What Game Genres Bore You And Why?

After being a game developer / player for a long time now I am starting to find some game genres ‘boring’.

Mind you I think some themes in TV/Movies are also getting rather ‘boring’ as well, this is easier to see in Movies as genres/themes that are getting long in the tooth start reinventing themselves as comedy, musical,parody adaptations of the genre.

Is there a similar trend in computer games or do we just keep churning out more of the same in higher resolution and with better textures?

Also what genres have been overdone in game development and could do with a revamp?

Personally:

  • Zombies (Just put on your winter clothing and be bite proof)
  • Battle Royal (How to get shot from 99 angles)
  • Block Building (How can you build a bridge without arches or roofs without angles)
  • Shooters (If bullets could solve everything America would have solved climate change with them years ago).
  • Loot Boxes (How hard is it to make a play time based currency and a hat shop)

All seem to be in a rinse and repeat cycle at the moment IMHO, what game genres need a revamp, overhaul or just be put out to pasture for a few years?

Alternatively what do you think are the most exciting trends in game design genres?

What bores me:

  • Action adventures
  • Puzzle Bobble and Candy Crush Saga type of game
  • First person and third person shooters, e.g. Resident Evil

The fighting game genre has been overdone

Game companies that are making bank on these overdone genres are laughing all the way to the bank–literally.

The only things that really bore me are sports games (minus racing) and “generic modern-day military FPS #6309”.

I’d like to see more cooperative multiplayer than competitive multiplayer games as well. Those seem almost non-existent nowadays.

Also, I’m a massive sucker for power-trip games. Prototype, inFAMOUS, Ratchet and Clank, Firefall (RIP), and the like. Would like to see more of those as well.

I actually find that no genre boring. It really depends on individual games.

If i have have to say one it would be probably “racing”. There are some good games but the most kinda annoys me because there isnt anything to explore. Racing games are mainly about driving a racetrack over an over again to become better and beat the time or be first in the finish line. I need a bit more variety in gameplay.
But I love Mario Cart because of the power ups.

Are you sure you want to debate someone’s personal and inherently subjective taste? LOL?


There is no particular ‘genre’ would inherently bore me, although I never really enjoyed the fighting games or sandbox games (GTA, Minecraft). But it’s probably not the genre, but the particular members or implementation of the genre.
I am and I was a big fan of the war FPS games, but for example the CoD WWII was an abomination with quick-time events and boring cut-scenes and popular “emotional messages” shoveled down on my throat without my consent. It was boring.

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Me, I’d say no genre really bores me.

But nowadays, modern day first person shooters and fighting games kinda do.

I’m actually not a fan of FPS style games, but the modern day ones
are kinda boring and bland, to play and watch. Then just the other day,
I was watching some gamers, play Quake 3 Arena, battling against other
players online, on the dreamcast. I will be honest, I never liked FPS games
like Quake, but holy hadokens, that was fun and hyped up to watch, even
though as I mentioned before, I am not a Quake/FPS fan.:stuck_out_tongue:
Even Black on PS2, was fun to play and watch. I beat that game so many
times, I lost count.

Other genres that bore me, are what gaming media, categorize as
modern 3d fighting games and 2d fighters nowadays.
Eg. Tekken and DOA, and Street Fighter etc.

Back in the old days, (pre Evo and pre nerf patched days) when I was
very small to my teen years, fighting games both 2d and 3d, were exciting,
overhyped like coca cola, pepsi, sprite and 7up, and were energetic
and unpredictable. Heck even basic bare bones, not so deep fighting games,
like Tekken 2 and 3 and DOA2, were kinda okay and kinda fun to play.
Nowadays, for like over 15 plus plus years, fighting games are basic,
blandish, with alot of fake depth, tons of nerf patches and almost hardly
any combat innovation, except for silly cartoony gimmicks, like
extended juggles, wall bounce juggles and jiggly boobies etc. And lack of fun.

Like alot of gamers, I replayed a semi modern Tekken game the other day.
And unfortunately after so many years, it’s sad to see, that the gameplay in that
game series, is still bare bones and basic. The same with Tekken 7.
The combat in that game, is basically block, pop opponent into air, juggle.
Block, pop opponent into air, juggle, over and over again.:face_with_spiral_eyes:
Even when I was winning, and made over 12 plus wins, I got so bored,
that I immediately stopped playing.
No way I’m gonna spend 60 + dollars, for a basic, not so fun, blandish
fighting game like that. There are indie games on the app store, that are
like way more fun than that. Literally.

So then I played a game, that was huge in Japan and other countries,
called Virtua Fighter 3tb, and despite the bad graphics in that game, it
was really innovative and the combat, was very close to real and very
advanced and ridiculously deep. And you can even, actually avoid
and dodge opponents attacks. Something that other 3d fighters, like
Tekken and DOA etc. still haven’t implemented or done properly.
It kept my interest while playing, because the combat, was fun and way,
way more advanced, than alot of modern, past, and current EVO 3d fighters.
And was like close, to a real life martial arts sim. Unlike the combat in
Tekken, DOA and other 3d fighters, which are too bare bones and basic,
and rely heavily, on lots of cheesy gimmicks, thrown into them, to make
the game look exciting.
Eg. Hit sparks, bounce juggles, long 12 sec plus juggles and boobie jiggles etc.

Then, I played another well respected fighting game, called Soul Calibur 1
on the dreamcast afterwards. And I understood why that game got a
10 out of 10. That game had so much cool stuff, and almost similar to
Virtua Fighter, had a good bit of depth, and real life martial arts stuff in it.
It’s an embarrassing shame, that SoulCalibur 2 and all of the soul games,
that came afterwards, including SoulCalibur 6, couldn’t capture the advanced gameplay, or the fun of SoulCalibur 1. It was also fun, playing the quest mode,
in that soulcalibur 1 game too.:slight_smile:

It is kinda sad, that old games like VF2, VF3 etc. and even SoulCalibur 1,
moreso, the game series that started, the whole 3d fighting game genre,
Virtua Fighter, are more advanced and sometimes more fun, than newer
fighting games, or their competitors fighting games.

It is also ridiculous, that we have advanced technology in consoles, and
yet the gameplay in alot of fighting games, like DOA, Tekken and many others,
play like if they are supposedly running, on underpowered hardware from
the early 90’s. A time, where devs had to put up with, alot of RAM, GPU and CPU
restrictions. And the big joke is, in the 90’s etc, there were alot of fun,
innovative games, that ran on underpowered hardware.:hushed:

The other interesting thing is, back then, some of those devs, found it fun
to make games, using underpowered hardware. Because, it kinda motivated
them, to want to find ways to implement, fun, cool stuff in their games.
I find that really interesting though.
And I’m sure, we have some of those devs, on this forum.:slight_smile:

Fighting games nowadays, need some actual depth, but also, need to be really
fun too. Which is something, alot of them lack.
I mean playing a game, like for eg. Tekken and many other games, similar to it,
where most of the gameplay, whether you want to do it or not, is to block,
knock a person high into the air, and juggle them over and over again, and
glitch the game, by wavedashing etc, is just so repetitive, basic and boring.:face_with_spiral_eyes:

I’ll play a fighting game, that has alot of freedom in it. Whose main gameplay,
doesn’t mainly rely heavily, on special effects, cartoony juggle/jiggle mechanics
and silly cheap gimmicks, like wave dashing etc. One that has multiple ways,
to deal with opponents moves, and is fun too. Otherwise, I’ll get bored.

So that’s my take, on what genres bore me nowadays.
Holy hadokens! My post is long! I think I broke my record.:hushed::stuck_out_tongue:

Cookie clickers, because REALLY? :eyes:

And non-games with nothing but flashy lights and IAP.
Don’t get me wrong, i’ll spend a couple buck here and there if the game is solid, i’m getting my moneys worth when I spend it and even if I don’t I can actually play and not just stare at timers.

These are not genres, nor are they specific enough to be meaningful. Counter strike and mass effect are both ‘shooters’ yet they are aimed at completely different audiences. Also deciding to dislike a type of game because it hasn’t ‘solved’ some trending global issue is just beyond my comprehension.

There’s no specific genre that really turns me off. What bores the hell out of me is any game where content has been added and mechanics have been tuned to extract continued playtime without any real reward. Any grindy games will be quickly dumped, as will any game that goes on for too long without providing me with what I came for. I think it’s basically a crime to waste people’s limited time by getting them to engage in repetitive behavior to gain meaningless ‘rewards’, like some kind of lab experiment.

Personally, I gravitate toward story-based games and games with a high amount of immersion. I know they are not for everyone, but I consider a game ‘worth it’ when I think about the game world, the story, the characters and the actions I’ve taken in the game long after I’ve finished. Needless to say these games are few and far between, but they do exist.

Basically, the more I play games, the more I am afraid that I am wasting my time and (as a developer) other people’s time as well, which doesn’t sit well with me. This is a ‘fear’ that I think provides the right balance to the amount of investment that I’ve put into learning game development, which could easily take me down the wrong path. I consciously try to remember all the time the perspective on games that I had from the beginning, when, in my relative ignorance about them, I could see clearly what it was that made them valuable. If I achieve one thing with game development, I hope it is to create something remotely similar to what I dreamed of when I looked at games and, without being invested in them at all, considered what they could be and mean to me.

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I agree. I don’t play MMORPG’s of any sort because the grind is what bothers me. I understand that time an risk vs reward differences lead to greater pleasure for the player, but sometimes its just too much.

No games bore me because I don’t get enough time to play them.

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I want to be engulfed by the experience, 100% immersion. Walk around and look at the beautiful environments. So I almost only play first person.

Whats nice with VR is that any game genre is first person. For example a platformer lik Moss, were you are like a god and look down into the tiny environment

Any game that jerks the controls out of my hands and goes “NO! DO IT LIKE THIS!!!”

That includes absurdly long and invasive tutorials (Elder Scrolls), pointlessly drawn out story, teleporting in combat (Every single Japanese RPG anymore), doing the combat for you at the push of a button (Arkham series), whack-a-mole shooters (AKA, "cover based shooters), and shallow character leveling (Witcher 3. YOU HEARD ME! WITCHER 3’s LEVELING IS ABSOLUTE GARBAGE AND RUINS THE GAME!!!)

Also, any game that emphasis flashy aesthetics over deliberate gameplay.

That includes screen covering effects (Diablo 3) and absurdly long combos (Any Platinum game).

Personally I used to be a big fan of halo 2 for the competitive online aspect. I believe that, throughout the years, by adding sprinting/thrusters/weapons spray/recoil, they’ve ruined what made halo great. They even added a short timeframe where your actions go off, post-death.

One of the effects of the additions above is that position matters a lot less than it did back in the days. You can get caught in the middle of a room and most of the time you can manage to escape with thrusters/sprint. It’s super forgiving, therefore it doesn’t encourage players to think before their actions. It’s becoming less and less of a strategic game.

There are already enough shooters like this. I sincerely believe there is value in restricting players movement. Unfortunately, the big players in the industry seem to be taking the opposite way.

To stay on topic, Halo 5 bores me.

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Without a doubt sporting games whats the point! pun intended.With the exception of online sports management games like hattrick and battrick where I get rather fond of my players.
Almost any off line game to be honest I have only played one game over the last 3 years a resurrected emu pvp game called shadowbane and thats it.
Last game I played was skyrim also fond of the grimrock franchise.But definately the game must have a story and ending …

Who cares? You brought it up.

Shooters similar to Halo 5 bore me? Is that valid?

You brought the subject up, something people can be fond of but then you go ahead and attempt to kill the same discussion you just started in the name of “staying on topic”. That’s kind of a dick move.