In early days of Youtube, criticism and "negativity" was the main thing. Seeing sacred cows get analyzed and broken apart and told why it's overrated and why you're an idiot for thinking it's as good as it is was par for the course.
This style of discourse is the norm here....because this forum isn't normies.
Now on Youtube any criticism of even a video game is delivered with 1000 caveats or an extreme level of irony like "can you imagine actually going against the grain like some sort of chud". There's a guy something Mayo who is hugely controversial for daring to make a video saying Arkham Knight sucks.
Videos like that were common place back in the day. Razorfist is well known for it, and while I never liked this other guy, Zero Punctuation was also known for it.
Even mainstream channels like Gametrailers, Screwattack, if they had an opinion that was against the grain, they'd just say it.
Try finding a video of "insert game sucks" and not be inundated with ironic videos where they just parrot the consensus.
The really unsettling thing is if they're unwilling to go against the grain on video games, how weak and prone to "agreeability" are they on actual taboo issues?
This is why I say feminine. Don't make waves, this opinion could hurt somebody....what if that's someone's favorite game, me critiquing it without 1000 caveats could leave them crying into their pillow, I can't have that.
I remember listening to podcasts back in the day, like PS3 era and people would talk about how in Japan they give everything a 9 out of 10 and games journalism is useless because of "politeness society". Well we're basically there on Youtube. People who's livlihoods aren't even at stake are afraid to say something sucks or why something sucks.
You get called edgy for saying something like "Half Life 2 is overrated or boring".
You could make dead baby jokes on early Youtube and you still wouldn't be called edgy.
If you're as soft as tissue paper, everything feels edgy to you.
Totally agreed on Arkham Knight. I haven't played it since launch on PS4 but I remember the whole game waiting for it to "get good" and it never came.
Also Arkham Origins is good, I don't know why that games hated. I think people give too much allegiance to "this is the official studio and the other studios games are crappy imitations. It was like call of duty. Infinity ward was seen as the A team and Treyarch as the B team. For a short while it was "yeah whatever I guess it's fine, but when the next modern warfare comes out, that's when it will be the real one we want.
Then it got flipped once Black Ops became so popular and Infinity Ward was seen as the B team.
Same with Dark Souls 2 which is the one I think is the most interesting but was written off because it didnt have the main director as Dark Souls 1 and Demon Souls.
Well same with Origins. Because it wasn't rocksteady and didn't have Kevin Conroy or Mark Hamil it was dismissed. I don't care about the story, just the atmosphere and gameplay and so origins is excellent. It might even be a tad more fun than Arkham City, but it's pretty close either way. I certainly like the atmosphere better in Origins. It feels like Batman Returns how Christmasy it is.