Unexplained Game Popularity

I think you have to place Final Fantasy VII in context for the time to understand the popularity. It seems average nowadays due to something similar to Seinfeld Is Unfunny. Many of the things it did have been done many times since (and done better), but they were new or relatively new and interesting at the time.

I played it back when it was new and even then, still didn't understand the popularity. If anything I liked it less back then than I do now.

We really need to stop assuming any and every case of somebody not liking something that used to be popular is an instance of Seinfeld Is Unfunny. No offense, but that's quickly becoming a pet peeve of mine.

I want to say that while I find the amount of fanstuff surrounding Touhou interesting I find the obsessiveness about the game a bit worrying considering how many people are in Touhou for the fanon versus the games.

I find it scary when the shippy elements of Mass Effect eclipse the game elements within the fandom.

I kinda find it baffling that Bulletstorm is being marketed as another oldschool FPS throwback when it pretty dang different from most oldschool FP Ses.

Yeah.

Not trying to defend Bulletstorm or anything — I'm not even a fan, but I think they're trying to market it as an "old-school" shooter in that like the older days, it's just streams of enemies meeting your violence mindlessly in an action-packed environment, evoking the older days of FP Ss where there was no additional elements of stealth or strategy — just run into your enemies guns blazing.

Then again, I could be wrong — I've only played half an hour's worth of the game. And, I think Serious Sam nailed this concept of mindless old-school shooting better.

The problem with Serious Sam was that its shooting didn't feel... shooty enough. I don't know how to put it into words, but it felt more like I'm in some sort of parody game, waiting for the punchline that does not come. I didn't enjoy it. Of the other "waves of enemies" games, Painkiller isn't good because it's not a Doom successor, it's Smash TV with a first-person perspective. Dethroning Moment Of Suck, I actively dislike that feeling of unreasonable limitation. Bullet Storm was the first game after Final Doom to give me back that fuzzy fun feeling of laying down lead upon scores of advancing enemies. Maybe I'm broke in the head, I don't know.

Bullet Storm was the first game after Final Doom to give me back that fuzzy fun feeling of laying down lead upon scores of advancing enemies.

That sentence perfectly encapsulates what I was trying to say about them saying it's an old FPS throwback.

League of Legends is popular among my friends. I've played it and I've had fun in it but I can conclude it's only popular because

• fantasy
• grinding
• people seem to like these Control One RTS Unit games far too much.

edited 12th Mar '11 10:00:58 AM by Barcode711

Never played that or Dot A or any similar games that I know to be similar, but I understand where the concept is coming from. Not sure I'd like those though.

Can anyone explain to me, please, the fervent love people have for TF 2? I've played it, having bought the Orange Box, and I didn't enjoy it even a third as much as I enjoyed the Quake Team Fortress. The maps are narrow and uncomfortable, the weapons unsatisfyingly uncrunchy, the aesthetics feel hollow. I've had more fun with Bloody Good Time, to compare a multiplayer-driven Source game. Help me understand what am I missing?