I’d be happy to. Perhaps take your own medicine, though, and drop the part-for-whole ad hominems regarding anyone who disagrees with you (re: hive mind).

It’s never a good look.

It says enough about your wholly intellectually disingenuous engagement with the discussion that you dismiss folks who agree with you about the quality of the game, but poke holes in your bullshit understanding of basic rhetorical logic.

But, whatever—agree with you wholeheartedly, or be silenced.

Doesn’t sound like a…

Your opponent is not arguing in anything resembling good faith.

Here’s the original post they dismissed, of roughly 0800 EST (US).

I disagree solely on the basis of definition of category: if GOTY is handed out in terms of universal appeal, then you’re right: Death Stranding does not deserve GOTY.

If it’s handed out in terms of artistic achievement, experimentation with form, etc., then I think it could be a contender.

The bandwagon idea is always…

No way to know.  Our coldly logical and not at all a stan OP dismissed the whole thread.

...you lecture others on finding the bias in their own posts, yet dismiss replies that find the obvious holes in your own logic (and this is coming from a guy who both owns and loves Death Stranding, so I don’t even fit your preferred narrative).

Yeah.  That tracks.

Staring at their anime girl hug pillows, wondering why no ladies appreciate the angle of their doffed fedoras.

Couldn’t tell you--we got dismissed by the coldly-logical, totally-not-a-stan OP. ;)

Indeed he did. We encountered a buck (it’s rut right now) who snorted at my geriatric retriever-mix mutt—who then barked back. The buck evidently decided he didn’t want to mess with my senior dog, and ran off.

Other than that, it was productive—in that he pooped twice.

*shakes fist*

KIIIIIIINJAAAAAAAAA!

I refuse to spoil anything for folks who have yet to get into the game, but some of the deliveries are just...entertaining.  Let’s put it that way.  Seems safe.

Never doubt the power of the Doge to bark in everyone else’s threads.

...honestly, I’m just waiting for my dog to wake up, so I can take him for a walk.

Could’ve been Cup Noodles.

Schreier’s involvement would’ve delayed Death Stranding to 2021, though!

It’s entirely possible the game will win awards on its own merits (it really is a breath of fresh air in modern game design; sure, it’s got all of Kojima’s trademark pomposity and eighth-grade-level-understanding of nuance/subtlety, but still, it’s a solid experience), but yeah—the optics of the thing will raise…

The fact that other publications have scored the game well (and I’m enjoying the hell out of it, myself) doesn’t preclude the potential for a quid-pro-quo style relationship to exist in this specific instance—and even if it doesn’t, the appearance of what’s going down isn’t good.

...and if modern political discourse…

Almost perfect; the one hiccup is that Kojima has never—at least in any of his major works published in the US—managed anything approaching subtext. Dude’s idea of metaphor is roughly as subtle as a 5000w subwoofer at 2 a.m.

Agreed. The silence from the one quarter that might finally have had a reason to howl their facile battle cry is absolutely deafening.

Deafening, but not unexpected.

*Arrives at a dead run, one arm raised high in the air, fist clenched and forefinger extended.*

“Actually, it’s about ethics in gaming journalism!”

...oh, shit, it might actually be this time—as opposed to the fuckery that surrounded GamerGate.

True, and fair. I have a deep-seated love of snow—both IRL and in games—so I’m a little biased in favor of any and all snowy areas.