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AngryLittleAlchemist on 13 October 2017
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Nuvendil said:
AngryLittleAlchemist said:

There is no objectivity. Objectivity is just a way of saying "Many people love this game critically, and I believe this, so this is the merit at which I judge reviews". The irony is that if you yourself believed BOTW was a 5, you'd probably be here saying that people weren't being objective enough.

I myself think it's close to a 9/10, so it's not like I'm coming from a place of agreeing with Jim. I just can't stand people that fundamentally want to lesser reviews because they don't like the opinion expressed. No, Jim doesn't need to make it an "article", he can make it a review, because it is a review. The problem with reviews is the writing quality, not the opinion expressed.

See, here I disagree.  Perfect objectivity is impossible.  But having a good bit of analytical distance is not.

Example:  I love Mount and Blade.  Poured hundreds of hours into it, recommended it to a lot of people.  But I'll tell you now, anyone who gave it a fraction over 7 is out of their mind.  Because even though I love it, I have the distance to be able to pick it apart and enumerate and explain his flaws.  You can love something and still be analytical and express that analysis with a *degree* objectivity.

I don't dislike Jim's review cause of his opinions or tone.  I dislike it because he failed to do the above.  

This all takes us to the concept of opinion quality: some opinions can stand stronger than others cause you can make a better case for them.  The opinion of "world politics is highly complex and there is no easy resolution for world peace is to be found in liberal or conservative politicy" has far more value than "if everyone could just have 3 pieces of chocolate  day, the whole world could be friends!"  Because the former has logical foundations and you can make a compelling case for it while the latter is silly nonsense.

A reviewer's statements should be made on sure footing and they should be able to make a compelling case for where they stand.  If they are to close to the subject matter, to entrenched in their own tastes to do that, there's a problem.

The problem is I agree with everything you said, but your comment *doesn't* show how an objective merit exists or why it's important. The reality is objectivity is just an idea used to say that you have enough de-tachment of something to look at it fairly, but that in and of itself being "objective" is not true, because there are also people who will come to a different conclusion than you despite being "fair". 

Your comment is great and I agree with it, but you don't really say anything that directly conflicts with what i'm saying other than you disagree and believe in objectivity. 

A case can be made that The Last Guardian is the best PS4 game. In fact, I expect Matthewmatosis to make a video likee that But that doesn't mean that there aren't problems with the game that can lead to an amazing review concluding the game is a mixed bag. Both reviews can be just as "fair" and have points that back up their claim just as much, yet they have different conclusions.