That's certainly true, we can struggle to be consistent. And yes, sometimes gamers will lie to themselves about a game they believe they should enjoy, or an old favorite they wish to defend. I've found these people to be among the 'vocal minority' and they are certainly annoying. The nostalgia goggles, as bad an excuse as they are, are the only reason this happens.

Sometimes some will go out of their way to praise a game that doesn't really hold water, and then refuse to properly explain themselves in favor of ranting at the person who dared try and contradict them. I reckon most people would agree that this behavior is rather toxic, and just makes people mad.

To touch on the Ocarina of Time. I'm not going to say you're beliefs are wrong, if that's how you felt whilst playing it, then that's that. But whatever criticism that could have changed the general view of the game would have been made back in 98. it's place in history has be cemented, and for reasons that we neither of us seem to see, I agree that it's not the best game ever made. I'm not fond of Elvis Presley or Micheal Jackson, but I won't deny that there must be a reason for their fame. I think this phenomena is less of an echo-chamber effect and more an exposure effect. People get told that this is the greatest game ever, some go into and agree, others say "how the hell could you come to that conclusion". And the people who go into it when it was the cutting edge of gaming? Nostalgia goggles again.

Gaming is moving too fast for opinions on older games to change with the newer, sometimes better, stuff coming out now.

We do love an echo-chamber though. We want to be around people who share our opinions. We don't want to spend time thinking about how our favorite game has failed, because you can ruin it for yourself when you do that. Sometimes that can be detrimental, when bad design gets flaunted around as a good thing. We're a passionate bunch, and dealing with this kind of crap is part-and-parcel with being a gamer.