Games that Just Aren't Fun

Some games aren't fun. At some point in gameplay, the game ceases to amuse and becomes a chore for the player. Since games are typically supposed to be fun, this is usually a bad thing. The game designer didn't do their job correctly and has produced a bad game.

Although it's very easy to label an un-fun game as a bad game, it goes deeper than that. As I see it, there are three kinds of not-fun games:

1. Games that were never fun because of bad design
2. Games that started fun but became soul-crushing over time
3. Games that were never fun, but that's the point

Games in Category 1 fit the label of bad design. The controls are sticky, the bosses are too hard, the characters are insufferable, the storyline meanders without point; for whatever reason, this game was supposed to be enjoyable but trips out of the starting gate.

Category 2 games have a solid core of gameplay. They are enjoyable and fun at the start but then typically have some sort of bar-filling Skinner's Box that keeps the player coming back for more. These games range from enormous MMO's like World of Warcraft to casual games like Cookie Clicker and 2048. What they all have in common is that sticky, addictive mechanic that keeps fans coming back for another hit of dopamine. In this case, the game designers have usually done their job correctly. These games are often designed with an obsessive personality in mind and are built to draw their players into just one more round before bed.

Category 3 games are a bit different. Their purpose was to be interactive, yes, informative, yes, but not fun. They exist to make a statement. The most recent example I can cite is Papers, Please. It's essentially Desk Job the Video Game in terms of its mechanics. At the end of the day, though, its point is to be critical and satirical, not fun. Every Day the Same Dream is similar; as a white-collar worker, the game content is mundane and soul crushing, but in doing so it is criticizing the monotony of an office job. Games like these are built to inform. They might have moments of entertainment, but at the end of the day they are not fun nor do they want to be.

Game Idea Repost

I had a thought when I was reading a blog for Game Design; if anyone can think of any games like this, let me know because now I want to play one:

"What if... we took fighting games and FPS's and smashed them together? Are there any games that do that? I wonder if you could keep some of the combo-based dynamics of 1v1 fighting games and apply them to a larger multiplayer setting. For example: what if you were playing a classic FPS game like Capture the Flag or Control point except that instead of using shooting combat, you encouraged some sort of hand-to-hand dueling atmosphere with some stealth thrown in? This probably already exists somewhere but it could be an interesting way to take a fresh look at fighting games."