Save your soul, where's the love gone?

[Concept]

One of my guilty gaming pleasures is to read GAMEFAQ reader reviews which slate games I love, or those on gamerankings just to see how there can be such chasms in opinion.

[vertigo]

I check out those reviews anyway, even though I know most of the time they'll be misguided. There are a few very good reviewers on gamespot though, so it's always worth checking out just in case.
I find it bizarre when you get someone on gamespot give a game 9.0 with the tag-line "disappointing" though. Obviously the rating starts at 8/10 and only goes upwards for these people

[vertigo]

Or Know how to chear up a grumpy bastard?

Sit and play a random game for at least an hour as if you'd just spent 40 quid on it. There are always some good things in most games. Except MK Mythologies, which is just tripe

[Mardigan8]

You only have to look at some of the First Play Threads in here to see how much love there is for games. Some of the gushing that went on in the DMC3, MGS3 and Killer7 threads just show you there are still those out there that just love to play games.

Soaking up the atmosphere, getting involved with the characters and essentially just letting yourself go with a game.

I absolutely loved coming on here and talking about the new technique I found for a DMC3 boss or how I felt at the end of MGS3 and its being able to share these views that makes these games so much better. The set-up in here is very positive IMO and when you get a 1,000 post thread full of positive comments you know you are in the right place when you want to talk about games.

Perfect example is the resurrection of the MGS3 FP thread. Nothing but great things said about it again and any other type of comments handled in a decent manner.

Think what I am trying to say is that although we have the ability to know everything about a game before it arrives, if you choose your sources correctly and discuss your views rather than preach you can enhance your enjoyment of a title immensly. The above games being perfect examples of this for me.

[Kevvy Metal]

You only have to look at some of the First Play Threads in here to see how much love there is for games. Some of the gushing that went on in the DMC3, MGS4 and Killer7 threads just show you there are still those out there that just love to play games.

Soaking up the atmosphere, getting involved with the characters and essentially just letting yourself go with a game.

I absolutely loved coming on here and talking about the new technique I found for a DMC3 boss or how I felt at the end of MGS4 and its being able to share these views that makes these games so much better. The set-up in here is very positive IMO and when you get a 1,000 post thread full of positive comments you know you are in the right place when you want to talk about games.

Perfect example is the resurrection of the MGS4 FP thread. Nothing but great things said about it again and any other type of comments handled in a decent manner.

Think what I am trying to say is that although we have the ability to know everything about a game before it arrives, if you choose your sources correctly and discuss your views rather than preach you can enhance your enjoyment of a title immensly. The above games being perfect examples of this for me.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is out already!!

*ordered

[spagmasterswift]

From my time spent in here there seems to be a lot of ritualistic behaviour, patterns that most people follow (me included).

Let me buss an example here:

Game X is announced in the news section and is either praised or condemned from a handful of screen shots.

An anticipation thread will then hit General Gaming where every bit of available info on the net will get linked to, and the game praised or condemned all over again.

Eventually (probably 2 years later) the game launches and a First Play thread appears where everybody offers a defensive stance of their earlier opinions on said game. Thankfully I have seen occasions when Forumite A has changed there minds after actually playing the game, but mostly its Forumite B shouting "I TOLD YOU SO". I actually really like this stage (everything before it tends to be where we find a lot of the negativity...

Those who like the game will set up a High Score thread, an appreciation thread later and finally it will find its way into the Retro Section.

If we see this as the lifespan Game X has on NTSC-UK you understand how much investment people have made in a game (on a forum alone, not counting all of the time spent actually playing the thing). Now apply that to all the games you've been interested in since joining NTSC-UK.

I'm sure I had a point when I started this...

[Concept]

Spag = secret architect controlling us all.

[spagmasterswift]

OK, maybe all that was bull****. I think I was trying to say that people have passion and are so involved with Game X that you bound to have the flip side of the happy coin being presented from time to time, or something...

I can't wait to play Game X tho

[Concept]

It's great. MS' new offering where you control the daily life of Bill Gates.. but virtually.

I know what you mean though. There's a difference between haters and critics.

I guess the moral of the story is not to be a **** to people when deciding to criticise a game. I've said it before... we shouldn't encourage a smile-happy forum where people are afraid to state their opinions. That's just as bad as the alternative.

If people express themselves intelligently and without wishing to incite arguments, then there isn't any problem. Sometimes however, (though this doesn't happen in first-play much these days), you get people wallowing in negativity to start needless arguments (thinks back to PSP/DS launches).

[eastyy]

Well it must be said years ago (say over 10/15 years ago) i was at school and to be honest then it was not a intelligant well balanced debate about games and consoles.I am sure a lot of people have experienced that at school.Its almost a relief now

[Bassman]

I must say that there were two of us (pretty much) who had a fairly upbeat discussion on Dungeon Siege 2. I don' t think we had any adverse comments in the 10 pages of the topic (on temporary hiatus until I get back into some gaming I suspect).

On some forums I suspect that every other post would have something negative to say about a game.

I think the "love" is there still, it is just a little more focussed perhaps.

[spagmasterswift]

I think there are certain games that rely on the player getting deeply involved with the game, engaging with it like you would do a movie or a piece of theatre. You are able to suspend you disbelief and get wrapped up in the fantasy being presented. This feeling can carry on as you go into work/college/internet cafe and check NTSC-UK. Then some ****er cusses it out and worst case knocks some reality into your mind, highlights shortcomings that you had happily ignored or not even noticed, doing damage to the experience. Most times I'm like "Yeah I see why you might think that but this ****s dope!!!", but on occasion a game has been badly beaten up by peeps on here who may have had a point but I should have had the sense not to read it by now.

Rambling on again >_<, I best leave this thread

[eastyy]

Well the one major plus point is there are so many games i would never have got until i read about them here

Pn03
Psyvarier
being a couple

[charlesr]

Let's take the recent PGR3 negativity (due to unconfirmed possibility it might be 30fps). The negativity here seems to have a lot to do with the technology, and the need to have the absolute best on offer. Yes, we all know that it would be better at 60fps than 30fps, but it will still be an enjoyable game at 30fps. Lord knows, I enjoyed enough PAL N64 scary framerate stuff. And when I got them all over again on NTSC versions with improved framerate and refresh rate, I could see the improvement, but the amount of actual enjoyment I got out of the games didn't increase much from 50Hz to 60Hz.
Again technology related, people slate a game because the textures look poor in pre-release screenshots. Take P.N.03 for example. Looks dull. Looks dreary. Therefore it gets slated. Perhaps a poor choice of technology to get the large sell-through. One of the best games ever imho though.
You rarely see anyone being negative due to the gameplay elements without good reason though. Here's where the real soul is.
If you are expecting great things from a game, but it turns out to play poorly, then it should rightly get negativity directed at it so that others avoid.

So as long as you can use some sort of brain filter to pay more attention to gameplay comments than technology comments, you will be ok.

[Concept]

I think there are certain games that rely on the player getting deeply involved with the game, engaging with it like you would do a movie or a piece of theatre. You are able to suspend you disbelief and get wrapped up in the fantasy being presented. This feeling can carry on as you go into work/college/internet cafe and check NTSC-UK. Then some ****er cusses it out and worst case knocks some reality into your mind, highlights shortcomings that you had happily ignored or not even noticed, doing damage to the experience. Most times I'm like "Yeah I see why you might think that but this ****s dope!!!", but on occasion a game has been badly beaten up by peeps on here who may have had a point but I should have had the sense not to read it by now.

Rambling on again >_<, I best leave this thread

To be honest, although I use NTSC as a good place to discuss games, once I've got into a game, my opinion hardens and it's very difficult to change it. For example, Killer7... after playing through it and then posting in the first play thread, I doubt loads of negativity would have changed my opinion significantly. If I'd entered the thread beforehand though it might have.

That's why these days I tend to enter first-play threads after I've completed a game. This way I have a hardened opinion of it, and objectively (or an attempt of objectivity) go into see where everyone is coming from.

Games are becoming ever more individualistic these days causing critical splits (Farenheit, Killer7, possibly Shadow of the Colossus etc.) so you have to take into account that (it really goes without saying) it's all down to opinions. This doesn't excuse valid viewpoints on broken mechanics/flaws, but those that do work and people object to highlight the growing range of personal tastes.

Perhaps such titles (which split people) are further signs that the industry is maturing and diversifying enough to offer more avenues?