With you, and I hate the destructiveness of it. I notice thought, it's those who have least to offer are first to criticise. Look at the comments of those who are genuinely good (eg. BeeOnRope here on HN) and you see a far more tolerant and constructive responses.

"People seem to gain something by trying to be the person hardest and last to impress. "

It's not considered positive to be impressed easily and often, that's similar to how a child acts, which equates with immature for most people. Also, if you are hard to impress then you must have experienced more than those easily impressed. For some it's a way to appear superior with just a simple opinion. Basically arrogant assholes.

The alternative is cynicism but then again that's also sometimes used to seem elite.

I don’t disagree with anything you or the parent post said. And while I don’t feel like I’m quick to criticize HN posts, I wonder if part of it is that negative/critical comments spark more interesting discussion?

E.g. I saw the CoD video, then clicked to see comments. And while my first thoughts were “yeah, this is pretty stunning,” I didn’t have anything else to say.

I wonder if most that agreed also didn’t have much to say? Especially since this wasn’t a “Show HN” where more positive feedback is targeting the author. There’s no one here to give positive (or negative) feedback to, so discussing criticism may be the more interesting discussion?

But I suppose this is pretty amazing tech, too, and there is likely something interesting to discuss there.

Negative thinking usually makes you sound smarter than positive thinking, with less effort. Not a criticism, just an observation. I think you're right that an empty thread would be worse than a bunch of nitpicks.

There's an infinite number of reasons something can be wrong: there's only a few it can be right.

Also, basement internet drastically underappreciates the magnitude of effort that goes into creation.

I don't play CoD, but I can appreciate the years of development of work that likely went into this (+ the engine, the libraries, the mocap animations, the sound work, etc).

Is it perfect? No. But it would take an incredibly large and well-funded team a lot of calendar time to produce anything that surpasses it.

So kudos to the entire team at Infinity Ward for making something and shipping!

It is kind of sad though, and I say this as someone who has been trying to analyze more of my own negative reactions and be more positive. A video like this has so much potential to to inspire. And in that vein I do think it’s pretty cool, I hope at some point someone makes a “game” or simulation that’s just an open world earth with some land air and see vehicles. (Time travel would be neat too, but that’s a lot of continent) Moon would be cool to, though a bit less varied :-)

This is an even bigger issue, people feeling like their opinion is so important they HAVE to have one and they HAVE to share it.

If you don't have anything to say beyond "yeah it looks awesome", upvote and move on.

I distinctly remember a shift in the quality of my colleagues when I started noticing they all pointed out what was good about my equipment/work (I’m a video/audio producer and editor). They saved critiques and suggestions for when I solicited them.

I always attributed it to people needing to reaffirm that they are experts. They don’t really care what they are talking about, they just want everybody to hear them contribute. Perhaps it’s because they are defensive about their own skill level and are feeling “imposter syndrome.” Or maybe they are just super egotistical, who knows. Psychology is complicated haha

One adage I like: "pessimists sound smart, optimists make money."