barely fatal

I’m a critic, by nature and by profession. Whilst the latter may be the upshot of the former, it is still true and I realize it shapes my way of thinking everyday.

When I finish a book, I always think about the parts first that could have been better, but I also contemplate the parts that I liked best. The same is true about movies, or games, and hence this blog and its readers have to suffer from my rants and reviews always pointing out the deficiencies and highlights of the latest media that I’ve enjoyed (or, at least, consumed).

On the positive side, since I know about my critical tendencies, I’ve learned to approach people with less bias than I used to ten years ago. I know that the big picture will probably change and that my first impression might be wrong, so I can (try to) make first contact and stay objective and neutral until I get the big picture.

Once I have collected sufficient data about the object ‘under test’, I can’t help it and start ‘pigeonholing’, I’m human after all (yes, my dear, my fandom of Gaius Baltar does not make me a Cylon just yet), and I have to make decisions. However, I really enjoy finding that who or whatever I categorized before turns out to be something different than what I first thought: Sometimes one category is not enough (strike that, this is ALWAYS true), sometimes my viewing angle skewed the image, resulting in a slightly misplaced, or totally wrong category. It’s fascinating, because it means I’ve just learned a new thing, and that a new layer has to be added to the profile in my mind. I don’t like fundamentalists of any kind: Whoever says they know everything about anything, they haven’t looked long enough. There’s never one truth. So yes, I change my mind sometimes. That’s doesn’t mean I cannot commit.

I like Metacritic, because it gives you the big picture – all reviews combined in an average of all ratings – The Wisdom of Crowds, anyone? Are the results representative, meaningful? Not really; When you have ten reviews giving 100% ratings and ten giving mediocre ones, you still don’t know whether the game/movie/show is any good. But you can read the summaries, and the more information you get, the more precise your gut feeling becomes.

Over the last weeks, my subjective view of Spore shifted from excited to to reluctant to doubtful; and it all resulted in me not buying the game – at least not now, at the full price. I’ll keep an open mind and allow my view to shift, just like the metacritic rating; as more data comes in the results change – all the time.

I’m a metacritic, do you have something I should add to my pool?