Why Do People Buy Games That Are Rubbish

[SomeNaiveChump]

IMHO your idea of the "closest" was pretty much unplayable.

but if they lowered the difficulty, it'd have been good, yes? that's closer than anyone else got in 2003.

[PaB]

I'm sure someone will have done this by the end of the thread, but of course there's shit games.

There's games which simply don't function as games, through bugs, crashes, assorted glitches and whatever.

Well thats an entirely different kettle of fish isn't it? If something is so bug ridden that it is rendered virtually unplayable, then the underlying quality is irrelevant.

Prime example of this is the people that simply gave up with Half Life 2 through the problems they were having, despite it being, IMO, the game of the year.

Bugs aside, and by bugs, I mean bugs that actually prevent you from playing the game, not the odd arm poking through a bit of scenery, I don;t see how any game can be labelelled as being universally shit, and anyone who likes it must be mentally derranged.

[SomeNaiveChump]

The strange thing about slow down is that most people are completely oblivious to it when it happens in a game they love. A good example is Halo, a game that many on this forum seem to think is a gift that comes direct from the Gods. It has some dreadful slowdown, especially on the final section of the last level where it seriously affects gameplay, but does anyone mention it? Ever?

And lets not forget the rose-tinted spectacles that so many here view N64 Goldeneye with.

the thing with the slowdown in Halo is, it only affects the single-player mode. which is not why I hold the game in high regard (awesome multiplayer - system link/online). and with GoldenEye, the game was so far in advance of anything else at the time in every other respect, such that slowdown was pretty much its only perceived flaw.

[KieronGillen]

Well thats an entirely different kettle of fish isn't it? If something is so bug ridden that it is rendered virtually unplayable, then the underlying quality is irrelevant.

Well, apart from people claiming that it's impossible to describe any game as "Shit".

KG

[SomeNaiveChump]

Well thats an entirely different kettle of fish isn't it? If something is so bug ridden that it is rendered virtually unplayable, then the underlying quality is irrelevant.

Prime example of this is the people that simply gave up with Half Life 2 through the problems they were having, despite it being, IMO, the game of the year.

Bugs aside, and by bugs, I mean bugs that actually prevent you from playing the game, not the odd arm poking through a bit of scenery, I don;t see how any game can be labelelled as being universally shit, and anyone who likes it must be mentally derranged.

it's because they have massive flaws which should've been spotted by any playtester, and - get this - flaws DECREASE the enjoyment to be had from a game! AMAZING!

[amanset]

I'm sure someone will have done this by the end of the thread, but of course there's shit games.

There's games which simply don't function as games, through bugs, crashes, assorted glitches and whatever.

By the way: applying a "Everything Subjective" argument here to say "Well, some people may like bugs" gets a biff on the nose from the missing-the-point-of-postmodernism police.

KG

I'd say that the amount of games that are so poor that no-one can get enjoyment out of them is very small.

OK, maybe "no" was a bit over the top, but I was trying to make a point. This thread, many threads before it and no doubt many in the future are overflowing with elitism. It reminds me of cooler-than-thou indie kids with their obscure sell-only-twelve-copies 12"s that go on about how shit pop music is.

It all comes down to what you like. Games, much like film, music, books and whatnot, don't necessarily have a way of quantifying shitness beyond being technically shit. But technical attributes are not what it is all about, is it? Clerks is technically a bad film, made with shit equipment and with a director who admitted that he is a poor director, but it doesn't make it a bad film. Some of my favourite music sounds like it was recorded in a garage on falling-apart second hand equipment, but that doesn't make it shit. The last book I read was an abridged copy of "My Life as a Dog" in Swedish and I fucking loved it, even though the changes to the text made it technically very badly written.

You have to be very careful looking at things from a purely technical angle.

[amanset]

but if they lowered the difficulty, it'd have been good, yes? that's closer than anyone else got in 2003.

If they'd lowered the difficulty I may have been in a position to make a judgement about it. I may still have hated it.

[McFly]

and just like films and music, the amount of crap that people buy has led to an almost complete lack of anything which could be described as 'good'.

cue "Game developer idol"

[Jim Miles]

I think people often cite technical reasons when they criticise games because it's easier than looking for the more complicated reason they're not enjoying something. They don't even realise they're doing it.

Yes, a game can be so technically bad as to be unplayable. Yes, a game's technical failings can detract from the gameplay. Usually when people don't like a game it is for a more important reason though.

In the Metroid Prime 2 thread I'm trying to justify why I feel like I'm wasting my life whenever I play it, but really I have no bloody clue why it is, I just don't find it stimulating. When someone says they like a game because they can mod their car or break someone's nose, it's true. They get enjoyment from that, even if technically the game is shit. We get enjoyment from other things in games but rarely are we as explicit in identifying precisely what they are.

I agree with what Dreamcatcher said earlier.

[El Stevo]

People sometimes buy games that are rubbish because people sometimes enjoy games that are rubbish.

A non-gaming person may buy a rubbish game having never played anything like it and thoroughly enjoy himself because it's the best game he's ever played. If you'd never seen a game like it before, MoH: Rising Sun would be mind-blowing.

It's not until you go and play something like Half-Life that you gain some perspective.

On top of that, there are of course games that appeal to some and not others. It all comes down to the individual.

[Mars]

Yeah, but I was just pissing around and trying to annoy you.

Oh, you believed me? Whoops.

Why you....