[Regulus Tera]

I ask this as a somewhat newcomer to GAF. The guy does comes as pretentious in many of his write-ups, but his taste in JRPGs seems impeccable for the most part and his writing is pretty fun.

Why does he get some much hate around these places? Is there something of him I have to read yet? For the record, I thought the Animal Crossing "review" was fairly interesting.

[BeeDog]

Who?

[Frank the Great]

This is GAF, we hate mostly everything. The few things that we approve of are praised en masse, and everything else is dismissed and hated on. This is how a hive mind works. Didn't you get the memo?

Anyway, I have no idea who Tim Rogers is, but I fucking hate him.

[I AM JOHN!]

whatdog.gif

[Threi]

Your avatar: What the fuck?

[arne]

What an awesome start.

I think it has to do with how pretentious he comes across in his reviews... along with the seemingly illogical hyperbole. A few of his articles on next-gen.biz in the past probably did him in as well. So, basically his persona is getting in the way for most gaffers.

Interestingly enough, he's one of few people who review video games with a unique writing style and point of view. Which, ironically, is something many people on gaf clamor for. Probably could use dialing-down the expression of extreme self-worth a little, but that's tim, he won't bow down to nobody (i think).

[XiaNaphryz]

A lot of people are simply put off by the ginormous wall of text his reviews always end up taking up.

While he does have an interesting writing style, he sometimes goes way off tangent too often for my liking.

[Troidal]

Who the hell is he???

is the correct answer.

[Flynn]

I admire his writing quite a bit. We need more game critics willing to go off the rails. The cool thing about Rogers is he strays from the point but almost always has a pretty damn good reason.

You can find a lot of his stuff at Action Button

[BorkBork]

I tried to read his Earthbound article, gave up half way through.

[Man God]

Famous for a review about Earthbound where he compares it to a gap toothed hooker. For ten pages.

Also famous for calling people who like Twilight Princess Neckbeards because it's not as awesome as his 100 foot big screen tv in Japan, where he lives and hangs out with famous Japanese developers all day, learning useless anecdotes that will one day become part of another overly long review.

[BarrelMakingPenguin]

I'd consider myself a game website whore...but I have no idea who the hell Tim Rogers is.

[diunxx]

but his taste in JRPGs seems impeccable for the most part

I don't know who this guy is but you consider having good taste in jrpgs a reason not to hate someone?

[Nubian]

Dude is the epitome of "white guy living the nerd dream in glorious nippon".

Can't get more hateable than that.

[DCharlie]

... because i've met him?

[Vinnk]

I hung out with him in Akiba last year after TGS. I will admit I haven't read much of what he's written (or have but never noticed who wrote it) but in person he was a nice guy.

[Tiktaalik]

His writing contains small moments of greatness, but those short moments are massively overshadowed due to the fact that his reviews/articles are often 20 pages of irrelevancy.

[drohne]

i like action button a lot. rogers's observational talent and total lack of restraint can produce pleasingly wild stuff -- and some tedious nonsense as well. in any case he's vastly preferable to the many commentators who are congenitally incapable of interesting thoughts about videogames or anything else

[alistairw]

I admire his writing quite a bit. We need more game critics willing to go off the rails. The cool thing about Rogers is he strays from the point but almost always has a pretty damn good reason. You can find a lot of his stuff at Action Button

Yeah, I admire his stuff too. Honestly, I don't love all of it, but I don't think that's the point - you don't have to like it, but it's important to realise why we need someone pushing the envelope as much as he is.

[arne]

Tim Rogers Defense Force assemble!

The other thing is, at least via my perception, is that he is oft inconsistent on his scoring/impressions which tends to be the most damaging of any reviewer.

[Gilgamesh]

I get this feeling, playing this game — if I keep deflecting projectiles, eventually I’ll be so good at deflecting projectiles that I won’t even need to close my eyes or tense my knees to ejaculate. I will simply be. I will flow.

This guy is awesome.

[Rufus]

... because i've met him?

Elaborate.

[sky]

Notice how the answer is right there in your question?

[Segata Sanshiro]

Basically, pretentious twats aren't likable people. Tim Rogers is a pretentious twat.

[RadarScope1]

He's hit and miss but I do admire someone who's at least trying to be different. 97 percent of game reviews are EXACTLY the same with a few words moved around here and there. Total echo chamber.

[M3wThr33]

Watching his video blog trying out the Final Fantasy Potion is all the evidence you'll ever need. :lol :lol :lol

[qirex]

The first thing I ever read by him was his animal crossing review and it was hate at first sight. Basically he assumes that his life, knowledge and opinions are just so damn interesting that we want to read about them instead of reading about video games.

I’m heating up a vegan burrito in the microwave when I hear the animal voice for the first time. It’s a high voice, and it sounds almost like a whistle: ... Because I’ve been expecting someone to call, I have the phone on the sofa, next to my latest vegan burrito. ... “Sure, sure,” I say. I gently touch my vegan burrito. I suddenly want to eat it. “Are you working now, Tim?” ... With the right soy cheese, you vegans can enjoy the hell out of it, too. ... It is a simulator of a cartoon life you, a real person, can lead while eating vegan burritos on your sofa in soccer shorts. ... As it stands, as a lonely, vegan-burrito-eating single-player experience

[JSnake]

Famous for a review about Earthbound where he compares it to a gap toothed hooker. For ten pages. Also famous for calling people who like Twilight Princess Neckbeards because it's not as awesome as his 100 foot big screen tv in Japan, where he lives and hangs out with famous Japanese developers all day, learning useless anecdotes that will one day become part of another overly long review.

omfg I read that whole thing. Sheer genius.

[arne]

Basically, pretentious twats aren't likable people. Tim Rogers is a pretentious twat.

You're on a roll today, keep it up! :)

[shuri]

does he talks a lot about the narrative

[ShockingAlberto]

Tim Rogers: why the hate?

I've met him

That is more than enough

[PepsimanVsJoe]

When he actually sits down and talks about videogames he's a pretty decent guy. But other than that good lord.

[DCharlie]

Elaborate.

I've met him a few times - mainly in passing where i get the odd "OH THIS WORLD WAS MADE FOR PUNCHING!!!" look at me style drama outburst but one time where i actually had to spend a few hours in the same room. If you can imagine playing "Let's pretend" with a 12 year old, it's sort of like that with out the excuse that the person is a 12 year old and can be forgiven.

I dunno, it's perhaps my aversion to having to share time with someone who is sitting there inventing stories?

His writting doesn't offend me at all, i find some of it fairly interesting, but i pretty much doubt any of the side stories surrounding anything he says to be even remotely grounded in any reality. "They are lies, but they are entertaining lies... and isn't that the real truth?"

[Flynn]

Tim Rogers Defense Force assemble! The other thing is, at least via my perception, is that he is oft inconsistent on his scoring/impressions which tends to be the most damaging of any reviewer.

I get the distinct impression that he's trying using his scores to disrupt and make a point. Better than than bending to Gamerankings and Metacritic -- who every critic works for whether they like it or not.

[drohne]

Basically, pretentious twats aren't likable people. Tim Rogers is a pretentious twat.

a. i know some very likable pretentious twats

b. 'game journalism' is littered with the droppings of perfectly likable people who can neither think nor write -- the pertinent question is not 'do i want to hang out with you,' it's 'do i want to read you'

[Y2Kev]

I like him a lot. Rather, I should say I like his writing a lot. He "could use an editor," but I don't mind reading long pieces if they are interesting.

[Segata Sanshiro]

a. i know some very likable pretentious twats b. 'game journalism' is littered with the droppings of perfectly likable people who can neither think nor write -- the pertinent question is not 'do i want to hang out with you,' it's 'do i want to read you'

The man asked a question. I'm just answering it. I guess I could have added that pretentious twats are usually only liked by other pretentious twats, but that's probably unnecessary now.

[leroy hacker]

making up useless anecdotes

Fixed.

and also, Star Ocean 3 being PS3 exclusive.

[alistairw]

I get the distinct impression that he's trying using his scores to disrupt and make a point. Better than than bending to Gamerankings and Metacritic -- who every critic works for whether they like it or not.

Oh, how I would love to see Action Button reviews on those two sites. :lol

[DCharlie]

Star Ocean 3 being PS3 exclusive.

it's not even that stuff ,it's more the :

Ken Kutaragi helping him find his flat
weekly meetings with Stringer
etc etc...

i doesn't help that people know what he does/did/etc.

The only interesting facet of "Tim Rogers v1.4" is the question as to why people are so offended by someone elses fantasy world?

Which i think was a theme he touched on over at his blog site.

[Meier]

Three words. He's a douchebag.

[Grecco]

There was a skit on youtube on "New School Journalism yeah" i cant for the life of me find now but it explains well why Tim aint likeable

[cvxfreak]

I've heard "interesting" anecdotes about the guy on occasion myself...

[Yottamol]

I kind of liked his Dragon Quest VIII review, although it really wasn't much of a review technical-wise, just random rantings about...uh, random things in general.

[Stumpokapow]

vis-a-vis ergo concordantly ohayo*

* ohayo is japanese for hi

[firex]

I ask this as a somewhat newcomer to GAF. The guy does comes as pretentious in many of his write-ups, but his taste in JRPGs seems impeccable for the most part and his writing is pretty fun. Why does he get some much hate around these places? Is there something of him I have to read yet? For the record, I thought the Animal Crossing "review" was fairly interesting.

It's just how he goes off the deep end sometimes. I make fun of him more than I hate him, but I don't like him either.

[arne]

I get the distinct impression that he's trying using his scores to disrupt and make a point. Better than than bending to Gamerankings and Metacritic -- who every critic works for whether they like it or not.

and in the process subvert his own attempts at creating a new paradigm? i understand where that is getting at, but i don't see him as trying to say that review scores are totally useless and he's trying to just hasten it's irrelevance. i just find the issue, ok, he's trying to be disruptive and try to draw attention to this and make changes, but in doing so quite so radically, he's also harming his change for a broader readership. kind of a catch-22.

[charlequin]

When Tim Rogers is on, he cooks up some great things. The Earthbound review is fascinating and delves into a lot of just what makes the game such an unsettlingly weird and lovable masterpiece. And his fukubukuro articles express the way that life and gaming intertwine in a unique, crazy way.

On the other hand, a lot of his articles veer into sef-parody and he desperately needs an editor. And his articles for Edge Online have been, well... pretty terrible, all told.

[Muffdraul]

I get the impression that Tim likes himself enough that it doesn't really matter if nobody else does.

[Drinky Crow]

you know, at one time, tim rogers annoyed the holy hell out of me because self-infatuation makes for a terrible read. but now, i am apathetic, because next to eric-jon rossel-waugh or whatever the hyphenated fuck his name is, tim seems like the very pinnacle of erstwhile pomo-meets-mario cleverness. at this point, there's a bullet in every chamber.

also, actionbutton.com *is* pretty funny and clever as a satire of both game informer's smug industry snark and play magazine's trivia-obsessed fanboydom. tim's kinda found his element, there. admittedly, snark and trivia have always been the crows on tim's shoulders, and his "going meta" was largely inevitable, but hey: it works for me!