What Makes a Bad Game?

Many people have many different opinions about what makes a bad game, so I asked some average gamers for their opinions.

“Lack luster effort put in by the developers.”

“I think the key element is fun. I can overlook mediocre graphics and story if the underlying game is fun. But if they game is a chore to play, with no enjoyment, what’s the point?”

“bad gameplay’

“gameplay and graphics”

“bugs and glitches is always a good recipe for a bad game. Also, horrible presentation can help make it bad. But overall, it’s the excecution. If it just plain has bad gameplay or just doesn’t work out well, then it can easily make a game bad.”

“Lacking in fun factor. With all them fancy normal mapping and physics engines, some developers seem to have forgotten what’s truly important.”

“A complete and total lack of inspiration, style, or anything unique. This is what makes nearly all bad games bad.”

“bad graphics. I hate games with bad graphics.”

“Bad fun factor and gameplay. Also, if there is a lot of glitches, it sucks.”

“A bad game is a game that isn’t fun to play. Everything about a game contributes to the fun factor: graphics, sound, presentation, story, and of course, gameplay mechanics. I hated Star Fox Adventures not because the gameplay was bad, I hated it and called it a bad game because the characters and dialogue were so stupid, it stopped being fun and I couldn’t stand it after 20 minutes of turning it on for the first time. So sometimes, a game can be bad because of other factors besides gameplay mechanics.That’s my 2 cents worth.”

“Boring gameplay, crappy graphics, weak story.”

“One of the things that annoys me most about games is when they don’t have a lot of interactivity or the game just wastes your time with repetitive elements. (Final Fantasy VII, I’m looking at you! ). I don’t like games like linear RPGs where you just tell your party what to do and go to the next place to find the next person to talk to in between hours of random battles. I guess this could also apply to some FPS on consoles where the autoaim is out of control (007 Agent under Fire).”

“A lot of things make a game bad. And these factors change for most people. For me, what makes a bad game is a lack of story, bad controls and games that are either too hard or too easy. There are a few other minors but those are the big ones.”

There are so many factors that contribute to a bad game A shortlist in no particular order (IMHO)

- bugs, glitches, exploits, and holes

– bad story

– poor graphics, sounds, physics (where applicable)

– bad level design

– bad NPC AI (enemy or friendly)

– bad UI / gameplay controls

– bad use of checkpoints / save points / no quicksave

– slow load times between levels (or environments)

– lack of innovation, cliched, repetitive levels

– lack of challenge

“It’s just lazy game design I guess.”

* Unintuitive controls

* Lack of originality

* Having the “been there, done that” feeling.

* Insane difficulty

* Complete lack of challenge

* A poor game-saving system

* Sequels having less features, or gameplay than previous installments.

Video Games and Free Online Games

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