Games that you just don't understand the appeal of

EGM1966 said:
Are people seriously saying they can't understand the appeal of shooters and games like Minecraft/LBP? I mean I get not liking them, but failing to understand their appeal?

One is surely a digital version of running around playing Cowboys & Indians (if its PC to use that term) with your friends (right down to being sure you got someone and seeming to miss) and the other is the digital equivalent of "make believe" whether using wooden blocks or lego to make stuff and create games with.

TBH the only games I struggle with are the deep simulators of mundane tasks but even that I guess you can see a certain appeal for certain people.
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That's pretty much my take on it as well.

Different strokes for different folks.

I have pretty narrow genre interestes these days--mainly just single-player shooters (FPS and TPS), some WRPGs, an occasional JRPG and a platformer here and there is about it. I'll mix in some other stuff here and there, but that's mostly what I have fun with as I prefer narrative driven experiences rather than gameplay focused games most of the time.

There are plenty of games/genres I just don't like at all--MMORPGs, strategy games, sim games, MOBAs, fighting games, Ninja Gaiden, Dark Souls etc. But I can see why others like them.
 
genbatzu said:
I like platformers, not a lot, but some of them. and I really enjoyed SMB 1-3 on my NES (long, long time ago).
I also played some new "iterations" on Wii and (3)DS, but never finished them, because I got bored of them pretty fast. I don't get why they are selling so much, when it's basically the same as every other mario jump n' run game before. And as far as I can remember, you don't play a Mario game for the story either (usually the princes get's kidnapped). So... it's basically the same as CoD, just in another genre with another target group. at least thats my opinion/impression
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Plenty of younger generations of gamers who haven't played the old Mario games. For them the NSMB games, 3D Land/World are their SMB1-3, or Mario 64 etc.
 
Every first person shooter campaign. Why? It's a hallway where guys pop up and you shoot! I have played games people claimed weren't like this and they all are! I don't get it!

Tekken.
 
angrygnat said:
Devil May Cry series , Bayonetta, God of War series, Octodad: Dadliest Catch. (That game is infuriating!) Dead Rising 1. Any of the COD series after World at War.
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If you get Word at War or any COD before, you get the new too.

It's basically the same kind of game, you know action, multiplayer, shooting.

It's just some hint, try harder you'll get it.
 
R dott B said:
The Souls series. The combat, movement, graphics etc. are so bad in them.
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Triggerhappytel said:
Please tell me why Souls has bad combat and then show me a game which does it better. And what's wrong with the movement? Please elaborate.
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Please respond; I'm not being argumentative but I'm genuinely interested to discuss this.

Renekton said:
He probably wants GoW or Batman Arkham type.
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That's the thing; I'd like to see how anyone could possibly reach the conclusion that the combat is bad. In my opinion no other 'medieval' action-adventure comes close to the combat in Souls, with the possible exception of Dragon's Dogma, but even that's going for a very different style to these games, and lack the nuance or depth of Souls' combat.
 
Pillville said:
Story
Characters
Set Pieces
Exploration
Mission types
Enemy types
Progressing through a level/world/game instead of keep going until time runs out
etc...
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I'm aware of that. I was just showing how you can oversimplify every kind of game to make it look like a trivial, boring activity. RPGs? kill monsters, fill bars. Racing games? drive a car. Platformers? jump around, collect stuff. FPS? shoot people. Where's the fun?
 
Aaron-Lagann said:
Every first person shooter campaign. Why? It's a hallway where guys pop up and you shoot! I have played games people claimed weren't like this and they all are! I don't get it!
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STALKER, Crysis 1, and simulations like ARMA or Operation Flashpoint all use wide-open areas that give the player room to plan and maneuver. Hell, even Far Cry 2 and 3 do a good job of this in some parts.
 
danmaku said:
I'm aware of that. I was just showing how you can oversimplify every kind of game to make it look like a trivial, boring activity. RPGs? kill monsters, fill bars. Racing games? drive a car. Platformers? jump around, collect stuff. FPS? shoot people. Where's the fun?
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This whole thread could be named "oversimplify a game/genre you don't like to justify your dislike".
I'm guilty too.
 
Souls series. Some of this most boring and lifeless games I've ever played. I didn't even really find them difficult. I just got bored about halfway through and stopped playing. Also the design being quite ugly didn't help either.
 
World of Warcraft (or MMO overall)

Endless grinding. After playing for a half year (because, friends) I was fed up with all the boredom and left. I can't believe I lasted that much...
 
jonno394 said:
Minecraft - I just don't get it (or any of the other resource/building titles like Terraria)
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Terraria is not really like Minecraft. Terraria worlds actually have things in them for the player to do, an interesting progression through content. Vanilla Minecraft is a sandbox where the player has to make their own fun. I personally hated Minecraft while I played through Terraria multiple times. Terraria shares aspects of Minecraft like building a base and crafting a bunch of pointless bullshit so you can post screenshots on internet forums, but it also has some genuinely good RPG gameplay, exploration, combat and loot.
 
Triggerhappytel said:
Please respond; I'm not being argumentative but I'm genuinely interested to discuss this.



That's the thing; I'd like to see how anyone could possibly reach the conclusion that the combat is bad. In my opinion no other 'medieval' action-adventure comes close to the combat in Souls, with the possible exception of Dragon's Dogma, but even that's going for a very different style to these games, and lack the nuance or depth of Souls' combat.
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I'm not sure I'd consider it bad, though I would say very much overhyped. I hate hate getting displaced by a (blocked) attack and falling backwards into a cliff, and some of the rest feels janky and slow. Lots of kiting/strafing and not a lot of combo'ing.
 
Even with the games/genres that I don't personally enjoy playing, I can usually grasp what others enjoy about them. Sometimes this leads me to playing games and genres I wouldn't otherwise play and finding myself enjoying them: roguelikes and first-person dungeon crawlers were like this, and now they're two of my favorite genres. I'll probably never play MMORPGs or MOBAs, but tons of people love them and I'd hate to see them disappear.

A bigger issue with me is games I'm interested in that don't click with me. I want to love Resident Evil 4 so badly. I'll buy a used copy, boot up the game, be totally smitten by the atmosphere, love the presentation, and find myself completely incapable of beating 1-1. I'll give it a few tries, but I've never really understood what the game wants me to do. So, I'll put it away, and try it again a few months later with the same result. Eventually, I'll give up and sell/trade/gift my copy of Resident Evil 4. And then it starts again. This is how I ended up owning Resident Evil 4 on PS2, GCN, Wii, and finally, PS2 again over the course of seven years. I still haven't beaten 1-1, but I've recognized the pattern and won't let go of my copy this time.

Aaron-Lagann said:
Every first person shooter campaign. Why? It's a hallway where guys pop up and you shoot! I have played games people claimed weren't like this and they all are! I don't get it!
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hey have you ever played doom :)
 
I don't get the Sims at all.
I already manage people and have kids. Why would I wanna spend time telling some "Go to work. Make friends. Buy food. Go piss."
 
Orayn said:
Is it a hallway if you can progress in any direction you want?

Unless you're just defining a hallway as any non-infinite area in which a game takes place. In that case, yeah, still hallways.
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It's all hallways. The size doesn't matter, the invisible hallway around where the enemies are makes it the same regardless of how much open space is around them.
 
Souls series. I really don't get why people love them. Admittedly I haven't played a whole lot of Demon's Souls and only got up to Blighttown in Dark, but nothing really enthralled me. They're just kind of boring.

Really don't understand the hype.
 
I can understand why someone would like just about every kind of game, but in a general sense I'll say I don't understand people who play games that bring them more frustration than fun. MOBAs are a big genre for this. Anecdotally speaking every MOBA player I know freely admits to being frustrated with the game of their choice and its community. When asked why they still play the answer tends to be "I don't know, it's addictive". I watch videos online to see if I can get the appeal and all I can think is "why not just play an RTS?"

I don't know. If you like MOBAs, good for you. It just seems like an unlikely genre to have taken off the way it has.
 
Turn-based jRPG's. I don't understand why so many people are nostalgic for these when the combat in these games is fundamentally flawed:

-no movement: greatly limits any sort of tactics and is the case in almost any jRPG. When there is movement, it's a separate resource, meaning you can move your full movement range and attack/cast a spell in the same turn without having to make difficult choices about what to prioritize.

-no friendly fire: you never have to make a difficult choice about whether to use an area of effect spell while your melee party members are surrounding the enemy, because it simply doesn't affect them in most jRPG's.

-real-time elements in turn-based games: one of the dumbest things you can design in your game, since it essentially penalizes players who want to think their turns through and apply strategy. The ATB system in Final Fantasy does this, and I believe Valkyria Chronicles is also guilty of this.
 
Aaron-Lagann said:
It's all hallways. The size doesn't matter, the invisible hallway around where the enemies are makes it the same regardless of how much open space is around them.
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So if AI characters navigate somewhere in an environment, the whole thing is a hallway? Damn, I guess that means all action games are just shitty hallway simulators then.

(In all seriousness, you should check out Crysis 1, the enemies can do neat things like patrolling, flanking, and fanning out to find you if you're spotted.)
 
Orayn said:
So if AI characters navigate somewhere in an environment, the whole thing is a hallway? Damn, I guess that means all action games are just shitty hallway simulators then.

(In all seriousness, you should check out Crysis 1, the enemies can do neat things like patrolling, flanking, and fanning out to find you if you're spotted.)
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The only different between a first person shooter and a game like Devil May Cry is that in Devil May Cry it's actually fun to fight the enemies.

And I've played 3, which I hated.
 
Deified Data said:
I can understand why someone would like just about every kind of game, but in a general sense I'll say I don't understand people who play games that bring them more frustration than fun. MOBAs are a big genre for this. Anecdotally speaking every MOBA player I know freely admits to being frustrated with the game of their choice and its community. When asked why they still play the answer tends to be "I don't know, it's addictive". I watch videos online to see if I can get the appeal and all I can think is "why not just play an RTS?"

I don't know. If you like MOBAs, good for you. It just seems like an unlikely genre to have taken off the way it has.
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Every competitive game implies frustration (including real life sports). You keep playing because you think the reward is worth the effort. Besides, online RTS can be even worse than MOBAs (you can't even blame your teammates!).
 
Aaron-Lagann said:
The only different between a first person shooter and a game like Devil May Cry is that in Devil May Cry it's actually fun to fight the enemies.

And I've played 3, which I hated.
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Crysis 2 and 3 are literally hallways compared to the first, which had enough hiding spaces, structures, forests, and open terrain to keep things interesting. Sadly, it does get much more hallway-like around 3/4 of the way through.
 
BinaryPork2737 said:
The irony of your avatar is great.

I can understand why people wouldn't like those aspects, but I would hardly call it dumb game design. Real time elements should force a player to stratigize faster, for instance.
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No, they shouldn't, because the whole idea behind turn-based combat (and anything similar like chess) is strategical decision-making WITHOUT the pressure of time. It's dumb to punish the player by advancing time and having enemies attack while he's scrolling a menu to select a spell or an item. It's also unfair because the enemy A.I. doesn't have to scroll those lists.
 
MOBAs, Animal Crossing, Terraria

I tried to get into DOTA 2 in beta. I just couldnt. Terraria was fun for a bit, but then I really dont see any long term play to it.
 
The only game I can think of is Peggle. Even ignoring the off-putting merry-go-round art and music, its mechanical appeal eludes me just as much as that of pachinko. I'm guessing there's a psychological effect similar to that of betting: you make a decision that largely depends on gut feeling and then anxiously observe the outcome, attributing it to your cunning/planning, if it's beneficial. It leaves me cold and bored.
 
Almost every game I can understand the appeal of, no matter what the franchise or genre.

The one game series I can't understand is the Musou games. This is kind of an odd statement for me to make as I myself LOVE the majority of the Musou Warriors games as do many others, but when you break the game into pieces, almost every aspect of the game is awful.

Many of Musou fans feel the same as me. How can a game that objectively is so bad yet I and many others enjoy it? It just baffles me even thinking about it now.
 
I played Minecraft once with friends and found it boring, but I like Animal Crossing so whatever.

I guess the main thing I like about Animal Crossing is that there's either a shit ton of things to do or nothing to do depending on how you look at it; you can either make the most out of what you have in town to complete your various collections / upgrades or just idle around and talk to roaming villagers. Plus catching a pricey / rare fish brings me immense enjoyment...
 
Aaron-Lagann said:
The only different between a first person shooter and a game like Devil May Cry is that in Devil May Cry it's actually fun to fight the enemies.
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That's subjective, and there's one or two more differences than that, especially when you consider how many types of FPS's there are.
 
Marjar said:
Souls series. I really don't get why people love them. Admittedly I haven't played a whole lot of Demon's Souls and only got up to Blighttown in Dark, but nothing really enthralled me. They're just kind of boring.

Really don't understand the hype.
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Yeah count me in on this one too. I don't get it either. I've tried. But I just don't get it. Yay, I died?
 
Aruhamel said:
No, they shouldn't, because the whole idea behind turn-based combat (and anything similar like chess) is strategical decision-making WITHOUT the pressure of time. It's dumb to punish the player by advancing time and having enemies attack while he's scrolling a menu to select a spell or an item. It's also unfair because the enemy A.I. doesn't have to scroll those lists.
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There is a Wait option in the menus that stops the timer when you are in the skill menus though. I use it all the time because i hate being wrecked while i actually wanna think things through, so i agree about it being dumb.

On topic:
I dont get how something like animal crossing or tomodachi life can sell as much as they do.
Minecraft i can understand, when i was a kid i liked playing with legos a lot and its the same concept with far more options on what you can make.
 
ronito said:
Yeah count me in on this one too. I don't get it either. I've tried. But I just don't get it. Yay, I died?
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No love for Metroidvania level design that slowly unfolds over the course of the game and gives you new hidden pathways and access to secrets that were neatly tucked away in places you thought you'd already explored?

No love for tense, precise combat where every move counts?

No love for heavy dark fantasy atmosphere and non-conventional storytelling?

No way of imagining how someone else could like any of those things and enjoy the game because of them?

Or you're right and it really is just a bunch of dumb people going "Yay I died." for no good reason.

I might be overdoing it in this thread, but the concept of "I DO NOT LIKE THIS, THEREFORE I CANNOT COMPREHEND HOW ANYONE COULD EVER LIKE THIS" really bothers me because it strikes me as incredibly immature.

If this was a "Popular games don't don't 'click' for you" thread, I would understand and have plenty to contribute.
 
The Souls series. They look super bland and boilerplate to me. There's nothing appealing about either the gameplay or the art style from what I've seen.
 
The Mass Effect series is utter shit. Some of the art and story elements are cool, at least.
 
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