I wonder why video game communities have such an obsession with controversial/unpopular opinions and “hot takes”. Most of these are reduced to dry statements with no weight to them and don’t spark any interesting or thoughtful discussion.
Special mention goes for Twitter.
Every month it seems there’s a thread like “What are your most controversial video game opinions?” or something of the like. And while I’m very aware that sadly, negativity brings out more people than positivity, I still don’t understand why it seems to be so prevalent in gaming.
I suppose when there are so many people with so many different opinions, they all want their voice to be heard. But if that was just that, I wouldn’t really mind it.
My problem more specifically is that it all seems like they want to be heard, but don’t really have anything interesting to say, no discussions to start, no actual foundation for their comments.
Take a look at any of these threads and see how many of them are actually people just saying things like: “(game) is overrated”, “(game series) is shit” or whatever, without really putting any substance into their claims. And while I know that some people just want to make a ruckus, and something as adolescent and immature as being obnoxious and edgy just to get people’s attention or generate fuzz while talking about trivial things is the one of the many things the Internet is known for, I just wonder why it’s the one thing people are so obsessed with, I simply don’t get it.
Maybe it has to do with maturity and age demographics.
Twitter’s userbase is mostly comprised of kids, teenagers and young adults who still act and think like kids and teenagers. A lot of people in this demographic are still either not completely capable of dealing with their emotions, thrilled by the idea of making someone shocked or angry, unable to put their thoughts into a full paragraph or two with actual substance, not able to explain things calmly and rationally and most importantly, are really passionate about what they like to the point of taking things as a personal attack. With all of this into consideration, giving them a chance to recklessly just say their very vocal opinions that they can’t even explain properly without sounding needlessly angry is really just a recipe for disaster. (It doesn’t help that Twitter has character limitations, making it hard to actually form anything substantial without making a lot of posts, which people naturally wouldn’t want to do.
Nothing new in what I’ve been saying really, but still, I wonder why are they so attracted to this? Negavitity and especially toxicity personally drives me away from a conversation, not towards it. You could say that it’s due to age and all, but I think that’s not a fair assumption, as quite a good amount of young people don’t engage in that type prose, besides, I’m actually young too (not exactly a teenager and especially not a kid, but still young), so I don’t think it’s true, and it’s not the case of me being “too old to understand”. Especially because this admitely isn’t new, if anything, the mere capability of engaging in healthy discussions in these types of communities is what’s actually new.
I try my best to stay out of toxic discussions, to present my thoughts and opinions in a nice and gentle way, because I really don’t want to offend anyway, there’s no benefit to doing such a thing to random people all because of something incredibly trivial.
My whole aim with this blog in the first place is all based on bringing positive unpopular opinions and thoughts towards games that are either overlooked or maligned.
And while I don’t think the solution is for everyone to make a blog too (I mean, unless you actually want to, that’s always nice), I just mean that there are better ways to present your opinions, a way in which everyone involved comes out fine, with no bickering, no fighting, no flame wars and the like.
Deep down, this whole article is my unpopular opinion, which can be summed up to this:
Unpopular opinions don’t have to be presented a passive-aggressive manner; whatever you say should always have a rational and sensible argument behind it; the trend of using controversial or unpopular opinions as an outlet to just be toxic or provoke people needs to die (you’re not 8 years old, and if you are, you shouldn’t be on social media); people need to take media a little bit less personally (seriously, it’s unhealthy); hot takes are boring, most people just use the term when they’re about to purposefully be edgy and say something they think is really daring, but is nothing but trivial and that is really just a sentence that could have been better worded to avoid flame wars altogether.
Hot takes are often just an excuse to be toxic, amount to nothing but quick and immature potshots at things you don’t like (kinda like playground insults, except worse), and ironically enough, despite what a lot of the people may think, hot takes are safe, bland, it’s the thing for a lot of Internet users to do, and it’s safe exactly because it doesn’t require much thought, it’s just the most basic and dry manner to present an opinion, and if I were to give a hot take, it would be that “hot takes are fucking boring” or something of the like. But I don’t do hot takes, I do the opposite of them (so a cold take?), being calm, polite and non-confrontational about my opinions as much as possible, since I like starting healthy and rational discussions, not flame wars.
So here are actually some of my unpopular opinions about video games (some of them might not even be all that unpopular anyway), presented in a form of a hot take with lots of “spice” and no substance and followed by a more calm and civil version of the same opinion, backed up by sensible arguments and no spice (or a “cold take“, I guess):
Battletoads is a shit game, it’s not even hard, it’s just annoying!
I don’t personally like Battletoads games, I think a lot of their infamous difficulty comes from bad and dated design choices, programming oversights and just overall fake difficulty that isn’t necessarily really based on skill, strategy or anything of the like for the most part. The NES game (which is the most famous) is filled with questionable choices and glitches, which to me aren’t really interesting ways of making a game hard. There are a lot of aspects I do like though, and I think the series has potential actually, but I believe the idea of taking overly flawed NES game as a basis for what the series should be is quite misguided. The Battletoads arcade game is immensely better as game, having a lot of the core experience and great aspects of the original, but executed more effectively without being so based on simply frustrating the player.
Too wordy for you? Well, it is pretty wordy, I’ll admit, but here’s an example that isn’t as wordy but is still just overall better (non-aggressive, more substantial).
Hot take: FPS games suck.
I’m not into FPS games, they’re not my kind of thing, I could never really get into it, none of the gameplay aspects are really what interest me in a game.
THE NINTENDO 64 IS A SHIT CONSOLE AND IS OVERRATED!!
I’m don’t share the hype people have for the Nintendo 64, I just think the console is too underwhelming with its library, barely having variety in games, lacking in tons of genres, having little quantity and most of what could be considered quality has just aged quite poorly and was better done in other systems. Its controller while a novelty at the time is unreliable nowadays and its analog stick is very fragile. It doesn’t help that a lot of the games on it aren’t my type and the ones that I like are few and far between, or just plain missing. While I understand that people like it and are nostalgic about it, despite liking some of the games on it and finding some qualities in it, I just don’t think the system is as good as its comtemporaries, its predecessor or its successor, despite the fact that I think it had quite a lot of potential and I don’t neglect the importance it also had, even if I do think said importance is maybe overstated.
(Quick advice, don’t call things “overrated”, it just makes you look condescending and jerkish about whatever you’re talking about and the term doesn’t hold any substantial meaning other than “I don’t like this thing a lot of people like, and they are wrong in liking it”, I’d also avoid calling things “shit” or whatever if you want to keep things civil).
Ok, I’ve been using examples that feel too aggressive, but there’s one that’s not really aggressive, but still could be worded better.
3d platformers and collectathons are so boring, I don’t know why anyone would ever want to play them
I find 3D platformers, especially collectathons, pretty boring. I’m not against 3D games or even all 3D platformers per say, but the ones where you just go around collecting stuff aren’t for me. It doesn’t help that a lot of 3D platformers have these elements. I know a lot of people like it, but it’s not really for me.
Here, the hot take example feels a bit condescending when it says “I don’t know why anyone would ever want to play them”, putting things as more of your personal preference instead of making it sound overly factual also help.
I could probably put a dozen more examples, but I think this does enough to explain what I mean, and to hopefully showcase why having a less negative approach is more benefitial and can only lead to more evolved and mature communities.
And while some of these examples are a bit too extreme, I think the message is still clear. You don’t have to make really long posts to be polite, that’s just how I tend to be in general, a bit too wordy for my own good. But my point is that we all can be so much nicer, and it doesn’t take much, the discussions can be better if done with more substance and less aggression, and most importantly, please don’t feed the toxic side of things, let it die, we don’t need that, no one needs that.
Maybe we can ask less about negative opinions on media, and more positive opinions on them, once you get out of that angry mindset, everything feels way more pleasant. What are your positive opinions on media? What video games, movies, animations, comics, books, music do you like? And why do you like them? There’s so much that can be discussed in this area, celebrate the things you like, even if you get less attention, it just feels better, that alone makes it worth it.
I have no pretensions that many (if any) people will even read this essay, but I don’t care, it makes me feel good by doing it, and feel even better if someone else reads it and enjoys it. Again, you don’t need to make a blog to do that, just be nice, it’s pretty easy and better for your mental health.
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