Bad Games..Who’s Really to Blame?

Have you ever splurged on a video game title only to realize you would have been better off if you bought a three-legged hamster with pink ribbon tied around its neck instead? Why do they bother to make bad games at all?

The truth is no one sets out to make bad games. “Hey, I have an idea for a video game that’s so bad, we could lose millions of dollars on it!” is not something you will often hear within the walls of a game developer’s think tank room. People who make the games are in it for the passion. But they’re in it for the money, too. They know bad games are bad for business.

We think it’s fair to assume all games start out as great ideas. What happens from that point on determines the outcome. Will the product be another Pac-Man (most successful arcade game ever) or a bust like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (voted worst game for 2005).

Read full article after the jump!

Have you ever splurged on a video game title only to realize you would have been better off if you bought a three-legged hamster with pink ribbon tied around its neck instead? Why do they bother to make bad games at all?

The truth is no one sets out to make bad games. “Hey, I have an idea for a video game that’s so bad, we could lose millions of dollars on it!” is not something you will often hear within the walls of a game developer’s think tank room. People who make the games are in it for the passion. But they’re in it for the money, too. They know bad games are bad for business.

We think it’s fair to assume all games start out as great ideas. What happens from that point on determines the outcome. Will the product be another Pac-Man (most successful arcade game ever) or a bust like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (voted worst game for 2005).

David Rodriguez, who had been involved in game development such as 50 Cent: Bulletproof-G-Unit Edition (PSP), says bad games are not produced by people who know nothing or don’t care about what they are doing. (No, that’s what politicians are for.)  Developers want to make great games “but sometimes no matter how hard you work, someone more powerful than you is going to come in and stick their [expletive] in your peanut butter.” We know how that feels.

The people in the game development business are creative by nature. When men (or women) who live, breathe and eat bottomlines enter the picture and start directing and dictating how a game should be – that’s when the good idea starts to crumble.

“Some developers feel that in a fair world, the best idea should win out and what is obviously good should naturally go into the game. IÂ’ve sat through meeting after meeting with people screaming themselves hoarse trying to hammer their perfectly reasonable idea through the head of the suit sitting across from them and being deflected with practiced ease.” But even the men and women in suits are not evil. They are, like the developers, attempting to guess what will make the next blockbuster game. It’s just that enforcing their will on the developers is in their job description.

“So next time youÂ’re playing a game that makes you wish the developer would go to hell,” says Rodriguez. “Remember itÂ’s not always their fault…”  And if you’re lucky maybe you can trade that game for the three-legged hamster.

Via Buzzscope