Negative opinions are the lifeblood of forward momentum, but not always. There were many threads questioning different MMOs today on the MMORPG Reddit and I thought you know, that’s a good thing. Not because I’m some delirious nutjob who thinks that everything is great for Bitcoin, nah, it’s that people can have these opinions and freely share them – which is feedback on why this specific person might not be playing the game. It’s really healthy.

We get stuck up a lot on this notion that “bad things said are bad things meant.” I don’t know if that’s a saying, if it’s not I’m coining it right now. We all collectively (this is a generalization) believe that if someone says something bad, then that’s it. They’re the worst. If enough people say something bad, then the sky is falling.

Yet, saying something negative, with good intentions, is a healthy thing because it describes why someone isn’t playing a game. It’s a good hint at what’s wrong and opens a discussion about it – is this wrong, is it fixable, or is it just a personal taste issue? If it’s fixable, what can the community do to get this in front of the developers?

Likewise, if it’s just something wrong inherently with the franchise / game, what is something the poster does like? Just because one person loves a game doesn’t specifically mean another person has to love the same game as well. We all don’t collectively have to enjoy everything together, it’s you know, part of the Human experience. Your life is, ultimately, your life. You should live your life in a way that is most hype to you.

The critical decider in a lot of gamer’s minds when it comes to buying a game is the review of the game or what we would now just consider just word of mouth – since I’m sure most users naturally gravitate more towards comments on professional reviews and peer sourced review sites (or their friends). Not even a single score, but more of an aggregate opinion of other gamer’s thoughts about a game. If these thoughts are true, right, and correct then the system works as it should – yet, if the system fails, and nefarious / malicious posts are made, these can be taken as a matter of a fact.

Malicious postings, false speculation, and ill intent are different creatures than that of a negative opinion. Those are things that people should rally against. For instance, if I were to say that a video game was broken, then post a review about that game stating such, that’s disseminating misinformation. That’s a bad thing and it shouldn’t be allowed.

That’s why I propose we consider having peer reviews moderated more frequently. As it stands, this is in place on sites like Metacritic, where they will remove reviews that violate the rules, but I think we need to have something better. What that better is, I’m not sure, but I feel as if we can do better. There has to be a way to properly moderate misinformation and give a clearer view of the big picture, additionally, there has to be a way to make communities as a whole more receptive to the idea that review bombing, good or bad, isn’t particularly a good thing – much less posting malicious forum threads, and the such.

Ultimately, what I’m saying, is we should never as gamers fear honesty, but instead, should hunt anything dishonest because that’s what misrepresents a game the most. A valid opinion is fine, but a statement of fact is another thing. If someone doesn’t like a game, highlighting flaws (that exist) makes sense and should always be welcomed, but on the opposite end, highlighting flaws that don’t exist or speaking from non-experience isn’t cool for school, or anywhere.