Ever made yourself play a game you didn’t like because it’s “important?”

[Mikebloke]

GTA V, and this is someone who plays GTA for the story (mostly as a comedy), I've tried picking it up a few times and... I'm just bored.

 

Borderlands, never understood it, tried the first one and it took me awhile to work out I was just going in the same area to shoot the same people for generic goals, and then wondered why I had to pick up 200 guns and decide which was the best constantly (mass effect 1 has a bit of this as well, but the story pushes me through the rough bits).

 

Zelda I got on with nes to n64, gamecube and wii I can't stomach, breath of the wild on wii u was OK though. 

[Pokeypy]

Yeah, "Zelda" would have been such a candidate.

Also "Chuckie Egg" on the ZX Spectrum.

 

And the internet. Though not a game. Didn't like it at all. But everybody was screaming, how great it was. Still think, the world was and would be again a better place without it.

That's, why I'm thinking about 8 bit systems. Didn't have stupid internet. Although some even try to bring them online. Defiles them.

Edited July 20, 2021 by Pokeypy

[Agamon]

If I see a game might enjoy, I'll try it. "Importance" doesn't register in the decision at all.

[Steven Pendleton]

2 hours ago, Ninjabba said:

Spent some hours in Death Stranding, was hyped to the max for that game prior to its release, and a friend bought it partly because I kept shoving trailers in his face. I figured out within the hour that game is definitely not for me (I'm still puzzled what audience it is meant for).. I generally don't like games that don't respect the time of the gamer, and DS was definitely pushing it beyond that limit for me.

It's a weird game. I still have not decided if I think it's boring or excellent. It is definitely more enjoyable on a second playthrough, I think. I do intensely dislike doing side quests in any game, and Death Stranding's are no different; I did enjoy the game a lot more when I skipped the side quests on my second playthrough, but you do get good things from them, like better vehicles.

[zzip]

13 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

Forza Horizon part 4 or 5 or something , hell I dunno…  it stank

I picked up Horizon 4 on PC because I heard so many good things about the series.   But yeah, I really struggled to enjoy it.  Just wasn't much fun.  I thought maybe I was just burned out on racing games.

 

3 hours ago, Ninjabba said:

I figured out within the hour that game is definitely not for me (I'm still puzzled what audience it is meant for)..

Kojima is a cult-like figure who can do no wrong according to some gamers.   It's for those people

[Keatah]

I enjoy Flight Simulator and Orbiter Spaceflight Simulator. They're enough to challange my vast intellect. Way beyond the common man crap like zelda and mario and pokermon.

 

It's a genre I'll come back to time and time again. But I don't spend hours everyday with it. I guess I like it because it was something we'd play after school at Compu-Shop. CS was a small chain located in some Chicagoland strip malls that mainly sold desk-size CP/M systems.

 

20 hours ago, MrTrust said:

I eventually gave up on modern games almost entirely, but I still made an effort to play The Big Critical Hits, like Red Dead Redemption, Breath of the Wild and the like. 

I don't play any modern games really. They're so mindless.

 

20 hours ago, MrTrust said:

Not so much because I really wanted to play them, but because you want to still be somewhat conversant in what's going on so you can keep up with conversations out in the world.

I won't even do that. I know enough stuff already! Woot!

 

20 hours ago, MrTrust said:

Similarly, I keep up a basic awareness of sports and make an effort to at least watch some just to have a way to talk to other men in social situations, or watch the Oscar nominees just to know what the hell people are talking about.

If they're real men they'll understand my lack of interest in professional sports and glitzy modern oscars (where the rich compliment the rich while you pay for it all). Just no. They'll need to come down to my level. If not see ya!

 

20 hours ago, MrTrust said:

This, I am just done doing all together.  I don't want to spend the money on the hardware or games to do it, I don't want to spend that kind of time on them, and I just don't like them or think they're objectively any good for the most part.

Yes. In the PC world nowadays the latest and greatest GPUs are selling for $2,000+ dollars. Nope. Not going to bother. The last GPU I got was an IGP. Or if you don't count that, a pre-owned GTX 1080 from ebay. Before pandemic pricing hit. In fact, it's 2016 tech and worth more now than what I paid for it.

 

20 hours ago, MrTrust said:

Video games, as a medium, have been stagnating the same way every other form has for the last 20 years or so, and I don't see any reason to continue to care about them at all.

Most videogames are full of shit to begin with anyways. Especially stuff in the past 10-15 years. Out of all that time I think I took a liking to maybe 3 titles? Maybe 5?

 

Years ago when I met the wife I remember having to work hard to get rid of the immature gamer aura that surrounded me and my buddies. Had to word hard at demonstrating I was not a script-o-kiddie playing mindless games. You know, the insta types that ragequit and need adulting classes. That despite her herself being an 80's arcade buff.

 

In retrospect maybe it wasn't that hard. Just no camping out at Gamestop, waiting for ForthNight or Battlefield 9.

[Keatah]

9 hours ago, Agamon said:

If I see a game might enjoy, I'll try it. "Importance" doesn't register in the decision at all.

Words of careful thought. Indeed. Applying such philosophy is a time and money saver. The 3 hours I'd hypothetically spend on some game I'm not interested in can and will be spent on something I AM interested in, like picking out a solar panel vendor or something.

 

"Importance" in this context is the same as monkey see monkey do. A mass mentality.

 

9 hours ago, Pokeypy said:

And the internet. Though not a game. Didn't like it at all. But everybody was screaming, how great it was. Still think, the world was and would be again a better place without it.

The internet can be a fine mind-amplifying tool. Just as early computing was. Today more than 90% of the internet is a wealth transferring tool. And not in the common man's favor. The perversion began in the 1990's, and the dot-com era was the first symptom.

 

9 hours ago, Pokeypy said:

That's, why I'm thinking about 8 bit systems. Didn't have stupid internet. Although some even try to bring them online. Defiles them.

8-bit rigs on the internet.. While technically entertaining they can't do anything practical. It's like so many useless products, it happens, because..??

[+jgkspsx]

Pretty much every time I play a fighting game, yes.

[HammR25]

I only bought MS Flight Simulator 2020 because of the cool tech behind it.  I didn't "force" myself to play it though.  I have several hours in the game just checking out the cool tech.  Curiosity is now sated so no reason to go back unless they add guns, missiles and bombs because I normally only do combat flight sims.

 

I bought the Witcher 3 because it was supposed to be super awesome.  However, I waited until it was dirt cheap because I was pretty sure I wouldn't like it.  Steam tells me I played it for 43 minutes.

 

I'd only consider playing a game because it was "important" if I was a gaming journalist getting paid to review games.

 

 

[+Cafeman]

Several cases of this with me and the various Zelda games.  I played a few hours of Zelda OOT BITD, maybe 10 or more hours.  It was pretty cool but I'd never devote time to beat it, and I'll never play it again. I played about the same on GCN Zelda WW, same deal. I watched my boys play some levels, that was ok with me, I just never got the Zelda thing. 

 

I see like every Twitch retro streamer pick an old Zelda game and play it through, and as long as I've got some alcohol to drink, I'll sit in my chair and watch it night after night at least in pieces. Not too long ago these twitch streams made me finally play the original Legend of Zelda for several hours, it's such an important and beloved game. But really, I couldn't get into it either long-term, it was more of a historical and game design lesson that I was interested in than actually enjoying the game.  

 

None of the Nintendo and Zelda love has made me purchase a Switch and Breath of the wild yet, however.  

[Tanooki]

I’ve had that experience with Zelda mostly since majoras mistake on n64. It’s just a bad game filled with poor choices and lots of fluff to add time. Can’t make myself finish it.  Twilight princess and skyward sword same not finished despite being good but I can’t go the distance.   BotW fixed that at least. 

[+Cafeman]

18 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

majoras mistake

? 

[Tanooki]

Yeah I hate that game, and it's not something where it was a try once and just pass judgement.  Anytime since it came out I've somehow had a copy of the n64 cart fall into my hands (probably 4-5 spread over years, last being maybe 3-4 ago) I just don't like it.  THe story seems fine, no issue there, and skull kid is cool as is the mask itself.  My beef is with the rushed nature of the game with the death clock, the asinine resets before the moon slams down, the mix of losses and lost progress vs what is kept.  That really bugs me, as does the fact that like 2/3 of the masks are bullshit fetch quest level stuff to just add time to the clock for a game that was clearly thrown together fast knowing N64 was dying, having a shitty dry run of months between releases, just to keep the fans baited until the Cube popped up.  There are parts it gets done right and well, but the negatives are just far more obnoxious and in larger amounts.

 

I did knock TP and SS too, it's mostly Zelda getting stale more than anything refusing to update the game series for so long.  TP is just big, slow, and the save mechanic harms the game sucked right out of the 90s era stuff (lose any work even if you save if it's after the last 'door' you walked through)  SS -- the lights you grab are more annoying than the TP version and the broken so called 1:1 controls really took the piss out of that one, even Nintendo realized it giving real control on the remaster they just put out.

[godslabrat]

On 7/18/2021 at 1:36 PM, Razzie.P said:

It’s not strange for film buffs to watch movies (multiple times, even) they don’t like and/or have no interest in because it’s deemed “important.”  They may not enjoy Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Godfather, Kurosawa films, etc, but they’ll watch, and often study these films just the same.

Literature buffs will read Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Moby Dick, etc, etc… yeah, you get it. 

 

A music buff may not like Beatles and Beach Boys, but they’ll likely give Sgt Pepper and Pet Sounds multiple playthroughs …

 

 

How about you/us/we game fans?

 

Ever sink a lot of time into a game you didn’t really like, maybe even forcing yourself to finish it, simply because you feel you need to experience it because it’s “important?”  Or is it always, “screw that… I don’t like it, I’m moving on to something else?

 

And maybe not just important as in “this game means a lot to video games, so….” Maybe it was important for a different reason.  Like, you promised a friend or family member that you’d play it.  Or you promised yourself that you’ll see it to the end.

 

 

For me, here are a few that come to mind immediately –

 

Psychonauts --  I have this game in my collections in multiple formats, but it never  held my attention for more than  a couple of hours.   I’m always hearing about how great it is, and with part 2 coming out, I made myself a promise to play through it.   And… I pretty much hated it most of the way.  But I finished, and glad I did

 

Xenoblade Chronicles – Same as Psychonauts.  Bought it multiple times (Wii, 3DS, and Switch) but always got bored after a couple of hours.   Promised myself I’d finish it, did that, and didn’t like it at all.

 

Inside – so many perfect scores and so many critics with “pinky out” praise for this, I had to check it out.  Ended up playing through twice over time, and nope… didn’t like it either time.

 

God of War – The PS4 version.  4th one, I think it was, with the older Kratos.   Same as the “Inside” situation.  This was miserable to me.  Way too much “let’s just walk while we listen to dialog” and when action did happen, button mashing just worked to finish any fight, except the quicktime events.

 

Currently, there’s a wee stirring in my heart saying “… time to try Breath of the Wild again…”  So here we go again, maybe.
 

Absolutely not.  Games take too long to dedicate that much time unless you're into it in the first place.

 

closest I came was FF7, and that was about a half hour.

[Gamemoose]

I sometimes will check out games that were super popular that originally wasn’t on my radar. FF7 for PlayStation is a good example, though I couldn’t make myself finish it. The Elder Scrolls games are another example, which thankfully for me I bought cheap. 
 

I really can’t use the word “important” for games or really any sort of media.  It’s like some folks think that you become more worldly or understand the universe better if you slog through this historical novel or listen to that particular jazz record or play this game that revolutionized a particular genre. 
 

 

[BawesomeBurf]

I've forced myself to finish some games back when I was still doing YouTube reviews. But outside of that, no. Life is too short to waste time on stuff you don't like. Unless you're using it as some sort of learning tool.

[Punisher5.0]

On 7/18/2021 at 8:45 PM, Pipercub said:

I love the Terminator series, even have a full size T800 in my kitchen, 

 

 

 

 

You can't say that and not post a pic!!!

 

Edit: I took it as the actual T800 robot. Im not a pinball guy obviously lol

[+Ryan Witmer]

I made myself play Final Fantasy 7 to confirm my thesis that it's the most overrated thing ever created.

 

Thesis was confirmed.

[Razzie.P]

8 hours ago, Ryan Witmer said:

I made myself play Final Fantasy 7 to confirm my thesis that it's the most overrated thing ever created.

 

Thesis was confirmed.

I had a friend who was absolutely determined that FF 7 was "the greatest game ever made."

 

His main reason --- It said so on the back of the box.

[Pipercub]

12 hours ago, Punisher5.0 said:

 

You can't say that and not post a pic!!!

 

Edit: I took it as the actual T800 robot. Im not a pinball guy obviously lol

 

The T800 is made by Sideshow, freaking awesome and full sized, a must for any fan. They are all in a walkthough here:

 

[Steven Pendleton]

10 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

I had a friend who was absolutely determined that FF 7 was "the greatest game ever made."

 

His main reason --- It said so on the back of the box.

Final Fantasy is boring as hell in general aside from Type-0, but Panzer Dragoon Zwei's disc says that it is one of the best 3D shooting games available, and that it's presented for your pleasure. That means it must be true... right?

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[+wongojack]

20 hours ago, Ryan Witmer said:

I made myself play Final Fantasy 7 to confirm my thesis that it's the most overrated thing ever created.

 

Thesis was confirmed.

 

12 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

I had a friend who was absolutely determined that FF 7 was "the greatest game ever made."

 

His main reason --- It said so on the back of the box.

 

Actually FF VII may be the first game that I ever "made" myself play because of all the hype.  There were a few others like that in the PS1 era too . . . Gran Turismo comes to mind.

 

I finished the first disk of FF VII and put it away never to go back again.

[Razzie.P]

I've never played FF VII.   Doesn't seem like anything I'll ever swing back and try, but maybe.   PS1 and N64 drove me straight to PC gaming in real time (people say they didn't age well, but I thought they were ass back in the day) so had no interest in it in real time.

 

I may try it one day, though, and you'll see a thread pop up saying "FF VII BEST GAME EVER!!!"  ?

[Zap1982]

I would have to take a proper look along my shelves to jog more memories but for me, Sonic 2006 - that damn last mission and stupid boss....

 

Rhodea the Sky Soldier.. clunky mess on Wii U but at the time I just forced my way through IDK why..

[Tanooki]

On 8/4/2021 at 11:56 AM, Ryan Witmer said:

I made myself play Final Fantasy 7 to confirm my thesis that it's the most overrated thing ever created.

 

Thesis was confirmed.

Well said.  If you write part 2, make sure you include Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo side of the coin.  Neither are bad games, neither are the worst, but they're also not the best... middling between good and mediocre.  Move two sequels up from them, dramatic improvement.