I happened to see some Discourse earlier — I know, I know, I'm trying to give it up — that centred around someone taking the piss out of a random Backloggd user's list of the "worst JRPGs ever". The list itself was stupid, of course — even leaving aside factual inaccuracies like Senran Kagura being on there (Senran Kagura, for the unfamiliar, is a beat 'em up and/or arena fighter, depending on which entry you're playing), there were some atomic-level bad takes involved — but what stank always as much were the responses to it.
One that jumped out at me was someone saying that "everything Persona post-3 is abysmal" in response to the first Revelations: Persona game being on the list. And just… come on. Those games are some of the most well-regarded examples of their genre ever. Sure, you might not jive with them personally, particularly if you're not someone who gets on well with lengthy, primarily text-based story sequences, but to stretch that out into those games being "abysmal" is… well, it's an absolutely abysmal take, it has to be said.
The trouble is, this kind of shit is engagement bait. I'm engaging with it by talking about it, even if I'm not linking directly to it, when the sensible thing to do would have been to just go "huh", close the tab and then never think about other people with Bad Opinions ever again. Negativity is engagement — and, to paraphrase an excellent video I watched earlier today (thanks, Chris), it's actually one of the most potent forms of engagement there is. So it should probably be little surprise that we're constantly bombarded with takes about the "worst [x] ever" rather than enthusiasm about cool things.
I always make an effort not to do this with my own material — that which is on a specific subject, anyway. I know I can get a tad negative on this here blog at times, but that's part of the point of this place — for it to be a place where I can vent off some steam, express my frustrations and get things out of my head rather than letting them fester. On MoeGamer, my gaming website, and my YouTube channel, however, I make a point of always trying my very best to "find the fun" — even in stuff which is well-known as being "bad". My proudest achievement in that regard was successfully finding genuine enjoyment in the notorious Sonic the Hedgehog reboot from 2006, a game which, for a while, Wikipedia described (without citation) as "considered to be one of the worst in the entire video game medium". (That line isn't there any more.)
But what is the result of that? For the most part, probably a fraction of the visibility that I'd get if I just put out a video on how "bad" Amiga platform games are, or how "terrible" the graphics on Atari 2600 are, or how much of a waste of time existing in this miserable world is. I don't have any intention of changing, however; if I'm feeling like this, I'm sure at least a few other people are feeling like this, too. And if, through the things I do online, I can provide those people with an escape from the constant bombardment of negativity and "worst thing ever" content, I consider that a success, regardless of anything the numbers say.
Most of these people saying something is the "worst [X] ever" have no real frame of reference of what "the worst" really looks like. What they really mean is either "I, personally, did not like this" or, more commonly, "popular opinion suggests that this game is not very good and I am not going to argue against that". And I'm so very, very tired of it. I want to sit anyone who thinks something like Persona 4 or 5 are bad down with some long-defunct mobile game shit like Rage of Bahamut and show them what a really, genuinely, actually bad game is.
But I better not. I can see the thumbnails already. Although for some reason, gacha games have remained curiously immune to being branded "bad" games, despite a lot of them really, genuinely being not only absolutely terrible from a design and mechanical perspective, but actively hostile to their players. That's probably something to talk about another day, though.
Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.
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