With reviews it isn't positive, or negative that effects credibility. It is quality of review.

Take a logic, or debate, maybe a public speakiing course. There you will learn what makes an argument valid.

If you wish you can contemplate how for a few years now almost EVERY, I would say 90%+ of games reviewed by the media have been rated very high. Are we to the point that we believe all these games released are awesome?.....But I have been told tinfoil hats are out this year....

I think Guild Wars 2 and WoW are perfect example of how you should be super picky when trusting reviews from individuals that do not have a reputation to worry about.  Obviously somebody who takes pride in being a good reviewer will put in the extra effort to make a fair and balanced assessment, otherwise they will be untrustworthy.

GW2 had a bunch of cheerleaders claiming Anet finally understood what mmorpg gamers wanted and GW2 was going to be the game to change the genre for good (they did this mostly before the game even launched).  They were clearly wrong.

WoW had a bunch of haters before every expansion say that Blizzard finally put in the nail in the coffin with <insert random change to the game> and WoW will die soon.  They were clearly wrong.

A lot of people mention that you should never fully buy into the hype and i'm very much in agreement.

Back then I said Guild Wars was not a MMORPG and should not be covered as such in this website.

This was not about being negative "anti guild wars" , neither it was about being a fan boy "this is a nice new game in development, dont bad mouth it".

It was me stating an objective verifiable fact.

The fact ended up ignored!

and the whole issue/discussion was brought down to the level of "Negativity" vs "Fanboys".

Stating a fact didnt worked.

But down the road I learned what works...  conclude for yourself and if you really is one of those people that absolutelly must cause an effect on others based on your oppinions and points of view, then just shape your method/bridge in a way that others think its themselves that are thinking what you want them to think.

I'll read both as well as middle of the road-type reviews.I will also play a beta or trial before deciding if I want to play any game.

When I hear of a NEW game, first thing that matters is to know how popular it is from the moment I heard of it.

More popular, the better. I search youtube for it plus the word gameplay. I dont care about teaser/cinematics/trailers.

I dont watch the full video either, I go straight to the action, unless the presentation is very good. If it doesnt get to the point where I identify the "auto targetting", "stuck in the ground", "generic fantasy", then

I check website, if there is a features list I read it, if there is any blatant shop stuff on main page I quit, if not, I check forum and see how many topics/repplies it has and then I read the title of the first page of topics. I check "update/news/announcements" for raw information regarding close/open beta/release date.

I filter the huge majority of information. I dont read any articles or reviews on main magazines/websites. I just use them to know the name of a new game announced/betaing/released, whatever the views of the website in question or the reviewers of it ARE ALWAYS BIASED (They dont even know what a true MMORPG is in the first place, so whatever they think start from the wrong premises). What matters to me is negative topics denouncing the flaws of design of the game. Any title that hints of negativity is worth a read, specially if its subtle, because then I know Im going to read something inteligent. That is worth reading the OP. I dont read the repplies, I just scoop around and try to answer the question: "is this one of those topics where fanboys come to defend the game and insult the OP?", if it does look like it, then I dont bother reading. Now, if looks like the OP barelly scratched the surface, because people are agreeing with him, then I do stop to read the biggest posts repplying in agreement with him.

To me, the "negativity" label ended up embracing the true reviews, stating facts and inconvenient truths about a game. Good games dont need to be defended. 0% tolerance to fanboys. The matter is learning how to filter the "negativity" for truths and objective facts that developers/fanboys would rather left hidden.

Truth of the matter, anyone that comes up with a "Review" that looks semi-professional loses all credibility and legitimacy to me. What matters to me is a random Joe attempting to express why he didnt liked the game. Thats enough for me.

For example, The Elders Scrolls Online, I didnt watched a single video or even went to the main site. All I needed to know was on the negative topics being honest about the many design flaws of the game: that its another linear generic themepark clone with boring combat attempting to cash in on the famous IP with none of the gameplay or freedom of the single player games.