Crap Games

DDoMM

DDoMM

Posts: 223   +0
Im planning on doing a course at University next year in Computer and video game design.

I, like most people KNOW what makes a good game, right?

Playability
Re-playability
Longevity
Graphics (notice how i put this before gameplay :p)
Gameplay

Those are pretty much the main ones.

I was flicking through a few issues of PCG, and the ammount of CRAP games which get under 50% (5/10) outweigh the comparatively rare games which get over 85% by about 10:1.

What im asking, is how these crap games even get into production?

Doesnt somebody stop them at the design phase and just say "Oi, Listen dave, this game is crap, why dont we just NOT make it!?!?!" How on Earth are they released knowing full well that nobody will buy it. It doesnt take a genius to tell if a game is good or not, you simply compaire the enjoyment you got from your crap game with the enjoyment you got from your good game (like NFS:U)

How the hell do these guys make a living out of an obviously crap game which is unlikely to pay out?!?!:suspiciou
 
I think it comes down to two things, deadlines and the makers really don't think it's a bad game. It's easy to play a game and say, "What the hell were they thinking?" Not just one person makes a game by themselves. It's harder to make a good overall game considering different teams are working on different parts trying to get everything to blend together perfectly. Then they have people that play the game and try to point out the glitches and things that they think should be changed. Now if the game didn't come together well what do they do? Ask for more time? Release a crappy game? Dump the game all together? They usually just release a crappy game because they usually have another game they need to start working on.
 
The developers cant think their designing a good game when its quite obviously a crap idea, if its a good idea, but badly executed, i can half let them off the hook, but if its a bad idea from scratch, like say......BIGBROTHER - The Game (it exists) then surely these so called "Game Designers" who are qualified in all aspects of making a game, surely of all people these guys can tell a good game from a bad one, it cant just be the game designers who think its good when every single person in the entire world disagrees. A good example of a good idea which was poorly executed was the game "Chrome" i actually bought it, sounded like a good idea, a mixture of FPS and RPG, but the game was so badly executed, it was terrible, it was like a lovely big cake, all shiny and sparkling, but when you bite into it, there was maggots and the stench of death.

I still had respect for the devlopers, they gave it a shot, they failed, but i still respect them.

now, this is an example of a game which was a bad idea to start off with and badly executed too.....any game exluding "Rollercoaster", which ends in the word "Tycoon"

Space Tycoon
Ski-Resort Tycoon
Casino Tycoon
Game Developer Tycoon (ok i made this one up)
Zoo Tycoon

Why?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??
 
I, like most people KNOW what makes a good game, right?
Click to expand...

Actually no. You know what makes a good game for you. Not all games are meant to attract or please you. Each type of game has its own niche & doesn't require the same things to keep its user base happy.

Playability
Re-playability
Longevity
Graphics (notice how i put this before gameplay )
Gameplay
Click to expand...

You can't really tell which comes before the other since it depends a lot on the game. Some games rely on the graphics more then anything else ( especially if they do not have the slightest clue as to what innovation is ). Other games do not even need more then 256 colors ( card games for example ). & if gameplay came after Graphics for all types of games, Diablo 2 would never have the success it did.

That NFS:U game that you seem to like is nothing but a good looking rehash. The innovation factor in it is quite slim but it's covered with loud music & flashy graphics. They had targeted their audience quite well & did what they needed to sell their game.

Sometimes, a game can turn out pretty bad because the developpers took a lot of risks but did not have the ressources to come through with the good ideas ( which is what you seem to think happened with Chrome ). Ideas are cheap but a good execution is priceless.

Games cost more & more to develop, so it's quite normal for game editors to take less risks when they greenlight a game but it doesn't really help. Innovation won't be a common thing for the games to come. The studios who truely innovated went bankrupt for failing to attract the masses. Looking Glass Studios went out of business but Core Design studios enjoy great success with every tombraider release where only the breast size differ from one game to another.

& sometimes it just comes down to the talent of the people working on the game. Let's take the idea of FPS/RPG for example. You can have one team putting out Chrome & one putting out DeusEx.

If you want a very thorough example of a good idea turned bad, read this -> Knee Deep in a Dream: The Story of Daikatana.

Take your time though, it's quite long but worth the read.
 
those werent in any particular order, i just prefer graphics over gameplay, spose if you needed a beast of a system to get better gameplay i would value gameplay over the graphics, but i still think that there are games out there, which rigfht from day 1, should not have been made.

I think that the vast majority of gamers nowadays all want the same thing, if this werent true, Revier magazines would have one hell of a job trying to cater for all of the different minded gamers out there, it was a generalisation, but i still think 8 if not 9/10 PC gamers take those key factors in concideration when playing a game.

As perfection in graphics approaches, it also becomes more and more illusive, can you honestly say that you are as blown away by graphics in a new game now as you were when you saw Doom for the first time? Thats why i think in the not to distant future once graphics perfection is reached, the entire gaming industry will reset itself back to the 70's when everyone loves playing Space Invaders (or whatever you old people used to play :p) because graphics simply wont be important anymore. A good example os that is when Toy Story came out, everyone went to see it because of the graphics, but now finding nemo has come out, everyone went to see it because of the story and the graphics werent even credited (although it ded get an oscar)

People get bored very quickly nowadays, and crap games dont help things, the only fun crap games give, is for people to laugh at how crap they are.
 
tell you what is a good game...Uplink, thats a great example of a 256 colour, graphically simple game. But the all time best simple graphics game has got to be every single Worms game but the new 3D one which i could get into.

Best graphically stunning game which was a load of poo is Jedi Knight 2 (the newer one), that was terrible
 
Woo, im a TechSpot Member now, rising through the ranks me, this time next year, this website will be called "DomSpot" :cool:
 
It also has a lot to do with the budget of the game. Although some really big morons can have a hell of a lot of moeny and somehow blow it all on a crap game. A guy can get a really good idea, go to the company and not get much to make it. So he has to make the best of what he has, if he pulls it of he gets to release a massive sequal. Most of the time however they dont pull it of, which is why a lot of games have 'great potential' but the actual game is poo.
 
Taking shortcuts, rushing to release the game before it's ready, a a low budget and bad concepts...those will kill a release every time...
 
I have to ask at this point. Has anybody visited the link and viewed the streaming video review?

I was dumbstruck to say the least! Therew have been games based on better concepts, sure, but the glitches, oversights, etc, etc in this game really do stink! It's not often I'll use such cruel remarks, but there you go.
 
Why do you look impressed?

I think basically crap games are released because people with a hamster's IQ (and a hamster which other hamsters call stupid when they gather) designed them, tested them and released them. True also that some games are not of our like because they didn't pointed at us as the target market, tycoon games are mostly played by women (and homosexuals). But how many women actually play with a computer?? Are they really a market? Of course not, WE (and only we) are the dumb ******** that spend every penny we got in this extremely expensive form of entertainment, tycoon games are only played by our girlfriends when we are too drunk to have sex and we left the pc accidentally turned on.

If you see the big picture, you will also see that the quantity of crap movies, books, magazines, etc. widely outnumber the quantity of good ones (and defining good with a veeery open mind, i.e. allowing movies like ¨Bridges of Madison County¨ inside this category puke: )

So, why are you impressed? Yes, now you know it, my friends, you reached Nirvana (the eternal peace one, not the Ishotmyselfwithashotgun kind of Nirvana), MOST PEOPLE, WHATEVER RACE, NATIONALITY, SALARY, JOB, ETC. ARE PLAIN STUPID.

Hope this enlightened somebody.

Matias (Pegasus04) :)
 
I liked the original Wolfenstein 3-D

LOL !!

A game is a game- If you like it play it.
Gfx are nice but I was a huge diablo fan years ago - I like both fps and rpg.
Its what you want in a game that makes it appeal to you. Blowing the bejesus outta stuff like in Call of Duty or Far Cry or a real time strategy game like Age of empires. Up to you.

Cheers
 
Some people like fps' some like rpg's and some like other games, not everyone likes going around racing and not everyone likes racing around. YOU may think it is a crap game but others may not. eg i like most of the tycoon games, ecspecially the ones by chris sawyer, they don't have the best graphics but they have character, and i think that character is what makes a game enjoyable.
 
don't forget the money involved in making the game, they have to recoup the expense somehow.
 
I dunno, lots of highly rate games are crap too. Doom 3 anyone? Good graphics engine, great sound. Dated level design, dated gameplay.
 
Look, its fairly simple - profits are everything.

Companies don't care about the consumer any more - they care about profits. They don't give a rat's *** whether you enjoyed the game or not, they just want you to pay for it, so they can cover their operating costs, make a profit and stay in business longer.

Face facts - NO ONE cares about the consumer any more. Well, maybe a small minority do, but they are people who place pride in their work over profits, and that is becoming a very outmoded concept now.
 
Actually, now that I think of it. The game industry is a lot like the film industry. Lots of crap films have been sold well & the opposite is also true, it's not really that different for games.
 
Spike said:
I have to ask at this point. Has anybody visited the link and viewed the streaming video review?

I was dumbstruck to say the least! Therew have been games based on better concepts, sure, but the glitches, oversights, etc, etc in this game really do stink! It's not often I'll use such cruel remarks, but there you go.
Click to expand...


HAHAHAHAA dat was the funniest thing i have ever seen in my life everyone needs to check out that stream. I feel bad for the suckers that actually purchased this game.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/driving/...tml?tag=mp_2to9
 
flamer2204 said:
the crappest game i have ever played is SimDriver or SImsafari. Very Crap.
Click to expand...
Topping that, SimTower - very vague bemusement of giving occupants rude names then finding them throughout the building but got to a point where the tower stopped working for no apparent reason.
 

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