This month, chums, if you'll indulge me, we're going to take a slight detour from the world of video games, and venture gingerly into the "real" world.

Don't be afraid.

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The reason for this detour is that I'm going to try to teach you an important general lesson about life, which can also be applied to the world of games.

(Which is convenient, contractually.)

Because there are certain ways of behaving that will simply never get you anywhere, viewers. To illustrate this, we're going to start by going back in history a very long way indeed.

Bear with me for a bit.

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Back in 5000BC, the ancient Sumerians believed that toothache was caused by evil "tooth worms". This belief went unchallenged for thousands of years.

Then in 1200BC, a Greek bloke called Aesculapius decided that there were, in fact, more sensible, medically-sound reasons for tooth decay, and that everyone else was stupid.

"Shut up, Aesculapius," said everyone. "It's not nice to go around saying everyone else is stupid. Just be nice."

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Later, around the year 1600, the Earth was the centre of the universe. All the other planets, suns and stars revolved around it. Everybody knew this to be an empirical fact.

Everyone, that is, except a chap called Copernicus, who insisted that the Earth in fact revolved around the Sun and that everyone else was stupid.

"Shut up, Copernicus," said everyone. "It's not nice to go around saying everyone else is stupid. Just be nice."

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We now leap forward to the early 1800s, where we meet Charles Darwin. Darwin lived in a world, everyone believed, entirely created in less than a week by an all-powerful god, called God.

"Rubbish," said Darwin. "It's patently obvious that all living things are created by evolution, for example from apes. You're all just stupid."

"Shut up, Darwin," said everyone. "It's not nice to go around saying everyone else is stupid. Just be nice."

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For our last day in history, we arrive at 1939. Hitler has been stomping all over Europe, but everyone thinks he's going to stop now, and that he's essentially a reasonable man.

Everyone except Winston Churchill, who offers the opinion that Hitler is a git, who must be stopped at all costs, and that everyone else is stupid.

"Shut up, Churchill," said everyone. "It's not nice to go around saying everyone else is stupid. Just be nice."

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And finally, we fast-forward almost to the present day - 1995, in fact, when Interplay released Rise Of The Robots, a much-hyped beat-'em-up. It was, agreed all the previews and even some reviews, (going to be) fantastic.

A few reviewers, though, said the game was awful and gave it a pasting, saying everyone else was just being stupid.

"Shut up, reviewers," said everyone. "It's not nice to go around saying everyone else is stupid. Just be nice."

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Hopefully, all but the very dimmest of you will have grasped the point by now.

Sometimes, everyone else IS just being stupid or rubbish or wrong.

(This contention is admirably supported by practically every games magazine in the country, for a start.)

Sometimes, absolutely everyone else is spouting the most wrong-headed and appalling drivel, and no-one seems prepared to stand up and say so.

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And sometimes, someone DOES have to say something. Even if that means upsetting someone (or even everyone) else by pointing out their stupid/uselessness.

(After all, it's not YOUR fault if they're stupid or useless, is it?)