The Most Stupid Reasons for Dismissing a Game

[Badly-Drawn Manchild]

Inspired by a similar topic over at The Escapist, I have one simple question to ask:

What's the most stupid reason you've heard for dismissing a game?

I can think of a metric ton of them (hell, I've been guilty of some of them at different stages of my life), but one of the biggest ones is "it's colourful, so it's a gay baby's game" (or similar statement). The more I hear this whole "kids games/adult games" bull[censored], the less water it holds. When I play a game I aim to manipulate events on-screen to overcome a series of challenges. Beyond that, provided the challenges in question remain consistently fun and intriguing, if the developer's used colours other than gun-metal grey and dog[censored] brown I'm willing to cut them some slack.

I'll probably post more later, but this is just to get the ball rolling. So what are the worst excuses you've heard?

[Retro]

Ye Gods, the sheer amount I hear on a weekly basis from work.

The most recent was someone refusing to play Beyond Good and Evil due to you having to play as a female in it. He knew and had heard of it being an amazing game and dearly wanted to try it...but said he couldn't because you played a girl. I've heard this arguement for Mirror's Edge a good few times as well. Indeed, some people even outright say "Nah, Faith doesn't look as sexy as Lara Croft, so I'm not interested."

Shallow minded morons.

As Studio mentioned, the idea of looking at a game and deciding it's "kiddy and rubbish" just because it doesn't have an American with a gun on it is pitiful. Hell, putting down almost any game just because it isn't a bog standard shooter. You'de be amazed how many people are outright terrified of trying something even a little different from the incredibly basic "safe zone" they allow themselves. Even if that means restricting themselves to a very thin genre filled with crap.

[Nam]

I think we're all outright guilty of dismissing a game on the basis of it's box art alone. For all I know "Dolphin Beach Rescue"* could be an amazing game, full of intrigue, a complex plot with belivable characters, the perfect camera, and a wealth of options that make it the best game in existance. But lets face it, I'm not going to buy a game called "Dolphin Beach Rescue" anytime soon, because the name conjurs up something mum's who don't know any better would buy for there six year old daughters "cos Bethany** loves dolphins", not something any self respecting male would buy.

I openly admit I don't play FPS, I don't like the genre. I'm not a fan of realistic combat-based shooters, hence I don't play games that look like they're going to be any kind of FPS, because I know no matter how well the game is rated by others, and how high a review score it's getting, it's not going to be a game that I personally will get a lot of joy out of.


_{*As far as I know, there is no such game, the name was made up to provide an example
**AS far as I know, there is no such child, the name was made up to provide an example.}

[Devo DrakeFox]

My brother hates anything and everything related to Microsoft, so Xbox and all games exclusive to it don't exist in his eyes. It doesn't matter if I try to explain how good the Mass Effect or Halo series are, he won't hear of it.

[Retro]

Jun 26, 2010 10:43:38 GMT Devo DrakeFox said:

Mass Effect

But Mass Effect is Bioware/EA.

[The Shad]

I was talking to some guy once about different consoles. He had a 360, I have my wii. And he started talking about the Conduit, Metroid Prime, Brawl, all of them good games I still play from time to time, and I was talking about some good games on the 360 (my knowledge of xbox games is tiny, so it was the stuff everyone knew about, Halo and such) and then I mentioned Super Mario Galaxy.

"What are you, eight? Play a real game, like GTA!" Then stormed off in a huff.

Also, tried to get my niece to play Ocarina of Time. She refused to play because "That's a boy! Girls can't play as boys!" I eventually convinced her that Link is a girl and she played it for hours, just wandering around. By the time she found out Link was a boy, she loved it too much to turn it off.

[Devo DrakeFox]

Jun 26, 2010 10:55:16 GMT Retro said:

Jun 26, 2010 10:43:38 GMT Devo DrakeFox said:

Mass Effect

But Mass Effect is Bioware/EA.

Yes it is, but it's only on 360 and PC. Andy's a Linux user and refuses to touch any Windows software and he'd never consider consider getting a 360 or even playing on mine, so unless the ME games are ported to PS3 he won't even acknowledge their existence. That's quite sad, really, I reckon he would love the series if he gave it a chance.

[Beeth]

"Huhu, yeah, I played Sonic..... when I was about, six."

Lad to me back in secondary school.

[Alex]

Do I even really need to explain the Pokemon example? I'm sure plenty of us have had to run afoul of it at some point or another since the fad faded.

[Retro]

Jun 26, 2010 11:20:16 GMT Beeth said:

"Huhu, yeah, I played Sonic..... when I was about, six."

Lad to me back in secondary school.

To be fair, dismissing modern Sonic games is generally a smart and money saving move.

Come on someone had to say it.




You know, we've all mentioned the kiddy thing, but it goes the other way as well. There are some gamers out there, usually Nintendo die-hards, whom refuse to accept the plausability of any game that isn't Mario bright in it's colours. Things like Call of Duty (pre-MW2), Gears of War and suchlike...yeah, even their biggest fans will admit the colour palette is pretty samey, but they still look amazing, they thrive on their own style and visual flair. They don't try to pretend to be different. At the end, they're awesome games. If someone just doesn't like them as games, that's cool. But I really hate this whole lumping in of "Gears of Duty" and "Call of War" crap when really, they are exceptionally good games.

If there's anything to hate from the "brown" group, it's the masses of wannabe's that makes up the majority of the FPS genre. I'd be the first to say that FPS's are probably the biggest genre for having few quality series' and a ton of bad ones.

Sliiiightly off topic there, but it's related in a sense. The idea of dismissing something entirely just because it isn't cartoon coloured. It's not as widespread as the "but thats kiddy" mindset, but hey, it exists.

[Alex]

Actually, most of the people I know say they don't play those games purely 'cos they don't like shooting, violent or 'mature' games. Which is still a bit narrow-minded really (although I'm personally not a fan of FPS games overall, and let's face it, the constant similar colour palette over the past 5 years does nothing to help the fact a lot of them are very similar cookies cut from the same dough), but I definitely think it's a more prevalent opinion over the fact that they're not made by Unicorns.

[Pete]

I'm probably guilty of dismissing a fair amount of Wii games, but that's due to the fact that I really can't stand the controls (although I love the Mario Galaxy and Metroid games).

[Exu]

"If it's on Dreamcast it sucks."

Heard it all the time during school. I almost choked on my Power Stone.

[Beeth]

Jun 26, 2010 11:26:38 GMT Retro said:

To be fair, dismissing modern Sonic games is generally a smart and money saving move.

Dismissing any game is generally a smart and money saving move.

Also, I find it annoying when people dismiss a game because it's "copying off" or is "a clone of" another franchise. I'll admit this to be true of a number of games, but I'm referring to those people who call out any game with a hint of inspiration or theme similarity from another title.

Case in point: I mentioned F-Zero to someone back in college, they rubbished it in an instant, claiming it to be copying Wipeout. A franchise which didn't exist until several years after the original F-Zero was released, ffs!

[Ellie]

I think its most annoying when people take one look at it and then say, that looks rubbish, without actually giving a reason. This happens a lot with sequels, it dones't look exactly like the first one, so its crap. I remember getting house of the dead overkill and loving it, and telling somebody about how cool it was, and they started saying it would be rubbish because it wasn't like the originals.

[madhair60]

On the flipside, I think it's reasonable to dismiss things on a flimsy basis, because I haven't time to sample every game ever made. I don't like sports games, so I'm not going to try every Fifa in case one of them is excellent. Frequently I'll just say "I'm not interested" and expect not to be questioned further.

[Moo]

I probably do judge games I've never heard of on their boxart, or rather, screenshots on the boxart. Mind you, it doesn't often let me down.

[Th Dngn Shkr]

If Yahtzee doesn't like it.

[Steven T]

People have said they're not going to download Earthworm Jim HD just because they don't like Jim's new voice.

Also, guys who refuse to play Kingdom Hearts because "Disney is for girls" or "Final Fantasy is for girls" or both.

[Pombar]

Most common and stupid reason appears to be 'image' in general - be that manifested as boxart, by how the game appears, or even by what kinds of people like the game. See: Nintendards offhandly dismissing Gears of War.

[madhair60]

Seems reasonable. If I see a cover like Gears' I'm likely to assume I won't enjoy the game, and I'd usually be right. I simply don't have time to play everything, so I play things that look interesting.

[Pombar]

Was more referring to my last point - you'll find the more snobbish fans on the Nintendo and Retro ends of the spectrum dismissing anything popular amongst the gun-toting teen lot off-hand - than the cover thing. Gears's cover actually does a fairly decent job of showing what the game'll be.

[Blizz]

I just hate this idea people seem to have that as soon as you turn 12 or so, you have to disown Mario, Sonic, Zelda etc and play nothing but endlessly repetitive shooters and crime sims in endless shades of grey and brown.

[legionfan44]

I don't know if this counts, But I refuse to play anything made by rockstar because I find the GTA series shallow & pretentious.

[Pombar]

Jul 10, 2010 11:39:11 GMT Blizz said:

I just hate this idea people seem to have that as soon as you turn 12 or so, you have to disown Mario, Sonic, Zelda etc and play nothing but endlessly repetitive shooters and crime sims in endless shades of grey and brown.

And I hate the idea that this is the reason people play games with ratings of 12 and up. Just like I'm happy to watch Up and The Dark Knight, so too am I happy to play Dragon Quest and Rainbow Six. It's not one or the other!