Out of Pod Experience

Cognitive dissonance.

Basically, people are biased to think of their choices (in this case hype induced) as correct, despite any contrary evidence. While understandabe - after all, no one likes to err - instead of accepting the truth those people continue to tell themselves that they are right all along.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

That's not what Cognitive dissonance means (as the first sentence in your linked wiki entry will explain to you)

Cognitive dissonance is holding two conflicting ideas to be true.

What you're thinking of is willful ignorance, which is when you believe yourself to be right "just because" even though there may be a litany of evidence against your conclusion.

However the topic at hand is none of the above in most cases. Everything regarding whether a game is 'good', if the elements and story and etc and mechanics are 'good'? This is opinion and as they saying goes: There is no accounting for taste.

Much of the criticism I've seen can be chalked up to differing opinions about what makes a game "good" and how one derives enjoyment from the game.

The few legitimate criticisms that there are reguarding bugs, menu functionality, crashes, etc. I agree with entirely. Those negatives however do not spoil my enjoyment of the game. It's more the little things that while I don't mind now, I can't wait for mods to fix. Vanilla Skyrim however is far better than vanilla Oblivion.

Because it's a fantastic game...

Do you think great games do not exist or are somehow impossible?

I'm all for bringing fanbois down to earth, but when I log on to STEAM and my ENTIRE LIST OF FRIENDS is playing Skyrim and orgasming that's not hype anymore lol. It's like asking what the hype is over pizza or sex. When that many people like it, it's simply a good thing.

I don't like Call of Duty, and I think it has terrible design concepts in it... but I'm not going to go calling millions of people 'fanbois' because they like it and enjoy the game as it is. I'm obviously the odd man out and I keep my opinions personal.

Dude, quit raging and admit PS3 > 360 already

I think the moment I became a fanboi was when I walked up to an NPC and she wanted me to go into a cave I'd already crushed just because I was wandering by and I'm an angry bastard like that... and it actually gave me a dialog option where I said hey... I've already killed that guy, and she rewarded me straight away.

I remember typing out on this forum how on Deus Ex HR I destroyed a whole complex full of soldiers only to find I still had to walk around and do story triggers for a distraction and daring escape, and sit through a cut scene where tons of guards were still alive. That kind of thing happened over and over in DE:HR, and many other 'open' or 'non linear' RPG's have sent me back to places I'd cleared to meet up with their story line. NOW we'll spawn that boss... NOW you can open that door... NOW the princess is there... Dead Island was completely unplayable for me because I kept finding things that were obvious interact points, but wasn't allowed to open certain doors, flip switches, etc unless I figured out how to trigger the quest first.

Skyrim does have a few places reserved, but having to repeat a dungeon crawl or not getting credit for one is extremely rare... so far it's only happened once as part of an event where a whole town came with me to clear a cave and that made a boss spawn plus the guards respawn. The vast majority of random caves can be completely explored and extra rewards gained later if/when you meet the NPC that cares about it. Same with items. Any uniques will be there and will trigger their own quests on pick up.

When they can't be done without a quest the dungeon will flat out tell you 'no' when you walk in by asking for a key/item/password instead of wasting your time, or the reserved portion will be entirely separate and you can still accomplish something else significant by going in like Blackreach being linked to three or four other dungeons but only accessible once you have the dwemer sphere thingie. You can still clear and complete the stories for all of the connected dungeons, just not go down into that one.

Skyrim is a good game, yes it has some flaws but overall it is quite enjoyable.

On the other hand there is a little pirate kiddie who pirated a game, so he can write an internet review on the forum of another software developer.

Sorry, but fanboys are not the problem, but people with an opinion but without a clue are.

Speak ill and I might just have to cut you in the face... With an object to later be determined.

Whatever happen to the view of... It's just not for me? It might not be bad just not your cup of tea. That or people like myself just think the good out ways the bad.

Because it's a damn awesome game. I can just wander around, killing people stupid enough to attack me, looting old ruins, and selling anything I happen to pick up to the next merchant. It's so immersive, the landscape's so pretty, and there's the little lingering paranoia that there's a dragon after me.

Yes, the voice acting is hokey, they're short on actual varied actors, it's full of bugs, and my character is incapable of walking up slopes I'd have no trouble with, but I'm willing to forgive that just for the sheer epic nature of it.

That, and it saved me from mind-numbing boredom over the last month while I was off work sick with tonsillitis.

Being unable to have rational, unbiased thoughts is sadly par for the course for humanity, gamers are no different.

There's many issues i have with Skyrim, clunky UI is probably the most important one and it's not so much that it has bugs, it's more that Bethesda obviously couldn't be bothered to give the PC version a bit more attention. That also results in performance/rendering decisions; solutions necessary to make it work on consoles means that it's below par on PCs which is a shame.

Apart from that it's missing some storyline options, you can't be a good guy in Riften for instance, taking out the thieves guild and that lack of option is sticking out like a sore thumb. Thing like that annoy me a little bit but that's all washed away by the overall awesomeness of the game.