Do we really want games to surprise us? (Gaming)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Wednesday, August 09, 2017, 13:40 (2664 days ago) @ ManKitten

And yet, people are complaining... So do we want games to surprise us? Do we want developers to break away from their publishers and deliver truly unique experiences? Hellblade is the manifestation of that question, and the sales and player response will be the answer.

Since this is the proposed questions, (because the threads above are really confusing me) I'll offer an answer.

I think we just want fun games. That's it. If it's a good game, it's a good game.

Yeah, totally. And as the folks in this thread show, different people look for different kinds of "fun" in their games, which is what causes devs to play it safe and try to cater to as broad of an audience as they can... Which can lead to the problem that the whole initial post is about, really: can a game be a "good game" without catering to a broad audience?

People are going to complain no matter what, it's how society operates now. Any blowhard can get on a forum and rant about "...a game studio (or person) has something that they can be called out on, [and] call them out. You'd think that kind of honesty and awareness would give you reason to care about the points that [they're] trying to make."

Yeh, but that's why it pays to listen to multiple perspectives, I think. Sometimes you don't really think about what you could find fun and surprising. We all just want to make sure that we have "fun", of course, but sometimes a game can give us something more, something that we didn't know we wanted or needed. A new kind of "fun".

I linked to the low-scoring reviews partially to highlight that even those who are more willing to call the dev out on their shortcomings have great things to say about the experience. "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice won't leave anyone indifferent", is how the reviewer at laPS4 put it...

but at the end of the day, it's just another post online about a game that is fun.

;)

Aren't they all? ;)