The pointlessness of whining

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By Logan Booker
11:13 Mar 25, 2008

By popular demand, it's a Logan Booker opinion piece from nearly two years ago; waaay back in Atomic issue 62! Enjoy, then join the hunt for the missing link and associated prizes!

Opinion. It’s what separates us from the wild animals.

Not that animals are short on valid opinions. It’s just that they can’t express them in an educated, constructive fashion. Say with English or sign language. I’m sure that if you asked a horse (in Horsey) what it thinks of the gigantic hole in the ozone layer or the rising price of gold bullion, it would have mountains of information to disgorge on everything from intelligent automobiles and pollution to high-risk mining shares.

Putting boiler room-running smart car-driving equines aside, opinions are an essential part of the psyche. Perspective, like all aspects of the human condition, is tied to one’s ego, so any assault on an opinion is often interpreted as an attack on one’s personality and self-being.

A good opinion however can be useful, thought provoking, entirely warranted and genuine without stepping on any psychological toes. At other times it can crush feet like a circus elephant, impaling smart cars packed with sad-faced clowns on ivory tusks.

How’s that for a juxtapostion of happy and sad? Oh, and clowns and elephants.

Ahem. Putting elephants aside for now (no easy task I can tell you, unless you happen to own a forklift or Andre the Giant) I stumbled upon this the other day. (The story has been taken down from TG Daily, but there appears to be a working mirror here. Bonus points and a copy of Bullguard Backup to PC FREAK for being the first to find a working link to the original story! -Ed.) It’s a column on gaming journalism by Aaron McKenna. In the article, McKenna berates games previews, reviews and associated articles in the current age as being unadventurous, labelling them as ‘generic, structured and circumspect’.

The crutch of McKenna’s argument is that gaming press is lacking in maturity and relies too much on structured writing. Previews are vacuous of any real opinion and game reviews are too formulaic.

The thing is, I can’t remember the last time someone came up to me and complained that my latest game review failed to make me the next CS Lewis or Terry Pratchett. And that’s a good thing, because it’s not like I come to work every day and attempt to scribe the world’s next The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Most of the time I get to work and find a comfy spot under my desk to fall asleep. I am the George Costanza of publishing. Except with hair.

That’s kind of off topic, but I felt it was important. I’m not fat either. Thought I should say that too, before going back to McKenna.

A game review in essence is a report. When you read a report you want facts and structure. The difference here is that we need to make that report entertaining or it’ll fall flat on its face faster than Mr T with a gallon of malt whisky in his belly.

If McKenna really feels as strongly as he does about the terrible state of gaming journalism, he is free to get writing and start correcting it. The point I’m making here is that opinions are just that – opinions – and you should never take them as gospel, even from sites as reputable as, uh, TG Daily. Neither should you say one thing and then go and do the complete opposite.

Opinion rears its head in other ways, as opinions are want to do. Take for instance your average flame war on an Internet forum, an experience any Atomican will be well accustomed to.

Sensible arguments simply do not happen on the Internet. It is not a place for an orderly debate; it’s a place where one person yells at another one electronically, while the other person waits semi-patiently to yell back in a similar manner. Points are ignored, people drown in a sea of sophistries and baby Jesus cries. I was going to add something about kittens dying, but that seemed cruel. That’s what Pratchett is for. Wit that is, not kitten-killing.

The Internet lacks any true confrontation which means you can stand hand-in-hand with your argument, finding safety in anonymity and the inside of your blanket. No amount of security however will rid you of that awful feeling when you realise your clasping the greasy hand of an argument constructed of paper reeds and diesel fuel. Which brings us back to smart cars.

Well, not really. I just realised they’re green cars. Or hybrid cars. Whatever, we should be riding horses anyway.

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Atomic Magazine

Issue: 133 | February, 2012

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.

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