Non-expert commentary

So, people hear rumours spreading around about how bad a certain example of a type of media is. From there they spread the word, informing others of how horrible it is, relating annecdotes discussing why it should be banned or shunned.

What am I discussing here? Two different events, actually.

1. Mass Effect's nudity

2. Twilight.


I will be the first to say I laughed alongside many'a geek when one of the outspoken critics of Mass Effect laughed off the question "Have you actually played the game" with the response "oh good lord no".

"Ah ha ha, what ignorance!" I spake to myself, content in my own knowledge and superiority.

Probably a year later I read about Twilight and joined in the chorus loudly shouting about how crap it was. A friend asked me "Have you actually read it?", and I barely stopped myself from replying with a hearty "oh good lord no". It took me a second to realise what I was doing. I was doing the exact same thing as others did with Mass Effect, one of my favourite games.

So, am I simply a hypocritical arse?

Oh good lord no.

The primary difference is that I didn't just take word of mouth from a few individuals. I read up about it. I read Twilight book and movie reviews, both positive and negative (although I have to admit, overwhelmingly negative, but that's because they seemed to be the easiest to find). While I have never seen the Twilight movie or read the book, I maintain I am justified in disliking it without having read/seen it. Why is that? Because I basically did the internet equivilent of asking around about it and worked out from the opinions given (positive and negative) what sort of book/movie it was. From there I decided it is not the sort of book/movie I enjoy. In fact it is the sort of book/movie I relegate to the pile "Fucking shit."

Now, finish on a metaphor.

I don't have to eat crap to know it would taste bad. I can just look at it and say "Well, that would taste quite bad based on the smell and visual texture of it." Granted there is the possibility I may be pleasently surprised, and find this is crap from the Francais-monster, which has faeces that tastes like a perfectly cooked croissant with a light dabbing of butter inside, fed to me by a beautiful, scantily clad maiden. It could taste like that, but eating every pile of shit just because there may be nice tasting poo somewhere is stupid.

On the other hand, if someone puts a plate in front of you with something on it, covered in a cloth, and says "Underneath this is shit, don't eat it!", I will likely pull back the cloth to see if it is, indeed, shit underneath.

An awkward metaphor, but it massively increased the number of 'poo' synonyms I've used in this blog.