What Makes A Bad Game

Perfection is something that everyone is striving to achieve in all facets of life. No matter the kind profession, field of study, or hobby one may choose, there will be a million different views and opinions on what is considered perfect. Yet not everything is viewed as satisfactory or meeting a desired standard. This is what many begin to categorize as the bad apples of the group. These are the other things that don't get it right at all and repel us away to search again for what is desired. This too is something that will never be universally agreed upon by everyone, as no two preferences will ever be the exact same. Yet preferences do have characteristics in common despite their vast differences, especially for what many consider to be bad and undesirable. In the realm of video games, this is something that is decided and debated all the time among all gamers. From console wars to deciding what title is the bane of the genre, gamers are always casting aside and classifying games as bad. Knowing what common themes to look for is the first step to understanding what makes a video game bad.

[sanameanswish]

Neat article, Venom. For me, it's politics.

[Lord_Sloth]

Vampire Rain and Hunted: The Demon's Forge.

[MacDonagh]

What makes a game bad? When it fails to set out what it wants to achieve, whether it is a horror game that lacks in atmosphere like Alone in the Dark or whether it is an interesting idea like Amy but poorly executed.

[Mikefizzled]

I think any game with more confidence then quality is usually terrible.

[3-4-5]

Money.

Money takes away dev time and creative freedom.

Companies would rather make a small profit, on time, in a shorter timespan, then take an extra year and create a game that people will remember for 20 years.

which would then gain them tons of profit over the long term.

The Main problem is putting people in charge who know nothing about gaming.

When your Leader is a "money " guy, then that is all your game is going to be.....a product that makes a profit.

When your LEADER is a gamer, then you actually have a chance that the game could be good.

[Hicken]

Bethesda.

[BrutallyBlunt]

What an odd comment considering they have released great games this generation that have had great review scores and sold well. Perhaps you should have said the makers of SOCOM: Confrontation since not only was the game handled poorly, it had a ton of online issues, and didn't really get great reviews or sell that well. But then again why would you pick a PS3 exclusive. Even Zipper Interactive brought the series down, which is sad considering it was such a popular franchise on the PS2.

[Lvl_up_gamer]

I have to seriously disagree with you.

The same people that gave Uncharted 2 GOTY ALSO gave Skyrim GOTY. So I am sure if they can see that Uncharted 2 is worth it then their standards must be pretty high. I hope you are not saying that they are idiots and give GOTY to bad games....that would imply that Uncharted 2 was a bad game.

The Fallout games have also been a HUGE blast to play.

I understand that you are just wanting to follow the rest of the anti-Bethesda lemmings on this site since it's easy to do but you really need to take a step back and realize that their games are a blast to play and is recognized by the industry as well as the community. Maybe you need to look more closely at the hardware that is trying to run the game a bit more closely. Seems to work fine on PC and 360.