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[Hammerlord]

If its bad as in being unplayable. That's the worst. But if its playable, but truly awful anyway, that's better than being boring imo.

Bad > boring > unplayable

At least bad can be interesting.

 

[Glass Rebel]

I've enjoyed "bad" games before. Never enjoyed a boring game tho.

From my experience I'm more likely to enjoy a game with reviews in the 60s over one in the 70s, funnily enough.

 

[IzzyF3]

Boring, for so many reasons a lot of people have chimed in on. I recognize that Suikoden 4 is a bad game and I'll never recommend it to anyone, but dammit I had a lot of fun and really loved the story and how it all fit in the Suikoden lore.

Sticking to the Suikoden example, Suikoden 3 is a boring game and I really really hated that one.

 

[Ludist210]

Boring. You can have fun in a bad game by enjoying the awfulness of the game.

Its just like movies that are "so bad, they are good."

Pretty much this. I've had fun with bad games, but boring games don't hold my attention.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Boring is worse. However, the vast majority of bad games are also boring, there are probably a total of, like, ten that are genuinely "So bad it's good."

It's incredibly obnoxious when fanboys defend a terrible game or movie with "It's so bad it's good!" while claiming a vastly superior movie is boring.

 

[Ryukori]

I can keep myself playing a bad game, but I can't stand boring games. If a game is making me fall asleep, I'll never be able to finish it.

 

[SargerusBR]

A boring game is a bad game.

Bingo. Games are supposed to entertain you, if a game isn't doing that, it's a bad game.

 

[Nepenthe]

I fundamentally buy games to be entertained. If a game is boring, I consider it a waste of money and time regardless of how theoretically sound the mechanics are. On the other hand, I enjoy much more contentious games. Bad > boring.

 

[Goldenroad]

Boring is always bad. Bad can be entertaining, at least to watch. So I guess boring is "worse", but they are both bad.

 

[Nachtfalke]

Heavy Rain is bad, but entertained me alot. Beyond: Two Souls is also bad, but just plain boring.

And Drakengard 3 is probably the worst game I had the most fun with.

 

[FStubbs]

Huh. Boring *is* bad. If you're having fun the game is doing its job.

 

[hotcyder]

Bad can be broken controls, glitchy, weird graphics, and all sorts of issues, but still keeps you entertained. Boring normally consist of everything works fine, it just loses interest pretty fast.

Ah, I guess I much prefer bad games then!

 

[Icyflamez96]

bad can still be fun, boring is worse.

yup, I've like a couple games which I consider bad. Boring is just boring that I can't play, but I don't think any game that's not for me is "bad". Specifically on the latter point, I think it's shallow to say otherwise.

 

[Macrotus]

A boring game is a bad game.

/threadclosed

"boring" is one of the aspects of "bad".

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

A false dichotomy.

Boring games are a subset of Bad games.

As many have already said, pure bad games can be in "so bad it's good" territory,whereas boring games hold little entertainment value.

Games are after all an entertainment medium.

 

[kaizoku]

Boring is subjective, you can't categorically say "x game is boring, end of". Some people find the grind in destiny boring, others find street fighter boring, some people find the annual fifa churn boring. But others love them and they're all categorically ok to good, well made games.

Bad is not subjective, you can categorise a game as poorly made, badly designed, flawed and a bad example of an art form.

Enjoyment is subjective as well tbf...

 

[Gunstar Ikari]

I've enjoyed "bad" games before. Never enjoyed a boring game tho.

From my experience I'm more likely to enjoy a game with reviews in the 60s over one in the 70s, funnily enough.

I'm like that too lol. Something about games with glaring flaws grabs my imagination more than games that are overall good but not great.

 

[Kamina]

Boring is always bad. Of course nearly every game has boring moments, but if they drag on too long it's just bad.

 

[GravityMan]

The #1 job of just about every game is to entertain the player or at least keep him or her engaged in the experience. If it fails to do that, it's a boring (and bad) game.

There are many games out there that are "well-made" in a lot of ways...nice visuals, polished gameplay, good overall presentation, etc...but they fail at the #1 job.

And there are games that are really rough around the edges (bugs, cheesy characters and dialog, mediocre combat, etc.) yet still manage to be highly compelling and entertaining.

Boring is the worst kind of bad. Unless the game is completely unplayable, which is rare.

And yes, of course "boring" is subjective to a degree. Some genres simply aren't interesting to some people, no matter what. But I'd bet that most people would be bored by a game that's really "by the book", tedious and/or extremely lacking in inspiration and soul.

 

[GamerJM]

I guess I'm weird, I've had a lot of fun with games I'd consider "boring". They just don't really stand out in the memory of games I've played.

 

[t hicks]

Boring imo
Most bad games can at least make me laugh in some way lol

 

[Rapscallion]

Bad games can be somewhat interesting from a design perspective; evaluating the game for the developer's decisions and almost enjoying the poorly implemented aspects of it. Of course something can be so bad that they're funny.

Boring games just give you absolutely no reason to want to continue.

 

[KormaChameleon]

Bad games can usually turn into funny games, Boring games are forever bad.

 

[Iva Demilcol]

Boring is subjective, you can't categorically say "x game is boring, end of". Some people find the grind in destiny boring, others find street fighter boring, some people find the annual fifa churn boring. But others love them and they're all categorically ok to good, well made games.

Bad is not subjective, you can categorise a game as poorly made, badly designed, flawed and a bad example of an art form.

Enjoyment is subjective as well tbf...

Yes. I'd say that games with a metacritic of 80+ are objectively good, but still if they don't appeal to you they may be boring. Examples of boring but good games for me would be:

Assasins Creed
Grand Theft Auto V
Doom 3
Gears of War
Uncharted
Forza Motosport
Mass Effect
Destiny

While you can have games like Deadly Premonition that can be pretty bad in some aspects, but that can be pretty fun and interesting.

 

[Nepenthe]

I don't particularly agree with the idea that boring is bad, because what's boring and what's fun are excessively more subjective. I had more "fun" with Sonic 06 than I did the first NSMB (it's boring incarnate, to me), but I would be hard-pressed to argue that the former is thus the better game as a result.

 

[texhnolyze]

I'd take bad RPGs over boring, repetitive non-RPGs any day of the week.

 

[Pompadour]

Bad vs. boring seems pretty difficult to define. I watch a lot of movies and I also enjoying watching really shitty movies and there the "bad vs. boring" dichotomy makes a lot more sense.

A good bad movie would be one that fails to do what it sets out to do but the failure itself has some value in that it's hilarious or fun. A bad bad movie is one that is boring as shit and makes a 90 minute run time feel like 3 hours.

I think the discussion with games is a little different because, despite being a subjective art form, people who play games 1) really love rating games and 2) give opinions about games that they state are objective fact. So my guess is a boring game that isn't bad would be something that ticks all the boxes in what a game is supposed to have but is utterly joyless to play. A bad but fun game would be something that's janky, ugly, or fails in basic competence in some aspect but is ultimately fun.

Since every thread on GAF can be a stealth SFV thread, I'll compare MKX to SFV. MKX has a ton of characters, a huge story mode, tons of single player content, costumes, etc. but the actual gameplay nearly put me to sleep. Everything but the last statement I made about MKX is objective but all those "signs of quality" checkboxes didn't elevate the value of the game for me because I couldn't enjoy playing it.

Conversely, SFV was/is a mess in all those objective indicators of quality but I really enjoy playing it and continue playing it to do this day.

Now, I don't think either is a bad game. There's plenty of bad games, much like there are plenty of bad movies, so something being mediocre overall wouldn't cross into my "bad" threshold. I really can't name a "bad" game I really like because games enough of my free time as is so spending hours playing a bad one doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It isn't like with a shitty movie where I can spend 90 minutes watching it, shooting the shit with my friends, and drinking beer. I can't imagine dedicating 10-20 hours on a game I would consider bad. Once my game choices weren't limited to what had the coolest box art at Blockbuster I kind of stopped playing bad games altogether.

 

[xviper]

Boring is not the same as Bad

an example of a Bad Game is The last Guardian, everything about that game was TRASH, the controls, the combat( if there was any) and story, the graphics, the characters, the pacing, the environment...Etc, i can't think of anything good in that garbage game except for Trico's behavior, the game is just broken and it's a disgrace coming from the same people who made one of the greatest games of all time, Shadow of the colossus

and example of boring game, Nioh, it's a good game but it's VERY repetitive, you fight nearly the same enemies through out the whole game in almost the same environment, that was a boring game

i prefer boring over bad, if the game is bad, i can't play it at all, if the game is boring, i'd take a break every hour so i don't get bored and keep playing

 

[Budi]

I have another one. What's better, fun or good?

 

[blakep267]

Half the crap I played in the PS2, Xbox, dreamcast, GameCube days were just bad games. But you still could find something fun in it. Boring games just make you not want to play

 

[Onivulk]

Boring games are always Bad games.

Bad games are not always Boring games.

Boring is the worst thing a game can be.

 

[eternalthree]

huh. wonder if the OP was talking about the WWE series with his friend,.....

 

[Strike]

Boring. Bad could still be entertaining.

 

[LAM09]

Boring. The point of video games is to entertain you.