When Games Aren't Fun

[Harkonis]

Noticing this more and more lately, but why do people keep playing a game once they hit that point where all they do is bitch about it?

Per my rant in another thread this has been most prevalent in my MW2 time.  Some of the people I play with will bitch from the second the game starts and still keep playing for 4-6 hours with non-stop whining about how much everything sucks.  If it really sucks that much, STOP FUCKING PLAYING.

This also happens a lot in single player games where I'll see people dreading firing up a game because they are stuck at a certain part.  There will be much cussing and they might spend hours doing the same thing again and again and simply not having fun at all.  I play games to have fun so I just don't understand the push to suffer through what should be a good time.  If I'm not having fun, I'll try to play something else. 

Time should be valuable enough to not waste it on entertainment that isn't fun.  If it sucks to do it, it is a chore and games shouldn't be chores.

[Bullwinkle]

I think part of the reason is people paid for the game and want to get their money's worth.  Also, giving up completely makes you feel like the game has beaten you.  Then there's the "everyone's playing" factor, where you either feel like it's just not clicking, but it will (hopefully), or you feel like you'll miss something if you're not playing (in the case of MP games like MW2, especially).

[Eco-Logic]

I don't get it either.  The obviously don't dislike it too much or they wouldn't play it so much (Lettuce, I'm looking at you!).

[Chaz]

On the forums, or over the headset? If you mean on the forums, I think it's the phenomenon where people rant on forums about things they don't like, but are silent about things that they do like.  Since all you hear is the bitching, it's easy to assume that there's no parts that they like, which may not be the case.

If it's over the headset or while playing, that's a stickier issue.  To a certain extent, it may be a way of venting the frustration so that you can continue playing past it to where you're having fun again.  I hate getting frustrated in games, but I've learned that usually taking a break and coming back in an hour or so lets me get past problem areas most of the time, so it's just a matter of realizing what's going on and catching it before the rage takes full hold.

I have been known to stop games when I realize there's no more fun to be had.  Just the other day I was at the 80% completion mark on Lego Batman.  I'd long since finished story and was going for all the hidden collectibles.  I was almost halfway there and found one that a walkthrough said required shooting a particular item.  After ten minutes of fighting with the auto aim, I couldn't get it.  Faced with either continuing on, spending many more hours alternating between enjoying finding stuff and being frustrated at all the game's bugs only to miss the 100% mark anyway, I just stopped. 

However, I'll also try and muscle through to the end of most games if I haven't finished the main section and I'm more than 3/4 through, even if I'm not having a great time.  That way, at least I can say I finished it.  I'm the same way with books.

[Harkonis]

definitely talking about in game, bitching in the forums while it can be irritating is a much easier thing to deal with and doesn't affect my enjoyment of a game at all.

[Dan_Theman]

I remember playing Street Fighter 2 with some friends when we were in college.  One of my friends was just terible at the game, at least compared to the rest of us.  While normally a VERY reserved, calm individual, he would get somewhat red-faced and practically yell at the screen every now and then.  It prompted me to suggest changing the game, but he immediately protested.

It wasn't that he bought the game (it was mine).
It wasn't that the game wasn't fun in some manner (he said he thought it was great). 
He realized it was about being able to vent, whether by knocking around opponents or getting a little loud.

I guess being loud or complaining is cathartic for some people.  Not me, but I suppose it takes all kinds.

[Chaz]

I inherited an awful temper from my father.  However, I know about it and know how dangerous it can be, so I'm very good at never directing anger at other people, ever.  Instead, I vent by yelling and screaming at games.  I curse out developers all the time when I'm playing.  My GF doesn't like it mostly because she says I scare her when I yell, probably because it really is a mean temper and because it's such a shift from my usual easygoing demeanor.

Just because I'm yelling and venting doesn't mean that I don't like a game.  Sometimes it does.    I also make sure never to yell and scream over the mic in online games except to bemoan my own suckiness.  If I feel myself skewing into full-blown rage mode, I quit out.

[JohnathanStrange]

I believe that online complaining about a game - or virtually anything else for that matter - seems to be easier and more "safe" than praising it.

Forums can be pretty snarky places, where being cool (in the sense of being detached, bored 'cause I have seen it all before noob) is easier and more fun than risking someone thinking you're a enthusiastic, unsophisticated rube who doesn't recognize that "Game X is completely derivative of the Atari Jaguar 64 game which itself stole from the Tandy 1000 game Y."

As for continuing playing a game that isn't fun, I don't unless there's something else in the game - maybe an unknown level I want to reach or cutscene.

I can understand why someone might continue a game that's less fun than it might be in places - but anger? No, if it reached that point, I'd quit. Mildly irritating I can handle - there was this quest/mission in GTA San Andreas where you had to pilot a small model biplane around the city and shoot out rival messengers in cars. I could never quite do it - at least for 20-30 attempts - but then I just F it, and went on my way to other places in the game. Yet on the forums, this small quest generated passionate hatred: no game's worth that much stress.