If you haven’t read one of my previous posts, you may not know that I have been in quite an existential crisis with my aspiration as a reviewer and hobby as a gamer and writer.

Part of this crisis is brought about by how unfun games have become when I play them. I’m torn between wanting to play for my enjoyment and feeling pressured by affirming or denying ratings and reviews I’ve seen about the game.

Negative reviews make it hard for me to look forward to trying new games, while positive reviews make me doubt if a game is actually good.

I am partly to blame for my indecisiveness, but I also think that it is the fault of the media and game companies. The constant criticism and emphasis on ratings have affected both game creators and players, and I intend to try and take them to light in this post.

Knowing Nothing was Fun.

When I was young, I didn’t care about the logic or sense in video games. The games I played either

1. …didn’t have any compelling story that made sense, or
2. …had stories that I didn’t bother to piece together.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed them!

A Game with Nonsensical Story

Bust-a-Move 2 (or Bust-a-Groove 2 in other versions) had different characters with both grim and lighthearted origin stories. Two of my favorite characters were Bi-O and Capoeira.

All I knew about Bi-O back then was that he was a zombie with an axe on his head and he did cool Pop & Lock moves that I would never dare to try anymore. Capoeira, on the other hand, was a pair of alien characters that danced the dance style their names referred to.

Bust-A-Move 2’s story was pretty crazy. To finish it, you had to defeat a giant robot, called Robo-Z, attacking you and your fellow dancing competitors. I really have no idea what it is about.

Many things in Bust-A-Move 2 didn’t make sense but I truly had fun playing it.

A Game with a Story that I Never Made Sense Of

Legend of Mana had separate stories focusing on a multitude of characters you meet along your journey.

There was Elazul, a Jumi Knight focused on protecting Pearl. There was Pearl, a crucial character that played a significant role in deciding the fate of the Jumi Race. There was also Daena, whose story I still don’t know about. Then there were Bud and Lisa, two siblings aiming to be powerful sorcerers despite their unusual quirks that separate them from the regular sorcerers commonly found in the world of Legend of Mana. There are so much more characters and going over their motives would be too long.

Regardless, all of their stories were filled with tragic and triumphant endings that resonated with me. Many of these tales required sacrifices, abandonment of friends, acceptance of unrequited love, and so much more that colored the complexities of the game’s world.

All of these never truly made sense to me, they all felt like people simply driven by their personal motives and challenges that ultimately meet my character by mere coincidence.

Still, these characters and their stories were so emotionally evocative and memorable that I consider Legend of Mana as one of my most memorable and favorite games.

Aside from the characters, emotions, and stories I experienced, Legend of Mana also had a wonderful painterly art style and somber music that just made you feel rightfully melancholic.

I just love Legend of Mana, and I enjoyed it so much.

Comparison is the Thief of Joy

Going through this nostalgic trip got me thinking of the quote “Comparison is the thief of joy.“ I never had anything to reference my experiences with these games. I never had anything set expectations for me besides the art cover on the CD case.

I believe this lack of comparison allowed me to hae fun, enjoy, remember, and love both Legend of Mana and Bust-a-Move 2.

Nowadays, you cannot play a game without someone else setting it up for you. This is done by the game reviews, ratings, and scores by the media, or the game’s marketing campaign as seen through their demos, trailers, and other promotional material.

These things sully our supposed first fun experience by setting expectations for us. These nudge our standards and taint our curiosity. Let’s try to give a quick look at how they do it.

Reviews, Ratings, and Scores

Game reviews can be helpful, it gives an overview of what to expect in a video game.

At their worst, they might include spoilers, excessively criticize a game, or excessively praise it. At their best, they highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of the game, aiming to recommend it to the appropriate audience. Sometimes, reviews can contain elements of both the best and worst parts as well as what’s fun and not fun.

I do not necessarily have problems with this. However, scores and ratings are a different thing. These assigned numbers are now considered one of the defining factors of a game’s quality.

Games that are below 5 are considered trash, a 5 or 6 means it’s mediocre, a 7 means it is simple yet enjoyable, an 8 or 9 is a near-masterpiece, and a 10 is a century-defining piece of art.

We can take a quick look at how scores were taken by the gaming community for Starfield, Elden Ring, Last of Us 2, and God of War (2018). Some of these games were review-bombed, and some were criticized as oversold by the media.

This method of defining what makes a game good or bad (also fun or not fun) creates a bad precedent – that enjoyment of games is quantifiable and that the audience is wrong for not agreeing with it. There is no “fun” in this mindset.

There is pushback on my latter statement, but I think the fact remains that scoring a game is seen as necessary when evaluating a game.

You can barely like a game without a negative score or review making you doubt your positive view on a game. The advent of social media even turned to its worst, with people waging global fan wars or harassing developers at a ridiculous level over the games they made.

There’s a lot more stuff to be talked about with game reviews, ratings, and scores such as skewed scores, paid reviews, early game reviews, and politicking, to name a few, but it’s not fun to read all of these in one go so let us save those for another post.

Marketing

While game reviews, ratings, and scores skew how people view games, they are not solely to blame for this sad state of evaluating games. Marketing plays a big role as well.

Much like how Marvel Studios add scenes or characters in Marvel Cinematic Universe movies’ trailers that are not actually in the film, game companies and/or publishers have also done the same thing.

Watch Dogs was widely known for this once when people compared its actual gameplay and content when it was released and what was shown during its E3 Gameplay Demo reveal in 2012. Just give the video below a quick skim:

In this E3 Gameplay Demo, Watch Dogs boasted a highly interactive and cinematic-like choreography of its AIs and game mechanics. It was as if you were making your own Mission Impossible scene in the game. Yet, its actual gameplay was much less cinematic, dynamic, and interactive than what was shown.

Don’t get me wrong, Watch Dogs had a very fun and innovative gameplay system that allowed players to feel like they had the world in their hands. Still, it is not the same as what was shown in the demo.

Further comparisons can be made, just look at the video below comparing the graphics in the E3 reveal and actual gameplay.

I’m not one to put a lot of emphasis on graphics because I believe gameplay is king, but there is a difference when an expectation is set for the viewers that are just incorrect.

Watch Dogs still looks impressive and fun to play but it’s not the same as how it looked in the demo, and this has become common practice. Ubisoft is known for this and we can even look at some of their other games like The Division and Rainbow Six: Siege.

Nowadays, gameplay trailers and demos feature something entirely different from what is delivered in the game. It is so widespread that even smaller non-independent and independent game companies do it.

Tempering Expectations and Taking Accountability

Expectations are a crucial aspect of our fun and enjoyment of video games; they guide our desires and preferences in our daily lives. However, assigning blame for how people talk about a game’s quality is not as straightforward as it seems.

On one hand, gamers should not solely rely on user and professional reviews. On the other hand, game companies have a responsibility to set true and realistic expectations, as well as deliver on them.

We, as consumers, have to take agency and form our own opinions and judgments. We also need to provide feedback. While it is recommended but not necessary for feedback to be constructive, at the very least it should be written without undue harshness or cruelty.

Game companies should stop overpromising or misleading consumers. It can damage their reputation and forever jade their audience. While overpromising can sometimes be seen as a company’s aspiration to break through the industry, there is also a limit to people’s patience and forgiveness.

I just think it is time for everyone to temper expectations and take accountability.

PS

This all started when I watched Fallout 4 and Starfield reviews. These videos got me questioning specific things:

• Were these games expected to be adventure exploration games or RPG games?
• What aspects of the adventure exploration genre did people expect or how much?
• What aspects of the RPG genre did people expect or how much?
• What did Bethesda promise Starfield and Fallout 4 would bring to their fans?
• What games and game genres are Bethesda known for?

These questions could serve as the foundation for a post about Bethesda and their game releases, but it’s not actually a topic I’m particularly interested in. I’m more intrigued by games being fun and the overarching theme this is part of: Player Expectations.