Many of us are used to searching for the very best games out there. We are always on the hunt for the best of the best and in doing so we leave a lot behind us that we hardly ever notice. These are games that lack polish, detail and much more they lack the design of a good game. We let these fall by the wayside as we search for highest rated games to play. By doing so we miss adding something important to our overall experience with the amount of games out there.
Why would anyone want to play poorly reviewed games? Games that receive less than an 7/10 on reviews, games that are negatively reviewed on Steam- It seems like one would want to do the opposite, to stay away from those games and play games that receive good review scores and that are fun to play.
In fact these games do have a purpose but perhaps not the one their creators had in mind when they made them.
The first question we should ask ourselves is why do we like to play good games? What is it in the games that makes us want to keep playing? Is it the level design? The type of enemies? The difficulty? Or the artwork. Most likely it is a combination off all these things. If any one factor is not done correctly it noticeably stands out to us when we play the game. While every game is not perfect and in any one game there are imperfections in bad games there are multiple glaring imperfections that as gamers we cannot help but notice. They are visible to us gamers who have years of experience behind us. And to those gamers who do not have this experience they feel something is off when they play the game and find themselves tossing the game aside for something better. They might not be able to tell you what it was but they will certainly tell you: "It was not fun to play".
I have become a more regular player of poorly designed games after reading an article that was similar to my very own right here about playing badly made games. The author took it upon himself to start playing bad games, games which were poorly reviewed in his game library so that he could begin to truly appreciate a good game for what it is. Along the way he learned that through this journey he now enjoys good games much more. They are no longer the standard but the good.
It is still possible to appreciate for example a good steak without having eaten bad steaks in the past or poorly prepared steaks but not at the same level could you give yourself the full perspective without knowing what a bad steak tastes like.
I didn't know it but I had already a long history with badly made games. I used to play online flash games all the time when I was younger and when flash games were hugely popular. I remember vividly how much fun it was to play them in school with my best friend after completing my project or work. Some of these games were amazing and would go on to become fully made games and sell millions of copies, games such as Binding of Isaac, Spelunky, and others. However among these gems there used to be thousands upon thousands of quickly made, really simple and awful to play games.
It's important to know what is not enjoyable to have in a game, what doesn't work so that you know what to look out for in a game that you know will not interest you such as puzzle mechanics, long cut scenes, story driven games. However bad games are much more then this and involve poor design decisions across the board. You can play them to better appreciate good level design in games such as in Mario games. The level starts out teaching you about the mechanics you will face then it ups the difficulty as you progress. You learn about new mechanics along the way.
Second is movement in games. Knowing what counts for clunky controls and what counts for spot on precision movement comes with practice and experience around many games. Super Meat Boy for example has precise movement that is automatic to the weight you give to the press of each button on the controller. It does not feel clunky as in some games. The character does what you think he will do. There are platformers where the character does not control in a precise way and the game fails because movement is such a huge factor for a platformer to do well. Third is artwork. Artwork is what you are surrounded by every time you launch the game. If the environment is not good you will not want to go back to the game as it will not invite you back the same way a game with good artwork will.
If you find that your gaming experience is growing monotonous launch a bad game and you will soon start to more appreciate the good games you play. Please hit the follow button or subscribe to the newsletter for more great content at Saturday Morning Gaming.
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