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[Jayjayhd34]

Another mans trash is a another man's gold

Just play what makes you happy and don't care what people think so much

If had only played only played what is 'popular' I would missed on some gems. Same with TV or music film etc

 

[cartman414]

There are perks to great games getting recognized.

Word of mouth, positive influence on future development trends, greater likelihood of sequels, etc.

 

[Deerock71]

I'm getting the feeling this is a passive-aggressive MKW thread. Fret not; whether the hardcore love it or not, MKW is destined to sell Taylor Swift numbers. We don't have much say in it.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

I mean consumption one metric to base off if it has some good qualities. If a game reviews just ok, sometimes the word of mouth helps props it up. It has happened from time to time. It’s just another way to assess if the game is maybe worth playing is the open sea of options. Especially in the indie world, some games without much marketing would have never taken off without it.

 

[digital_ghost]

No idea.

A lot of gems don’t get very popular.

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

I'm getting the feeling this is a passive-aggressive MKW thread. Fret not; whether the hardcore love it or not, MKW is destined to sell Taylor Swift numbers. We don't have much say in it.

it is not. what is the controversy with MKW?

I have a Switch and never even bought MK8 so needless to say I'm not following it. I do still play MK n64 with my buddies

I see it is open world which could be neat IMO. if I end up grabbing a Switch 2 I'll likely opt in the bundle to give it a go

edit: are you talking about thread trying to stir controversy about how MKW is no longer hardcore or something? lol brain rot thread

 

[Deerock71]

it is not. what is the controversy with MKW?

I have a Switch and never even bought MK8 so needless to say I'm not following it. I do still play MK n64 with my buddies

I do see it is open world which could be neat IMO. if I end up grabbing a Switch 2 I'll likely opt in the bundle to give it a go

In a nutshell, lots of chaps here seem to think launching a system with a follow-up to a game that has sold nearly 70 million copies is a poor game to launch a system with.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

I'm certainly not worried about popularity. There are many games I talk about here that nobody's even heard of. More than once I've made a threat about these games, my most recent being Alien Abduction for the Atari 2600, and it will barely get any attention.

There's so many great games out there that hardly anyone's heard of.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

For me, it's because when a game I don't like does well, it means that developer and publisher resources are going to be funneled towards more games like it and diverted from the things I do like. That is not good for me, personally.

Same when a game I do like does well--like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. I tout high sales figures in hopes it persuades even more people to check it out, thus giving me even more simulation-style historical fiction games.

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

In a nutshell, lots of chaps here seem to think launching a system with a follow-up to a game that has sold nearly 70 million copies is a poor game to launch a system with.

they complaining about the bundle specifically or the weak launch day line up?

idc much about launch day line ups as they are often not that great. the thing is, more games get added...funny how that works. it's not like the console is going to drop in price by the time more games come out.

a weak launch line up is maybe a reason for me to not feel pressure to fight to get a switch 2 at release, but it's not like I'm skipping this gen Nintendo system. Worst case I’ll wait for the oled or whatever the next version is

 

[Edellus]

What I see in comments like these is that some people tend to mistake "quality" for their own tastes and thinking it's universal.

I agree you can't tell a game's quality just by how popular it is, but you can't tell what quality is for everyone else is anyways because it is subjective. Since people value different things, their measure of quality will also be different.

Considering we can't count on a global measure of quality that everyone agrees on, then popularity is the best next thing. It's not optimal, but it's the best we have.

Phrases like "the masses are known to have shit taste" just reeks of being self centered. The world doesn't revolve around your tastes for you to make judgement on other people's tastes.

I hate the most popular music today. I can't stand it. I can't even begin to comprehend how other people could possibly like it. But hey, I don't have to. And as long as I can have my niche I don't have to care about how popular or not popular music/games/series/etc I don't care for is.

 

[San Dan Glokta]

I don't care much about the popularity in a vacuum, I watch the reviews and gameplay from trusted sources and see if it jives with me, then add it to my enormous to-play list.

If there was something meta that prevented me from buying the game like for example boycotting all ea sports games then I won't even look at a screenshot and gleefully shit on it.

If I'm boycotting a game on a different principle then I might watch story/gameplay tidbits or people shitting on it--basically get my entrainment if I want but not in a way that will make the dev/publisher any money from me.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

If a game sells well then it’s almost guaranteed sequels which means you’ve got new ones to look forward to

 

[sono]

Researching reviews of a game before spending you hard earned after tax money is a good idea, blindly following the masses isnt

 

[Drell]

Maybe just because we live in a world where even successful games aren't successful enugh through the eyes of stock holders, resulting in talented studios being closed by force. We like our hobby and want our particular niche genre/series to continue to exist and are affraid to live in a world where the only games left are Fortnite, GTA, CoD and Madden/Fifa. So of course we give a lot of importance to how a game we like/look for will sell.

 

[yogaflame]

Three words. Call of Duty.

 

[lh032]

speaking about popularity and game quality.

Withering rooms is an amazing horror / soulslite / metroid game if you are looking into these kind of genre

 

[FeralEcho]

It's the sheep mentality and since gaming is more popular than ever the herds are bigger and bigger.

Alot of games don't get the recognition they deserve because of this and all the while ,alot of devs,given enough time,start molding their franchises based on popularity which in turn turns said franchises into a shell of their former selves due to the devs making a game made for everyone that in the end pleases no one.

 

[PlayStaytion]

What particularly confuses me is how people often conflate this with quality.

You see so much discussion surrounding Steam CCU and sales on this forum. At the same time, people are quick to talk crap about things like the Billboard Hot 100, and for good reason. The masses tend to have shit taste. Very rarely do we see a correlation between film/music popularity and quality. On the contrary, I think many would argue the most popular musicians are some of the worse.

I think most people here would think it is silly to say Taylor Swift is an amazing, talented musician just because she sells a lot of records and is insanely popular. Or that Twilight is a fantastic film series due to its popularity. But you see similar arguments being made here all the time.

But these different opinions washout after 5 years or more, it's definitely pointless to take them seriously. As a 35 years old man, I saw how bad it could get like 5 years from now, you'll literally see people missing Assassin's Creed Shadows in the comment section.

 

[Jaybe]

What particularly confuses me is how people often conflate this (popularity) with quality.

This seems super rare at least on this forum and regarding games. I think most people here easily separate quality of games from popularity, and that some great games just don’t sell well, perhaps they are niche, new IP, have poor publisher marketing, on a subscription service, or priced too high. Basically other reasons than the quality of the game. Of course quality is generally subjective, though there is base levels of technical performance that differs gaming from other media. Most people here also don’t think the biggest franchises that sell the most, are the highest quality games either. The only example you gave was Taylor Swift and music. Do you have any points relating to gaming to provide where you seem people confusing popularity with quality?

 

[Power Pro]

This might be exactly the purpose of this thread, but the question in the title had me wanting to chime in.

Why are people so focused on game popularity?​

Well I find that the games that are popular or the ones that aren't is what shape the market. I have preferences in games, and in a lot of cases, my preferences do not line up with what a lot of the most popular games are. The games I really like don't always do well either. Combining those two situations can suck for me getting the games I want to play. It hasn't hit rock bottom yet. In fact, I think a big part of why I supported the Switch a lot, is it got a lot of the JRPGs and niche games I like to play. It still feels like the type of games I like are always at risk of not being made a lot, because publishers look at what the popular games are, and they keep trying to throw their eggs in that basket. It's why we got so many throwing great single player game studios being forced to make a GaaS game that no one wanted. If their GaaS becomes popular, then that studio is forced to work on that for the next decade. If it fails, we're lucky if the studio is not shut down.

In other situations like...why should I be annoyed that something like....I dunno, let's use Assassin's Creed as an example. Why should I be upset if that franchise does well? Even before Shadows had it's big controversy, and we had a few decent AC games, in a vacuum, that would be alright. However, what ended up happening is you have a bunch of other studios wanting to copy what AC games do with open worlds, and turning their entire games into checklists. I think the only position AC copycat was breath of the wild, but every one else who tried to copy that template just made boring ass games. Metal Gear Solid The Phantom Pain did NOT need to be an open world game, and it was less fun for it.

I don't want to keep rambling, but I hope I made my point.

 

[64gigabyteram]

I for one don't mind people enjoying something I don't.

on the wrong forum then. Over on GAF we argue till we drop

 

[SportsFan581]

I can't see where the popularity matters for single player games. Obviously, for multiplayer, you want a game you like to be popular to facilitate matches.

 

[R6Rider]

Well recent example is Monster Hunter Wilds, I’m loving that game but to majority of GAF it’s worse game ever created.

To sound less harsh, we both know that's beyond exaggerated.