zippdementia's Soul Blazer review

Somebody gets it. I wasn't trying to be mean, I was trying to say "you know, this sucks. You can do better." I can't give constructive criticism because the entire review sucked and can't be saved, in my eyes. And if people disagree that's fine. This is a forum to discuss the review, and I am discussing it the way I see fit. The review got posted knowing it can get criticized. Movies and games get trashed all the time far harsher than what I said about another shitty review.

I wasn't trying to be mean, I was trying to say "you know, this sucks. You can do better." I can't give constructive criticism because the entire review sucked and can't be saved, in my eyes.

But apparently constructive criticism of your attempts at constructive criticism is out of bounds.

Maintaining decency often gives the critiquer more latitude to suggest sweeping corrections without the critiqued tuning him out or getting frustrated. Again, I think you know this and are playing devil's advocate, especially with the amusing contradictions in these two sentences. And yes, people trash movies, etc. worse than you did. Relativism's pointless.

Nothing more to add. Hope you got something out of this. You seem to have a higher opinion of zipp's writing than after your first post, at least.

Again, I think you know this and are playing devil's advocate, especially with the amusing contradictions in these two sentences

Name one.

Also, I'm pretty sure I implied I think he can do better (and he has) in my original post.

Am I the only one who thought using a tired Internet meme like motivational posters was in bad taste?

@ ALL:
Polite feedback and harsh feedback both have their place. Polite is for polishing -- when you want to make small influences on someone's writing. Harsh is for saying "you blew it this time". If you use polite feedback to dance around gaping flaws, then you're a feedback pansy. If you deliver harsh feedback without exercising a bit of civility, then you're wasting your time because no one likes to be yelled at.

In any case, the most important thing about feedback is to be clear about what does or doesn't work.

@ MASTERS:
Long time no see! Even though I've never played Soul Blazer, I remembered a lot about it because of your review. I read it again and still enjoyed it!

//Zig

Psycho Penguin, I know where you are coming from and I respect your defense of your right to say what you think without cutting it. But people will tend to take you more seriously if you try to exercise tact. That's not called politically correct, it's called interacting with other human beings. If I went around punching everyone in the face every time I thought they deserved it, I'd have a very sore hand and a lot of angry people at me. Going around calling people's reviews "shit" in a situation where said people are actively seeking ways to improve their writing is the internet equivalent of punching people in the face.

That said, I happen to be a very thick-skinned individual who has often had similar problems with tact, so I didn't take offense. But it didn't help me improve my writing either. Thankfully, the multitude of comments following that did.

Psycho Penguin, I know where you are coming from and I respect your defense of your right to say what you think without cutting it. But people will tend to take you more seriously if you try to exercise tact. That's not called politically correct, it's called interacting with other human beings. If I went around punching everyone in the face every time I thought they deserved it, I'd have a very sore hand and a lot of angry people at me. Going around calling people's reviews "shit" in a situation where said people are actively seeking ways to improve their writing is the internet equivalent of punching people in the face.

That said, I happen to be a very thick-skinned individual who has often had similar problems with tact, so I didn't take offense. But it didn't help me improve my writing either.

It is not my job to make you a better writer. I was giving my opinion on the review. I found it to be terrible. You can choose to ignore it for all I care, my opinion on this review won't change either.

I'm not trying to change your opinion. It would be cool to know what WOULD change your opinion, so I can do that next time. But if you're too lazy to go into that, I understand.

Well,I don't like when a writer puts their writing style over explaining the game, and I felt you did that, and then you basically spent the last three paragraphs explaining it's an old game and therefore usually doesn't warrant attention and it really went to hell then. I think explaining that BEFORE you go into the review would deter people from having to read you basically say "Look at how well I can write, this is an old game anyways, who cares!" all review.

Hey Zig, been awhile, yup. I'm on AIM sometimes, and I see Retro and GUTS, but you're never around when I'm online.

Anyway, thanks for the heartwarming sentiment! It's pretty cool that you remember the game because of the review.

Thank you for the elaboration, Psycho. I think you might have completely misunderstood my review, but I'll go back and read it and see if I can isolate the elements that highlight those things you mentioned.