• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Have you ever genuinely wanted a game to fail?

J-Tier

Member
Yeesh, talk about true colors.

No, I never wanted a game to fail, though I did want a couple sketchy Kickstarters to get noticed.
 

Vandiger

Member
No. Even games I may "dislike" I can still appreciate some good aspects. If I started to hate specific games, I might as well just quit the whole gaming hobby :p
 

Mman235

Member
I think it's totally reasonable to hope for a game to fail if you think it's actively introducing shady business tactics or otherwise having a negative effect on the industry.

Yeah, it's kind of funny to see people's reason for not doing this be because of job losses, when several of the games listed in this thread are the ones that perpetuate the poisonous idea that every game must sell multi-millions to be a success (and would almost inevitably lead to a far nastier crash-and-burn in the future).
 

MechaX

Member
Oh man lol

Sonic fan base, you are no longer the worst. Hand over your crown and sit next to the Zelda fan base.

I don't care if you or he are both joking, saying that the Sonic fan base is not the worst is no joke. Like, people can't even fathom how deep the rabbit hole goes in the Sonic fanbase.
 

Dire

Member
XCom the Bureau, Shadowrun 360, Ninja Gaiden 3, etc.

Basically games that take an existing franchise and then turn it upside down because some suit saw a graph showing shooters selling better than strategy games or because another suit upstairs heard casuals are a big market and like their games absurdly simple. Incidentally those sort of money grabs do seem to have an incredibly high rate of flopping. Quite ironic.
 

Dali

Member
Yeah plenty. Any game that utilizes a business plan I disagree with or just a genre of gane from a company I believe has the potential to make games I'd actually want to play if they hadn't diverted resources to the game I wish were never made. Of course in the case of games like ffxi and xiv it raises the question of would they have the revenue to continue making the few console games they make now if not for the money xi brought in. Still... I'm not a business man so fuck those games.
 
When Mega Man 8 was announced for Sega Saturn and PS1, I was FURIOUS. I was, and still am, fervently loyal to Nintendo, and Mega Man belongs only on Nintendo systems. Luckily for me, the game turned out horrific. And the next year they ended up making the far superior Mega Man and Bass for Super Nintendo. Though it took forever for us to get it *grumble grumble*
 

Sponge

Banned
I'm really hate it when people say Rare killed themselves. Microsoft has had so many problems building a good first party lineup and it just baffles me that people think Microsoft has little to no influence on their downfall.

A part of me has wanted to see Microsoft fail due to how they've treated their own studios and gamers.
 
Sadly yes. My reasons have varied. Some are for more reasonable grounds, that I simply don't want to see a series go in a particularly distasteful direction. But, I must admit, most the time is just because I want to see the hyping fanboys go down in flames.
 

nkarafo

Member
Every single cinematic game.

Games with shallow game design and gameplay filled with QTEs, press "A" to awesome moments, oversimplified controls that allow you to watch impressive moves anyway, pretentious cinematics, stereotypical characters, unoriginal stories, cliches, wooden polygonal characters that developers try to pass as "oscar worthy" actors, exaggerated melodrama that ends up looking silly, voice acting by "famous" voice actors skyrocketing the budgets and stock "lord of the Rings" epic music.


I just don't like that so many videogames are heading to that direction. Every time a game like that comes out i wish for it to fail. Unfortunately most are successful because people prefer watching movies (of the generic, summer blockbuster type) than using their brains and skills to solve an actual game (despite the fact that a perfectly good movie industry already exist since forever). I guess videogames is the new, hip, high-tech way to watch movies.


Oh and OtherM. It seems that this abomination is considered a failure (both sale and quality wise) so i'm happy.
 
The only one I can think of is Gears Judgment...looks like it didn't need any help.

Gears is one of my favorite IPs from this gen. I've sunk an embarrassing amount of hours into that series. Judgment isn't necessarily a bad game, it's just not Gears. They removed everything that made Gears great and turned it into a generic TPS with Gears character skins.

I ended up trying the multiplayer for a few hours and meh. Like I said it's not like the game is a total piece of shit but it's definitely not worthy of the Gears name and I wish PCF would've just worked on a Bulletstorm sequel instead.
 

hatchx

Banned
The last of us and Resident evil 4 mentioned?

Well gaf, now I've seen it all.


PS- I want to see Ryse flop hard if it turns out to be the QTE fest it appears to be.
 
Nope. Although there are a few games I do not like and will not play, Wanting them to fail is a bit harsh. The implications of a game failing can have some devastating consequences to the studio and employees.
 

pestul

Member
So lets tally up the hate thus far:

- Nintendo (everything)
- Microsoft(Halo)
- DMC

lol

Sorry honourable mention to f2p and Facebook games.
 

megamerican

Member
I wanted the original Wii and Kinect to fail. I really think that motion controls are stupid. I really wouldn't have had as much of a problem with the Wii if it had been more capable hardware wise.
 
This is a good topic. I've never wanted a game to fail because it was exclusive to one console, or got released on another console after it had been marketed as an exclusive, but there have been a few titles where I've hoped and prayed they'd fail spectacularly.

Anything Peter Molyneux does, I hope fails, because I think the guy is essentially a scam artist living off an undeserved reputation (his recent comments on how mobile games are better than GTAV because of how much money they bring in tells me that for all his talk about "artistry", the guy's main concern is how to make as much money as possible...if Curiosity itself wasn't proof of that). I was very disappointed Godus got funded.

Anything Denis Dyack is involved in, while I don't actively hope it fails, I can't help but feel schadenfreude when it does (like his recent Kickstarter), after hearing the horror stories behind the development of X-Men: Destiny and his previous projects. He just sounds like a very nasty, unethical indivdual (redirecting money and people from the X-Men project to the Eternal Darkness potential remake/sequel).

Anything Brendan McNamara is involved in, because he sounds like another absolutely horrid human being, and someone who is clearly not capable of managing these big budget titles he keeps wanting to make. As someone who played through all of L.A. Noire, I remember my excitement at the first couple of cases slowly fading as I realized that McNamara had gone through the trouble and expense of making this vast world and then didn't actually do anything with it. The whole world was sterile, dead, there was nothing to do other than look at the pretty scenery,and all of it was directly due to McNamara's poor management capabilities. I do want an L.A. Noire sequel developed by Rocktar, but I want McNamara kept far, far away from it.

Any of these big free to play titles that are designed to capture "whales" who will spend a lot of money on items to help them "win." I think those are legitimately damaging to the gaming industry, and I think we are heading in a direction where games are sold to us in pieces. I'm not including stuff like Plants Vs. Zombies 2 or Jetpack Joyride or Temple Run, which allow you to enjoy the game without having to purchase anything. I'm referring more to stuff like FarmVille or Mafia Wars, which either forces you to advertise the game to your friends, or spend money on crap just to advance.

I remember a Namco Bandai exec speaking a few years back saying that his ideal gaming situation as a businessman was selling a little piece of a game and then additional pieces, slowly making more money than they ever would've just by selling all the content already on the disc. And really, if you look at Namco Bandai games, thats exactly what they have done. For example, modern Tales games sell costumes as DLC. Those cool bonuses which were originally hidden in previous tales games are now $4 each! I remember reading an article on Kotaku where someone calculated how much money it would cost to buy all the items in an Idolm@ster game and it ended up being in the hundreds of dollars. The new JoJo's game has DLC up the wazoo as well. I love a lot of these Namco Bandai games (I'm a big fan of the Tales series), but what they're doing is really sad. So, I don't want Namco Bandai games to fail, but on the other hand, I don't want these tactics to be successful either...ugh.
 
Every single cinematic game.

Games with shallow game design and gameplay filled with QTEs, press "A" to awesome moments, oversimplified controls that allow you to watch impressive moves anyway, pretentious cinematics, stereotypical characters, unoriginal stories, cliches, wooden polygonal characters that developers try to pass as "oscar worthy" actors, exaggerated melodrama that ends up looking silly, voice acting by "famous" voice actors skyrocketing the budgets and stock "lord of the Rings" epic music.


I just don't like that so many videogames are heading to that direction. Every time a game like that comes out i wish for it to fail. Unfortunately most are successful because people prefer watching movies (of the generic, summer blockbuster type) than using their brains and skills to solve an actual game (despite the fact that a perfectly good movie industry already exist since forever). I guess videogames is the new, hip, high-tech way to watch movies.

Gotta agree. Even though I don't really wish for it, because I know that certain games would never underperform anyway. But whenever some of them do, I sadly can't deny that it makes me feel better about the industry.
 

Herne

Member
Yes, Star Wars Obi-Wan. It was either multiplatform or pc exclusive, but then Microsoft threw some money at LucasArts and suddenly it became an Xbox exclusive title. At the time I was involved in a Jedi Knight clan, and Obi-Wan looked like it'd be the next game that we'd migrate to, that would take up the job of replacing Jedi Knight, and finally let us play as the movie characters without resorting to mods. When it was announced as Xbox exclusive, oh man the salt. It burned. And as we lumbered on with what was by then a very old game, it got delayed and delayed, and we forgot about it as Jedi Knight 2 was announced.

At some point it was released - at launch or near, iirc - and it turned out to be a huge piece of shit. And I laughed. I've never been so happy that a game turned out so badly. Man... remembering it, looking back and thinking of it, it's still hugely satisfying. Because fuck you, Microsoft.

hqdefault.jpg
 

edeo

Member
Angry Birds. Low-quality game that is utter crap. It still rakes in the cash. I hate seeing Angry Birds merch everywhere.
 

Momentary

Banned
DmC Devil May Cry.

Mainly because it tried to turn the series into something that it wasn't. It was a decent game in the end, but Ninja Theory's Dante is a horrible character.

I came in here just to see if DmC was going to be first. I can now leave pleased.
 

Obscured

Member
Definitely not, I've never understood this stance. It typically comes off as just mean-spirited and doesn't seem to lead to anywhere.
 

Nimby

Banned
Tomb Raider, going by Crystal Dynamic's previous titles and the hilarious marketing that led up to the release. Although I guess it did fail in Square's eyes.
 

Mupod

Member
Front Mission Evolved, maybe. But I simply didn't care much about it to begin with. And the series is probably dead forever regardless of that game's performance.
 

char0n

Member
Any "F2P" (and especially non F2P) games that pull the whole "Your character/vehicle/item is tired/injured/needs recharging, wait for a few minutes/hours to play again... oooooooorrrr give us some cash to get right back in the action!"

At that point they should just put up a "CONTINUE?" screen with "INSERT COIN" flashing at the top to exploit nostalgia as well.
 

Odrion

Banned
Never really wanted a title to fail, but it sure would be nice if Titanfall didn't cause the Xbone to outsell the PS4 by a billion units.
 

Sami+

Member
Oh, wanted to post the only other game that I really wanted to see fail (DmC immediately came to mind when I read the title) -

new-super-mario-bros-2-art-title%5B1%5D.jpeg


They didn't even try to hide how much of a blatant fucking cash grab this game is. God damn tragic it vastly outsold Kid Icarus Uprising.
 
I've wanted a game to fail and succeed at the same the same time: PSASBR.

Fail because it's such a lazy effort.
Succeed because I want more of it - just not by SuperBot.
 

dropbear

Banned
Absolutely not. Actively wishing failure upon something that dozens or hundreds of developers poured hours and hours of their working lives into is pathetic, especially when the failure you're wishing for could mean some of these people losing their jobs.

Some of the short-sightedness in this thread is sickening.

With the video game market as volatile as it is, why would you actively wish for people to lose their jobs?
 
Guys I thought this was a joke thread and participate with a controversial comment about Wind Waker... After 7 pages of reading I think we are in need of some therapy, too much hate bro...
 

samwizered

Member
Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6 because they weren't resi games anymore.

I'm sorry, but Resident Evil 4 was f'ing great. 5 and 6, not so much though.

I have enjoyed watching WoW's dwindling subscriber count because I think the ways that Blizzard has changed the game after TBC ruined it for me.

Agreed on this. The Burning Crusade had its problems, but it was still the same WoW I loved. Wrath of the Lich King was where it really started going downhill. It's sad because WoW has been dumbed down so much over the years, I simply have no desire to go back.
 

EMT0

Banned
DmC and Japanese mobile gaming. DmC as someone with no investment in the DMC franchise; Capcom and Ninja Theory's treatment of DMC fans just sickened me. As for mobile games, I like a certain kind of game. Devs are shifting more and more resources onto these kinds of games. If mobile gaming dies, more resources get redirected into the kinds of games I care about.

And what's with people thinking jobs are sacred? I don't necessarily want people out of jobs, but I do want certain games to fail so that publishers can get the memo.
 

Magwik

Banned
I wanted to see Halo 4 crash and burn because of perks, loadouts, etc. I sadly get joy out of looking at the population charts.
 
I wanted Halo 4 to be amazing. I wanted it to defy my expectations and I had high hopes that 343 would succeed in re-invigorating the franchise while keeping the soul of it intact. But they failed in so many ways. After I got my hands on it I changed my stance. I wanted the game to fail. I wanted people to stop playing it, I wanted the game to do so badly post-release that 343 and Microsoft would change their stance on how they handle the Halo franchise going forward.

I don't think they will change their stance though. I feel they will use the sales of Halo 4 as an indicator that it was a success, when it was far from it
 
Top Bottom