Clarification: It seems the save message was never made by the devs at all. This was the misinterpretation of people reporting on the game. The main point still stands, I just wanted to be accurate.
I had another post that I wanted to make today, which still will be made but I think I am going to step into the current firestorm. If I want to take my hobby of reviewing and understanding games seriously, it's going to come with the fire territory that is game "journalism".
If you have accidentally turned on social media recently (and care about indi games) you are probably aware of the current shit brigading around Hellblade. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is an adventure game brought to us by Ninja Theory. This game is something that has not been on my radar but seems to have pulled with it a cult following and I mean that in the most derogatory way. Two game critics that I am aware of have incurred the wrath of the Hellblade Cult by daring to say negative things about it. (I want to make a point that not all players who like this game are the problem just some asshats should all be strip naked and we should follow through the streets yelling shame.)
From what I can tell this game looks pretty cool. It has a style of over the shoulder combat I like and the graphics look beautiful. This is my opinion and honestly at this point, not a very good one because I literally learned about this game an hour ago. Just an opinion, like Jim Sterling had made earlier but has since retracted. Unfortunately, I know that game scores have become an issue in the industry and can negatively affect its meta score but being outraged with this is just plain stupid. The worst part of this is, Jim had a real reason for bringing the hammer down. The damn game was bugged several hours in with no way around it. It literally stopped progression He had every right to come down, even though he now admitted he over reacted. I still think that "over reaction" saved some people from playing the game, making it that far, then getting fucked. He prevented several other from suffering that bug and let's face it, it is a bug. Missing an item and causing that to end the game is something that ended in the 90s and for good reason.
"They will just patch it though" is a poor excuse for this practice. If you buy a computer and the graphics card comes with a bug in the software you will be justified in screaming at top of your lungs that it's broken because it is. If they patch it later, great! At the current moment, it's broken. After the patch you can now come around and say the thing works and it's a usable product but until then what point is it to recommend something that doesn't work? There is none and names take a hit as far as credibility, which all people do care about, even liars.
Maybe the Brexit is getting to everyone because another British native, TotalBiscuit was the aim for the Hellblade Cult's ire as well. (Can't find his original post, looks like it's been deleted) He dared criticize the game for a feature in which you lose your save file after so many deaths. Some people like that feature, I guess. Come to find out, this was supposed to be a joke from the devs who apparently don't understand how poorly sarcasm comes across in text. Much like myself. No matter the result, there was still a lot of dirt thrown at him for having an opinion about a feature that he personally did not like. Had it been true, I hardly feel he would be the only one.
How are people taking it so personally? Anything you do in life there are going to be a lot of people that don't like it and it really shouldn't affect you more than a shoulder shrug. Granted I am sure I have been that dick at one point and if ever I was that passionate I wish someone would have told me how wrong I was.
If you like something, then be a positive force for it. People are more likely to respond better with "Hey TB sorry you didn't like it but some us enjoy that challenge and we are glad it's there." Add a positive spin instead of hit rage mode at full blast. Nobody responds well to "Well it's cuz you suck lol." When you say that just know everyone hates you. When you walk into a room, please realize nobody there wants you around because you are "that" person and everyone is preparing for you to shit all over their good time.
Saying something like "Well that is just your opinion so who cares?" Doesn't work either. A lot of people care and you really need to understand the truth is in the first part of your sentence. It is an opinion, it doesn't make it law. If your perception is different you can protest but really there is no need to be angry and vicious. If you are feeling rage from an opinion, take a step back and find out why you need to be so angry. Most likely this has nothing to do with the current situation at all. Totalbiscuit didn't make your girlfriend leave you and if he did, well that just fucked up John.
Now to the critics. Stop getting so sensitive to your own criticism especially when you have been around for so long. Yes, it's good to take a step back and make sure the work you are doing is fair but it by no mean obligates you to respond to every butt hurt gamer that just happened to get some likes from his fellow emo victims. Really though if someone has a real critique of your work, I would hope they would spend the same time responding as you do in creating your work. 140 characters is just lazy and more critics need to give that the attention it deserves.
Still, that is just my opinion.
I had another post that I wanted to make today, which still will be made but I think I am going to step into the current firestorm. If I want to take my hobby of reviewing and understanding games seriously, it's going to come with the fire territory that is game "journalism".
If you have accidentally turned on social media recently (and care about indi games) you are probably aware of the current shit brigading around Hellblade. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is an adventure game brought to us by Ninja Theory. This game is something that has not been on my radar but seems to have pulled with it a cult following and I mean that in the most derogatory way. Two game critics that I am aware of have incurred the wrath of the Hellblade Cult by daring to say negative things about it. (I want to make a point that not all players who like this game are the problem just some asshats should all be strip naked and we should follow through the streets yelling shame.)
From what I can tell this game looks pretty cool. It has a style of over the shoulder combat I like and the graphics look beautiful. This is my opinion and honestly at this point, not a very good one because I literally learned about this game an hour ago. Just an opinion, like Jim Sterling had made earlier but has since retracted. Unfortunately, I know that game scores have become an issue in the industry and can negatively affect its meta score but being outraged with this is just plain stupid. The worst part of this is, Jim had a real reason for bringing the hammer down. The damn game was bugged several hours in with no way around it. It literally stopped progression He had every right to come down, even though he now admitted he over reacted. I still think that "over reaction" saved some people from playing the game, making it that far, then getting fucked. He prevented several other from suffering that bug and let's face it, it is a bug. Missing an item and causing that to end the game is something that ended in the 90s and for good reason.
"They will just patch it though" is a poor excuse for this practice. If you buy a computer and the graphics card comes with a bug in the software you will be justified in screaming at top of your lungs that it's broken because it is. If they patch it later, great! At the current moment, it's broken. After the patch you can now come around and say the thing works and it's a usable product but until then what point is it to recommend something that doesn't work? There is none and names take a hit as far as credibility, which all people do care about, even liars.
Maybe the Brexit is getting to everyone because another British native, TotalBiscuit was the aim for the Hellblade Cult's ire as well. (Can't find his original post, looks like it's been deleted) He dared criticize the game for a feature in which you lose your save file after so many deaths. Some people like that feature, I guess. Come to find out, this was supposed to be a joke from the devs who apparently don't understand how poorly sarcasm comes across in text. Much like myself. No matter the result, there was still a lot of dirt thrown at him for having an opinion about a feature that he personally did not like. Had it been true, I hardly feel he would be the only one.
How are people taking it so personally? Anything you do in life there are going to be a lot of people that don't like it and it really shouldn't affect you more than a shoulder shrug. Granted I am sure I have been that dick at one point and if ever I was that passionate I wish someone would have told me how wrong I was.
If you like something, then be a positive force for it. People are more likely to respond better with "Hey TB sorry you didn't like it but some us enjoy that challenge and we are glad it's there." Add a positive spin instead of hit rage mode at full blast. Nobody responds well to "Well it's cuz you suck lol." When you say that just know everyone hates you. When you walk into a room, please realize nobody there wants you around because you are "that" person and everyone is preparing for you to shit all over their good time.
Saying something like "Well that is just your opinion so who cares?" Doesn't work either. A lot of people care and you really need to understand the truth is in the first part of your sentence. It is an opinion, it doesn't make it law. If your perception is different you can protest but really there is no need to be angry and vicious. If you are feeling rage from an opinion, take a step back and find out why you need to be so angry. Most likely this has nothing to do with the current situation at all. Totalbiscuit didn't make your girlfriend leave you and if he did, well that just fucked up John.
Now to the critics. Stop getting so sensitive to your own criticism especially when you have been around for so long. Yes, it's good to take a step back and make sure the work you are doing is fair but it by no mean obligates you to respond to every butt hurt gamer that just happened to get some likes from his fellow emo victims. Really though if someone has a real critique of your work, I would hope they would spend the same time responding as you do in creating your work. 140 characters is just lazy and more critics need to give that the attention it deserves.
Still, that is just my opinion.
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