Why Do We Love Bad Games?

JD writes: If you haven't read my review of Amy just yet, allow me to summarize: It is a poorly constructed, buggy mess. Tasked with giving the game a fair and balanced assessment, I simply could not overlook the multitude of problems that arose both technically and from a design standpoint.

That being said, there is still a dark, masochistic corner of my heart where a morbid sort of affection burns dully for Amy. While I would never recommend someone fork over their hard-earned cash for the game in its current state, a part of me is willing to admit that I kind of liked various bits and pieces.

But some of the gaming community has taken that bizarre fondness a step further. A quick search of the Gamefaqs message boards yields dozens of posts wherein the authors profess their love for Amy and recommended their fellow survival horror fans ignore the reviews and go download it immediately.

Those people are daft.

Then again, maybe it's wrong of me to fault someone for loving terrible things. I'm guilty of this myself from time to time. (I quite liked the Bionic Commando reboot, for instance. Yeah, I said it.) This makes me wonder what, exactly, makes someone cling to such a monstrosity. No matter how bad a game is, there's always someone willing to stand up and defend it.

In this week's Infinite Ammo, I ponder some of the possible reasons for this contrarian behavior.

[GribbleGrunger]

do we? i hate them

[Pozzle]

I think that even some bad games can have some charm to them. I've played some games that have gotten 4/10, 5/10 and 6/10 reviews...and while they might not be great titles, they usually have a couple of things I really like about them (whether it be the story, a certain character, the world and locations, the history, etc)

Even Amy (which I hate with the fire of a thousand suns and am seriously struggling to finish) has moments where you get a small glimpse of an interesting story or a genuinely creepy moment. It's just a shame the rest of the game was so bad. :(

[GribbleGrunger]

you can't like a bad game. it's impossible. if you consider something bad then by default you don't like it. would you have a bad picture in your house or watch a bad series or buy a bad car?

[trenso1]

That makes no sense. You can't find something bad in a game but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad game. I think that bf3 has some bad maps but I don't think it's a bad games. Just like ff13 is bad for lineararity, but I still love playing is and finished it twice.

[GribbleGrunger]

an elements or two in something that are considered bad does not mean that it's bad overall. when something is considered bad, that encompasses 'everything'. the headline did not read: 'why we like games even if parts of them are bad' (which would fit in with what you just said). it asked: 'why do we like bad games'

i don't like bad games, i hate them

[mobijoker]

Correction! nobody likes bad games......We just like good games with one or two aspect gone horribly wrong but stand out for other qualities like story,innovation etc.......

[olLANDSHARKlo]

Because some companies (cough, cough)like to brag about a few extra 1st party exclusives and aren't worried about Quality over quantity, so we are stuck with bad games, but we gotta say the games are great or our purchase of the console was a bad decision. Sad but true.

[admiralvic]

Community opinion is not a fact... thus no game can be defined as "bad" only "unsuccessful". Additionally the reason less populars get "love" is that they usually try something special or did something unique. Prime example would be mindjack and the whole hacking concept... it didn't work, but it was still an interesting concept nonetheless

[ShaunCameron]

I don't know. Some tend to serve their intended purpose better than others. Onechanbara intended to be a fan-service game where you kill zombies and all playing as a cute chick wearing little more than a schoolgirl outfit. And I enjoyed it as such. Ditto for Duke Nukem Forever where it was all about a 35-year-old macho dude with the maturity of a 15-year-old boy killing aliens by the hordes and being a womanizing chauvinist.

[Soldierone]

Depends. They used a picture of Amy, which in reality is actually a BAD game. I honestly kept giving it chances and WANTED to like it because so many people hated it, but the glitches and issues it has are simply hard to ignore.

However it is also a good example of going outside the box and offering something other games dont. Sneaking around zombies instead of fighting them all.

I say it depends because it depends on the trend. Like I said in another article, if they make a game which has a gun but it doesn't want you to use it then the game will be noted as "broken" and "bad." Why? because people won't understand that using the gun isn't what they want you to do, and by using it you run out of ammo fast. However the people that DO understand "hey I should waste ammo" will enjoy the game, thus they enjoy a "bad" game.

Another factor is who is making it? some studios will get praise no matter what, like a certain shooter that Activision makes every year. Meanwhile another shooter made with the same engine that did a lot of things right got a lot of hate because it wasn't popular, Singularity.

[solar]

gamers nowadays like bad games because they play them with friends. a prime example is Borderlands. i had fun playing with my mate, but when i step back and look at the game as a whole, it was terrible. gamers need to realize the difference. bad game + fun to play with a mate =/= good game.

[tigertron]

Everything is opinion based. One man's gem is another man's shiny turd.

[nolifeking]

Only if that man can't tell the difference between a turd and a gem.

[ShaunCameron]

Exactly. It's 2012 and a lot of "educated" people still have a hard time accepting that fact of life.

[PirateThom]

Same reason people like bad movies... bad doesn't necessarily mean it's not entertaining. It it provides a few laughs or some sort of hook, it can still be enjoyable.

[nolifeking]

But it's enjoyable for all the wrong reasons. Bad media entertains us because society finds peoples failure enjoyable. Birdemic is hilarious because of how serious it takes itself and the utter lack of talent involved in it's making. My problem is how people act like a low budget is the cause or the always hilarious "it was intentional" line.

[PirateThom]

If any part of Birdemic was intentional, I would be disappointed.

[nolifeking]

@pirate

Than hold your head high, all of that was pure horrible film making. At it's finest I must say. Ed Wood would be proud.

[Pozzle]

"If any part of Birdemic was intentional, I would be disappointed."

You should watch interviews with the director. He genuinely thinks he made a good movie. :D

[Saladfax]

There's also a certain haughty draw for some folks to covet a not-so-stellar title. In their minds, whatever flaws can be overlooked, and anyone who doesn't like it just doesn't *get it.*

Smug self-satisfaction is a powerful motivator for likes and dislikes.