Ben, I've spent a large number of posts already telling you what I expect to get: information on what biases influenced a person's decisions.

And you're wrong, there aren't just those four simple factors. Playtime and preconcieved expectations have as much influence on the decision as a person's gaming preferences in situations like this.

I absolutely loved RPGs when I had time to play them. When FF7 came along I hated it because I had the pre-concieved notion that FMV detracted from gameplay (and plenty of person experience to back it up). So despite my love of FF5, had little interest in being bothered with 7. It wasn't until I played the game without bias (and I assure, I played it with bias before) that I realized I like the game even more than FF5 and that it's easily one of my favorites of all-time. But I would never have realized that if I hadn't stopped and admitted to myself that I had bias when I did it.

I'm not asking anyone to make a reversal on their opion of Lair, but I am asking them if they can articulate the most basic of their biases so I can compare that to their opinion of the game.

 Wow, its unbelievable how you contradict yourself. 

Except that I didn't. The fact taht he delievered it in review form doesn't detract from the fact that he answered the questions. I merely pointed out that he managed to answer the questions and went a step further. But, the fact is that he actually got at the points that were asked of him.

 The thing you're missing though is that the things the reviewers are touching are things that don't matter towarsd your game bias.  Poor controls, badlock-on, buggy, poor animations on some characters,and lackluster gameplay are things that are going to make anyone not like a game whether they like flying games or not.  Of course there are going to be people that actually like the game and others that will convince themselves they like it for various reasons, but it doesn't change the fact it has poor controls, bad lock-on, buggy, poor animations on some characters, and lackluster gameplay.

Regardless of genre biasedness or how long you've played, those things will always be bad. 

I'm not missing it. What I'm getting at is the fact that those problems will be amplified in the minds of people who came in expecting a bad game and that they will be glazed over by people who went in looking for a good game. I do not care what issues the game has, I care about what factors lead people to over/understate them.

 Hmm, well this thread has degraded into something bad. Maybe you can start a new thread with a bit clearer of a question to everyone. Something like, "If you played Lair, how long did it take you to make you final judgements about the game? Did you tend to agree or disagree more with what you've previously read after playing? Also do you tend to like games in this genre to begin with?" 

I dunno something like that :) 

I apologize if I was rude at all but all the followup was a bit frustrating to read. 

You are correct, I really do need to make it more clear what I am asking for. Four years of learning standardized American-English is not enough for this, I guess, because I really think most people still don't know what I am trying to get at.

 No when someone gave their OWN mini-review, he said "I don't need a review. I didn't ask for a review."  I realize he also wanted the person's personal bias, preconceptions and expectations of the game as well, but he could have been nicer about it.

Also, calling people "sheep" for agreeing with reviews not 5 posts into the thread is not a good sign.  Believe it or not, some of us find professional reviews to have useful information about how the final game turned out, and a game that gets 5ish scores will probably not get played by me, unless it's just morbid curiuosity.

I did not misunderstand, so stop saying I did.  I'm not a child.