Do we really want games to surprise us? (Gaming)

by Harmanimus , Wednesday, August 09, 2017, 14:10 (2672 days ago) @ Korny

Yeah, totally. And as the folks in this thread show, different people look for different kinds of "fun" in their games, which is what causes devs to play it safe and try to cater to as broad of an audience as they can... Which can lead to the problem that the whole initial post is about, really: can a game be a "good game" without catering to a broad audience?

Never Alone is pretty much my exact response to that question. It is around 70 for metacritic scores, and generally got mixed reviews. But it is a work of art with built in cultural learning and context. It was a great experience. But I know it is not the sort of game with broad appeal in many, many ways.

Albeit there is no flat answer. I think it becomes a question of scale and who is monetarily invested in it on what audience size is aimed for. Personally? Most of my favorite games are more targeted experiences with niche appeal with a subset of broad appeal games rounding out my library. And that is not for everyone.