Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Nocturnowl, you won't hit the big time unless threads on other boards comment on how mean you are towards video games and how you're impacting the sales of said video games.
And that's essentially how I feel. I love seeing how various pieces of a video game come together in terms of being a "package". It might seem like nitpicking to some people, but those little issues do add up, and sometimes even in a big way. If the game seems too homogeneous because of reusing various level designs or gimmicks, and lacks diversity, you should make a point to say that, because that allows for discussion on how to improve that particular aspect of the game, for example.
I do like the "little things". Some people may not like the repetition of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, for example, or the "grind for EXP", but I do find it nicely-paced simply because you're not necessarily forced to meet certain due dates. You can do whatever you want, and the game seems to penalize you for doing things too quickly or time-travelling. I thought the game was neat in an overall game design sense because of the little things that were added to it. That's why I enjoyed it.
And not everyone's going to like what you're going to say, and not everyone's going to agree with everyone else. But the point is to discuss and take away from the discussion without being dismissive of other people's opinions. People have different tastes. That's the point of diversity and variety of video games: no one's going to like the same thing, so different things are going to appeal to people. If you don't like it, you don't like it. If you like it, you like it. But just answer why you like/dislike it. That way a broader picture can be painted of your impressions to make them more concrete.
Exactly. And that's the error that some game designers seem to make (ex: this is the sort of design philosophy I thought FF13-2 followed--where everything was thrown into the game to appease to everyone, even when it probably didn't flow well). Not everyone's going to agree with what every single person is going to say and that's okay. I'm not sure why some people need to get incredibly defensive or dismissive when games, like other media, are designed from various bits and pieces constructed into a whole. As a reviewer or player, you should be deconstructing aspects of those bits and pieces you like or dislike to take away what you generally like about a genre or game and what you dislike about a genre or game to make an unbiased opinion of it.
Merely sugarcoating everything you say is not going to benefit anyone. Especially the creator.
Orange soda?
