On a technical level it might not be good, but if a game has a ridiculously sized audience, something about it was successful.
When I read Alpha Six comments and assessments of games, I realize he's not just judging his experience with the game. Because of his profession and background, he's also assessing the techniques used to create the game and how well they were pulled off. Which will inevitably make his opinions different from somebody who doesn't know how to make games, but is still an avid gamer.
It's a lot like the writing community. A person who writes novels will be able to scrutinize every other novel under the sun without even really meaning to. It doesn't make their opinion any more or less valid than anyone else's, but it does mean that they'll have a completely different view of a particular work than somebody who just reads. Very rarely do these two opinions come together.
Neither opinion is right, and neither opinion is wrong. Ultimately it should be left to history to decide which material is good and which material is not. Whichever games are still household titles in twenty years (who doesn't know Pac-Man?) were good games.
When I read Alpha Six comments and assessments of games, I realize he's not just judging his experience with the game. Because of his profession and background, he's also assessing the techniques used to create the game and how well they were pulled off. Which will inevitably make his opinions different from somebody who doesn't know how to make games, but is still an avid gamer.
It's a lot like the writing community. A person who writes novels will be able to scrutinize every other novel under the sun without even really meaning to. It doesn't make their opinion any more or less valid than anyone else's, but it does mean that they'll have a completely different view of a particular work than somebody who just reads. Very rarely do these two opinions come together.
Neither opinion is right, and neither opinion is wrong. Ultimately it should be left to history to decide which material is good and which material is not. Whichever games are still household titles in twenty years (who doesn't know Pac-Man?) were good games.