Monday, December 8, 2008

Negativity

Some people think of me as a negative person. I guess I can see that. When I look at the world, I don't really see that everything is great and happy, but see the flaws in everything. When somebody presents me with something they want me to evaluate, as opposed to saying that I like it, instead I give all the reasons I dislike it. By doing that, I try to give ways on how to improve it to make it better. Back when I used to go on VSUniverse/TCGPlayer often, I was mostly in the fantasy card section. I love creating fantasy cards, and loved to make some, but also help other people make theirs better. There was somebody there that always responded to everybody's card that he liked it. Every single card. It could have been a 20/20 1-drop that was Army and "Characters defending against characters you control lose and can't gain reinforcement" and he would say that he liked it. It could have been a 2/2 8-drop that you could only recruit if you KO'd two of your characters and he would have liked it. Now, I'm not an optimistic person, I honestly am not. Still, I can appreciate optimists, but not pointless optimists. Basically, the person wasn't giving any good feedback. If he had said, "I like it because it gives you a challenge," or, "I like it because it really makes the game easier," then at least that is slightly constructive. I would give a lot of examples on how it is bad and could be improved. Eventually, people started attacking this guy for not being constructive, and I PM'ed him and told him why people weren't approving. Eventually, I was able to convince him that blindly saying that everything is good isn't helpful. He actually provided feedback for people later. I know that some people don't like being shown the flaws in what they have, but I feel that it is important for people to see that they aren't perfect. I always accepted what people told me and either tried to explain why I thought I was right, or realized they were right, thanked them, then changed it. I don't necessarily say that something is good just to make someone else feel better, I say what's wrong with it so that it can be improved upon. If I don't like an idea, I'll mention that. If I think that something doesn't make sense, I'll mention it. If you make a Batman card that is a 6/6 Flight/Range 3-drop that can only be recruited if you discard a GK character, I'll probably mention that it doesn't make sense to make Batman have flight, and that it doesn't make sense to just have a really big Batman. I'd recommend something that negated, drew cards or something else that fit Batman (scaring opponents, planning, etc).
Not everybody appreciates honesty and trying to help, though.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A 20/20 1-drop that was Army and "Characters defending against characters you control lose and can't gain reinforcement"?

Where do I sign up?

In all seriousness, there is a balance to be met.

You can easily crush someone's creative spirit by being too critical.

As an art teacher, I have hundreds of kids who say "I can't draw". There is no way I am going to be critical, no matter what they do, until they get some confidence going.

Pi_3.14159... said...

There's also a difference between art and creating cards. Art is subjective, and anything can be good. In creating cards, you don't want to say everything is good.
Plus, there is a difference between the kids you work with and the people I talk to. I'm not negative with kids, as much. I'm negative with people who should be able to take it. Should...

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