Does a game getting what feels like *too* much praise ever grate on you?

[Rotobit]

It only irritates me when it's argued that mechanics from said game should be used in every similar experience

Soulslike difficulty is probably the one that rubs me the wrong way the most these days, I just don't find it fun so it's a little frustrating when folks outright encourage established franchises to take cues from it. Milder examples would be "the combat isn't like DMC/Platinum therefore it's bad" or "Final Fantasy should be turn based because the only good ones were".

Fandoms can also be frustrating and ruin things if they get too creepy/toxic. I'm very glad I played Undertale pretty soon after it came out, for example.

 

[jaymzi]

No because it is such a miserable way of looking at things.

If you feel this way about games, the chances are you will also feel the same way about everything in life that gets lots of praise.

 

[t26]

I tried games from Utawarerumono to Tales from Borderland because of this forum. They probably still be on my backlog if I didn't hear so many good things about them

 

[captainpat]

Yes, it bothers me deeply when a game I like reviews extremely well because then discussion of the thread will be filled with contrarian idiots that probably didn't even play the game just repeating the same dumb criticism, specially if said game is an exclusive. I hate it.

Click to shrink...

Damn I was moments from type this. But yes, some games reviewing well always seem to bring this type try-hard who's angry and wants everyone to know that they didn't like the game like everyone else.

 

[Cyclonesweep]

Never grates on me. I usually just take longer to consume. I find when people overhype things and my expectations are super high I tend to nitpick way more than I ever normally do. So to counter that I just wait till the hype dies

 

[TheMango55]

You ever heard of that underrated gem starring Geraldo del Rivero?

 

[fracas]

Nah, it's just the gross, borderline guerrilla marketing "hype threads" I see here frequently. I'm a nerdy doofus but boy those are embarrassing.

 

[xxracerxx]

To the OP's question, nah overt praise doesn't bother me because the threads are easily avoided. Now the constant shitting on a game does get super annoying though. If you are in enough threads on here, you start to notice who is coming into game specific threads just to shit on the game just to be contrarian. You would think people would move on a few months after release, but people really liking a game years later still gets to them and they need to be heard that said game is not that great and that others should feel that way as well or they are just wrong.

Just gets really long in the tooth.

 

[HebrewHammer]

*Looks at time stamp of post*

*Looks at start time for today's State of Play*

Ah, I see.

 

[Look! The Pie!]

Only when its fans act like it's the second coming of Christ, perpetuate a weird cult of personality around the developer, or try to dismiss anyone who doesn't care for the game as a hater/hipster/someone with bad taste/only criticizing it because it's popular, etc.

 

[DerpHause]

No, because I like it when people enjoy things

Click to shrink...

Pretty much this.

Others enjoying something more than I do doesn't mean the praise they give it is unjustified.

 

[spman2099]

what qualifies as over praising something, though? if it's a game you have never played how can you decide what is and isn't the correct amount of praise

this is so dumb

Click to shrink...

Absolutely. If you are criticizing a game that you haven't played (unless you a criticizing something like character designs, which you don't have to see in-game to have an opinion about) then you are definitely coming to the conversation from a place of ignorance. I can understand that type of feeling as an irrational gut reaction, but those thoughts should probably stay in your head.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Absolutely, but I think it's mostly in regards to games that I haven't had an immediate interest in. If people are praising something that I'm actively interested in playing, it doesn't bother me. If the praise is for something that I only have a passing interest in (or no interest at all) it becomes annoying.

I think it's a pretty natural response that most people have at one time or another.

 

[Deleted member 19533]

Yes. Generally big games I think are mediocre that people just rave about. Usually these are games that are visually stunning with a great story and underwhelming gameplay. It seems most people don't care about the actual quality of the gaming part of a game as long as it's good entertainment otherwise--like watching a good movie.

And with that last line, I'm sure some of you already can think of a few games that would fall under this.

 

[Praedyth]

When I see a game receiving too much praise I do two things:
i) check if the game is from a genre I like;
ii) if yes, then I isolate myself from all type of critics until I buy and beat the game.
Basically I use the "too much praise" as a mark for "this is worth experiencing" and I think the praise is something nice and useful to me.

 

[shoemasta]

Nah, that is such a depressing way of thinking.

 

[karmitt]

Only when used for console warring.

Click to shrink...

Same.

[Thumbs-up] This game was really genre defining for me.
[Thumbs-down] This game was really genre defining for me. [other game] is so overrated. I don't understand how [other game] gets any praise when this game did literally everything better.

Edit:

I'm also going to say I cannot stand when folks imply or outright state that something is"objectively" the best. So yeah, even if they don't tear down another game in the process like my example above, presenting opinions on game as facts will automatically make me disregard the statement.

 

[leng jai]

Hypebotting definitely gets an eye roll, especially when it's during the first week of release.

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

MGS4. Goty twice if I'm not mistaken. Ughh not at all what I wanted from a sequel to MGS2 :(

 

[MisterR]

All things Switch and BOTW. Although I enjoy both.

 

[Zeal543]

Not grating, but I'm absolutely puzzled regarding the reception persona 5 got from critics.

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

All things Switch and BOTW. Although I enjoy both.

Click to shrink...

This!

 

[zoodoo]

Geez, people really dont get what the OP meant.

On topic: yes it happens to me. I have yet to play witcher 3.

 

[Digital Savior]

Not really. I may not agree with it, but people can have their own opinion.

 

[Jedi2016]

Tends to lead to disappointment if you're not there on day one to see it for yourself. You rely on word of mouth, and it leads you to believe that the game is the greatest thing in the history of forever, and then you finally play it with such high expectations and the inevitable outcome is "It's... okay."

That's my take on The Last of Us. It's good, I get why people like it. It just never really clicked for me. It's... okay.

I won't straight up ignore a game based purely on that type of hype, though.

 

[Bumrush]

I only get annoyed when the praise leads to any negative criticism someone else has being turned into "you just don't get the game"-type replies.

 

[Shawt21]

Yup, circlejerks can put me off of playing a game.

 

[HououinKyouma00]

I guess so? It's more when people tell me I HAVE to do something it makes me really not want to do it. In some cases I'm actually very pleasantly surprised when I do finally get to it like with My Hero Academia. I was so sick of it being 90% of stuff at the conventions I go to, and constantly being told to watch it that when I finally watched it and binged all seasons besides the last one I felt like a right twat.

 

[astro]

Not at all, no. Seeing people enjoy something is a positive thing.

Overly hostile negativity, on the other hand, is a regular issue and that is actually obnoxious and annoying.

Still, you should try not to let opinions of a thing colour your own ability to enjoy that thing. If you're being put off a game because of hyperbolic positivity, that's far more on you than anything else.

 

[Fireblend]

Not particularly. If a game is universally acclaimed and liked so much people feel compelled to write about their experiences with the game, I'll be happy for both the fans and the developers and artists who worked on the game.

 

[chrisypoo]

Yeah I can empathize OP. I'm just glad I beat and greatly enjoyed Bloodborne before starting a Gaf account, as I now hate seeing someone mention the game as if it's the coming of Christ in game form. Loved the game, played it at launch, beat the shit out of it multiple times, now I have absolutely no will to ever play it again due to how over hyped it is. It's a good game; however, it probably wouldn't even be in my top five of all time honestly, and the combat is far from the perfection that most people tote it to be.

 

[Big G]

No, it doesn't bother me whenever a game gets praised to the high heavens, whether it's a game I really liked or didn't like. I may or may not agree with the consensus, but it doesn't go beyond that.

If it's something I haven't played yet and everyone is going crazy about it, that only makes me more interested in playing it, not less.

 

[mugurumakensei]

No. so long as the person isn't constantly stepping into other game threads to shit on those games to praise the game in question, gratuitous praise is fine. If it really is overhyped, it'll show in the long term.

 

[Wulfram]

I don't think I'm put off by simple positivity, but sometimes positivity can seem to turn into a sort of negativity about other games, or a sense that all other games in the genre should try to be more like this game because its the perfect ideal of a game and that can be off putting.

 

[PK Gaming]

No, because i'd rather die than talk myself out of playing a game I'm interested in because tons of people love it

 

[Rosebud]

Not at all, some of my favorite games are praised like that (The Witcher 3, God of War, Smash Bros. Ultimate...)

But I hate when people go into every thread to say every game should be like X.

 

[Vic20]

used to be sort of like that OP, it happened with the last of us
Even though I played the last of us at launch and really loved it,
the moment i saw the praise online, i began to hate the game, that way of thinking isn't really healthy.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Should have been around GAF when The Last of Us came out.

Click to shrink...

This, and it actually made me like the game less

I know how hipster that sounds but it is the most hyperbole I have ever seen in my life <--- this is not ironic as it is not, actually, hyperbole

 

[dlauv]

I get a little annoyed when people praise Bloodborne so much. It's got a ton of issues and I prefer two Dark Souls games to it.

I used to feel that way about RE6 but I saw enough people say they were lead to try it from forum posts praising it and they hated it.

It's not really a personal thing I judge a person for.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Well yeah, dismissing something just because it's popular is a hipster trait. But I don't think that's really what happens most commonly. Have you really never had a strong distaste for something that's popular? I think for me it happens mostly with songs that I just can't stand that I still get exposed to. It's not something that happens often, but every now and then there's a song thar just grates on me for whatever reason. Music is more invasive than reading some comments on a forum though (since these annoying songs can wedge themselves into your brain!).

Also agreed the conversation has been had at length. Critical consensus is probably the closest we can get to measuring objective quality... But that's something I would separate from popularity.

Click to shrink...

The thread is not "things you dislike that happen to be popular", though; it's specifically "things you dislike because they're popular". Music being forced on you may ultimately be related to it being popular, but its popularity is not, itself, the proximate cause why you dislike; it's the fact that it's forced on you.

Taking a critical eye toward any game is often framed as "negativity", even within this thread, when in fact, the manner in which some people enjoy something involves critique.

Oftentimes, a purely positive position on a game comes off as lacking nuance or critical engagement. And there are plenty of cases where a cult of fandom around a game actual leads to the stifling of conversation as critical takes are combatted and ignored by simply calling those posters "negative."

I think there are a lot of surface-level takes in this thread that are doing just this.

Click to shrink...

While what you're saying is indeed a problem in general (if somewhat inevitable in communities that base their identities around liking something), it's not directly connected to the point of this thread; which is, again, disliking something because it's popular, a stance that is pretty hard to reframe as a rational critique of the work itself.

 

[karmitt]

Geez, people really dont get what the OP meant.

On topic: yes it happens to me. I have yet to play witcher 3.

Click to shrink...

I already posted in the topic, but I went ahead and re-read the OP.

I guess I agree in a sense, but it's not usually going to prevent me from playing the game. The unfortunate consequence of something being lauded and hyped to the moon is that it may end up subject to unfair criticism on my part while I'm playing it. It happens far less these days, but it's certainly happened in the past.

 

[FreddeGredde]

I can't even imagine the feeling the OP is talking about. Seeing people excited about something could never be "too much", doesn't matter if it's a game I'm personally excited about, or something I have no interest in playing.

 

[Mirage]

No, because i'd rather die than talk myself out of playing a game I'm interested in because tons of people love it

Click to shrink...

Same would never let praise of something I'm interested in stop me from playing it.

 

[Makoto]

Yes.

It happens. A lot.

And I also don't know why, OP.

It is not that I start to dislike the game, but my interest on it completely vanishes.
Maybe I'm unconsciously a hipster; maybe this is a way of my conscience protect my ego by telling to it that "You should avoid this game, and by doing this, you'll stand out in the crowd". Maybe, even, in the past I tried games that everybody praised and didn't like it, and from that moment I defined that what everybody praises might not be something good at all. I really don't know. :(

 

[Ganransu]

Yes, definitely, I couldn't get into TLOU and Bloodborne after the entire year of praise, I just go into these games with more critical mindset trying to see what's so great about them and started nit-picking. My fault entirely, but it happened.

Bloodborne was also due to the frame rate issue, coming in from years of PC gaming and thinking "I don't see frame rate", the moment I put BB on, walked and instantly mindblown was a memorable experience I never forget.

However, I totally loved Spider-Man despite all the hype, so my enjoyment isn't always tied to people's reactions... Though I did ignore much of the game's praises and hypes due to life changes, so there may be some to that.

 

[Deleted member 12352]

JUST from that? No... that'd be kinda... pathetic and kneejerk hipstery tbh. Seeing people enjoy something usually makes me want to try it.

THAT SAID... If you get that coupled with a super obnoxious fandom who will absolutely go out of their way to ran something down your throat in the most maddening ways possible in addition to endlessly praising it? Yeah, that shit gonna do the opposite and sadly has gotten me a few times over the years... not many times thankfully, but it happens.

Breath of the Wild was the most recent (and probably one of the worst) example of this for me on reflection. Still never finished it.

 

[JigglesBunny]

This takes me back to the threads on GAF about BioShock Infinite and The Last of Us. Hell, threads on here about Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey and God of War have the same bullshit.

 

[Potato Mage]

I loved BoTW and have played through it twice, but it's not perfect game a lot of people claim it is. Though it being called a 10 only annoys me if it comes from media outlets who seem to give inconsistent review scores.

 

[reminiscingLemon]

Dark Souls, i actually liked Dark Souls and the community around it really made me grow to just despise it all tbh.

 

[Deleted member 22750]

no

hell no

I believe you get your ass kicked saying something like that