There has been a cultural shift against criticism. Nowadays it is often viewed with skepticism rather than an open mind. To say a game is mediocre or worse is not something that is useful to the majority of modern board game media consumers. They are looking for attractive objects.
Quotes about game criticism
You can read as much about a game as you want, and talk about it until you’re blue in the face, but there’s no substitute for playing.
We would never lump Hollywood action films, Sundance winners, and nature documentaries together when discussing the impact of film. We see these as different kinds of works, using different techniques, for different audiences, to different ends. We don’t hold films from each of these categories to the same standards as the others. We wouldn’t assume Hollywood films represent the full emotional register of filmmaking, and we don’t expect every art house film to save the rain forest. Yet we still talk about games as if they’re all the same.
