How much are you influenced by other people's opinion when gaming?

hideinlight

hideinlight

New member
My friends never enjoyed the games I played, neither does the critics it seems. Kinda destroys part of my enjoyment of the game. I found that if I just randomly play a game, and not read any opinion pieces or reviews beforehand I enjoy it much more.
 
Doesn't change anything for me when playing that I noticed, Although it does influence my purchases
 
Not much for me. I have pretty strict opinions regarding games whether I read other peoples' opinions or not. It takes quite a bit for a game to impress me.
 
Reviews stays someone's opinion. To have my own opinion, I have to play the game myself, so see someone play it at least. I have played, and bought many games that got low review scores, but that I like.
 
I usually check the games my buddies play as well as use reviews as rough guides to see which games are worth checking out. Anything above 6.0 and is part a genre I like, I'd play to form my own opinion about it :D.
 
B1nary said:
Doesn't change anything for me when playing that I noticed, Although it does influence my purchases
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I agree that I usually do avoid buying games that get negative reviews all over the place. It is in the end down to your own opinion, though. Some people will not like a game; you'll end up liking it. The only real way is to try it for yourself. The only trouble is with games being the price they are, a lot of people are unwilling to take the plunge. That's what sales are for. :)

People have different tastes. Your friends might not like a particular genre, and so their opinion of all games in said genre is negative.
 
MissileToe said:
I agree that I usually do avoid buying games that get negative reviews all over the place. It is in the end down to your own opinion, though. Some people will not like a game; you'll end up liking it. The only real way is to try it for yourself. The only trouble is with games being the price they are, a lot of people are unwilling to take the plunge. That's what sales are for. :)

People have different tastes. Your friends might not like a particular genre, and so their opinion of all games in said genre is negative.
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+1

At lans 3-4 guys always bashed dota when suggested to play it...now they're playing dota 2 like it's the only game in the world.
 
One thing I've really noticed is that a lot of people don't seem to like when you criticize games they enjoy. Even when your criticism is valid, they tend to get hostile when you present it.

As an example, take Skyrim. I think it is a thoroughly mediocre game and I have a lot valid grievances with the game, such as the fact that it is entirely shallow, quest design is bland and uninspired and combat is one giant click-fest and the like. Now, shortly after the game came out I raised these concerns and got torn to shreds because Skyrim is the best game ever how DARE I criticize it etc. People love Skyrim, therefore they don't want to hear anything negative about it.

The same thing happened to me with Guild Wars 2. Recently on a major international gaming forum I raised my concerns about the game and its gameplay systems, then got torn to shreds. One player actually went out of his way to harass me and after I asked him to put me on ignore if he doesn't like my opinion on the game, I ended up receiving a warning from a moderator, who ironically was also a big fan of GW2.

Now here's the thing I don't understand, if you enjoy a game, what does it matter if someone else doesn't? What I think is a lot of people don't want to hear criticism about the games they enjoy, because they're scared it will somehow subconsciously affect their enjoyment of the game. That's the only reasonable explanation I can think of for why many people get so hostile when you provide criticism for their favorite games. If you go to the BF3 thread on this forum right now and post a valid criticism of the game, you'll see at least one passionate fan come tear into you about it or try to be all apologetic about it.
 
I gotta agree with you on Skyrim. It was one of the most bland games I played.

I pay a lot of attention to reviews yes. My time is too precious to waste and there's too many games out there wanting my attention to just grab something with a nice cover. Plus my views tend to correlate highly with reviewers. I also take my friends' opinions on gaming to a certain extent - it won't dictate if I actually enjoy a game but I will pick something up based on what they say.
 
I read reviews on games Im interested in but I usually get sold on gameplay vids and demo's.
I often go back to my street fighter 4 experience. It got rave reviews from everyone and I mean, its street fighter how can you go wrong? It turned out to be absolutely horrendous for 2 reasons. The xbox d-pad is super kak and the game has a tremendous jump in difficulty from fight 3 onwards. Good flippin luck if you're up against Guile in round 3. Cheap shots a plenty.
 
Graal said:
Not much for me. I have pretty strict opinions regarding games whether I read other peoples' opinions or not. It takes quite a bit for a game to impress me.
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This x10, goes for movies and games. There is so much crap out there that one has to sift through to get that one gem. IMO if I played a game , and it kept my attention, and I don't forget it withing the next few years it was a damn good game. But as you said, very, very few games/movies manage to do that.
 
Take the review scores of Remember Me as an example; for some of these reviewers this is a spectacular game, and some see it as quite dull. This is one of those games that you just have to experience it for yourself to know if you will like it or not.
 
I don't read reviews anymore. I tend to look at some gameplay AND see if I can get a WTF is video about it. A friends opinion helps too. But I normally would like to try it out myself if he says its good.


@Graal

A lot of people considered it to be the OMG BEST GAME EVA!!! I actually kind of enjoyed It ( in short bursts I might add) wasn't really a big RPG fan when I played it. But now that I've played other RPG's ( The witcher 2,Fallout) I see that its actually a piece of kak in comparison.
 
Not at all. Must agree with Graal and Lyt here. I read all of the (reliable) reviews/blogs I can, head to YouTube for gameplay first impressions, listen to what my friends have to say, try the games myself and then formulate my own opinion. Unless a release is truly horrible upon login, I won't pass judgement (MMORPGs in particular) before reaching level 20. Nor will I continue to play a release that my friends have "raved about" if it's not my cup of tea. Currently, the market is flooded with "hopefuls", however, not many have longevity. Methinks this might change as there are a couple of upcoming AAA titles that I feel will meet my expectations this 2013.
 
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Probably just a personal choice for me really, do some homework you should get an idea of the game etc.
 
hideinlight said:
My friends never enjoyed the games I played, neither does the critics it seems. Kinda destroys part of my enjoyment of the game. I found that if I just randomly play a game, and not read any opinion pieces or reviews beforehand I enjoy it much more.
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I dont really care what other people think half the time since I can enjoy something they hate.
 
General Internet opinion of games might get me interested in a game that I didn't know about, but generally it doesn't concern me too much. I value the opinion of people I know personally much more. It also helps a lot when you know how that person felt about a specific game and if your opinions aligned or not.

I have very strict criteria (as I'm sure you guys have seen from my rants before) when it comes to games and their surrounding infrastructure (DRM etc), and those usually make up my mind for me before I really look at the games themselves. Recently it has really saved my bacon with Diablo III and Simcity being so messed up for months after launch. Granted both games are in a much much better condition today, but they were dismal on launch day when most of the eager fans were playing them. I'll wait and pick up the games at a fraction of the price months later. Especially single-player titles. I have a massive amount of games to keep me busy until then.
 
Personal preference plays the major role in my decision making but I do a massive amount of research when considering a purchase on a game. Partly because of time on hand, I do look to critics and the like and then I see if the overall opinion meets with the the general consensus, if its not positive I will generally give the title a skip as I only really purchase about one Xbox title a year.

Cost is way to prohibitive for my budget currently, I'm a big waiter! Even if I'm uber ampted about a title I generally only purchase it a year after release or find a second hand version.

So its a combination for me lots of reviews and opinions are weighted then I make a decision.
 
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