by rzaleski
How is the criticism useful? If you don't like farming you won't like the game? Hardly.I think the genres are far too different. There's at least 4 different types of games I've seen on this site, and they tend to have some overlap in both people and games, but they are different. Hardcore WarGamers/Combat Simulations are very different from Strategic Euros. So a War Gamer saying he doesn't like a Strategic Euro (I'm differing this from causal Euro like TTR or Settlers) helps no one since I don't think it'll hold for anyone else.
Think of it like food, say we both like Burgers and Fries and here about an Indian Place down the street. The food is way too different for either of us to know we'll like it unless we try it before. And neither of us would really be qualified to say whether it's good or bad Indian food. All we can say for sure is we didn't like that restaurant, and start building reasons we don't like Indian food. If another friend says that Indian restaurant sucks, you should try this other one, it may be worth a try, but if again we don't like it I think we'd know we don't like Indian food. Doesn't mean everyone who likes Burger and Fries will hate Indian food though.
Now discussing in a forum whether or not someone should try strategic Euros is a whole nother thing. Describing what both are like and how they differ, and getting a feel for whether or not it's worth trying is useful. Knowing I hate spicy food like Mexican may make me strongly avoid trying Indian food. But that's really mapping my preferences to they type and trying to decide if it's worth trying.
So I really see no use to the review. I'm glad the author tried a Strategic Euro. I'm glad he's clear that he doesn't like it and why. Just not his boat then, fine, sorry he wasted his time and some money. I hope he'll MT it for something he likes.
I know what games I can't stand and I stay away from them, but writing negative reviews on them isn't going to change the fact that different people have different preferences and like them alot. I mean would it help for me to write negative reviews on all the Carc variants I've tried and dislike? Reallly?