Over the past several years, Tim Cain — the co-creator of the legendary Fallout franchise, and a veteran of Interplay Entertainment and Obsidian Entertainment — has run and maintained a fascinating YouTube channel on which he's shared an ocean of knowledge and stories about the gaming industry and his time in it.

Though Cain ultimately plans to end his channel soon — he says he's running out of topics to discuss, and also that he may end up focusing on making one more game before retiring — he's still making videos for the time being, with one of the most interesting new ones being "How The Internet Changed Game Design" that was published last week.

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Cain notes that while there's an upside to this — finding a content creator you trust that aligns with your preferences means they can be relied on to bring games you'll probably like to your attention — the glaring caveat is that people don't end up thinking for themselves, and instead just parrot someone else's views.

"So, they find someone that they just like, and then that person's opinion becomes their opinion," he added. "This has a positive side; it's easy to find someone who sides with your preferences, and therefore is a good guide for finding new games. ... But the negative to this is more and more people seem to be abdicating their own judgement to that of people they see online. It's like, 'I don't wanna think about it, you tell me what I should think about it.'"

As a journalist that's been entrenched in the games criticism space for nearly a full decade now, I wholly agree with what Cain is saying. Over the years, there's been a huge rise in feedback that's just been regurgitated from content creators instead of formed independently from players' own experiences.

On the flip side, many also decide they like a game simply because an influencer or an outlet they don't like doesn't, which I'd argue is equally unproductive.

In the end, it's a reminder that criticism is only valuable if it's being given by people forming their own views, even if it's natural to look to those we trust to see what they think. I hope that honest, well thought out feedback remains prevalent moving forward.

Do you agree with Tim Cain that video game criticism online has become more and more driven by what content creators think? I'm curious to hear your thoughts, so please share them in the comments and in our poll.

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Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he's been an avid fan since childhood. He's been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you'll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he's not writing or gaming, there's a good chance he's either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once. Follow him on X (Twitter).