Not trying to ruffle any feathers Hazy. I really don't know you too well, and I know I can be pretty abrasive and know-it-allish, and I'm sorry if it put you off, but I would contend that I'm not ignorant about "most things" I speak of. I play excessive numbers of video games, I follow gaming news pretty closely, but more than that I comb through archives of gaming press like Atari Age, Nintendo Power, & EGM when doing research for class projects, so I like to think I'm not entirely ignorant on all of these topics. I am pretty passionate about gaming and as someone who grew up in a very different gaming culture I've got strong opinions that may differ from yours, and probably from alot of people, especially those that are younger than me (which is everyone but Po that frequents this board I expect). Do my opinions matter? Well I believe they do, just like everyone who holds a strong opinion, they hold it for reasons. The reason I choose to articulate my thoughts on games is mostly because of my discontent with many titles that I really want to be great titles. I want to see my favorite companies and developers continue in the tradition that made me a happy consumer and provided me with pleasant past times. If consumers never express their desire for products, or discontent for products, then things aren't likely to change.
I respect Kojima's opinion on just about any topic he comments on, whether I agree with it or not. He's an intelligent person. Ebert is as well, I respect his great knowledge and understand his position, but I don't agree with many of his aesthetic guidelines, that puts me in a minority, and I understand that. And you know he did overtly exclude video games from a number of significant cultural categories of which they are a part, and a few years later he admitted his ignorance, he backpeddled a bit and reassessed his position. This happened relatively recently, and so I still have the bad taste in my mouth about it. I've only read his opinions on movies I'm interested in, which are action films. Maybe I just like bad movies, but alot of those films ended up being quite important in the industry, were often times commercially successful, and brought together very talented people to create some impressive elements. After seeing the new Transformers, I can safely say that yeah, most of the elements of the film are as bad as I expected, but the actual Transformers themselves, their conflicts, combat, and characters are much more well done than in previous films, so you know a .5 out of 4 is exceedingly low considering the many elements of such a large production. It at least deserves a full star, half a star is just a slap in the face to some talented folks who worked hard to create some visceral and well realized robot combat, despite its shortcomings.
I know I have some personality quirks that can be upleasant, (many of us do I believe, and thats one thing that makes our communities diverse and interesting) but I'm an intelligent and kind person, and even though my cynicism and strong opinions can be offputting, I do listen and internalize dissenting opinions, and I'm trying to work on being less antagonistic when I disagree with people.