It seems like as i look at how people feel about Bioshock Infinite recently everyone is talking about how mediocre this game. I guess you could also call it the GTA 4 effect where everyone was super high on the game when it came out and then everyone all of a sudden hates it after a few months. Look i am not going to change anyone's opinions but I really wonder. WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?

Why does everyone love a game when it comes out and then everyone shits on it? Is it cause the psychology of the people on the internet is totally warped and messed up? Is there something I am missing here? Why does this happen?

P.S. Just to give an example of people turning on Bioshock Infinite. I was on reddit (yeah i know how people on reddit can be but bear with me here) and they were talking about if GTA V or The Last of Us was going to win GOTY. Now i don't care about game of the year in any way, but some dude brought up Bioshock infinite as a possible contender for GOTY. The dude got all mad and talked a bunch of shit about Infinite. I know the people on the internet have a totally messed up psyche but it really makes me wonder why this sort of shit happens

I think it has a lot to do with people feeding off of the criticism that they absorb from other sources. I notice this kind of stuff all the time too.

Because everything is amazing and nobody is happy.

People are weird.

Well, I think often times a game can wow you in the moment, but after you have had some time to process it. It can end up feeling like a dissapointment or leaving a bad taste in your mouth. I don't think there is anything strange or wrong about that. I've personally had that feeling quite a few times.

It's a pretty natural thing. Usually when you're first experiencing something you don't really analyze it. It's why so many critiques of games are written weeks or months after they're released when everyone has come down from the initial high.

For the record, I loved Infinite and still do.

I don't think anyone is hating on Bioshock after claiming they loved it, it's just people are less excited about it 6 months or so after its release.

Because of a glitch in the matrix.

But honestly, the three games you mentioned for GOTY are in three different categories of gameplay. Choosing a GOTY out of that would be down to preference and own personal bias. Like me, personally, I would choose The Last of us over the other two because that's basically a new franchise and much bigger risks were made to make that game over two other established franchises.

I guess for me it was that I did enjoy playing GTA IV, it offered a new feeling to the game but it disappointed because I did not enjoy it as much as GTA San Andreas. And for me it was hard to figure out why i didn't like it as much until people just pointed out things, things I didn't think about but absorbed. The way the cars handled. Lack of planes. The feeling of the town. And other stuff I didn't think would impact my enjoyment, namely the characters. Roman is a fucking idiot and i just hate him, and hate Niko because he is an idiot to keep letting Roman get him into shit, and it might be different if Roman was funny or charming, but no. And so if I don't like the main character, I am not going to like playing as them.

Now as for Bioshock, i think it definitely needs to be up there. Only thing is, none of us thought GTA V would be this good. Infinite, well we expected great graphics, effects as it was a FPS, but Ken tells good stories.

When the zeitgeist of a new AAA game release dies down and the praise is no longer being thrown around people may begin to notice that the game doesn't hold up to the praise it received when the game is no longer being bathed in it.

Or it could also be what @spraynardtatum said. I don't know man.

Reviewers are often given very little time to think on a game after finishing it, if they want to be timely. It's only after a game has been out for a fair amount of time that people can begin to look more critically at what that game does right and wrong, and what it's relevance to the medium is. So when a game comes out that is as popular as your Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us or GTA V, it's only natural that more critics will look to them to do a postmortem. And when a game's flaws are highlighted, many people like to jump on the opportunity to discredit anyone who might of praised the game earlier. Thus is the way of the internet.

Is that really something that happens if you actually complete the game and like it? It's fine if half-way through the game something happens that turn people off but i just don't see it when its something someone likes all the way through.

I mean the other way around happens to me all the time. I will hate something and put it away only to come back later and find that i like it the 2nd time i try.

But if i like a game all the way through i don't all of a sudden start hating it.

Like i Said in the original post. I don't care about GOTY. I was just merely give an example of people turning on Bioshock Infinite. My personal GOTY is probably GTA V or Bioshock Infinite (can't decide) but I don't care what other people want to have has GOTY because its all down to personal opinion. I just want to understand why people turn on a game after it seems like everyone and their mother loved it when it comes out.

Perspective is a strong thing. I definitely realized a bit later on that the middle section of Bioshock: Infinite is terrible and makes little to no sense in the context of the rest of the story. As was mentioned above, reading others' criticisms and having more time to think on an experience can easily change a person's opinion. I'd be more worried about those people who can't seem to recognize things like this and put their foot down that every game they ever liked is timeless.

You don't fully absorb the flaws of a thing until you've analyzed it and given it some thought. Your first time through a ten hour game might be amazing, but a second run and some reflection on it goes a long way in realizing why it isn't perfect. This is why few games stand up after several replays.

Bioshock Infinite is a fine game with a good, well-delivered story but its gameplay is mostly just OK, sometimes really good and sometimes really bad. Even its writing and dialogue have a few holes and not-great lines.

Well I thought it was like a 7-8/10 at the time and still do. Anyway, I think a part of it is that things that are done well in games are often invisible or hard to articulate, such as clever level design that never leaves the player lost or the intricacies of a good combat loop as two basic examples. On the other hand it is real easy to pick out a bug or a small plot flaw and blow it up out of proportion.

It's the natural course of hype receding so other voices can be heard--Big, talked about game comes out and there's this huge. loud tidal wave of praise that eventually quiets. Then the people who don't like the game step in and change the discourse. The people who like the game still like it, it's just the negative voices get louder cuz the positive people already said their piece.

I guess I'm in the minority...I thought Bioshock was trash at release.

You sir are entitled to your opinion

It's the internet what did you expect?

To give you a more serious answer I would say it's quite natural. The hype for a game is highest at its release, but as it fades out only the the small, but more vocal, minority who maybe didn't like the game still takes about it. Most other people have just moved on the next thing.

So I don't think people necessarily start hating it, they just stop talking so much about it because there are other things to play.

So far this thread has confirmed what i know

The internet sucks

Double standards.

Because time has passed and they aren't In It where It is all of the hype and excitement surrounding a game at its release.

Also having time to think about a thing will generally allow you to take a more nuanced view of it rather than "It's the greatest thing ever" or "It's the worst thing ever." You see it with every game ever made, same thing with movies, tv shows, music, books, etc.

Like I was real excited about Torchlight 2 when it came out and then two weeks later I had a better and more complete view of the game after having played it and then thought that yeah it was a pretty fun game but it also had some pretty major things that I really disliked about it when I stopped to think about it and not just be excited that it was finally out. I haven't gone back since. That isn't me just hating the game because of time having passed.

The hate these games get is sometimes just as undeserved as the hype that surrounded them at release, though. Two sides of the same coin if you ask me.

The truth is usually somewhere in the middle.

@coolarman: They get caught up in the media's initial reaction, which is always to insist that every hyped game with a big ad budget is incredible (because that's their job). Later on when that shit has died down, both sides tend to form a slightly more measured and reasonable opinion. The genuinely good games hold up and the overhyped trash (which is most of it, just like any other form of entertainment) usually ends up being considered as such.

I posted in them video game forums my opinions on it when it came out and I stand by them mostly. (They were mostly negative)

Also combat arenas are boring and that was really what a huge chunk of this game was.

Tell that to everybody who played Mass Effect 3.

Since we all know it is uncool to like popular things, people extrapolate that it must be super cool to hate popular things. However something has to become popular before it's cool to hate it, so it takes a bit to kick in. Which is not to say that they're lying about disliking it, I think it's that they go into the popular game with the mindset that it can't possibly be as good as everyone says, which exacerbates every flaw they come across, and then sabotages their experience without them even realizing it. People put strange value behind personal taste. I don't really understand why anyone would be proud of liking or disliking something, but they are. Seems kind of self important to me, like they believe their opinion is worth so much more than it actually is.

I think you described most people on the internet

Hype.

I think our culture as a whole is constantly searching for the newest, shiniest thing. Unless it's backed by nostalgia, it seems like all forms of media suffer from this pattern of praise and hate.

Because I don't really think you can have meaningful critique of something until a few months after you played it. Its really easy to ride an emotional high off something and think its the greatest thing ever. I think its why games at the beginning of the year usually get passes over for GOTY.

Good reviews sell, bad reviews don't. Negativity starts to flood in when it's allowed to do so. So here we are.

Personally, I'm a fan of deep, thoughtful, retrospective criticism. It's the only way to objectively judge a game. Criticism avoids the rose-tinted glassy eye effect that some people seem to get when they look back at a game. What good has nostalgia ever done other than to please its author? I don't want to read that bullshit.

I don't understand how people become blinded by hype. My opinion of something stays relatively static as I tend to notice the good and bad during my first playthrough. I don't experience the constant internet phenomenon described in the thread.

Something else I noticed in the wake of the Beyond Two Souls release: People, at a base level, seem to have a problem with universal praise. I read constant relief that this game was getting mixed reviews, with several people actually outright saying that they preferred the mixed reception to the possibility of a more positive one. Im still trying to figure out the psychology behind that.

I always judge a game based on how I feel while playing it. If a game is so good at parts, that the good overshadows the bad, and you will probably only notice after having it pointed out to you after the fact, I don't think that should change how you feel about it. In regards to Bioshock Infinite, I still love that game, and consider it to have one of the most memorable endings in gaming for me. It gave me similar chills that the original BioShock gave me.

To be fair, it is hard for me to go back to some older games, that I loved at the time, as I feel that as I've aged and changed, they speak to me less and less. Such as Final Fantasy VII, older GTA games, and the JRPG genre as a whole for the most part. I still love those games, despite probably never being able to play them again and have fun.

I don't know, people like to hate popular things. I will admit that I soured a bit on the game after having played The Last of Us and GTA V since those were so good and we're a bit removed Infinite. However, I took this as an opportunity to play Infinite again (this time on 1999 mode) and I am remembering why I loved it so much at launch; it's a damn good game.

I think the fact that a game this good is probably going to be number 3 game of the year just shows how fantastic this year has been for gaming.

• 2008 - GTA IV (April 29)
• 2009 Uncharted 2 (Oct 13)
• 2010 Mass Effect 2 (Jan 26)
• 2011 Skyrim (Nov 11)
• 2012 XCOM EU (Oct 9)

Two out of Five previous Game of The Year winners here on Giant Bomb were early in the year, and only one GB GOTY was a November release. Considering that most big releases hit at the end of year, I'd say there isn't really a bias toward holiday releases when it comes to GOTY, at least here on GB.

Because games take a while to fully process but reviews need to be done by launch. Because we talk about games a lot before they come out, and people decide if they're going to be good or not before playing them. Because the online community and press are driven by consensus and peer pressure, and people whine and moan when others disagree with them, especially if they're reviewers. Because being contrarian feels cool, so when all of the above happens to a game it is gratifying to be the one dick that disagrees, or to jump on that bandwagon.

In the end, both extreme positions tend to be reductive and childish.

@ll_exile_ll: Oh Im not saying its a 100% inevitably but its easy to see how a lot of its people might forget about games they played earlier in the year. Ive drawn up a preliminary GOTY list for myself and had to really take a moment and think what I even played this year.

You should keep track throughout the year. Trust me, it's more fun that way.

Go watch the first couple of 'gameplay' trailers and compare it to what the game actually is. Yeah, pretty disappointing, right?

BioShock Infinite is still awesome. Almost all of its problems stem from a gameplay perspective and for me, that's fine. No game has perfect gameplay. They really nailed the story, the characters, and the themes.

It's partially because people analyse things more after being out of the "heat of the moment". And partially because people who wanted to criticize it on release can finally make their voices heard. As soon as the hypetrain dies down you can actually see some different opinion show up. Crazy right?

Also Bioshock was alright. I enjoyed the crazy ending, but the game itself was a little bit of a chore.

Because people like to play the part of internet gaming hipsters.

Because after a while people have time to form a more full opinion.

Directly in reference to Bioshock Infinite, I still love it and have since it came out, but I've had the time to better analyze why I do.

Incredible story, aesthetic, and gameplay that's awesome for the first hour or two. The game's biggest flaw is not keeping the gameplay fun. Still one of the best games to come out this year though.

Some people on the internet have a different opinion and are crazy? Weird.

I think a factor is that people who most likely won't like the game are not going to buy it early in the first place, so it takes a while until those opinions come up. I got GTA4 years after its release and I just got Bioshock Infinite a week ago because they got cheap, and I (somewhat unsurprisingly) don't like them very much. I usually like games I buy very early, because I have an interest in them in the first place.

This too. Takes time to know a classic.

People Buy the Hype then have Buyer's remorse.

Plus if something is universally loved, some contrarians feel compelled to hate it.

I think there are two aspects. On the one hand reactionary hate is quite common especially for a game that received near universal praise at the time of release (like Bioshock). It's the hipster mentality of being cool by doing what's not cool.

Then there are those games that give a certain impression upon release but a look back at those games shows they were either a lot better or a lot worse than you thought. Citizen Kane was considered a good film when it was released, but very few thought it would go on to be considered one of the greatest films of all time. Meanwhile Ben Hur has I believe the second most Oscars of any film and few would look back on it as a major cinema milestone. The same is true with games. Probably one of the most common things is when people are enamored by the graphics or scale of a game upon release. Neither of those things will hold up eventually. So certain games that were praised upon their release don't hold up at all because they were more of a tech demo than a game. Likewise games that maybe didn't look so great upon release may end up getting a lot of praise down the line for having really great or innovative gameplay.