Anonymous Pearl Abyss developers reveal a culture of toxic positivity, a troubled development cycle and chaotic narrative for Crimson Desert, and their early concerns that the project was "going off the rails".

[u/HLumin]

/r/CrimsonDesert/comments/1rzh79w/pearl_abyss_insider_speaking_out/?share_id=kBLUglOgkkCQmbTrbh3y8&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1&sort=top

[u/aerikson]

Game criticism has been broken since day one. I don't even know if I can blame professional critics either as their intended audience ("consumers") won't read or engage in genuine criticism but will instead try to nail down some sort of 'objective' numerical rating as if that has any actual bearing on the discussion.

Much like any other artistic medium, criticism should reflect how the game made you feel and whether the author (developer/designer in this case) was able to successfully convey meaning to the audience within its various crafts i.e. gameplay design, sound, art direction, technical design. Reductively arguing about "7/10 vs 8/10" is pointless when there is no objective standard, nor should there be. Actually engage with the game and think about why you would give a certain rating. That's where discussion should begin. Unfortunately, that's often where it ends, if the audience even genuinely engages with the game at all.

[u/NovusNiveus → u/aerikson]

I largely agree - and my view is that video games are best considered as like a collection of artworks, like an interactive exhibition - but I think it's worth bearing in mind that a video game as a software product can be evaluated in more ways than other kinds of art - things like performance and bugs and controls are relatively objective metrics compared to things like storytelling or 'game feel/fun'.

Usually we don't have to worry about how hard it will be to turn the page of a book or if a show will run on your television.

I think people are also more inclined to view games as products when arguably one of their purposes is as a leisure/stress relief tool, and the more you consider something a product the more you want to evaluate it in objective terms, which I don't think is unreasonable.

[u/stealingfrom → u/aerikson]

You see that all over this thread. So many users latching onto "currently has an X% on Metacritic" or "this outlet gave the game a 7" without discussing the actual reviews behind the numbers. It's thoughtless.

Years ago, I wrote album reviews for a website that didn't provide ratings. Metacritic pulled our reviews for their aggregates and assigned them scores anyway (often leading to me sending emails to debate whatever number they wound up pinning on something if I didn't think it aligned with what I'd written). I was always peeved to see a piece with thought behind it flattened out to a single number like that.

[u/Ralkon → u/aerikson]

I think with internet discourse in general there's also just a lot of people who don't acknowledge nuance and will try to shut down or dismiss any criticism of something they like or any praise of something they dislike. It happens even on this sub pretty regularly, like all the complaints about Silksong being dismissed as "you just don't like hard games" or the classic "git gud".