The biggest problem with nitpick people

 

Hello, everyone. I just want to give a quick blog post this early in the morning while I am still able to write and while my dog allows me a few minutes of peace.

But anyway, man I've been really thinking about making this piece for a couple of days, and I'm finally going to give my two cents about this topic so I can do the same here as with all my other blog posts: have a place I can direct people to the most generic answer no one's bothering to hear for themselves.  

.....

Nitpick people, picky eaters, spoiled children, what do all these have in common? Entitlement.

But no seriously, there's a reason these words exist in the first place, because they describe the people who are the most adamant about the smallest of microscopic issues in order to justify their rants.

 

--The Critic & the Nose Picker

First off, I want to describe the difference between a critic and a nitpick complainer. And I think my boy on MAL phrased it better.

"Scores do not matter. Critical consensus does not matter. Art matters. What you like/dislike is not a measurement of your intellect; none of these works are things we're entitled to, they're not "ours." We're simply given the chance to share in someone else's creation, whether that be a passion project or the product of a studio algorithm. The act of dissecting, rating, and looking at the reception of art to measure yourself is all pointless; if it's not about that very artistic expression, it's of tertiary value. Seek to understand before you seek to dissect. Anyone can point at a broken vase, but a true view of its discrete shards and their refraction before light is reserved for the aesthete. To realize that sometimes, the blemishes are what make it beautiful. The vase may be broken, but the way light contorts off the shards is perhaps where the true expression lies. To see beyond mere surface-level observations. To realize that the moment you attempt to pigeonhole things is the moment you've effectively missed the point of expression altogether. Your knowledge of literary devices, narrative structures, tropes, and terminology are all for further understanding—never for baseless dismissals.

The consumer, the reviewer, the critic, it doesn't matter what you call yourself by; all of us are entering the world of the art and not the other way around. We're the outside force. Whatever you call yourself before art, know that we are the foreigners in its dominion, and not it in our's."-ZephSilver

 

Essentially, what Zeph is referring to is our false ideologies of our higher ground as a critic to someone else's work. That people don't really have a say of opinion, but are more than welcome to express themselves anyway in believing that they do have such share in someone else's work.

This paired with the Nitpick critic of today pretty much sums up almost all content creators on the internet and in media, but more importantly the baby wah wah ranters and slanderers.

 

 --The Nitpick ranter

The first type of people that really caused me to write this blog are those that simply rant just to vent their own opinions in what take-away they want others to hear about. Something that sounds harmless from a general sense, but that can become pandemonium and spiral into off trail ramblings and made up resolutions.

This could be as harmless as someone voicing their concerns about why a certain character was not in a movie sequel, and then objectifying (insisting)that the character deserves to be in a follow up sequel, as they prefer to see it.

The latter, and more extreme and quite frankly most common is when someone complains that a movie in scene 5 part 2, on the theatrical release was missing a background character that should have been in the movie and then going online to vent their frustration that this tiny, little character 90% of people didn't pay much mind too should also feel a sense of frustration and thus spiral this small news as a huge social trend.

You know, it's quiet alarming how often this happens now, especially on the internet with our easy access to make commentaries, upvotes, and mocking emojis.

--The Nitpick slanderer

But before I forget, let me bring up the worst type of Nitpicker that I personally do not like. The bias one, the slanderer, the-will-call-you-trash-if-you-think-differently.

This is the nitpicker that gives me the most personal depression, inner resentment, basically who does a really good job at making me physically sick. 

These nitpickers not only rant about a topic, they also breed a community that pushes more bullying, more mockery, more slander, more bias, more hatred, to either who they don't like, or what they don't like.

This public herd mentality is something that I already mentioned in the Cancel Culture and Cyberpunk blog, so I'll just brief again that sometimes...on the internet and anywhere people can be democratic and social about their opinions, there can be certain groups and outlets that can develop (breed) a following of people in order to influence public opinion. Like I said before, doesn't matter if you're right or wrong, if you are the victim or the bully, in time gossip will dominate the general consensus and speak on your behalf. And when it does, I just hope you weren't a victim of someone's influence against you.

But going back on track, the slanderer is someone I can relate in witnessing since I see this all the time in not just the art community, but also in the gaming community. 

Just like my last post, when it came to Starfield, some people didn't even bat a second eye to rush to call this game bad before it launched, when it launched, and after it launched. Doesn't matter what is up and down, some people will just make it their whole personality to spew hatred on others and divide gamers, such as with the amount that isolate their hatred on gaming companies like Bethesda.

...

I don't want to get into another huge post about the hatred people wrongly and blindly follow towards Bethesda and Starfield, mostly because I already have and also because I have pulled an all nighter and am getting really tired. I'll just say, the nitpickers are some I see the most when we criticizes video games. 

Like the other day, I saw a video of a guy that was complaining about the wood structure of Skyrim and the realism of the nails and wood seams. Like, seriously. We are now nitpicking the wood textures? Even as a 3D artist myself, this is one of the most absurd things I have rolled my eyes to listening. I have played Skyrim for almost 3k hours on LE and another 2k on SE and never did I really stop to say "wait, let me just zoom into this nail on the side of the wall texture and see if it matches with the texture on the other side." Like no, that's not what the purpose of the game is. If it were, it wouldn't be a Fantasy RPG, it would be 1:1 scale architecture demo. 

Like, even when I did become a 3D artist, i re-entered games like Skyrim and my reaction was more like: "the amount of small details is amazing! Look at how many rock groups they use. Look how many different leafs and flower textures. How were they able to make a transparent sign with only a mesh and a chain texture? I never knew the chain was not a mesh. And it's animated? You mean they gave this insignificant tavern sign to enable physics? And just look at the water! How did they manage to do the water streams?? But yeah, lets focus on the floating mammoth.

In fact, you could say I was the complete opposite of a nitpicker once I actually did the work myself and could appreciate what it takes to make a videogame. Needless to say further, I felt greatly humbled more than I ever thought of being more of a scoffer. 

...

Yet, for others especially other devs, sometimes learning about how something works only provides even more fuel to hate someone else's work. Like saying, "look at how this phone works, and look at yours, does yours do what this phone does?"

This is level of slander hate that is just surface level. These are just the basic examples. A more profound approach is when people deliberately hate something, like Bethesda games, for the smallest of things in order to justify hating everything they do in an attempt to slander them to more people. 

This is pretty much on par with how most videogame bias is made. Certain groups take it upon themselves to do all of the following nitpicks above in order to spread their bias on their opinions to more people. And then you wonder why video games have such a reputation in the public community. Why some games are hated more than others. Why some mediocre games are praised more than others and so forth. You can already see people's mind become conclusive when ever they hear "Bethesda" or the words "good" and "Stairfield." Like, we know the cues already. It's time to talk about Starfield and why you already think it's the worst game ever made because that's what's so popular to believe. Like, nope. It's not about "Oh, man. I can't wait to see what the game is about." It's more like people are already at "okay, here goes my first playthrough, let's get this over with...."

AND WE WONDER WHY SO MANY DEVELOP COMPLAINTS ON THE FIRST THING THAT TRIGGERS THEIR MOOD SWING WHETHER THAT'S A "QUEST CLUE" OR A LOADING SCREEN NITPICK.

 

Exhibit A : Videos like this one where our lovable hosts are sharing their thoughts on Starfield.....by mocking the only person that's actually played it. And then telling her why the game ONLY she has played, is bad. Basically, the perfect visual of the entire internet "i haven't played the game, omy gosh, you like it? it's so bad! Let me tell you why! Plus, not to mention the resolved bias through out the entire video that their minds are already made up and everything she is explaining is only prolonging their response of "yeah I hear what you're saying, but the game is bad in x y and z." It's sad, because everyone besides her have fallen into the narrative, and just like Skyrim, the only one that's actually trying out the game themselves haven't even done everything. That's because Bethesda is very good at letting people discover for themselves, but just because Skyrim is popular doesn't mean their game styles are for everyone. If you find stories boring, go do some exploring. If you don't like exploring, maybe you'll like crafting. If you're not a crafting lover, why not try the missions? All this especially now that Balder's Gate 3 came out and people's standards of an RPG is beautiful unique npcs, short dialogue, and a fast-paced combat.If it's not a production value experience from A to B linear game, it's not a good RPG to get "engaged." This is why most people say the first two Acts are the best, and the third is okay. Because the game was made to showcase A, B, and less C. That's basic marketing.

 

Someone else on an Instagram comment I found perfectly summarized what it means to be a game dev:

Pros: Being able to produce a memorable and very enjoyable game for the player.

Cons: having to deal with players.

This Con is the very reason I stopped production on my Indie Game two months ago over night, because I needed some time to really reflect if this is what I want to do. That sure, I could make a huge reach to more people to have fun and enjoy my hard work......but do I also want to deal with all the nitpickers, the drama baiters, the reviwers, and the general public reception. Because I know all too well as a modder, that all it takes is 1 new bad comment in order to stop people from being interested or beginning a rolling snowball effect that will last for days, weeks, maybe even years of gossip, conspiracy, and slander.

I don't know if anyone even knows what I'm talking about. Maybe these issues aren't something that you have personally have had to deal with. I just know that I am surrounded by this issue in all throughout my online presence from my work, to my socials, to my future project releases.

The main objective I want everyone to know is that nitpickers are the worst type of critic. Because I can see this everywhere now. People and media outlets already have a bias in what is good and what is bad depending on whos media outlet is making a statement. And in videogames, I am just sick of general ignorance in people that just follow the common gossip. "Starfield is bad" "Starfield is outdated" "Starfield is boring."

When you live life by these lens you just build yourself to live in an unhappy life. Any further of the nitpick you so much love and you'll be head underwater in a life that says "games are bad now" "nothing is good" "everything is trash." Go ahead, just youtube "oblivion bad" on youtube and soon your feed will be full of more videos that rant for the sake of ranting games, movies, or anything. Plus, someone already asked me "why can't you accept people have different opinions" to which I didn't respond to fuel more division but that I'll just say phrases like "there are no wrong questions" is just dumb. There are plenty of wrong opinions, uneducated answers, and emotional statements that all hide under the mask of "opinion."

Therefore, I think observing/complaining about micro issues is not only nitpick complaining, but unneeded criticism. It's criticism for the petty. For the drama clickbaits. Complaints for the cherry-pickers. Like Imagine if we were all this critical fairly? Like being upset why GTA5 npcs all look the same or that vehicle AI was buggy. But no. Hardly anyone nitpicks Rockstar as much as people are ready to nitpick Bethesda from everything to UI huds to roleplay perfections to even how this one game ruined and changed their life. 

Don't even get me started on the double standard in petty gamers that aren't willing to also do this in a game like Balders Gate 3. Oh no, BD3 is already game of the year. The public has spoken. You dare go against the public and the famous youtubers that have already made a rant against Starfield? Oh, no anything but that! That's like social ostracization that few are wanting to go against, even if they truly think BG3 isn't that good. But, we must all follow the herd now. Starfield bad, BG3 greatest, most perfect, non buggy, no flaw game, ever. No, bethesda, they're the bad, buggy isolated ones in the gaming industry! Every other game ever made has 0 bugs and exploits.

Meanwhile, here I am enjoying videogames without a presumptions attitude...and having so much joy. I'm not out looking for the smallest and first thing to get me triggered, I'm looking for what I bought a game for. To see what it's about, how I can get involved, and overall enjoy my experience. I want Cyberpunk for Cyberpunk theme. I want Witcher for Witcher universe. I want Elden Ring for open world adventure. I want Starfield for space exploration and start my rpg adventure.......Enjoyment, something that is hardly possible when the first roadblock in your heart and mind is "i heard it was bad. i know it is bad. oh man, this is so bad."

Congrats. you just played yourself into someone else's opinion. I'll end by saying what is the difference between Cyberpunk at launch and Cyberpunk in 2.0? Answer: nothing special. You just have a nice content add on and now you're finally willing to have fun because it's trending to love Cyberpunk rather than trendy to hate Cyberpunk. Congrats, you played yourself. Everyone else, except for the nitpickers focusing on performance bugs, have been enjoying this game since release saying:

Very last thing I forgot....it's also so dangggg pathetic. Like, when people say "oh look Skyrim combat is so mediocore. the draugr just swing at you" YEAH NO DUH, MOST VIDEOGAMES ARE GENERIC. ITS NOT THE POINT. ITS THE WHOLE GAME THATS THE POINT, NOT THE NITPICK PARTS YOU DUMB DUMBS! YOU DONT STOP DARK SOULS GAMING TO WALK TO A CLIFF, LOOK DOWN AND THINK, WOW LOOK AT THOSE WAVES THEY'RE NOT EVEN MOVING LIKE REAL WAVES HUHHHHHHH. STARFIELD? MORE LIKE SNOREFIELD! -WOW THAT'S SO SMART. YOU COULDN'T ENJOY THE FACT THAT STARFIELD IS NOT FAST-PACED DRAGON SLAYING LIKE SKYRIM AND IT'S MORE ABOUT EXPLORATION AND IMMERSION, HUH? COULD'T JUST ADMIT IT WAS A SKILL ISSUE, HUH???

 

MAYBE THE PROBLEM ISN'T THE GAMES. MAYBE ITS THE NITPICKLAND COMPLAINERS.