STEAM GROUP
Yahtzee Recommends Yahtz Reco
Join Group
STEAM GROUP
Yahtzee Recommends Yahtz Reco
2,749
MEMBERS
90
IN-GAME
926
ONLINE
Founded
3 October, 2014
Language
English
Overview Announcements Discussions Events Members Comments Curator
Annoyone 12 Dec, 2017 @ 4:10am
Should "Yahtzee Recommends" recommend AGAINST games?
When the Steam Curator system started, it was only possible to recommend games. Some time ago however, Valve added the option to "not recommend" games or to post "informational" curations. <Kl0n[d1k]E> ߷ suggested adding all the games that Yahtzee recommends against, which I want to openly discuss with you. Here are some thoughts of mine:
There are two ways to approach this:
  • The first option would be an attempt to use the system as a three point scale (good, neutral, bad) and accordingly categorize all the games Yahtzee reviewed. I'm strongly opposed to this option (not only because of the herculean task of going through 500 Zero Punctuation Episodes) because it forces Yahtzee's views into a (tertiary) rating system that he always despised: "And I don't believe in scores because I don't believe a complex opinion can be represented numerically."
  • The other option is to "not recommend" games that he 'clearly' dislikes. I'm skeptical of this approach as well: While it's easy to just add the games that he puts on the "Worst of the Year" lists, how do you go on from there? He hasn't always done those lists, so whether he actually recommends against a game is a matter of subjective interpretation: What about the ones that niggled, annoyed or just bored him? Would he actively recommend to not play them? Also: What purpose would it serve? I created the group to provide a comprehensive list of the games he likes so that people can find the games Yahtzee actually wants people to play. But a list with the games he hates? In order to warn people off?
All this being said, I am very much open to discussions.
  • Should there be an attempt to categorize all his reviews?
  • Should I at least 'not recommend' the games he puts on his "Worst of the Year" lists?
  • Should the curator continue with only providing recommendations?
One last thing: Keeping in line with the name "Yahtzee Recommends", I'd much rather expand this site by having a list of all those games he recommends, which however are not on Steam (console games, releases through other digital distributors, etc.). I've been pushing the thought around in my head but couldn't figure out a practical and accessible way to do it (Excel? Google Doc Document? Steam thread in this group?). Maybe some of you have an idea how to accomplish this.
Last edited by Annoyone; 12 Dec, 2017 @ 4:13am
< >
Showing 1-6 of 6 comments
Curly 12 Dec, 2017 @ 12:20pm 
Agree with what most of what you're saying here. You could try to interpret yahtzee's opinions and break all the reviews down into the three categories, but he's often pretty vague in whether he recommends a game or not.

For example. in his stardew valley review, he seemed fairly negative, saying he wasn't sure if he'd recommend the game, but then at the end of the year, it was in his top 5. Too many of his reviews are vague and open to interpretation. I think it's better to just stick to recommending games that he clearly liked.
#1
(kl0n) ᗜˬᗜ 👍 26 Dec, 2017 @ 10:48am 
I apologise for wasting everyone's time. You guys lay out very clearly what I missed in Yahtzee's videos, about him having gripes with a lot of games (including his favourites), but that he rarely (if ever?) dismisses any of them as too bad for his personal taste. Having rewatched a good few recently, I concede my stance. I look forward to watching this curation grow.

(Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, everybody!)
#2
Annoyone 27 Dec, 2017 @ 3:29pm 
Originally posted by <Kl0nd1kE>:
I apologise for wasting everyone's time. You guys lay out very clearly what I missed in Yahtzee's videos, about him having gripes with a lot of games (including his favourites), but that he rarely (if ever?) dismisses any of them as too bad for his personal taste. Having rewatched a good few recently, I concede my stance. I look forward to watching this curation grow.

(Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, everybody!)
No need to apologise. As I said, the thought also crossed my mind.
And it's true what you say: he rarely dismisses games outright and his focus on a game's faults - while certainly being his schtik - is done in the hope of providing useful, hard-but-fair criticism.
Also happy holidays to you.
Last edited by Annoyone; 27 Dec, 2017 @ 3:29pm
#3
Kiddiec͕̤̱͋̿͑͠at 🃏 12 Aug, 2019 @ 11:51am 
Well, I wrote kind of a lengthy thing to elaborate my thoughts on this subject, if you want to hear it - but for the most part... I think you could consider diving into reviews that don't recommend for or against games - purely informative ones representing him
...but it would more likely than not be inadvisable to proceed with "not recommended" items, especially when representing the views of another person.

Now that said, I can certainly see merit in doing so... but it's rather complicated and there's rarely a time that I think he'll have found a game SO BAD that it would actually be worth ENTIRELY recommending against. Even then, that might not be something he wants associated with his image.
#4
(kl0n) ᗜˬᗜ 👍 24 Sep, 2019 @ 4:54am 
Not to dig up this old thread, but after The Surge 2 released yesterday, I just remembered his review on The Surge, and his closing line. Feels like sometimes when he's not just making funny jokes he's actually saying he regretted wasting any time at all for some games he reviews (admittedly he rarely does that anyway, so you wouldn't be making a lot of negative curator recommendations).
#5
Kiddiec͕̤̱͋̿͑͠at 🃏 20 Sep, 2023 @ 10:38pm 
After just now seeing this video that he made a year ago (along with the quote below), I reconsider that it might be very useful to have stuff he supposedly recommends against, but that might still be difficult to discern because : just because he has criticisms of a game, it doesn't mean that he didn't like it (although in some game's cases, it does strongly suggest it).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La-qxB3HnaM
@0:28 : "As much as I hate to confirm the widespread and unfounded notion that I only use ZP (Zero Punctuation) to hate on games; it was partly because I love Undertale that I never ZP'ed it. Doing so just felt... what's the word... ungrateful. Like criticizing your partner's oral-"

...although he may have been being facetious there, but I don't think anything he says isn't without at least some truthfulness to how he feels and what he believes.

(Also, I have no idea where the long response that I supposedly wrote and referred to in my previous response is now.)
#6
< >
Showing 1-6 of 6 comments
Per page: 1530 50

All Discussions > General Discussions > Topic Details
Date Posted: 12 Dec, 2017 @ 4:10am
Posts: 6
Start a New Discussion

Discussions Rules and Guidelines