MrCunningham
Member
MetalJesusRocks isn't really a game reviewer, but he always seems so upbeat and I like watching his channel.
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Why are so many video game critics so "angry"?
- Thread starter Sinfamy
- Start date
MetalJesusRocks isn't really a game reviewer, but he always seems so upbeat and I like watching his channel.
Messofanego
Banned
itsGWC - Funniest videogame "reviews" ever (see: Dying Light, Bloodborne, Mortal Kombat X)
Great satire of typical reviews.
Great satire of typical reviews.
Please no. They get stuff wrong so often and talk about stuff they have no idea about quite a bit. It got ridiculous when I had to sit through them putting ARMA on a list of 'Call of Duty clones', among other things.
KillerIsJed
Member
controversy = clicks
anger = controversy
profit
I thought this was going to be a thread about why game reviewers are just cynical / angry in general. My answer would be "because we have to play so many shitty fucking games, especially these days".
anger = controversy
profit
I thought this was going to be a thread about why game reviewers are just cynical / angry in general. My answer would be "because we have to play so many shitty fucking games, especially these days".
The GamingBrit is pretty angry.
The Mad Draklor
Member
They want d'em clicks and one of the best ways to get them is by creating drama.
Messofanego
Banned
I'm watching his videos like this and don't find him angry at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7Wd-2Nrobs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WDZUa4YQX0
Air Zombie Meat
Member
They're just mimicking their audience.
SwarfegaHead
Neo Member
It's much easier to be angry and derive humour at the expense of someone/something else, rather than just be jovial and funny for the sake of it. Especially with the audience the majority of these "reviewers" are appealing to. I can appreciate a certain amount of justified outrage, AVGN plays a bunch of genuinely awful, awful games that were slightly before my time and I'd rather not subject myself to personally. A lot of these things seem to be faux-anger for angers sake though, and I'd imagine it's just an attempt to draw an audience.
If someone is marketing themselves as "angry", they wouldnt really be the first place I'd go for reasonably critical reviews of games.
If someone is marketing themselves as "angry", they wouldnt really be the first place I'd go for reasonably critical reviews of games.
Because the video game industry is sad and depressing, and the video games that come out rarely live up to the unreasonable standards that marketing makes the games out to be.
When the industry is so hype driven and so dependent on making sure everyone pre-orders every game and sell you DLC two or more times of the retail cost of the $60 release, I think a lot of people being angry is the expected outcome.
When the industry is so hype driven and so dependent on making sure everyone pre-orders every game and sell you DLC two or more times of the retail cost of the $60 release, I think a lot of people being angry is the expected outcome.
Memorabilia
Member
1. Entertainment. Outrage done right is funny = clicks/subs.
2. There are a lot of legitimately good reasons to be pissed off with the state of the gaming industry, primarily having to do with how most AAA publishers are now being run by soul-less bankster/bean-counter types whose obvious lack of passion for gaming or their audience could place them comfortably at the head of any Wall Street bank or faceless multinational. Nearly every aspect of AAA game development has been infected by different ways to squeeze gamers like they are human ATMs rather than delivering complete, innovative games. This reality is easy to capitalize on by being an "angry/disappointed gamer".
As has been recently discussed in the Jim Sterling thread about the bullshot Force Awakens trailer, this attitude isn't cynicism...its realism.
2. There are a lot of legitimately good reasons to be pissed off with the state of the gaming industry, primarily having to do with how most AAA publishers are now being run by soul-less bankster/bean-counter types whose obvious lack of passion for gaming or their audience could place them comfortably at the head of any Wall Street bank or faceless multinational. Nearly every aspect of AAA game development has been infected by different ways to squeeze gamers like they are human ATMs rather than delivering complete, innovative games. This reality is easy to capitalize on by being an "angry/disappointed gamer".
As has been recently discussed in the Jim Sterling thread about the bullshot Force Awakens trailer, this attitude isn't cynicism...its realism.
Stallion Dan
Member
Same reasons soaps have negative storylines. If everything is happy it is boring to watch.
Does this guy ever really get angry on camera?
Pretty much my favorite out of all of the youtube critics.
Messofanego
Banned
Classic Game Room repping dem good games
There is nothing worse than a glorified press release passing as a review, and that is traditionally what most big-name magazines and webs have been doing for years. In addition, fan reviewers can easily blow a game's positive traits out of proportion, while ignoring all the negative ones.
For those reasons, I usually dismiss all positive reviews, and consider them just one form of commercials. I also focus on negative comments and posts when browsing forums and user reviews. Its easier for me to discard trolls and idiots from the negative voices than it is to find honest reviews in a sea of glowing press releases.
For those reasons, I usually dismiss all positive reviews, and consider them just one form of commercials. I also focus on negative comments and posts when browsing forums and user reviews. Its easier for me to discard trolls and idiots from the negative voices than it is to find honest reviews in a sea of glowing press releases.
Death Metalist
Member
Yup, I always go for CGR or Stop Skeletons From Fighting (Used to be Happy Video Game Nerd lol) if I want great light hearted, informative reviews about anything to do with gaming.
Negativity attracts negativity, and most people on this planet are negative (more than they're normally aware). People "get a kick" out of an Angry Joe rant and enjoy it even more when they agree with him. It's just a snowball of anger from there and then we get people feeling "outraged" toward a company when it does something stupid like Bioware did for Mass Effect 3's endings.
>-Baron-Spamedi-<
Member
I've hopefully made this more accurate^^^^^
Messofanego
Banned
That's a good point.
I don't follow the rants as much.
Angry Joe reviews are informative and well-detailed. Most other video reviews don't even highlight the flaws with examples in the actual video, there's just Gametrailers, so I'm impressed when just one man can do it all. That's why his reviews stand out. Just really entertaining productions each time, too. Only thing I disagree regularly with him is his focus on game length and content cause to me more isn't automatically better.
Maybe I'm weird that I focus more on the content than the tone. If the content is worth it, tone or presentation doesn't matter to me as much.
"Irate Gamer" always stuck out as me-tooing hard.
I feel like a lot of YouTubers are trying to be like various popular people, so you get eighty thousand versions of people saying "this game makes me so mad, its hard."
Joe is a critic.
Nerd is an analyst.
You lack observation skills.
That would be wonderfully sarcastic if done in a certain way.
Does this guy ever really get angry on camera?
Infernal. He HATES Infernal.
I watched a lot of AVGN back in the day (his newer videos are alright, though the novelty wore off long ago). I think he's the only "angry gamer" I respect, because he doesn't really stir any hate. Sure, he "hates" the games he's angry at, but they are so obviously bad there's not really any debate to be had about that, no hate. It helps that the games he plays are old, and often pretty obscure. The angry reactions themselves are over-the-top, most of the time timed as to feel justified, and while vulgar not overly provocative.
It's these personalities who take a stab on new games and gaming trends with angry rants I can't stand. At this point it feels like it stops being "for good fun"; it's about spreading messages, boosting egos and causing debates using a tone that only leads to bad, overly aggressive ones where people start picking sides and shitting on others because they disagree with them.
It's these personalities who take a stab on new games and gaming trends with angry rants I can't stand. At this point it feels like it stops being "for good fun"; it's about spreading messages, boosting egos and causing debates using a tone that only leads to bad, overly aggressive ones where people start picking sides and shitting on others because they disagree with them.
Portugeezer
Member
Well, they are not even so angry now... AVGN does more laid back videos and his AVGN videos aren't so angry. Angry Joe is more known for his reviews, and besides the XB1 DRM he doesn't really do many angry rants now, people want his 40 minute reviews. Marcus Beer doesn't ev not do the annoyed gamer show, although that is just his personality towards BS.
Anger has turned into cynicism, see total biscuit aka cynical brit, Jim sterling saying how he is cynical towards games. Among many others.
I am not saying it's without reason however.
Anger has turned into cynicism, see total biscuit aka cynical brit, Jim sterling saying how he is cynical towards games. Among many others.
I am not saying it's without reason however.
visiblemode
Member
This.
Also, anger is easy. More nuanced insightful content is harder to produce and to market.
It's the best way to get attention.
It's a very, very intriguing subject because it involves many factors: human nature, psychology, environment etc etc
We can start to talk about this for hours, but in the end to be "angry" it's one of the faster and easier ways to get attention.
In the videogaming community this attitude works pretty well and even if I strongly dislike this behaviour, I must admit I'm not "offended" by it, because I always have my arguments to fight back.
I'm just hurt by this attitude only because most of the time it isn't constructive at all and often people who (openly or sneakily) start to rant have no clue at all of what thye are talking about. This is pretty bad.
I mean, because of my job I know a lot of things related to videogames and a most of the time I find it "funny" how some people make completely wrong assertion thinking they are absolutely right.
This is could be "understood" if it's from an angry person on the web that just spreads hate and shit, but it is not forgivable when it comes from a videogame critic that should at least have a bit of basic knowledge about videogames.
In the end humans are pretty hateful by nature and it's quite easy to spark their hatred.
Of course, there are positive or well written critics and that's why, if very well written, such critics/articles manage to stand out over everything and to shine more brightly.
Hating is easy (and anyone can do this)
Understanding things and criticizing is not so easy (but it requires some effort...)
Unfortunately it's pretty easy to put people against each other (human mind is pretty feeble) and this helps a lot whoever start this.
Without any doubts hates sells more than sex.
It's a very, very intriguing subject because it involves many factors: human nature, psychology, environment etc etc
We can start to talk about this for hours, but in the end to be "angry" it's one of the faster and easier ways to get attention.
In the videogaming community this attitude works pretty well and even if I strongly dislike this behaviour, I must admit I'm not "offended" by it, because I always have my arguments to fight back.
I'm just hurt by this attitude only because most of the time it isn't constructive at all and often people who (openly or sneakily) start to rant have no clue at all of what thye are talking about. This is pretty bad.
I mean, because of my job I know a lot of things related to videogames and a most of the time I find it "funny" how some people make completely wrong assertion thinking they are absolutely right.
This is could be "understood" if it's from an angry person on the web that just spreads hate and shit, but it is not forgivable when it comes from a videogame critic that should at least have a bit of basic knowledge about videogames.
In the end humans are pretty hateful by nature and it's quite easy to spark their hatred.
Of course, there are positive or well written critics and that's why, if very well written, such critics/articles manage to stand out over everything and to shine more brightly.
Hating is easy (and anyone can do this)
Understanding things and criticizing is not so easy (but it requires some effort...)
Unfortunately it's pretty easy to put people against each other (human mind is pretty feeble) and this helps a lot whoever start this.
Without any doubts hates sells more than sex.
I think "AVGN" is above all a personality, I think it is made clear that James Rolfe is the actual person behind AVGN. I was under the impression that OP meant reviewers that try to be edgy and angry and honestly it annoys me as well. I remember CGR and I am glad to see they are still around.
Purple Santa
Neo Member
I got my username like 22 years ago(DND and being an angry roomate once) and said screw changing it. If people have a problem with it and don't watch I am cool with it, since I am actually very not angryAnd if names meant much I wouldn't watch 99% of what I do.
I was going to ask about what of the Angry Centaur that walks among us but you beat me to it
. I thought you should be excused anyway since the topic is angry gamers who are people. You are a Centaur, they are just naturally angry 
And we're done here.
alexandros
Banned
Basically. For some reason 'angry' or 'wimpy' personas are considered funny by a large part of the audience.
Personally I think it's sad and annoying to see grown men acting like manchildren.
He probably couldn't be bothered to make any more episodes.
All these Angry Reviewers should just smoke a blunt and chill
I do like the Classic Game Room guy that someone posted earlier, he's pretty cool
AVGN was great too, but he was the original angry gamer
"Don't really care, gonna go do something else now" Awesome hahaha
I do like the Classic Game Room guy that someone posted earlier, he's pretty cool
AVGN was great too, but he was the original angry gamer
"Don't really care, gonna go do something else now" Awesome hahaha
NinjamicWZ
Banned
Yeah CGR is great. It's a great resource to just find out what a game's about and looks like in general.
Just watched that Apathetic Video Game Nerd video and that laid me out dead lol
Just watched that Apathetic Video Game Nerd video and that laid me out dead lol
Mohonky
Member
People on the internet are angry in general imo. Everyone is ready to jump down someones throat for anything.
A friend once told me that he finds a reviewer more believable if they're angry, because they will then tell the reader/viewer about all the things that don't work in the game - especially in AAA games, which everybody else is praising.
So maybe it's easier to believe angry reviewers.
So maybe it's easier to believe angry reviewers.
Gsak
Member
Because it used to sell.
Breakfast at Noon
Member
There not angry, more annoyed than anything.
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
Lazy game reviews is pretty entertaining.