Games That Look Incredibly Dull To Play

[Ipsen]

Street fighter 4 . It looks so fun when tournment players play it, but when i do not so much. I love the hell out of umvc3 though.

I was going to state this myself.

When you see players block properly (say, in tourney play) in fighting games, if you don't know what's being attempted, it gets dull FAST[footnote]Perhaps footsies fits the bill here?[/footnote]. UMvC3 'handles' this better by being over-the-top, but in Street Fighter? Adds up to a crouching dude poking you with punches and kicks. You MIGHT get a jolt from a teched throw. CHANGE THE CHANNEL.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Every time I look at Minecraft screenshots I start to fall asleep.

Likewise. Heck, any time I hear people start talking about the thing they built in Minecraft my eyes start to glaze over. Before people try to accuse me of not "getting it" or whatnot, I have played the game, and while I do appreciate the scope of the freedom provided, I'd much rather just play with Legos or play some D&D.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

Dark Souls is tons of fun to play, but to an outside observer, it can seem very dull due to its slower, more deliberate pacing.

I'm glad that I actually read some of the posts before I write my own. I absolutely agree with this. It's the one reason why it's taken me a while to get into Demon's or Dark Souls.

 

[Evil Smurf]

The only game that looks interesting to play are Zelda games and open world crime games.

 

[Grach]

Minecraft. Mainly because of the "so what's the POINT?" thing.

I LOVE Minecraft by the way.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Just about any given turn-based RPG...you can talk about how brilliant Earthbound or, Final Fantasy VII are but you can't post videos of battles because of how boring they are to watch...Even as I play games like that or, Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans or what have you, there's that part of my brain asking why I like about those games really...but I can't stop...I just can't stop!

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Civilization 5. You just look at it and think, "Wow, nothing is happening at all, it must be really boring." Then you play it and next you know its three in the afternoon two days later.

haha as much as I love the game, this is so true; I tried explaining the game to a friend a few weeks back and I started out all excited

me: you build up your cities each turn and yo-!!!

my friend: wait..each turn? it's turn based...and a civ/city builder?...

me: yeah!

*realization of how slow and boring the game seems when you aren't controlling it*

*cricket chirping*

OT: Even though they are two of my favorite games ever...

kotor 1 and 2; holy hell I had a friend watching it one time and he was just blown away by the fact I found the game fun and replayed them 30+ times a piece.

 

[Sassafrass]

DayZ and the like. I know people really seem to like playing them and it's probably fun once you absorb the atmosphere and really get into it but watching the game it looks boring as all fuck.

Yeah, as an avid player of DayZ, gotta agree, there is sometimes where it is boring as fuck to actually play. You can easily play an hour or so with NOTHING happening, just walking from loot pile to loot pile. However when shit does happen, it normally lasts about 30 minutes so it's a fair trade off in my eyes. Plus knowing the map and where everyone goes can ramp up the action a wee bit. Once played on a server and went to a high traffic area, found 14 dead players.

OT: Any train/truck/etc simulation games.
But not Farming Simulator. That will never be boring.

Also most of the Final Fantasy games.

 

[Araxathan]

Democracy 3, that looks incredibly boring, along with most world building simulators but usually when you play them yourself they are pretty addictive. I recently got Civ 5 thinking it would be boring as hell and before I knew it 13 hours had passed. I was pretty surprised how addicted I got.

 

[babinro]

There are way to many to name. Most of them are indie titles that offer an intriguing concept, plot, character seemingly at the expense of gameplay. This is why I LOVE let's plays/walkthrough's though. I don't need to buy the game to get the experience which I would find far worse if I played it directly.

A couple of examples that come to mind are Amnesia, Gone Home, and Dear Esther.

Note: I'm not saying these games would be boring to play for everyone. I just know that I'm not the type of gamer who has fun walking around the environment clicking on everything. There are always a few exceptions of course...I loved Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle as well as The Walking Dead: Season One.

Edit: Almost forgot! God of War style games. I hate the combat system in those games but love the animation and story. I'd much rather watch a professional let's play then ever actually play those games.

 

[gorfias]

Civilization 5. You just look at it and think, "Wow, nothing is happening at all, it must be really boring." Then you play it and next you know its three in the afternoon two days later.

I got this on Steam for a song and really have to give it a chance. I've been advised to skip the tutorials and just jump into it blind. You'll learn along the way.

I haven't played "The Last of Us" but it looks very boring to me. It's gotten some peoples GOTY but it looks like a stealth game. I hate stealth games. I want G-d mode and blow all of my enemies away with ease. Soooo not for me.

 

[chstens]

I've actually had friends tell me that The Last of Us's gameplay looks boring. Doesn't work the same way when playing it however...

Yes it does. In my humble opinion, the controls are broken and everything that isn't the cutscenes or dialogue is DREADFULLY boring.

 

[Seraj33]

Civilization 5. You just look at it and think, "Wow, nothing is happening at all, it must be really boring." Then you play it and next you know its three in the afternoon two days later.

I got this on Steam for a song and really have to give it a chance. I've been advised to skip the tutorials and just jump into it blind. You'll learn along the way...

I agree compleatly. I had never played a Civilization game before five. I just jumped in guns blazing and learned as I went. That's the charm of the game I think, it is very forgiving and pedagogic in the easier dificulties.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Euro Truck...

Euro Truck Simulator II. Ans holy fuck is it way better than it looks when you first see it.

Damnit!!

Anyway yeah, Euro Truck Simulator/Simulator II look incredibly boring, but then again I used to like playing Cross Country Canada so take from that what you will.

 

[Kinitawowi]

All roguelikes. Nethack looks like Notepad having an epileptic fit, but plays deeper than pretty much anything else out there. Dwarf Fortress has already been mentioned, of course; I've spent time on it, but my abject failure to create an operational military is hamstringing any ideas I've ever had. I'd love to send some guys wandering around the caverns and beating stuff up, but it's not happening.

The Stanley Parable. One I haven't played yet, because nobody is willing to say anything about it for fear of spoiling it. So it just ends up looking like a wander-round-an-office-em-up, which... I get enough of that crap at work, thanks.

The entire output of the ZX Spectrum looks drab these days, but there were different requirements for visuals back then.

 

[bishop5]

Space Sims, like X or Eve or what have you................ Just not for me thanks.

I like the X series, it allows for quite a bit more freedom than your average space sim. I've never tried EVE but from what I've heard it's not really for me since you don't actually pilot the ship so much as tell it where to move to and it does it's own thing.

I'll just chime in on EVE, as i've played it on/off since '05.

You can manually fly your ships by double-clicking in space and your ship will head in the direction. The default controls (align/approach, orbit, keep at range) are useful in different situations: flying a small, fast ship facing a much larger enemy? Orbit @ 500m and you will generally be able to orbit the enemy faster than their weapons can track and hit you. Flying a ship that relies on staying out of range of the enemy? Then keep at range is useful (or orbit at a larger distance).

Manual piloting really comes in to play when you need to close distance on a target whilst trying to mitigate as much of their tracking/damage as possible - you often have to manually fly in a corkscrew-esque fashion, rather than straight at them.

Lastly, PVP in Eve can (usually) be summed up by waiting, waiting, waiting... holy sh*t, sh*t, sh*t! And somewhere in the middle the adrenaline kicks in - the ship you're flying has taken you time and/or money to get and you won't get it back if it blows up!

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I got Sword of the Stars II in a bundle. I've never played any of these 4X super simulation things, so I figured "what the hell" and fired it up. I had never in my life seen a HUD so fucking cluttered, and so many buttons and things to manage right up front. My brain just failed me and classified what was in front of me as being work, and I got the feeling that I might as well put that amount of dedication into actually learning how to operate a space shuttle since there's probably an equal amount of buttons and things to manage.

Sorry if that offends anyone, I'm sure it's fun once you know what in the actual fuck is going on and what you're supposed to be doing but those first 5 minutes screamed "DULL" at me more than any game experience I've had.

 

[gorfias]

Civilization 5. You just look at it and think, "Wow, nothing is happening at all, it must be really boring." Then you play it and next you know its three in the afternoon two days later.

I got this on Steam for a song and really have to give it a chance. I've been advised to skip the tutorials and just jump into it blind. You'll learn along the way...

I agree compleatly. I had never played a Civilization game before five. I just jumped in guns blazing and learned as I went. That's the charm of the game I think, it is very forgiving and pedagogic in the easier dificulties.

Thanks for the inspiration. I'm going to jump on this again ASAP. (Just bought Gone Home on Humble Bundle: supposed to be a fast, fun experience).

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Never watched any, but EVE seems the most obvious boring to watch game.

 

[mindfaQ]

Wow, surprised about all those Dota critics.

Preferences probably play a role about what kind of gameplay one will call dull, so here are some genres/games that come to my mind:
- many JRPGs
- Dear Esther (I liked that game though)
- many visual novels
- Minecraft
- most Jump'n'Runs
- some turn based games
- many bad games
- grinding heavy games

but since this topic has a strong negative touch, let me also list games where I have a blast watching them and where I directly would like to play them:
- shmups
- fighting games
- fast paced shooters
- Dota 2