Is the new meta relevant for reviews?
Fingerspins are still incorporated in designs and trick tutorials, and a lot of yo-yoing doesn’t have to do with competition. It’s a flashy trick that looks sweet, and kids love it… and I love it, too.
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Fair enough. I’ll have to take your word for it though cuz I don’t see thumb grinds or finger spin tricks very often in trick videos these days. Not saying they don’t happen; just that I don’t see either very often today. I would never guess they were terribly popular right now based on the trick content I’m exposed to.
Fingerspin is my favorite trick 
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I posted above a good way to evaluate different aspects of a yo-yos play. Stuff is only subjective to an extent and a systematic approach can actually use that limited subjectivity to establish more definitive opinions. Also not everything is subjective. A yo-yos ability to handle speed play does not change from player to player, only the skill level changes. Same thing with stability.
Whether something feels heavy or light in play exists in an area of only slight subjectivity, but using the format I discuss above you can use a person’s subjectivity to form opinions, as long as that person is consistent. If they aren’t consistent they shouldn’t be relied upon to review anything.
Edit: also not a fan of the idea that’s prevalent these days that everything is subjective. It’s a very postmodern idea, and I hate postmodernism. A good example is the idea that if someone enjoys something it’s good, and therefore quality is subjective. Nope, people can enjoy things that are objectively trash. No one is telling them not to enjoy it, but they can’t claim it is quality just based on how much they liked it.
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I wanna see some 3A fingerpsins! 
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I can’t even bind a fingerspin left handed 
3a fingerspin is possible, I have the concept in my head. The amount of people in the world that could actually do it is probably in the single digits though
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Just because they may not be as relevant in competitions does not mean they are not relevant to the larger percentage causally throwing.
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Yes, you are.
Until reviews are created by AI enabled robots, you will continue to see reviews that are highly influenced by the authors background, experience and desires. In other words, highly subjective…
And most likely include references to finger grinds, thumb grinds and wrist grinds…
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Yeah that is impressive. I mean it helps though that the dude’s mutant power is to break gravity!
Thumb grinds and fingerspins were popular at some point, but I don’t think they’ve ever been meta. Meta usually refers to contest meta for yoyos, and I don’t think they’ve ever been an extremely essential part of any freestyle, I’m wondering if you understand the term correctly.
Fingerspins and thumb grinds are two tricks that yoyos can be very capable or incapable of due to different cup designs and the presence of a IRG, almost all other tricks can be done on most 1a yoyos regardless if they can grind or fingerspin, I don’t see a problem in covering it in a review.
I think you should be thinking less about these things and playing more yoyo.
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Blockquote
I think if doorknobs could talk; zslane would have no hesitation standing in front of one and arguing for an hour about the critical relevance of the functionality of roundness.
Yoyo reviews most often; are an individuals personal view of a yoyos’ Performance from the reviewers’ point of view based directly from that persons’ skill set combined with a yoyos’ Potential within that skill set.
Results either recognized or suggested may be limited based on the reviewers’ actual skill level.
For example; I can give an hours worth of positive attributes of a yo-yo. But if I can’t do horizontal tricks; I obviously can’t/ won’t or don’t touch on a yo-yos potential for horizontal tricks.
… Simce 95 percent of All people that ever pick up a yo-yo; never enter any yo-yo competition at any level; directly defining the importance of a yoyos’ Competition potential is questionable at best.
Because fingerspins and thumb grinds may not be seen often in actual Yo-yo Contests; can only have a relevance of 5 percent at best.
Most of ‘us’ operate at a basic fun level. And not at a Battlebot/kill shot level of yo-yo play.
A Restaurant may have 190 items on the menu. And every one of the choices may be excellent. But the fact that you may only care for half of the choices; does not degrade or devalue the relevance of the entirety of the menu options.
Yo-yo reviews can potentially be like free verse poetry. They are not technically limited in scope to align with your individual interests of various specific performance standards.
In general; most of us willing to read or listen to yo-yo reviews; get what we can out of the reviews. And don’t waste any energy about the importance of why reviews should not focus any importance on anything we do not feel is relevant because we don’t see them in Contests.
When you read a yo-yo review; you are not reading directly from some kind of yo-yo Bible.
You are reading an individuals personal interpretation of his/her interaction with said yo-yo. And may have very little intent of identifying said yoyos’ suitability at a competition level.
…Remember when you go into that Restaurant again; don’t take a sharpe and start crossing out the selections you are not interested in. Just study the menu and pick the item(s) you want.
… PS round doorknobs are best.
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Totally agree with you apart from the round doorknob part.
Great for stopping your kids opening a door but I think that handles are by far easier to open, install and less prone to malfunction.
Although, veloceraptors have been known to open doors with handles so maybe there is some benefit for knobs.
Swings and roundabouts.
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Truth. There is a reason something is considered classic. Like many others, I rarely compete, rarely do speed combos, still enjoy thumb grinds, Spirit Bomb, just playing yoyo.
I do wish there would be reviews that were critical. It seems people have drifted from recognizing opinion as such. Just because I don’t like a yoyo doesn’t imply it isn’t a good yoyo. To me, when all reviewed yoyos are awesome, that is no different than all of them being mediocre or terrible. This isn’t the LEGO Movie where everything is awesome (now that song will he stuck in our heads all day long, you are welcome). Certainly no one wants to bash a product, especially from a brand whose other products you love, or, a brand your friend started. However, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with saying “out of these 3 similarly spec’d V shaped yoyos, this one changed direction easiest, this one came off plane when the others didn’t, and, this other brought me no joy”
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Perhaps if you were better at fingerspin and thumb grind tricks you would appreciate them demonstrated in reviews. Not trying to put belittle your yo skills, it’s just that these specific ‘old meta’ tricks are soooooooo fun they deserve to be in all reviews! Learn a short horizontal trick and finish it with a fingerspin and tornado bind and you’ll see what I’m talking about!!!
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aaah these are so good. I also like the horizontal to knee bounce stuff.
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I have no problem with reviewers covering these types of tricks. The biggest problem I have with them is that they are filled with generalities, buzzwords, and are basically just glorified advertisements talking about how great the yoyo is. Great for yoyo companies, but no so informative or revealing. Some are better than others, but in the end these are people who get free yoyos directly from the company they are reviewing, and are often “friends”. And quite honestly, id probably have a hard time as well giving a scathing review to a dude im casual friends with and who sends me his new yoyo for free to review and promote his product.
If im researching to buy a yoyo, I don’t take the reviews that seriously. There are a handful of guys on the forums who I trust to give their opinion on the yoyo more than a reviewer with an incentive to hype it. You can always do what Andy does and rotate out all of your yoyos on a frequent basis while minimally losing out via the BST if you have to get a feel for every new yoyo that comes out.
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As a new player, I watched a bunch of reviews when I was deciding what to buy for my first few throws. I have no idea what the current meta even is, and am still a bit fuzzy on what “meta” even means. But fingerspins and thumb grinds looked cool enough that I wanted to learn them, so that content was relevant to me.
As far as reviews in general go, I found them fun, but often of limited usefulness when it came to selecting what to actually buy. I found myself wishing for a “Consumer Reports” style summary, based on multiple players input. Honestly, my favorite purchases were based on reviews in which the reviewer looked to actually be having fun and really enjoying the throw, not necessarily the ones where they talked about how great it was.
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Yes, they are really fun! I’m working on a trick with a thumb grind in it right now. So close… “Why does it take me so long get better?!” I’ll post it when I have it.
I figure I can do some bit of a fingerspin on most yoyos, and it’s usually pretty evident from the hubs, so I’m not as concerned about that. Although sometimes you can’t tell if it’s convex, concave, or flat, so that’s useful info.
I do like to know if there’s an IGR, and hate it when I can’t tell if there is one from pictures of it.
@zslane, your criterion for relevancy is prevalence in competition, but I believe competitors are very much a minority in our hobby. Somebody please correct me, if I’m wrong.
Oh, I’m sure you’re right about that. But I always got the very strong impression that most new yoyos are designed based on what’s hot in the competition scene (the organic resurgence notwithstanding). A thread like this is good for re-orienting my understanding.
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Hmmm, I’m not sure about that. I think there are plenty of new yoyos marketed as casual throws that aren’t organic? I don’t have any data to back that up. It’s just my impression.
I can see your point about it maybe not being pertinent info for a competition yoyo. Still, lots of non-competitors like to throw competition yoyos… Plus, if a company includes those design elements, they must find them relevant to buyers.
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