The Contradiction of Overrated

While you do make a compelling point, you have to remember that this is system wars bro. This is where the place just swarms with blind and ignorant fanboys, not givin' 2***** about what you say, or anyone else for that matter. And actually, saying a game is overrated is the same as just calling it bad. It's overrated compared to what the person thinks of it. But at the end of any day, the collective opinions of the audience matters, and not just that of one gamer. Exeed_Orbit

I do expect many fanboys to deny this subject. Then again there are stickies of rules and other myth busting topics that get ignored. Shouldn't stop one from trying :lol: I'm surprised no one's tried to challenge my stance so far.

And thank you THE_rankie :)

Did I actually manage to scare off all the fanboys? :|AdobeArtist

Well said. Saying things are overrated is overrated.

PS3fanboyswillhave to see that Halo and Halo 2 are two of the finest FPS ever created. Check gamerankings.com.

generalconsensus>>>>>PS3fanboyopinion

Great post man, good stuff.

*sees fanboys running for the hills*

That's an interesting point. However, if there are a small but loud group of people that over-rate it...Tylendal

Go on... :)

That's an interesting point. However, if there are a small but loud group of people that over-rate it...Tylendal

Go on... :)

*the post disappearance glitch strikes again :?

Well said. Saying things are overrated is overrated.

PS3fanboyswillhave to see that Halo and Halo 2 are two of the finest FPS ever created. Check gamerankings.com.

generalconsensus>>>>>PS3fanboyopinion

walts1

As much as I love the Halo series and even have my preorder for Halo 3, I'm not going to go so far as to say finest FPS ever. Not even sure which one is, there's a varied collection of many excellent gaming creations in that genre. Shouldn't limit yourself to just one :)

But using Halo as a prime example, as it does get abundantly hated on, if some people just gotta say it's not their bag, fine, whatever. Say it sucks. But anyone saying it's overrated isn't just expressing their own opinion of it, they're remarking on the majority opinion (namely the scores of many reputable sites) - saying it's rated over what it should be. Or what they think it should be rated.

When hundreds of sites give both Halo games AAA, then that's the bottom line and a few opinions crying out "bias" won't change that, the majority ruled.

This forum is trolling PS3 owners.iMacBot

No, this is a genuine analysis of how the word "Overrated" is greatly misused here. The same principle would apply to anyone saying God of War, MGS2, GT 3, VF 4, Metroid Prime, Zelda OoT was overrated.

I'm sorry you're having such a hard time dealing with the fact that GeoW, Forza 2 and GRAW ARE top rated games, but... oh hell, just DEAL with it :roll:

Most people only judge games by the fun they had while professional reviewers, judges, and critics have to look at several aspects of a game instead of just fun factor or tilt as it used to be called before the review system overhaul. Plus there's also the fact that different people like different games so tilt can't be as equal as other reviewers.

That's why a game that I give a 7 out of 10 may get a 9 out of 10 and a label saying "Overrated!".

text wall get the mongoliansshadow_hosi

Intelligent post, sir. I agree with almost all of it (in general), but can we agree that some opinions are more educated and therefore valuable than others?

Hypothetical situation: let us bring the "worst" (as determined by popular consensus) Xbox 360 title to a retirement home and let the residents test it out for themselves. Assume they all say it is "very good" upon asked with respect to its quality, which would probably not suprise anyone. Another stipulation is that of course they are extremly ignorant about the gaming industry. Next, let us say that ONE videogame editor plays and reviews the same title. In direct opposition to the earlier opinions, he thinks it is "very bad." So here we have it: a group of old, senile people loving a game while a single game editor hates it . . .

Now is this game overrated? Or does one man's opinion outweigh those of a group of unknowledgeable others? Food for thought.

The fallacy in your argument is that you believe that everyone votes on every game and this is not the case. Now there are millions of people that believe that Halo is the end all be all when it comes to FPS's, but this clearly not the case. To many people get swept up into what we consider great games and then continue to state their opinion that a game is great when if they really took a objective view to the game and the genre it represents they would think otherwise. I personally believe that many games in fact deserve the overrated lable.

Intelligent post, sir. I agree with almost all of it (in general), but can we agree that some opinions are more educated and therefore valuable than others?

Hypothetical situation: let us bring the "worst" (as determined by popular consensus) Xbox 360 title to a retirement home and let the residents test it out for themselves. Assume they all say it is "very good" upon asked with respect to its quality, which would probably not suprise anyone. Another stipulation is that of course they are extremly ignorant about the gaming industry. Next, let us say that ONE videogame editor plays and reviews the same title. In direct opposition to the earlier opinions, he thinks it is "very bad." So here we have it: a group of old, senile people loving a game while a single game editor hates it . . .

Now is this game overrated? Or does one man's opinion outweigh those of a group of unknowledgeable others? Food for thought.

mahlerite

You almost made my head explode with that one :lol:

But the major flaw in that scenario is as you stated in there, the game has ALREADY been determined to be a flop. The controlled environment you're conducting the experiment in hardly represents a substantial community by which games are always appraised, which is always in the several dozens for reviewers and hundreds of thousands to millions among gamers (both hardcore and casual). It's this sum total population the determination is always made, not just a select few.

The fallacy in your argument is that you believe that everyone votes on every game and this is not the case. Now there are millions of people that believe that Halo is the end all be all when it comes to FPS's, but this clearly not the case. To many people get swept up into what we consider great games and then continue to state their opinion that a game is great when if they really took a objective view to the game and the genre it represents they would think otherwise. I personally believe that many games in fact deserve the overrated lable.

dlp21

So you're basically challenging the opinion of every other gamer who says Halo is great. Your line "if they really took a objective view to the game and the genre it represents they would think otherwise" is saying you think you're a more competent reviewer than they are, that an "objective view" can come to only one conclusion: Halo is crap. Anybody who says Halo is a great game, which counters your opinion, therefore MUST be wrong.

Yes, you can say some gamers get swept up in hype, but you are NOT the only one who can be objective - and at this point I have to question your objectivity. Point being, there are many others who can see past the hype, and there is no way to gaugue the impartial players from the groupies.

Professional reviewers on the other hand don't get swept up in hype, and how many of them gave Halo AAA? You perfectly illustrated what I meant by the misuse of labelling games "overrated". You just said your opinion is more valid than the majority, and can't handle the fact that the consensus (both the gaming population and the pro reviewers) rules against you, so you cry out "overrated!!!".

Normally I support people who raise a banner that attempts to oppose the regular workings of system wars but this one i disagree on. Look at this definition taken from dicitonary.com or Overrated

"To overestimate the merits of; rate too highly. "

To rate to highly. Bascially by saying something is overated, you beleive it has been rated higher then it desserves, its an opinion. Everyone has a right to an opinion and honestly there are alot of games that get swept into hype that aren't quiet as good as other games that simply didn't get the attenition. these games with inflated fanbases can be labelled as overated by others who support another game. This isn't some false term thrown about (although it can be very easily) in a stupid and immature manner. In teh hands of level headed people who truly believe in waht they are saying it is simply an adjective for a game.

For isntance, I believe halo is overated, its an opinion but not neccesarily fact. Am I wrong? Prove me wrong without simply saying if its overated then why is it so highly reviewed and has so many fans, that is the very definition of the term so to speak. I'm sorry buddy but i don't think your argument is the right one. Thats my opinion and im done here.

I agree with this post but I must say that I think when people say a game is overrated they should probably add "In my opinion"as opposed to fact because of course if the consensus suggests the game is an AAA title then it is properly rated

however, I will play devil's advocate/conspiracy theorist

What if the entire video game media was paid off to fully support a game even though it really wasn't all that good. Frankly, this scenario is rare and borderline "fringe" if you will but perfectly plausible when our entire society is being lied to and manipulated on a daily basis.

While I generally agree with your logic, but few things you haven't considered

One is sometimes when overrated is used , it is just used in reference to just one review and not general consensus ( ex:- when ppl say PDZ is overrated , it refers to it being overrate here at GS)

Secondly, if you see average rating, it gets affected by the fanboy side of person ( something like what will happen with halo3 even if it is not good)

Also, many times a person may not have the complete picture while rating a game. for ex:- a console gamer may find a console fps which is mediocre by pc standards to be great, as he may have never played any fps on PC

PS : Altough it seems I am biased against 360, but its just the examples I remembered, otherwise I am equally biased against all the consoles

Normally I support people who raise a banner that attempts to oppose the regular workings of system wars but this one i disagree on. Look at this definition taken from dicitonary.com or Overrated



"To overestimate the merits of; rate too highly. "



To rate to highly. Bascially by saying something is overated, you beleive it has been rated higher then it desserves, its an opinion. Everyone has a right to an opinion and honestly there are alot of games that get swept into hype that aren't quiet as good as other games that simply didn't get the attenition. these games with inflated fanbases can be labelled as overated by others who support another game. This isn't some false term thrown about (although it can be very easily) in a stupid and immature manner. In teh hands of level headed people who truly believe in waht they are saying it is simply an adjective for a game.



For isntance, I believe halo is overated, its an opinion but not neccesarily fact. Am I wrong? Prove me wrong without simply saying if its overated then why is it so highly reviewed and has so many fans, that is the very definition of the term so to speak. I'm sorry buddy but i don't think your argument is the right one. Thats my opinion and im done here.

Orlandun

One is sometimes when overrated is used , it is just used in reference to just one review and not general consensus ( ex:- when ppl say PDZ is overrated , it refers to it being overrate here at GS)


naval

Overrated - a word that gets thrown a lot around here in System Wars. The meaning being that something is praised above its actual merits. And therein lies the very fallacy behind the use of the word.

Just how exactly IS the "rating" (AA, AAA, Great, Awesome, Terrible, Average, Poor... whatever) of a game determined in the first place? By your evaluation? By mine? By a reviewers? Actually it's through ALL of us that a game's merit is settled on.

While everybody is entitled to their personal opinion, it's the consensus of opinions by which a title is considered to "suck" or "be awesome". If the average score of a game is 93%, meaning the majority of reviewers gave it 9.0 and above, by majority vote that game IS AAA. THAT'S its rating as determined by consensus, so it CAN'T be overrated. To say it was praised above its actual merits is completely contradictory, since the titles merit was determined by the common opinion to begin with.

And let me reiterate, you ARE entitled to your opinion. If you feel a game wasn't particularly good despite common scorings of AAA, that's fine, that's your prerogative. But there's a difference between saying "I think that game sucks" and "That game is way overrated" which is my very point in this Topic - the fallacy of the use of the word "overrated". The 1st example is a statement of your own opinion, the 2nd is a statement of arrogance, basically saying "well sure most sites gave it a AAA score, but they're wrong, it didn't deserve that, and my opinion matters more".

When you say a game is "overrated", you're challenging the evaluation that everybody else gave the game. Sure your opinion counts, BUT SO DO THE OPINIONS OF THE OTHERS, and it's the majority vote that gets to say whether a game is ranked among the cream of the crop or should be placed in the hall of shame. Let's face it, "Overrated" is the battle cry of fanboys who want to undermine a great title, simply because it's on a platform that competes with theirs.

If you don't like a game, fine. Just say "That game is awful", but don't call it overrated.AdobeArtist

That's true up until a point, but there is a flaw in your argument.

Something being "overrated" isn't necessarily a matter of one person's opinion versus an informed general consensus; in fact, when used correctly it's a matter of one person's opinion versus the general perception of what the consensus is.

Sometimes, the general consensus comes more from second-hand anecdote than it does from actual experience. Sometimes, the media can create a wave of hype that people get caught up in; later they may realize that it really wasn't justified when they come back to it a year latter and find that it wasn't as good as they remember. People lose their sense of perspective easily. Sometimes, the critic's consensus is very different from the masses' consensus.

There are plenty of legitimate places in which to say that something, as a general matter and not simply as a matter of personal opinion, is overrated.

Overrated = A game that dosen't live up to the Hype.

Heheh mabey we should start ranking video games like college football ranks their teams.

Difference is we have 3 consoles to work with.well you could include PC in there to.

Take college football for example.

Your Ranked #1 in the country,But you get beat by a team thats ranked #16.Your number and everyone is saying your not supposed to lose but then you do lose which means you fall down the rankings whille the #16 team moves up say 3 spots depending on how bad they beat them.

So when the former #1 team plays the next day,they are considerd overrated because they get so much hype from everyone.and they coulden't live up to it.

Let's look at Half-Life and Half-Life 2. They both scored on par with the two Halo games, yet I am hard pressed to find many people who can really step back and honestly say that Halo is really in the league with Half Life. My point, Halo was overrated.

I don't actually know a single person who would say Halo comes close to Half Life but I know many many people who will blindly accept that Halo is the best game of all time or at least close to it.

But I really would say that most of these people have no clue about Half Life.

Let's look at Half-Life and Half-Life 2. They both scored on par with the two Halo games, yet I am hard pressed to find many people who can really step back and honestly say that Halo is really in the league with Half Life. My point, Halo was overrated.

I don't actually know a single person who would say Halo comes close to Half Life but I know many many people who will blindly accept that Halo is the best game of all time or at least close to it.

But I really would say that most of these people have no clue about Half Life.

dlp21

Half Life isn't nearly as well-loved as it's fanboys make it out to be. Halo 2 sold more copies than Half Life 2, scored about as well, and is certainly more talked about. Hell, Half-Life itself itself is overshadowed by Counter-Strike. By objective standards, Half Life is the overrated one.

Half Life isn't nearly as well-loved as it's fanboys make it out to be. Halo 2 sold more copies than Half Life 2, scored about as well, and is certainly more talked about. Hell, Half-Life itself itself is overshadowed by Counter-Strike. By objective standards, Half Life is the overrated one.

Bibbidy

CS is the multiplayer version of Half-Life, one of many. Single player Halo isn't talked as much as it's multiplayer so considering that CS is Half life's multiplayer and superior to Halo's multiplayer I would say Half Life wins again.

And so now sales are the overall factor of how good a game is, well if that's the case then the Matrix game is one great game as well and I think we can all agree it wasn't that great.

Oh and Half Life set the standard for FPS's.

Let's look at Half-Life and Half-Life 2. They both scored on par with the two Halo games, yet I am hard pressed to find many people who can really step back and honestly say that Halo is really in the league with Half Life. My point, Halo was overrated.

I don't actually know a single person who would say Halo comes close to Half Life but I know many many people who will blindly accept that Halo is the best game of all time or at least close to it.

But I really would say that most of these people have no clue about Half Life.

dlp21

In Halo's defence, I'd like to add that Halo is a console FPS and is subject to different standards.

That's true up until a point, but there is a flaw in your argument.

Something being "overrated" isn't necessarily a matter of one person's opinion versus an informed general consensus; in fact, when used correctly it's a matter of one person's opinion versus the general perception of what the consensus is.

Sometimes, the general consensus comes more from second-hand anecdote than it does from actual experience. Sometimes, the media can create a wave of hype that people get caught up in; later they may realize that it really wasn't justified when they come back to it a year latter and find that it wasn't as good as they remember. People lose their sense of perspective easily. Sometimes, the critic's consensus is very different from the masses' consensus.

There are plenty of legitimate places in which to say that something, as a general matter and not simply as a matter of personal opinion, is overrated.

Bibbidy

The problem I find with your counter argument, is it strikes me as generalizing the masses. First, as far as media hype goes, just about every dev/publisher hypes their product. Just a part of marketing. Every business has to promote a positive image of their properties, and convey that winning attitude. I mean when do you EVER see anybody promote with something like "We got this new game comin out, if you got the time, might wanna check it out. If not, guess that's cool too, maybe the next one will impress you. Have a good day".

Do some gamers get swept up in the media frenzy? Sure that happens. But to speak for the ENTIRE gaming masses being unilaterally affected? mmmmmm... doesn't seem to quite click. There are just as many intelligent gamers who go into it prepared to think for themselves, in fact lots of gamers know that advertisements are meant to prop up the product and see the hype for what it is. I don't think you can generalize the masses as one uniformly stupid crowd. Just doesn't work that way.

And what about the professional reviewers? Do you think THEY get swept up in the hype and squeal like Beatles groupies "oooooooooohhhh my gawd, this is the *gameX* killer, so it's GOT to be awesome, I'm givin it a TEN for sure!!!" These are people who know the biz and all the sales pitches, they aren't fooled by any gimmick and can score a game with a level head (for the most part). And while the gamer crowd has their voice by word of mouth, it's usually the collective published scores we go by for ranking games as crap or achievments in excellence.

Overrated = A game that dosen't live up to the Hype.

Heheh mabey we should start ranking video games like college football ranks their teams.

Difference is we have 3 consoles to work with.well you could include PC in there to.

Take college football for example.

Your Ranked #1 in the country,But you get beat by a team thats ranked #16.Your number and everyone is saying your not supposed to lose but then you do lose which means you fall down the rankings whille the #16 team moves up say 3 spots depending on how bad they beat them.

So when the former #1 team plays the next day,they are considerd overrated because they get so much hype from everyone.and they coulden't live up to it.

Unforgiven2870

Actually, that's quite the opposite. Games that don't live up to the hype are flops, and so are rated low, and can't be considered overrated. It's the games that DO live up to hype, which are successes, thus rated high by the community. So the people who disagree with that games success will call it overrated.

Halo is not overrated.

There,I said it.

Good post, I've heard it somewhere before too...>_>Saturos3091

You did? WHERE?? I gotta know who to sue for copyright infringement :twisted: