Of course not. (Gaming)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, August 13, 2016, 15:47 (3028 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by Ragashingo, Saturday, August 13, 2016, 15:51

I don't think it's just about the game. The question is whether things outside the game have a significant effect on your enjoyment of the game.

They do.

For instance, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is probably my favorite of the MCU movies. I loved it from the first time I saw it in theater. But I also loved the director commentary the Russo brothers did for the Blu-Ray. They gave a lot of insight into the influences and thought processes behind the movie. Brad Bird and John Walker's commentary on The Incredibles is similarly good in that it was two people who knew their movie and who loved their movie and who did a great job talking about the whys and how's of making their movie.

I do feel that knowing more about those movies has increased my enjoyment of them significantly. When I watch these movies I'm reminded about the extra information I know and enjoy them all the more.

On the other hand, Aquaria, one of my favorite indie games of all time, feels very tightly put together as you play it. Its music links very strongly into its world which is very strongly linked to its story which hides some very strongly dark secrets that you have to really look for to find. If I only played the game I'd conclude that Aquaria was a masterpiece.

But I also happen to know that the game went through utter development hell. That last I heard (which admittedly was several years ago) the two friends who made it ended up very alienated from each other not the least of which because the one who did the programming and story and music either strongly threatened to commit suicide or actually tried to commit suicide. I also know that the venerable Mac shareware company Ambrosia Software published Aquaria on the Mac after having provided a significant amount of code to help with audio, widescreen support, and after having spent a significant amount of money on advertising only to have the programmer guy request they stop selling it under their shareware system and give him the improved code base so he could turn around and sell it on Steam and as part of one of the Humble Bundles.

When I play Aquaria I focus on the art and music and gameplay and tightly woven themes and do my best to ignore everything else I know about it. I enjoy the game immensely despite the trouble in the background.

In both cases, however, it's the works themselves that are the basis of my enjoyment. With you, it feels like the fact alone that much of No Man's Sky was procedurally generated is what has made your decision of whether it can even possibly be enjoyable. I see that as a very broken way of thinking. As someone once said, "You are a sad strange little man and you have my pity."