Slate Article on Criticism

Against Enthusiasm: the epidemic of niceness in online book culture

I have no idea if his view of the situation is accurate, but I can certainly relate to it.

Being a critic isn't an excuse to throw out insults and be unnecessarily harsh. Just sayin'.

I agree that 'niceness' really is prevalent and not at all helpful in book reviews. I find on sites such as Amazon, I will skim the three star reviews and pay most attention the two star reviews as these are most likely to contain content that actually lets me know what my experience of the book is likely to be.

i read the comments available from all levels and ratings on sites like that. Lot of time, somethings I'm thinking about buying from a brick/mortar have about 20-30 reviews so I read them all. On some where there are thousands, a dozen or so from each rating that contains information, preferably detailed information, is read to get the just of it for me. But usually if I'm searching for something, I'm probably already 98% of time plan on buying it so the focus is more the information on the actual product in the case of the book, interesting plot points that may or may not be considered spoilers and not so much matter of taste.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mauk2 Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words. "Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L!

The thread is a wonderful example of the problem.

Heroes, Villains ♦ Reviews ♦ Retrospect

I read the New York Review of Books and I can't think that I've seen these sorts of love-fests popping up in there. Based on what I read there, literary criticism is alive and well, but that is the only water I dip my toe into.

I guess things might be going differently with online groups though, if the article is right, certainly posting something negative online can set off the friends who feel the need to "white-knight" for the author of a work in lesser circles, such as here... I guess. Can't think I've ever really seen that here either, in regards to MA at least. Come to think of it I've seen arcs reviewed here that get the gamut of responses.

If I had a dollar for every time I've seen exactly that debate held about fanfic over the years, I'd never have to buy another CoX sub in my life.

Speaking as both an MA writer and reviewer, there are two sides to the story.

As a reviewer, you will often play a story and find some problem with it, which we'll call A. In order to provide useful feedback, you need to communicate to the author that A is a problem. There are several ways to do this. Here are a few examples:

"A is stupid."
"I really hate A."
"Only an idiot would A."
"A didn't work for me."
"I don't think A makes sense. Have you considered B?"
"A is okay, if you like that sort of thing."
"I noticed A. But you're cool, so here, five stars."
"It was the best arc ever!"

These are all messages attempting to communicate problem A to the author with varying degrees of success. It's my opinion that most authors will ignore your feedback if you phrase it too harshly ("A sucks!!") but they will ALSO ignore your feedback if you phrase it too nicely ("Your arc was the best arc ever! 5 stars! Oh yeah, also A. Though really your arc is perfect, so don't change it."). So when I was doing reviews, I tried to steer somewhere between these two extremes.

I didn't always succeed, though. Some authors are really sensitive to criticism of any sort, and will not accept any kind of criticism. Some authors ask for reviews purely as a way to get plays on their arc, and won't change their arc no matter what you say. Unfortunately, it is difficult to help these kinds of authors. Even worse, these people usually do not understand that writing a critical review of their arc *is* helping them.

As a writer, I usually try to put out as finished a product as possible when I first publish an arc -- but every arc I've written has improved A LOT due to player feedback. People running through my arc will often catch my bad ideas (Did I really think re-creating the boring Synapse TF in Mission Architect was a good idea? What was I thinking when I named the villain Panty?? A whole mission of enemies that throw caltrops, what's up with that??) and suggest brilliant new ideas. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS INVALUABLE. If someone spends an hour running through your mission and offers you helpful feedback, try to stay open minded and listen to it -- even if you think the reviewer has the social skills of a bridge troll, try to read their words and understand what they are saying. It could help improve your arc.