User blog comment:The Joker~/Is The Elder Scrolls series overrated?/@comment-3492791-20120914182908/@comment-3492791-20120914230935

I'm not saying that all these things are invalid in terms of judging the game. I'm just saying they shouldn't be used to color opinions.

I'm not saying that you can't compare two games in the same series and it's illegal and you should be disemboweled for even being so bold as to think you can, just it doesn't reflect on the game. Comparing games is a reflection on the developers, as I said, and their improvement (or lack there of) in game design. You can't use comparison to say if the game is good or bad itself. Let me try another example (as my metaphors seem to confuse you >_>). Say a couple has three children. If you look at the youngest, they are well behaved and respectful. If you look at the oldest, they are a spoil selfish assf***. The middle child is respectful enough, but still selfish. You can't judge the middle child compared to the eldest and say, well the middle child is a better person. Their behavior is not comparable to each other, but rather the parenting skills used on them. This can be used to judge the parents. Clearly they have improved in the ability to parent since their first child, as there is a pattern of improvement...dam confusing metaphors.

Hype does play a significant part in coloring opinions. But as I said it is not reliable. If anything hype negatively affects the way a game is received. Hype is not based on information, but rather popularity. If something is popular you get excited for it's release because it has a history of being "good". You have very little information on what is in the actual game, you are using the past games to frame you vision of what it will be like. Usually some kind of 50x better version of everything you loved from the other ones, with 100 new things you wanted, with nothing that was bad about the others, and full of tits and dragons (well maybe not that last part, but a boy can dream right?). When you get the game, it can not possibly meet your expectations. This leads to either one of two extremes. You become disappointed in the game because it's not what envisioned it to be, or you make excuses for it's flaws to try and validate your perfect vision of it.