Word Of The Day, Volume 1

Todays word of the day* is OPINION.  Let us begin with the formal definition provided by Dictionary.com.

o·pin·ion  [uh-pin-yuhn]
    –noun

1. a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.
2. a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.
3. the formal expression of a professional judgment: to ask for a second medical opinion.
4. Law. the formal statement by a judge or court of the reasoning and the principles of law used in reaching a decision of a case.
5. a judgment or estimate of a person or thing with respect to character, merit, etc.: to forfeit someone's good opinion.
6. a favorable estimate; esteem: I haven't much of an opinion of him.

I will be using the second definition while discussing this topic.  A personal view, attitude, or appraisal.  Why am I mentioning this?  How does it apply to the gaming world?  Does anyone really care?  Probably not, but I do have a point.  I think. 

We see opinions every day on this site.  I have an opinion, you have an opinion, and of equal importance, game reviewers and analysts have an opinion.  What is of certainty is that no two people will always have the same opinion.  Take the blog section here.  My opinion may differ from PRONE nero's about the importance of sales numbers, but that doesn't mean that either one of us is wrong.  Likewise, two gaming magazines may have rated a game differently.  Is one of those two sources dumber then the other one?  No, but I will admit, if the opinion is not an intelligent one, the possibility is there.  

So who's opinion do we listen to?  The easy answer is the one that most agrees with what you do.  To only listen to one side, though, has its risks.  By ignoring one side you will probably not get the whole picture.  One opinion may focus on, say, the visuals of a game, and rate it poorly because of it.  Another site may have a different opinion based on gameplay, and give it high marks.  Both sites may be right, but which one is right for you.  In my opinion, listen to both places and make up your own mind.  I'm big on people thinking for themselves.  I will never agree with one side or another without listening to both sides.  The only way I can do that is if both sides have a coherent and logical argument.  I mean argument in the form of discussion, not trading insults or other such nonsense. 

Which leads me to the point of this article.  Fanboyism.  Now this form of opinion is often entirely biased and ignorant.  This type of opinion is the only one that I will completely disregard out of hand.  To blatantly say that the 360, or the PS3, or the Wii is the best one just because you like it more, just shows how small minded some of these people are.  I'm not saying all fanboys are bad.  I happen to think the PS3 is the better system, but I'll be willing to back up my claims with facts, not just feeling.  Unfortunately, ignorant fanboyism has been with us since the early days of the arcade and will continue as long as there are competing consoles. 

In closing, I am not making any demands here, it's just my opinion.


*Disclaimer:  In using the phrase "word of the day" I am not stating that I will, in fact, write about a word every day.  It just sounded better than "word of the week" or "word of the whenever the hell I feel like writing about a word".