I read something on another website to the effect that, The World Wide Web has been around for over ten years, and in that time not one person has ever changed their mind due to an internet discussion.
I sort that was a sort of funny statement, with some truth to it.
For myself, though, have I ever had my mind changed through discussion? Well, it's never caused me to do a 180 -- hate something I had loved, or love something I had hated.
I don't know if I've ever even been given a new sense of respect for something I didn't care much for. For videogames in particular, this is something that's almost impossible to happen because most people have such low standards. Say someone was trying to convince me that a game was great because it was fun. That line of argument just wouldn't work for me. And if I didn't just think a game was great, but actually hated it .... Well, in that case, I'd know I didn't think the game was fun. How can you argue that it is? Maybe there'd be some other reason to respect something, but who would bring that up?
So, I said I never went from loving a game to hating it. Of course not: If I'd LOVE something, then I must have given it a lot of thought already, so it's unlikely for some new argument to phase me.
But what might be ripe for having an effect would be something a few notches down in my esteem. I might sometimes question my judgment for games I thought were pretty good. I wouldn't question my judgment to the degree that I'd then hate those games, either -- but I might be open to the idea that I overrated them a bit.
There are a whole slew of reasons I might be more inclined to think about whether I overrated something than underrated something else -- one simply being the strive for higher standards. Another is that it doesn't take too many experiences with something to know you dislike it. But some people like to watch their favorite movies, or play their favorite games, dozens or more times. The longer you live, the more things you've been exposed to, the harder it is to keep reliving the same things again. If I played a game, really liked it, but haven't replayed it, my opinion might be less secure. Similar to this, passions that haven't been rekindled will fade over time.
"Without a foothold in the past, we cannot walk towards the future."
-Vagrant Story
I sort that was a sort of funny statement, with some truth to it.
For myself, though, have I ever had my mind changed through discussion? Well, it's never caused me to do a 180 -- hate something I had loved, or love something I had hated.
I don't know if I've ever even been given a new sense of respect for something I didn't care much for. For videogames in particular, this is something that's almost impossible to happen because most people have such low standards. Say someone was trying to convince me that a game was great because it was fun. That line of argument just wouldn't work for me. And if I didn't just think a game was great, but actually hated it .... Well, in that case, I'd know I didn't think the game was fun. How can you argue that it is? Maybe there'd be some other reason to respect something, but who would bring that up?
So, I said I never went from loving a game to hating it. Of course not: If I'd LOVE something, then I must have given it a lot of thought already, so it's unlikely for some new argument to phase me.
But what might be ripe for having an effect would be something a few notches down in my esteem. I might sometimes question my judgment for games I thought were pretty good. I wouldn't question my judgment to the degree that I'd then hate those games, either -- but I might be open to the idea that I overrated them a bit.
There are a whole slew of reasons I might be more inclined to think about whether I overrated something than underrated something else -- one simply being the strive for higher standards. Another is that it doesn't take too many experiences with something to know you dislike it. But some people like to watch their favorite movies, or play their favorite games, dozens or more times. The longer you live, the more things you've been exposed to, the harder it is to keep reliving the same things again. If I played a game, really liked it, but haven't replayed it, my opinion might be less secure. Similar to this, passions that haven't been rekindled will fade over time.
"Without a foothold in the past, we cannot walk towards the future."
-Vagrant Story
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