Being forgiving of flaws

I just closed down The Witcher 2. I got struck with some of the flaws that got criticised heavily in other games. For example, light coming in from windows indoors when it's night. Oblivion got SLAMMED for it! TW2 has it, too. Worse, a guy was sleeping at night, and I entered his home. I kept clicking on him, and he replied, "Ah! Welcome!" every time. However, he remained in bed, asleep. I remember waking up NPCs in Gothic.

Frankly, I've encountered many such flaws in The Witcher 2. That's not to say I don't love the game, but it does break immersion so many times (the lipsync and animation could be better in places!).

So, what makes us forgive flaws in some games and condemn entire games in other cases?

This is an interesting topic. For me, if a game excels in important areas, then the minor flaws - such as the issues that you mentioned in TW2 - aren't worth criticizing; it just seems a bit silly to pay attention to minor flaws that don't seem very important when the rest of the experience is so rewarding. Personally, Vampire: Bloodlines, Gothic 2, and The Witcher 2 are examples of games that I willingly and knowingly accept the minor blemishes that come along with them, because these games accomplished so much within their ambitious scope and did a great job of capturing the experience that they were trying to deliver. No single game can accomplish everything, so a bit of leeway should be given to great, slightly flawed games that "reach for the stars."

It's when a game suffers from either significant flaws at its very core or is simply the result of a mediocre, uninspired design that the minor annoyances become more noticeable and egregious. After all, if a game is mediocre and unambitious from the start, how can it possibly screw up on the little things too? DA2 is the most recent and obvious example of a game that is littered with small annoyances and issues that seem unforgivable given the limited scope of the design and generally uninspired, unambitious feel. If it had made up for this in some way - perhaps with a gripping story full of meaningful choice and consequence, memorable characters, and inspired writing - then i would have been way more forgiving of the well-documented annoyances. But it didn't make up for its shortcomings (imo), and thus the many relatively minor issues became much more noticeable.

I easily forgive flaws when a game excels in one or more of its major areas and the flaws don´t stay in a way of their excellency much.

Good question. Everyone has different expectations from their gaming I guess but for me the games that I really fall in love with have made me laugh - whether it's maniacal cackling or good-natured chuckling - I'm there to have fun.

Boiling Point is the example that always comes to mind for me, a game that was condemned for it's endless list of bugs, but which aimed to entertain at every opportunity.

Like badmofo says, I think the main aspect is expectations.

Even the most juicy and delicious pear can seemingly taste awful or at least bland when you're expecting a banana. Many people expected DA2 to be a direct sequel to DA:O (not in terms of the storyline but rather the core gameplay) which it clearly isn't. Many of the complaints about DA2 is exactly on the points where it differs from DA:O.

The same can be said for Duke Nuke'em Forever, only in reverse. Most of the critic of DNF has been, IMO, on points where it actually TRIES to maintain the style/feel of the original instead of conforming to modern trends. So instead of expecting a Duke3D sequel it would seem many people were expecting a "Call of Duke" game, which again it clearly isn't.

Nerevarine pretty much said what I would have said

However, I think it's pretty key to appreciate how subjective this all is. We all have different things we appreciate more than others. Some games will, due to their core design, just appeal a lot more to some than others. Such a game doesn't really HAVE to excel in areas to be appreciated - because the genre or subgenre in itself can be enough to satisfy some people, if done in a reasonably competent way.

The Witcher 2 did have rather significant immersion flaws, and I was also taken out of the experience by them on occasion. But, I think the game was so strong in an overall sense, that I didn't really mind so much.

Oblivion had many, many more of those flaws - to my mind - and on top the entire design was pretty bad. Not to say it's not a hugely impressive game in terms of when it was released and how much they did accomplish - but it's always the most ambitious games that will get hit the hardest for the inevitable huge amount of flaws.

I think if I respect one thing about Oblivion and indeed the entire TES series - it's their ambition and scope. They may be shock full of niggles and moronic design decisions, but there's literally nothing else out there that quite matches the scope of these things. So, I was actually more forgiving of these flaws in Oblivion than I was in The Witcher2. My problems with Oblivion has to do with the MAJOR design flaws, rather than these little oddities and niggles.

For me I often judge a game on how well I connect to it's virtual reality, such as story and other characters. If the connection is weak I cannot connect well and end up not enjoying the game. A game with poor gameplay and many bugs that at least absorbs me into it's virtual reality can earn my praise. But I found that I need people. Either actual NPC's or traces of people such as in System Shock or Amnesia. A weak social realm with noone I can connect with, with only satire or rude NPC's is a game that I cannot connect well with, such as Oblivion.

I didn't notice the light thing in the witcher 2, I did notice it in Oblivion.

The more I'm immersed into a game, the more forgiving I am.

kalniel said:

I didn't notice the light thing in the witcher 2, I did notice it in Oblivion.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I think they did it well in TW2, on second thought, because I think the nights are pretty bright and it could be moonlight coming through the windows. I think my bigger issue with the game is that some of the animation seems stiff. It hurts more because the rest of the game is so well done.