Thought Piece: LUDUS ARTIUM

Intro

I don’t think anyone’s a stranger to bad reviews. As in, reviews of low quality that unfairly or absurdly criticize their subject. Anywhere from IGN’s infamous “Too Much Water- 7.8/10” to some no name comment on Google acting snobbishly despite choosing a casual restaurant. 

Of course, it becomes less of a mere eye roll when you are their subject of review. For anyone not used to dealing with criticism, even the absurd kind, this can be quite a bother. 

But beyond just being subject to bad criticism, we should have genuine concern because these kinds are frequently found. In fact, there seems to be a culture of criticism that has been widespread. 

Bad and Unfair Reviews

It doesn’t matter where you go online, you will find bad reviews. It could be about any subject. 

There is mockery of musicians from hundreds of years ago. Potshots are taken at composers that are not held to the level of legends. Some people even have the gall or the ego to take down great composers of their respective eras. 

There are complaints about restaurants with vague or even unrelated words describing the food. After all, if a dish is known for being too sweet, is it likely to be too salty? Not to mention that dreaded buzzword, “authentic”! What does that word even mean? Is the pizza a monk makes in a monastery not authentic because he’s not from Italy and the ingredients are homegrown? Is this Chinese American food Chinese or not? The entire staff is all first generation, completely ethnically Han Chinese immigrants. They also bought their ingredients from other first generation ethnically Han Chinese immigrants. 

Wait a moment… Who said we were aiming for “authentic”? 

To criticize someone for not meeting what they never set out to do is absurd. Why would you complain about a chocolate chip cookie not being spicy and sour? How about a poem for not having pictures? Even worse, who criticizes a surgeon for not removing wisdom teeth when dealing with a tumor? 

Do most of these critics even know what they are talking about? Oftentimes, they do not. When they do not know what you are doing and they criticize you for it, there really isn’t any worth in their words. Just another annoyance you have to grow from. 

At best, the bad critics use their slightest bit of knowledge as means of raising themselves. Maybe they flaunt their trip to China or their college course on music composition. Or maybe they use their new instrument experience to nitpick on a professional’s unorthodox posture. Yet their approach lacks proper judgment. Surprisingly, it’s more about being heard than having an opinion. 

But I know Someone who said “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  

What about Acceptable Criticism?

This by no means removes negative criticism from its value. If there is a flaw to be warned of, it warrants a message to the makers and to the potential receivers. One can imagine plenty of political examples. But I’m sure we’re more familiar with popular culture commentary videos. Perhaps you have seen numerous videos about bad video games. How about a video on something controversial in the context of a hobby, like an ugly crossover in a trading card game?

The more dedicated take downs of objectively bad products or issues can very well be fun at first, but there’s a point where said media starts to decay. Maybe you start to think, “Why are you playing this game? Go play something else, it’s better for your mental health!” Or even worse, “And you’re still buying this product, despite the company’s continuous poor choices?” On the opposite aisle, there is obsessing over “Ha-ha, the bad product company is losing money!” cycling with “Oh no! They’re still a big company!” 

The issues with the card game Magic the Gathering are prime examples of this. In recent memory, the game has been plagued with poor artistic choices or parasitic product design. The multitude of critics online who built their channels around the game constantly pull up each issue. They even make numerous jokes about the most disliked products. Yet, they still play the game constantly and buy and review new products. They have done nothing that would risk their sponsorship with the game’s company, Wizards of the Coast. Nor have they made any moves against them besides asking for simple reforms that fall on deaf ears. WotC has not stopped their train of flaws. 

We hear all of these problems and see them over and over again. Issue. Complaints. Then, either a withdrawal from the bad item or complacency with it. Then, a new issue arises. The cycle repeats. 

Isn’t there something that can be done besides just mere “mean words” thrown at bad companies? Or are we subject to only complaining about this sort of problem? 

Don’t Wait For Heroes!

I have learned something online about battling against bad consumer product companies. According to Dave Greene, also known as The Distributist, it is not enough to just boycott them and hurt their sales. They will always find a way to recuperate while loud and visible complaints become forgotten. 

In his livestream, “How to Kill Magic the Gathering”, he stresses two main keys to truly strike back:

• First, to make a quality product to replace what they create.

• Second, to build an organic community so that you may inspire each other and keep creating. 

In this case, Dave pushes us to print our own custom cards or proxy cards and to organize independent and local tournaments instead. Yet the aforementioned content creators make no move. They would not risk moving away from their dependent content, it is easier to keep crawling back to the company than to make their channels stand alone. 

Anyone can criticize. You don’t even need a phone or a keyboard to do it, complaining to the waiter is good enough. You don’t even need any “unique” experiences, just asking to switch a meal or a drink out for free will do. You don’t even need eloquent– nay, intelligible language, a temper tantrum will already get you a massive “audience” and occasionally “collaborators”. 

Yet you can threaten even massive corporations by pulling their IP and product from under them. Even if it’s as simple as using famous artwork on homemade trading cards and playing with only those cards in your local community. 

How much more so must the impact be for other areas! You can write a minuet or even a fanfare. Surely that will be more impressive than joining a crowd making fun of Louis Spohr for the tenth time. You can draw a funny comic strip. It must be better than complaining about recycled reading material or shoehorned messages in the media. And clearly it is more meritorious to run a restaurant and cook your own food than to eat and complain about slop all day!

This, of course, is all much easier said than done. No one makes a masterpiece overnight. No, there is always something that builds up to make it. Sometimes it is tragedy and physical trauma. Sometimes it’s love, curiosity, or inside jokes. Sometimes it’s the result of seemingly unrelated circumstances aligning well. 

Yet it is always from focus and work on the craft, possibly the exact same item going through many iterations. 

Not everyone will be a new Mozart or Beethoven, an Ovid or Virgil, or a Shigeru Miyamoto or Yuji Horii. And certainly no one else can become a being that’s infinitely loving, merciful and just, who can raise himself from the dead. Nevertheless, don’t lock yourself out from being as close as you can be. Doing something good will make you much more like them than the one who does nothing. 

Conclusion: The Man in the Arena

While the annoying critics were in our minds, my brother ran into a quote by President Theodore Roosevelt. 

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best know in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Sometimes, especially when your job or craft is tough, it does feel like an arena. A ‘game’, ludus, in an amphitheater, fighting against beasts and beast-like men as well. All around you, there are people screaming at you or for you. Most of them watch your struggles and battles to be entertained. 

It is far more entertaining for them to watch a lion fight than it is to face one. They can also cheer on their champion without risking any loss if their champion falls. 

 Only a few feel compelled to do something great like you do. At best, only a few stand by your side in the fight or helped you prepare for this moment. Nevertheless, pay no mind to the mocking outsiders. Keep in the fight, whether you win a visible palm or an invisible crown.