I have been following a video series for about 2 or 3 months now called Extra credits. Some of you might be familiar with it. They basically talks about game design and various other topics related to the games industry. Today i saw a video that made me rethink my view on bad games.

My previous way of thinking:

A good game brings me joy. It makes me disappear into another world. It teaches me various things, like how a good story should be, how to design interesting characters, how good controls should be.

Crappy games are not worth any money. However, if the studio that made the game is made up of really dedicated people, but surrounded by harsh conditions it can be bought depending on the various circumstances.

A good game made by people not dedicated to making good games, but instead dedicated to earning money, is not worth buying since the studio's way of thinking doesn't suit me. Exceptions can be made if the game is really good.


My new way of thinking:

A good game brings me joy. It makes me disappear into another world. It teaches me various things, like how a good story should be, how to design interesting characters, how good controls should be. (Same as above basically)

Now comes the difference:
A crappy game IS worth buying!
Why is that? Because it teaches you how things like controls, camera angles, level designs, character designs, mini-game designs should NOT be implemented.
The thing with good games is that they are hard to analyze, you are so wrapped up in the awesome experience that you don't notice minor glitches, bugs, poorly implemented features etc, etc. A horrible game will do a lot less to hide the poorly implemented stuff, thus making it easier for you to learn.

For you wondering what i got this from, check this:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2738-Playing-Like-a-Designer-Part-2

I think im going to walk down to the game store tomorrow and buy some cheap, shitty games to play XD

Anyone wanna discuss this?

I visit the local game store frequently, they have some games i have seen standing there for like a year or two, i never bought em since i thought they were really crappy. They usually cost like 50-100 swedish kronor. (It's about 5-10 euro)

You can play hundreds of crappy games for free on Kong.

Can't see anything bad about the graphics in any of those games... all fit for purpose and aesthetically pleasing, and that's all that counts.

Cas

Indeed, you have to get beyond a simplistic appraisal of resolution, pallette range, and polygon counts and understand the meaning and purpose of the graphics before you can say they are good or bad. Many games' graphics on the C64 and Atari ST and Amiga are still excellent today. So excellent that rather a lot of indie developers try and copy them

Cas

There's always "some" who consider everything they look at to be crappy but these I suspect are mostly just kids or big kids (we get people telling us they could write our games in Flash, heh). They are easily ignored. It riles me when a supposed critic does the same, mind. I don't think I've seen a professional* game with bad graphics in the last 20 years, if I'm honest.

Cas

* literal meaning of the word.

I don't think you could say they were any better or worse either way; they just make full use of what technology is available. In many ways the modern graphics are considerably better technically, but probably the only significant advance over the original Amiga version is that the display zooms as well as pans.

Cas

I fully agree. Also thanks for the link, some great resources.

I remember once stumbling over a copy of Moonbase (among others) on home of the underdogs and really loving the game. It was simple yet fun.

Sadly today most people only focus on the eye-candy instead of the game and basically the companies give them just that.

pffft, I'm sure people have been swaying that since before DOOM came out.  Not that there's no truth in it, but ultimately good games do well for being good games.

I think it is hard to say that a game has good or bad graphics. I mean what are the guidelines for "good" graphics? When I look at graphics in a game, I mostly look at it the same way as when I look at a painting. A painting by Picasso or da Vinci have qualities in their own way, and both pixelalted graphics and super realistic 3d graphics have their qualities. But I guess most people enjoy realistic paintings compare to abstract though.

Im a bit suprised that this thread has recieved so much replies, when i first posted it it didn't get that much attention.
Another thing that i am a bit suprised over is that whenever people talk about bad or good games, graphics is always a major topic of discussion. Graphics plays a very minor role in determening whether a game is fun or not. At least it does for me. An example: Far cry 2 = eye candy but really, really boring and repetitive gameplay. no offence toward the guys that liked it, but for me it just wasn't fun playing. As you all know, the main objective with a game is to be fun.

On-topic: Far cry 2 learned me that one should not design traveling in an open world so that you are intercepted by armed rebels every 2 mins and constantly have to fight for your life while searching for new vehicles.

I had the feeling you were not serious with your 3d crysis graphics statement Eli XD

I may have prestented my point a bit wierd though, what i meant is that many factors govern wether a game is successfull or unsuccessful, but only the graphics part gets discussed.

God "blood" was a great game. "I LIVE AGAIN!!!"

so many memories. Serial port 1on1 gaming during laptop class, back when teachers didnt know how to use computers, good times.

I wonder if that has anything to do with early games being marketed towards children, as the characters have a vey picture story book feel, and the jokes tend towards slapstick and potty humour. Modern games tend to be more seriouos. Even the indie creative games tend towards a specific stylistic feel or even sometimes trippy.

One of my personal favorite shooters was NOLF.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Operative:_No_One_Lives_Forever

So many cool ideas and maps. Sure it hat some frustrations (maps you had to sneak through) but I'd play it again if I ever got my hands on it.