I know I tweet a lot about the whole ecosystem of games coverage, my very strong feelings about it are one of my greatest weaknesses. But I just saw a new video from a prominent site in which a staff member "confesses" that he could never get into a game.
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He proceeds to explain in this rambly way why he could never get into said game, but the underlying notion that not liking a certain game is something one needs to "confess" and then address in this tentative fashion, almost as if it's a personal failing, is, in my view, bad.
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Own your point of view! Be forthright. It's perfectly fine, it's good in fact, to just say that a game is bad if you think it's bad! But so much of what constitutes games crit today is this apologetic thing where we're wary of not gushing over every game that others kinda like.
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And I get it. A great many readers have been trained to view gaming sites as just safe spaces for their uncritical fandom to such a degree that even encountering perspectives that aren't baked in pure enthusiasm is alienating, and may lead them elsewhere.
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But this handling of games and readers with kid gloves is not good for the larger conversation about games. Both games (as a medium and an art form) and readers deserve better. They can handle a richer landscape of criticism, even if the transition to it is a painful, awkward one
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Replying to @carolynmichelle
I bought the Witcher 3 like a year after launch ‘cause of the unanimous praise. Hated it! Three years later, I’m feeling straight up gaslit by the continued(!) praise it gets, buy it again. Hate it again for the exact same reasons!!!
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Replying to @shattmaw @carolynmichelle
But there are just no reviews (that I could find at least) which discuss how fundamentally un-fun that game is to a queer person with no interest in male gaze tropes or running off of cliffs. So I buy again thinking *I’m* the problem ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Well, I am a queer person who has no interest in male gaze tropes and I also think The Witcher 3 is a masterpiece--these things don't break neatly across categories of identity--but I think any critic who, for any reason, dislikes it or any game, should say so unapologetically.
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