What prevents you getting into a game?

Games are subjective. I like some bad games and I like some good games.

What keeps you from getting into a game? Could it be bad controls? Poor pacing?

I play The Witcher and it has all the cool things ever in game but the controls and pacing loses me. As well as most games from 2017 and then on. You could put a shitty mediocre game in front of me and I would get addicted. You could put a GOTY acclaimed game in front of me and I'd probably like it for it's look and bells and whistles and the ride. Maybe I am changing as I get older. Who knows?

Playing the Witcher 3 for its bad combat has never been on my mind, I treat it as norm for the whole game but the pacing is what kept me interested to investing more of my time with it.

I guess for a game to get me interest is the setting must be good with having good/fun gameplay and if you have those, I'm totally staying for the night.

Redundant or repeating things.
Predatory business practices.
Poor pacing, interrupting the player.
Bad optimization.
Ugly artstyle.

If it takes more than 25hrs to complete the main story I usually stay away from it, I don’t have enough time to commit 50-100 hours to one game. Also if it is a “movie game” or loaded with cutscenes and QTE’s that will steer me away.

• The first thing I think of is too much dialogue, you know not exactly a movie game but almost like a book game - especially if the writing is bad.
• Medieval/Fantasy setting is typically a no-go for me. It's just really overdone in my opinion. It's why I've put off playing Elden Ring. However give me space marines and I'm never bored.
• Too much/overdone violence is another boring cliche with games. The first time there was a little blood in a game, I'm sure there was a big uproar about it but now a days it's pretty much standard and it does get quite old. It goes hand and hand with how edgy some games try to be and fail at being anything else.
• Lack of intuitive clues or guidance, trust me if I have to Google everything about your game just to navigate the next area, I'm going to stop playing.
• Grinding. Kind of self-explanatory if you've played RPG types of games or games with RPG elements.

@girlusocrazy: Very true.

As I get older, open world games in general turn me off... especially ones filled with boring filler missions.

And in general, games that don't respect your time.

I was upset (Witcher 3) when I beat everyone willing to play Gwent with me 😞

Oooh, could be a number of things:

1. Gameplay

2. Graphics

3. Voice-acting

4. Controls

5. Hardware issues

6. Story

7. Sound-track

8. Genre

9. Software issues etc.

When I play a new game the rule is to time and take pauses then evaluate how much I'm enjoying the game. Typically break down what I like and what I don't like, then the choice is if the game is being dropped.

Controls are usually the biggest factor if a game is too stiff, unresponsive, or even floaty it can be jarring and off putting.

Level design, general game structure, and pacing also hold a large factor. As I don't want my time wasted not having fun, When a game is loading up I want to play a game, so games like The Last of Us just don't cut it next to Vanquish. Games are suppose to entertain if nothing else, and while tastes will differ my priority is not being stuck in cutscene/ RP walk_talk fodder. Without going into detail Dragon Age Inquisition is a great example of doing all those elements found in this paragraph poorly.

On the positive side; I typically gravitate to games that offer player freedom and a lot of depth to the games mechanics. Monster Hunter offers so much choice and variety, its as deep as the ocean for its gameplay depth and I love it.

Some people like A Plague Tale, and that's fine, enjoy. Games like that are just not for me.

*The Witcher III certainly has horrid controls and combat, but I think as a complete package its pros outweigh the negatives. I personally played around 15 hours then choice that it's not a game I like very much, but what it does right is certainly excellent. Cyber Punk on the otherhand is much more shallow and that's even putting behind all its bugs, level design also seems questionable, I never plan to return to CP; may never check out another CDPR game either after that game.

@gns: can you elaborate on that?

@Alexander2cents:

I'll try:

1. Gameplay - the game is not fun to play. Could be for various reasons, but mostly because I don't like the way the characters move, the way combat mechanics are made etc. E.g., the biggest offender was DARK (stealth vampire game) for me. It was a total piece of crap; once out of the stealth mode - you are killed, because your character can't fight for shit. Original Gothic without any community quality of life mods - in order to do any action (apart from walking or running), you had to press three separate buttons (I can't remember which ones, but it was cumbersome. I do remember something with Shift or Alt, directional key and mouse button, as an example).

2. Graphics - In general, I don't like pixelated art. 9 times out of 10, such games will eventually throw me off. I, maybe would like to try out that Stardew Valley game, but I get the feeling that after a couple of hours I would drop it. There's also a thing with certain graphical elements, take the newest Need for Speed, for instance. I don't like the way those special effects look. Just because of them, even if I would want to eventually try the game out, I won't bother.

3. Voice acting can make or break the game. Granted I have never quit the game due to horrible voice-acting, but I've had quit games that are only partially voiced. Yakuza, for example. Or games that you have to press certain button for another sentence to appear (again, mostly older JRPG games).

4. Controls. If the characters or environment feel like cow-on-ice, I will be put off the game sooner or later, presumably sooner. E.g., Cyberpunk 2077, I quit the game mainly because of the god awful vehicle controls.

5. Hardware issues. Self-explanatory; my pc may not be on-par with the game and it would cause stuttering, freeze-frame etc. Of course, I won't play the game this way.

6. Story. If the game's story is boring, I will eventually drop it no matter how good or bad the gameplay is (e.g., Mass Effect: Andromeda). The recent contender in this line would be Ghost of Tsushima (it's actually a maxi between story and gameplay elements for me, but I'm willing to play it out for now).

7. Sound-track. Eh... 9 times out of 10, I would simply turn the music off, if I don't like it. So, maybe scratch this bullet-point off.

8. Genre. There are certain genres, which simply do not appeal to me (without using cheats or mods), e.g., first person shooters (as much as I found Bioschock interesting, I could not get into it for more than 5 hours / there's a reason why I dropped Cyberpunk (disregarding the car controls) after a couple of hours - I just did not feel it) or real time strategy games (unless they are city builders, but even those eventually do get boring for me).

9. Software issues. It's game related: many bugs, glitches, crashes etc. The most recent offender was AC: Valhalla. So many bugs, glitches and crashes it's astounding that they exist after so many patches. This game made me wow to never buy any UBIGLITCH game ever.

10. Others... just your plain old immersion; if I'm not immersed, if it is not fun to play in any way - I'll quit.

Agree with this statement so much, though I feel that I never grew out of open worlds, I just never enjoyed how many people design those games. When everyone was praising Fall Out and Grand Theft Auto I was busy playing other games the media would probably dub "too linear".

Majority of modern open world games mimic GTA3 or Assassins Creed, and as such are deprived of originality, and despite being OW are way more linear than they appear. Even beloved franchises diving into openworld design are usually casualised/ modified beyond recognition; Metal Gear Solid V being the best example I can think of.

Though with that stated the past few years have brought some open world games I generally enjoyed, probably because they put the work in to craft something special (Valheim, The Outer Wilds, Elden Ring) & not just be some quest hording/ npc simping/ bad control driving simulator.

Steep learning curve. Gaming used to be my number one hobby, so I didn't mind learning complex controls and mechanics. Nowadays I might spend up to one hour of gaming before I go to bed as a way to relax a bit, so anything too difficult to play or to learn is a turn off.

Too many cut scenes

too much talking and reading without actually playing anything.

My absolute biggest pet hate in modern gaming is cinematic stuff overgameplay.

Namely forced, crippled, cinematic walking. Because the developers never played Halflife in 1998 and realized other story-telling methods exist.

Pretty much everything COD 4 popularized.

Available free time and sleep

Life. Not having a set schedule as a manager as I could be called out at anytime....

Poor map designs.

• Quick time events
• Cover system and Regen health
• Cinematic slow walking talking segments
• More emphasize on cutscene than gameplay
• Scripted events follow by scripted events