Whats worse, boring or bad?

tkscz

Member
A friend and I had a conversation about this subject on whether a bad game was worse than a boring game or vice versa. His opinion was that a bad game was worse as a boring game could at least be playable where a bad game might not be enjoyable at all. For me I feel a boring game is worse as with a bad game, there is someway to get fun out of it, but with a boring game, you just can't get anything from it.

So GAF, which do you think is worse, a bad game or a boring game?
 
I would much rather have a bad game that tries to do something new and fails rather than a boring game that does absolutely nothing new.
 
There are different shades of bad. Some of which can be very entertaining. There is only one shade to boring. And it is grey and nobody likes it.
 
If the bad game is frustratingly bad with controls or whatever I would say bad. I rush through boring games sometimes to get to the good parts people rave about.
 
If were taking the term bad to mean broken or technically flawed in a serious way I would say bad is always worse.

One players boring game is another ones GOTY, eg: some people love the grind of a JRPG and others can't stand it.
 
I hold the opposite opinion. A bad game can be amusing, funny and original whereas a boring game may not be any of those things. I'd rather a game be full of spirit and fail at realizing its goals than be a middling game that's unoriginal.
 
I'd rather play a bad game. At least there's a chance it could be funny or have some diamond in the rough feature.
 
Boring is the ultimate bad game. I can stomach a "bad" game if it has redeemable qualities, which it often does. A boring game I can't even play through.
 
I guess the way I would describe the OP,
A boring game that isn't bad, would be one that has perfectly good working mechanics and stuff, but the game isn't fun to play.

A bad game that isn't boring, would be one that has bad mechanics and stuff, but the game is fun to play.

In which case, the first is worse for me personally. I would rather have fun playing a bad game, than forcing myself to play a boring one.
 
Definitely boring

'Bad' games can still be enjoyable & sometimes enter the so-bad-its-actually-great territory.
I don't really care how competent a game is if I find it boring
 
Hmmm, actually, i'd prefer a boring game that plays well over a game that is somewhat engaging story-wise but looks and plays like shit.

I've 100%ed quite a few games that kept my eyes and hands busy while my mind was off listening to podcasts or watching a good movie on the iPad.
 
A boring game is always bad but a bad game isn't always boring.
So boring it is.

Escape from Dead Island (or whatever it was called) is a terrible game but I had some weird fun because of it's terribleness.
 
Boring is far worse

For people who don't think there is a difference I present you with two hypothetical games

Game 1) you must press a 50,000 times to win the game and nothing else

Game 2) you're supposed to hit a 15 times to win the game, but each time you hit a the game freaks out and does all kinds of crazy graphical shit before counting your press

Game 1 is technically a better game since it works as intended, but you'll be bored out of your skull long before you get to the needed number of presses.
 
Boring is INFINITELY worse than bad.

Bad can be "memorable" and enjoyable in its own terrible way. You get no such satisfaction with boring.
 
Boring is far worse

For people who don't think there is a difference I present you with two hypothetical games

Game 1) you must press a 50,000 times to win the game and nothing else

Game 2) you're supposed to hit a 15 times to win the game, but each time you hit a the game freaks out and does all kinds of crazy graphical shit before counting your press

Game 1 is technically a better game since it works as intended, but you'll be bored out of your skull long before you get to the needed number of presses.

You are taking the worse kind of boring with a not so bad case of bad, though. Imagine a bad game that makes you incredibly frustrated against a boring game that you can turn off you brain and keep playing to pass time.

It all depends, really.
 
I have gotten just as much entertainment out of some bad games as I have out of good games. Can't say the same about the boring ones.
 
Boring is worse. A bad game, at minimum, allows you to come onto GAF and be like "omg you guys this game is so bad let me rip this game a new one for five paragraphs and then we can talk about it because discussing games is fun even if they're trainwrecks," whereas a boring game is just "I just spent 15 hours on this and I don't really know why."
 
Boring is worse. Bad can at least still entertain me, be it through internet meltdowns or the game itself being hilariously bad.
 
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