Opinions as facts

People seem to ask a lot about how good things are, like “Is this a good movie?” or “How good is that game?” and I always find it a hard question to answer.  I mean, what do you want me to say?  At best I can say I liked that movie or I didn’t like that game, but that doesn’t mean that you or anyone else will feel the same way.  But a lot of people had no problem asking those questions, and a lot of people had no problem answering them too.

Not that I had any problem with that.  What I disliked, was when people expected others to feel the same way.

People say, “How could you like/not like such and such thing?”  “If you can’t see why, you’re probably being closed-minded,” is what I’d want to say.  Or people say, “This game is crap.  What, can’t I express my own opinion?”  Well that’s not expressing an opinion.  If you say “I think,” or , “In my opinion, this game is crap,” that’s expressing an opinion, but otherwise, you’re stating a fact which can’t be true unless you give a clear definition of what it means to be a good game (and a crap game, cause that one doesn't exactly make sense).  And the problem with that is that there isn’t going to be a definition that everyone agrees on.  So the statement can never be a true fact.  Because it’s not a fact at all.  It’s an opinion!

But, I suppose I could try and give a definition of “good”.  You could say the goal of any movie or game or song is to sell well, meaning a reasonable definition of being good is selling well.  Or you could say the goal is to be enjoyed, so a good song/movie/game is one that is enjoyed by a majority of people.  And then it would make sense to say things like, “Oh, this is a really good song, but I don’t like it that much,” or “This song is bad, but I like it.”  Because every popular song is a good song.  Every game that sells well is a good game.

You probably wouldn’t agree with that completely.  There might be times when you would say something like, “That show was really popular, but it wasn’t that good because the characters were generic and the plot line was predictable,” or “A lot of people liked that song but it was bad because the lyrics were boring.”  But that would imply that a good show must have unique characters and an unpredictable plot line, and a good song must have interesting lyrics (and how would you define interesting anyway?).  But why would that be the definition of a good show or a good song?  Because in this hypothetical case, a majority of people would be disagreeing with you.

Now, if you wanted to define good characters, a good plot line, good lyrics, good vocals, good gameplay, etc, you could do that separately, but even then, how exactly would you define those?  And why would your definition be the best one?  I mean, I suppose I could try and give a definition of good, but would you agree with it completely?

Basically, if you want to give an opinion on how good or bad something is, it’s just that, an opinion.  If you want to justify it, you’re going to need a definition of good.  The most reasonable definition I see is that something good successfully achieves the goals it was created to achieve.  For something like the entertainment industry, this would be, well, entertainment.  The enjoyment of people.  If the majority of people like a movie, then it is a good movie.  If most people who play a game enjoy it, then it is a good game.  I mean, what other definition of good is there to choose?  Yours?