"Oh, Mediocre Game, I Just Can't Quit You!"

[Satan's Onion]

So lately I've been playing a lot of this one game called Nostalgia (http://www.gamefaqs.com/ds/950323-nostalgia). I can just run around and level up, grind for skill points, go buy stuff, go do sidequests, and occasionally advance the plot for hours at a time if I let myself.

The thing is though...it's not that great a game. The sidequests and battle mechanics are kind of ehhhh, the environments are uninspired, the music doesn't really stir my soul, and the dialogue is frankly awful. (There're four main characters--an upper-class Brit, a lower-class Brit, a Frenchwoman, and someone who turns out to be from the realm of the gods. But when they don't all sound like precisely the same modern American teenager, they have Chrono Cross-level text "accents". I seriously think I could write better than this game.)

But I just don't want to stop playing it...and I don't have the faintest idea why. Has anyone else ever had something like that happen--where a game just kind of keeps you playing despite the fact that objectively, you know it's kinda crap?

[Melfice]

Yeah.
It's called being employed. *rimshot*

Seriously though, I know the feeling.
Honestly, I've got a number of games that are just shitty, but every once in a while, I fire it up, do a few rounds/levels/whatevers, and then feel completely satisfied.
And then it's back to the srs bsns of the AAA games and the likes.

[Fifthfiend]

So lately I've been playing a lot of this one game called Nostalgia (http://www.gamefaqs.com/ds/950323-nostalgia).

I can just run around and level up, grind for skill points, go buy stuff, go do sidequests, and occasionally advance the plot for hours at a time if I let myself.

playing a lot of this one game called Nostalgia (http://www.gamefaqs.com/ds/950323-nostalgia).

The sidequests and battle mechanics are kind of ehhhh, the environments are uninspired, the music doesn't really stir my soul, and the dialogue is frankly awful.

this one game called Nostalgia (http://www.gamefaqs.com/ds/950323-nostalgia).

But I just don't want to stop playing it...and I don't have the faintest idea why. Has anyone else ever had something like that happen--where a game just kind of keeps you playing despite the fact that objectively, you know it's kinda crap?

Nostalgia (http://www.gamefaqs.com/ds/950323-nostalgia).

I can't be the only one seeing the gag here.

[mauve]

Ah yes, addiction to mediocre games. My sister and I call this phenomenon the Dynasty Warriors Syndrome. I can't for the life of me describe why button mashing SQUARE SQUARE SQUARE TRIANGLE SQUARE SQUARE TRIANGLE TRIANGLE TRIANGLE over and over, and watching endless armies of idiotic AI walk directly into you without really attempting to fight you makes DW Extreme Legends 5 fall under any definitiopn of "fun." There's really no strategy involved once you level up your character, the voice acting is atrocious, 90% of the missions don't actually require you to follow your commander's orders as long as you kill enough enemies to keep them from accomplishing anything noteworthy (which is incredibly easy, as they all basically line up in front of you and pace back and forth for a good 3-5 seconds before attempting any kind of attack) and they hand out musou coins like candy on Halloween. Yet I still love it for some reason.

[Ryong]

I played Maplestory for a fuckton of time.

I swear there's good ideas thrown there, somewhere.

Edit: Oh man, I forgot, I played the fuck out of Devil Kings ( Sengoku Basara 1 ) back when my PS2 worked.

[Kim]

Sengoku Basara 3. Even taking the silliness of it into account I shouldn't find it as fun as I do.

[rpgdemon]

I spent hours playing that stupid trophy collection minigame in Brawl.

Granted, it's a pretty fun game. But still. HOURS. At the end it was like, "Why am I doing this?!"

[Azisien]

Earth Defense Force 2017 and IA.

Dungeons and Dragons Heroes

To most people I know, Dead Rising 2.

World of Warcraft.

[Ramary]

DOTA and its various runt children.

[Krylo]

I can't be the only one seeing the gag here.

I don't get it.

What gag?

[Ramary]

I don't get it.

What gag?

Nostalgia for something basically clouds your judgement on something. So if you say, played a crappy game in your youth where just playing a game was the bee's knees, going back to it after playing billions of other games you kinda feel it is not all that great, but enjoy it anyway because it reminds ya of THE GOOD OL DAYS.

I guess that is the gag.

[Krylo]

Nostalgia for something basically clouds your judgement on something. So if you say, played a crappy game in your youth where just playing a game was the bee's knees, going back to it after playing billions of other games you kinda feel it is not all that great, but enjoy it anyway because it reminds ya of THE GOOD OL DAYS.

I guess that is the gag.

Nope. Still not registering.

[Satan's Onion]

The weird thing is that that title, Nostalgia, is apparently apropos of absolutely nothing in the game itself, as far as I can tell. I seriously have no goddamn idea why it's called that. May just as well be called Airships or Steampunk or God That's a Fugly Pair of Leggings or whatever.

I played Maplestory for a fuckton of time.

I swear there's good ideas thrown there, somewhere.
...

Maybe that's it, or close. I think you could do a pretty awesome game with the basic stuff in it (steampunk Victoriana with magic and secret societies 'n' stuff); it's the execution that lacks that certain something. I'm probably still jonesing for that next-gen "for-realsies archaeology and history, mixed with magic and myth and adventure and whoooo!" game that Illusion of Gaia has been for me on the Super Nintendo. I just want to run through Angkor Wat and Machu Pichu and Stonehenge throwing fireballs at monsters. Is that really too much to ask, developers?

[rpgdemon]

I just want to run through Angkor Wat and Machu Pichu and Stonehenge throwing fireballs at monsters. Is that really too much to ask, developers?

Meaning, no, but I have a hard time basing things in the real world, personally. Real people are too... Real. You can't have anyone be a bad guy, since they actually exist, even if they were in ancient times. It'll be revealed, "Nope, the 'Good Guys' are historically inaccurate! Since they weren't paragons of virtue, look at the bad things!", and it's annoying.

[Ryong]

I see some people haven't played Terranigma.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

Why? It's basically Illusion of Time Gaia (The game that actually has Angkor Wat) only much better. Illusion was Soul Blazer only good. Soul Blazer was... dunno... something only really something.

[Ryong]

That was aimed at rpgdemon, actually.

Terranigma has a rather interesting take on the real world.

[Oron]

Ah yes, addiction to mediocre games. My sister and I call this phenomenon the Dynasty Warriors Syndrome. I can't for the life of me describe why button mashing SQUARE SQUARE SQUARE TRIANGLE SQUARE SQUARE TRIANGLE TRIANGLE TRIANGLE over and over, and watching endless armies of idiotic AI walk directly into you without really attempting to fight you makes DW Extreme Legends 5 fall under any definitiopn of "fun." There's really no strategy involved once you level up your character, the voice acting is atrocious, 90% of the missions don't actually require you to follow your commander's orders as long as you kill enough enemies to keep them from accomplishing anything noteworthy (which is incredibly easy, as they all basically line up in front of you and pace back and forth for a good 3-5 seconds before attempting any kind of attack) and they hand out musou coins like candy on Halloween. Yet I still love it for some reason.

I can echo this (I think Empires might be more fun). The worst part is that I heard about DW 7 and I didn't even consider the possibility of not getting it (eventually).

[rpgdemon]

I remembered one, Angry Birds.

Like, I just played it to waste time, and still dislike it, and still waste time with it.

[Jagos]

Nope. Still not registering.

Someone likes other m for being an old game with good gameplay, but horrid story pacing and plotting.

[Pip Boy]

Nope. Still not registering.

There are an assload of games we buy on release nowadays that are objectively pretty shitty, but they're the next Mario game so we can't not get them because of nostalgia we feel for older mario games which, when viewed by our current standards, are also really shitty. This is a game called nostalgia that incorporates a lot of shitty gameplay elements but people play it anyway.[/Joke]

[Seil]

Silent Hill: Downpour.

[rpgdemon]

New Super Mario Bros. Wii was awesome though.

[MSperoni]

Ah yes, addiction to mediocre games. My sister and I call this phenomenon the Dynasty Warriors Syndrome...

I have that Syndrome. I own all seven of the games (the six musous and the fighting game that was DW1), including a couple Empires and Xtreme Legends for 7.

I'm a Romance of the Three Kingdoms fan/nerd though, so it's double nostalgia for me, both in the games and in the setting (though it's probably just the setting)... I have like 20+ RTK based games if you count all eleven RTKs, Dynasty Tactics, Dragon Throne, and Kessen 2...

With the exception of Tactics and RTK10 I'd say they're all pretty average. :P

But the DW games are great to play if you just want something casual and arcade-ish. Though in terms of beat 'em up DWesque games I think Sengoku Basara 3 is the best (though it's made by Capcom).

[Amake]

I don't think we understand yet the exact qualities that make a videogame good or bad, since a game you think you don't like still can keep you playing. Like, I've been playing Eve Online all last month with absolutely no goal (it's a game that favors long term goals) beyond making money enough to keep playing it. And it's incredibly dull. The physical act of playing the game consists of a few variants on the theme of selecting a thing to do and then waiting for it to happen. That and preparing yourself for what's about to happen by reading accounts of other players who have done the exact same thing.

For example, right now I'm doing science. (And I'm still alive.) I can explain this portion of the game in minute detail, and I will because I'm bored:
1. Identify the most profitable "datacores", items that are produced through science, by browsing the in game market. This turns out to be the "Electromagnetic Physics" kind.
2. Identify the "research agents" capable of making the most of these datacores per month, who are also located reasonably close to your base of operations and preferably somewhere you can travel in relative safety. A moment's work with the in-game agent finder gives three such agents.
3. Gain the favor of said agents by spending upwards of several weeks (in real time) doing missions for their corporate allies. These are all the same mission, over and over, which involves shlepping large bulks of items around space by performing approximately ten mouse operations over the course of 20-90 minutes. In real time.
4. Train the skills which allow you to do research with multiple agents at the same time as well as the skills related to their field of science. (Electromagnetic Physics, but I'm also looking into the fields of Nanite Engineering and Quantum Physics to get to work with more than the aforementioned three agents.) Visit the agents to begin research, and leave wondering why they need your expertise.
5. Wait for between 35 and 80 days, in real time, for the skills to finish training, which maximizes your production rate.
6. Wait for the "research points" to trickle in from the agents. These points accumulate automatically, without pause, on a daily basis. They can be exchanged for datacores whenever you feel like stopping by again. Once every three months is more than enough.
7. Once you have some datacores, put them out on the market and wait for people to buy them.
8. Profit.
9. Repeat steps 6-8 indefinitely.
10. Optionally, make a new character and repeat the whole process. Your account can hold three characters, and while they can only train one skill in between them at a time, or be logged in the game one at a time, they can all do science as much as they can stand.

I bored myself writing that down so much that now I want a nap.