Alzrius
The EN World kitten
The issue isn't one of subjective opinion versus objective critique; that particular debate ultimately leads to Descartes-level solipsism and "nothing beyond 'I think, therefore I am' is objectively true!"(Bold emphasis added.) I don't follow the bolded claim. How do subjective personal opinions of an RPG fail to qualify as design criticism? When I express my opinion of a game's design aren't Icritiquingcriticizing that design, by definition?
Rather, the issue, as I see it, is one of talking about you (in the general sense of "you") versus talking about the material under discussion.
I'm of the opinion that critiquing something involves an attempt to understand what goals the thing in question has set for itself, and then explaining why you think it did or did not achieve those goals, following up with how artfully it did so (if it achieved them) or why it failed (if it didn't achieve them). It's ultimately still your opinion, but with regard to insights that you've had regarding the thing in question.
By contrast, "I didn't like it" tells us little about said thing, and more about you, i.e. what you like/don't like and why you feel that way. That's usually not as helpful for most people, since they're going to have their own opinions (and reasons for having those opinions) and so doesn't give them much in the way of useful information with regards to said thing.