I agree completely. Reviews are a way of boiling away what doesn’t work. Being mean spirited in a review, to me, means one thing: that person has never tried to make a game, or has failed at it. Making a game is hard work. On a big budget game, there are writers, level designers, programmers, artists, musicians, etc. Someone making their own game has to wear all of these hats. And that is an even more difficult, and often lonely, thing to do, but more rewarding if you succeed. And, more personal if you ‘fail’.
I think the main thing everyone should remember is to have fun. These are games. If the author is having fun creating and playing the game, the audience should, too. And if people don’t like it, figure out why, and come back at the problem from a different angle. Every game author benefits from a game that strikes the right chord and reaches a larger audience, because more people learn the mechanics of that sort of game, and become familiar with it. No one can do this alone, though. Hopefully beta testing will shake out all the problems. And if it doesn’t, and the game is released, it’s fair game for review. (And hopefully the review is fair.)
We are not the privileged authors of the meaning of our own works and deeds. You have chosen to make your works public, and that means they can now function as standards of comparison in a critical tradition.
Comparison can be done for good or for ill. It is not an evil in and of itself.
There is no judgement without comparison, because there is no identity without difference.