big lizard you don't need to write a college thesis for your own feelings to be justified and the college thesis someone else has written doesn't invalidate your own feelings sonic adventure 2 is so stylized and cheesy and funny and stupid and sometimes fun that it's one of my favorite games of all time even though the pish-posh rider in me is getting upset yeah stay mad you'll get your chance when frontiers comes out it's time for a stupid video oh shut up the main reason i'm making this video is because i feel like the issue extends beyond just myself or game reviewers and writers in general you know what they say everybody's a critic wait who says that oh it's [ __ ] zach whether it's people looking to argue on the internet or give their detailed review on steam or make another bizarro concept video essay there's a lot of people looking to share their opinions this might be the pettiest thing i've ever been upset about but i absolutely despise this copy and paste checkbox template that so many people use to review games on steam this strange attempt at organized objectivity entirely removes the explanation or context that would make dark souls difficulty or watching paint dry gameplay make a hint of sense it tells me next to nothing about how the person actually felt nor is there any interesting evaluation of what the game might be trying to convey graphics i play games that could probably run on my 2007 ipod touch what the [ __ ] is a graphic gameplay i'm not even gonna start with that one audio okay does that mean music or sound design or balancing or audience yeah sign me up for the grandma games difficulty dark souls is unironically an option grind grinding isn't even a concept in so many video games story okay but like how would a single checkbox warn me that before your eyes could throw hands game time oh boy the hour count obsession is another topic for another video price oh boy the hour count obsession is another topic for another video bugs alright you can have that one i could try filling out this template to the best of my ability hesitating on my complex thoughts involving each category is the chow garden a grinding mechanic or i could just write my own review for sonic adventure 2 that says sometimes this game feels like walking over broken glass while getting my eardrums ruptured by a smoke alarm but other times you go fast and it's kind of fun and that makes more sense i think i've become so engrossed with the world of game writing and video essays because there's so much value to be found in an individual's experience with a game especially once you understand the kinds of media they're typically interested in donkey mentions this in his video about game critics understanding the person behind the review is important if someone like me says i enjoyed breath of the wild despite hating most open worlds or if dunkey himself says he likes an rpg everyone goes holy [ __ ] what's going on with that game video games can be such personal journeys that simple number scales and quote-unquote objective reviews often fail to convey the writer's individual takeaways or let their personal feelings shine through and i often wonder if the current state of criticism impacts the way the average person interacts with each new game with the way so many reviews are structured it feels like people are searching for talking points to critique back of the box claims about innovation controversial takes on character writing or incessant comparisons to other well-known titles there's something to be said for establishing your own format as a reviewer but i just don't think the traditional story graphics gameplay difficulty 8.127 out of 10 is an engaging format to describe the complex multimedia experiences we call video games when compared to relaying one's own experience to the viewer in a unique and interesting way but don't even get me started on trying to actually share those experiences online i can just say the last of us too and if you're vaguely tapped into gaming culture you probably know what i'm talking about but if you don't don't look it up or anything completely unrelated what's it like to be happy internet discourse has become so volatile over the years that to like a game you have to know exactly why you like it and explain it in a way that sounds like you're a lifeless wikipedia article lest you be told that your opinion is indeed subjective this landscape of constant arguing leads people to become very defensive of their favorite titles because there will always be others that get a kick out of acting high and mighty for not liking said popular game or those that missed the english lesson about not writing i think at the beginning of every sentence and i mean of course i'm guilty of this to some degree i've become incapable of not taking a jab at gentian impact in almost every video i've made this year however i do think there's a difference between analytical criticism and emotionally charged statements made to piss off fans of any given series you know what i guess i technically do both what i'm saying is i'm tired of opinions being presented as objective even when they are in fact just opinions a real objective review would be incredibly boring and not at all helpful and would probably go something like this sonic adventure 2 is a platforming game released in 2001 for the sega dreamcast where you play as sonic and friends it has 3d graphics plays cut scenes in between levels and even has a jump button okay but like is it fun saying things like the movement feels good or the game is challenging or the music is awesome these are all opinions every game review you've ever read or watched has included someone's opinion no matter how said opinion was presented when it comes to discussing games in any meaningful capacity very few people are interested in actual objectivity for many games things that are considered to be fact are often just the loudest opinions that have solidified over time bias and subjectivity are integral in recommending a video game or dissuading others from playing it but in the same vein opinion pieces generally don't exist for the purpose of tearing down any opposing views out of the thousands and thousands of comments i've received there's one that's planted itself in the back of my mind like a little parasite since i read it three years ago it was on a video i made about why mario odyssey is one of my favorite games and it said may i interrupt you real quick and tell you you're wrong the game looked beautiful and charming and had a great soundtrack but it was painfully short had a horrible skill curve super generic level design a lot of boring boss fights and it pretty much only existed out of filler content watch the review from joseph anderson and tell me you still like it afterwards how do you look at someone that loves a video game and go yeah this person is clearly in the dark playing the video game is nothing compared to watching a video about it and the funniest part is joseph anderson has a fantastic video called subjectivity is implied where he discusses this exact topic while debating a piece of media with someone might open your eyes to hidden meanings or flaws you didn't previously notice finding a video that supports your opinion and trying to use it as some sort of mind-changing weapon isn't really a productive way to go about critiquing something however with so many posts and think pieces and five hour video essays and steam reviews and comment threads it can be hard to dive into any given game without a bunch of disjointed expectations the overwhelming unceasing barrage of content can drastically affect the pieces of media you choose to spend your valuable time on or cause you to stress and reconsider things you were confident in enjoying and i can definitely say i suffer from this to a pretty extreme degree even if i'm a pre-existing fan of a franchise or just excited for a new game a single negative comment is enough to plant that seed of doubt and cause me to start hyper analyzing things as i play it's gotten so bad that i try to watch or read as little as possible about a game until i'm completely done with it i know that living in a bubble isn't usually the best choice and there's a whole other discussion to be had about spoilers and secrets but for now avoiding most opinions until i've formed an opinion of my own goes a long way in helping me enjoy a game more naturally personally i'm gonna go into sonic frontiers with the mindset of a lobotomized toddler so i can be excited for two seconds before the harsh reality helps me cry myself to sleep at night i envy people that can just play a game and have fun how do you just turn your brain off like i could do it when i play bloon's tower defense sure but for a regular single player experience i'm just grasping at straws here i don't even know how to end this video yet i'm just gonna go play a game in my backlog or something metal gear rising looks kinda cool [Music] i've got my own war to fight that was awesome metal gear rising revengeance it's probably the video game ever made i will never give it a score and i hesitate to even attempt to compare it to platinum's other titles because who [ __ ] cares where most games operate at maybe 60 to 80 percent for a run time of 10 to 30 hours metal gear rising functions similarly to the former ceo of costco when they tried to change the price of the hot dog if you let up on the gas even once i will [ __ ] kill you i might have finished the whole thing in 6 hours but i don't give a damn about the hour count it's a game i don't even want to review because it's so [ __ ] stupid and awesome i wasn't thinking about whether or not the block mechanic was too generous or if the camera was bugging out a little bit in some areas the subconscious critic in my brain was being physically pummeled by the pure adrenaline running through my veins forcing me to scream dead on with ryden every time he cracked open a fresh gatorade spine what i'm trying to get at here just like i did with sonic adventure 2 is that metal gear rising was all about the experience a steam checklist about graphics or sound effects or gameplay or a massive video hyper-analyzing every second of action could never have explained the feeling of playing revengeance except for the one i found that made a new checkbox for every category called metal gear rising revengeance that one's pretty good maybe what i'm saying here is that there's a part of games that none of us can entirely analyze or review it's how they make us feel you know the art part i kind of like that part i along with my other video essay colleagues in crime do what we can to tell stories and share personal experiences about our favorite games but the idea that criticism reviews and internet discourse can scare people away from things they might have enjoyed is kinda unfortunate microtransactions manipulation industry standards crunch culture and false promises are an entirely different can of worms but if people like something even though i don't i don't think they're wrong that's not how opinions work just because i have a couple hundred thousand subscribers and know how to apply transition presets to a sans-serif font doesn't mean i have the slightest [ __ ] clue what i'm talking about ever i know i've been bouncing around a ton of abstract ideas here but i'll try to sum it up in the simplest way i can at the end of the day it's okay to like things that other people think are bad or even that you think are bad keep on enjoying that game that your friends don't or that a big youtuber said is the worst thing ever created for a click bait title they just don't know how to have fun after spending two full months logging 100 hours into a video game they despise to make a point about manipulative game design or something stupid like that anyway i hope you enjoyed this video it's a bit different in tone and style from what i've been making lately so let me know if you'd like to see more stuff like this or if it even made any sense if you'd like to support the channel subscribing is very cool and i'll think you're awesome in the least parasocial way possible and if you want to be even more non-parasocially awesome consider throwing a couple bucks my way over on patreon which is linked in the description we're all gonna die someday so i might as well go out telling myself that sonic adventure 2 was actually fantastic it's not the camera and controls that make me want to commit a crime every time i make it back to mad space it's me the concept that the things i like are bad would mean there's some higher standard of objectivity established by the council of gamers but i've never met those guys and they sound like [ __ ] that's just about all i have to say about sonic adventure 2 it's really not a bad game even though the game itself is objectively bad alright you want to make up your [ __ ] mind or what [Music] you

Channel: yakkocmn

Views: 228,822

Keywords: game critics, difficulty in games, yakkocmn, yakko, video game criticism, video game reviews, games media, metacritic, ign, the last of us 2, dark souls, steam reviews, steam games, reviews

Id: 5yn_WKaVH9c

Length: 16min 11sec (971 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 03 2022