2: That’s a Negative

Haha! You thought I forgot, but I didn’t! So we go roaring into day 2.

I’ve been watching a lot of Deep Dive lately. If you’re unfamiliar with the show, former Gearbox Software creative Mikey Neumann started it up on his film criticism channel FilmJoy. On no consistent time table, Mikey and his friends watch supposedly terrible films sent to them by Patreon subscribers, with the aim of finding the positives in those films.

They aren’t always successful, as illustrated by the Doom episode, but most of the time they find the nuggets of joy, warmth, and talent within each film. It’s a refreshing angle, given where most YouTube film criticism comes from, and it’s one that extends to FilmJoy as a whole. That’s probably why I continue to subscribe to the channel, long after I’ve cut out Jeremy Jahns, Chris Stuckmann, and Double Toasted from my feed.

I’m always a little reticent to be negative in my game reviews. Perhaps it’s because I’ve done enough interviews that I know there are individuals behind every game. I recently did an interview at PAX East 2020 (remember conventions? it feels like so long ago) with Alex Ward of Three Fields Entertainment. The tiny studio is working on Dangerous Driving 2, their sixth game in six years. Ward recalled a preview I wrote of an earlier game in 2017 where I wasn’t entirely kind; he was a good sport about it, but it was a stark reminder that creators do in fact read our words.

Still, I think it needs to be done, because reviews are part criticism and part buying guide. Many of my colleagues sometimes forget that not everyone has $60 part with on a regular basis, and I like to ensure that if you read my reviews, you’re armed to make that decision. It’s worthwhile for developers to know where their game faltered and it’s useful information for players.

But I’m increasingly shying away from doing a teardown. Not that I did before, but it doesn’t feel right, or particularly useful. Any game I’d slash and burn on probably isn’t worth the multiple hours it would take for me to dive deep into it. At USgamer, my time and resources are limited; I can only play so many games and we have a small team. So generally, if a game isn’t holding up, we simply don’t cover it.

I look at things like FilmJoy and Deep Dive and wonder if I could be a bit more positive with the things I put out in the world. I don’t think negativity is a sin, because to be honest sometimes things are wrong and deserved to be called out. But I write about entertainment, and it feels like now is a better time to focus on boosting the good things rather than wasting time and energy railing against the bad.

I’ve been playing with Adobe Premiere Pro and I feel like there’s an experimental YouTube thing hiding inside me. That’s probably going to be media related, and I tend to do better at explanation, so I’ll probably start there. But perhaps I can also impart to people why I love these things so much that I’m willing to write about them even for free.