Do you admit ever feeling schadenfreude from seeing a game fail?

[Deleted member 7450]

Yes. I'm only human after all. And a bit on the "cunty" side.
Even if it was just a "lol" or a "hah, I knew that would happen!"

And I have to me that everybody saying no is liar.🙄
Nobody is a saint.

 

[Hope]

It's the home version of the 3v3 arcade game.

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No excuse for that singleplayer.

 

[Cordy]

I did with Street Fighter 5 and Marvel vs Capcom Ultimate

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Sure, I feel it all the time when microtransaction filled garbage underperforms.

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Yep. These.

 

[rpm]

I wouldn't say pleasure, but I think anti-consumer business practices shouldn't be rewarded
I.e. SWBF2, I'm glad that people spoke up against it, but I would have just preferred if it was good instead

 

[Deleted member 43077]

Id prefer if every game is great but iv had moments where I said "I called it" or whatever but no I cant say I enjoyed being right about a game being bad or unsuccessful

 

[GustyGardens]

Not really. A lot of people worked hard on these games and ended up losing their jobs after they failed. These people paid a large price because of poor management and publisher demands. It's hard to find pleasure in that.

 

[FrostyLemon]

If I feel the game has some toxic concepts or messages prior to release, then yeah I'm happy it didn't do well (critically or commercially). No Man's Sky, Battlefront 2 and Fallout 76 are good examples.

 

[PogiJones]

The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer mentioned Schadenfreude as the most evil sin of human feeling, famously saying "To feel envy is human, to savor schadenfreude is diabolic."[32]​

​

I agree with Schopenhauer's general sentiment (although I wouldn't go as far as diabolic or the most evil sin of human feeling). I think there's a difference between relief that a bad behavior might be stopped (e.g. relief that Bin Laden can't coordinate any more attacks) and joy in someone's suffering because they deserve it.

You can be grateful and relieved a person or group doing bad things can't do bad things anymore without feeling joy and elation at their suffering. It's important to recognize their humanity. As for games, if they fail a group of people suffers. It's important not to take joy in that, I think.

 

[SweetNicole]

Only if I counter picked it in Fantasy Critic

 

[Latpri]

Yep. People can say "the amount of money that a game makes doesn't matter to consumers", but as a consumer all I know is that I would've killed for The Wonderful 101 to not be a massive bomb.

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Youve got no power over it though. Youre only gonna buy one copy of W101 in your life. From our point of view, whether or not a game bombs or succeeds might as well be up to the whims of fate and the dice games fairies play on the ethereal realm. It just doesnt matter, and boy does it feel good when you untether your thinking from business realities and practicality and just talk about what you enjoy.

 

[Dream Machine]

Not for just a game failing.

But I enjoy seeing shitty business practices blow up in people's faces.

 

[Eumi]

If it's their own fault, sure.

But the game has to release first. Like, the minute it becomes a bad thing that exists then I'll be happy it fails, but I don't hope that things that look bad will actually turn out that way.

 

[Ravelle]

No because I want games to be good and I want everyone to enjoy good games, games should not fail.

Company's having their shit blown up in their face is something else though.

 

[Alienous]

I enjoy seeing anti-consumer business practices fail, and I don't mind if a game goes down with it.

 

[OmegaX]

I wouldnt say I felt schadenfreude when 76 failed, it was more... its just genuine enjoyment. I sort of like bad things and peoples reaction to them. Something boring is just beneath notice, but something bad can be fun.

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Exactly, all their fuckups were very entertaining to me even though I had no intention of ever buying that game. It was just pure comedy of error.

 

[fracas]

No, because I'm not 12 years old.

I'll poke fun at games that do dumb stuff, but I don't want them to fail. There are hundreds of folks' livelihoods on the line with each release.

 

[Akita One]

I'll let you know depending on how Anthem does at release, or if a sequel to Alpha Protocol is ever made.

 

[Cokesouls]

Games I don't care about, I don't care about.
Games I do care about, either make me happy or dissapointed and then I move on.
Not much to it.

 

[entremet]

Not really.

 

[Silky]

I enjoy seeing anti-consumer business practices fail, and I don't mind if a game goes down with it.

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Gamers have such a warped understanding of anti-consumerism that I cannot fathom what this alludes to

 

[Slammin_Hammon]

I generally want all games to be good, as it's better for everyone if that's the case. However, I will occasionally feel a bit of smug satisfaction when a game that was poorly thought out from beginning flops.

 

[DrArchon]

Youve got no power over it though. Youre only gonna buy one copy of W101 in your life. From our point of view, whether or not a game bombs or succeeds might as well be up to the whims of fate and the dice games fairies play on the ethereal realm. It just doesnt matter, and boy does it feel good when you untether your thinking from business realities and practicality and just talk about what you enjoy.

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I suppose there's some truth that. And even beyond that, plenty of games sell decently or even well and don't get sequels because the makers want to do other things (see: Kid Icarus Uprising).

But just like how people don't want to see bad behavior rewarded, part of me wants to see what I consider good behavior (in terms of game design/story/art/whatever) rewarded.

 

[Mesoian]

Individual games? No.

Concepts, sure. EA's scummy practices blowing up in their face feels good, but it never feels good to have the games that you would have wanted to play become trash in the process. I was really excited for Sim City before EA fucked it all, same with battlefront, same for the...what, 3 star wars games they had?

The pushback on publisher greed is something that needs to happen, but the fallout from it is pretty disheartening honestly.

No, absolutely not.

People need to stop feeling elation when a game succeeds, IMO. Its the more damaging reaction. Like, as a consumer, the only thing we really need to concern ourselves with is if the game is enjoyable or not. Theres a thread in ERA right now, "Are you worried about Sekiro" but not a single person is talking about being worried that the game might not be enjoyable. Every damn person is talking about worrying that the marketing budget is too low, or the lack of PVP might hurt sales, or its not the right time to launch a new IP

Holy lord, yall are not junior executives at From Software, what do you give a ding dong diddly crap about any of that? Lets just worry about it being enjoyable first and foremost.

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I mean, we're coming off a period where companies like Capcom, Konami, Square, Activision, Sega were very vocal about "do you want a new game in this franchise? Then you better buy this half assed, poorly thought out time waste with zero marketing or energy to prove to investors that this is worth the time."

It's perfectly logical to be worried about other aspects of the industry revolving around things you like, especially when you know if it fails you will not get another one.

 

[パンダさん]

For the greedy publishers, yeah. But not for the people who put hundreds or even thousands of hours into a game.

 

[Latpri]

Gamers have such a warped understanding of anti-consumerism that I cannot fathom what this alludes to

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Gatchas? The fact that we get sold non-transferable licences when we buy digitally? Theres lots of anti-consumer BS built into the industry.

 

[Bansai]

Every EA/Activision AAA game.

 

[Dalek]

I would say no-but as others have said Fallout 76 seems to be a special circumstance. If developers coast on name recognition and abandon all the traits that brought that name to prominence....then yeah, I can see being pleased that it blows up in their face.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

I absolutely derive pleasure from seeing games with especially predatory or anti-consumer monetization practices fail, yes.

 

[mxbison]

Poorly disguised lazy dev post?

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Huh? Rushed and low effort doesn't mean the dev is lazy, it means that someone in charge said "Nah, we leave it like that, it's good enough". They didn't even bother to fix the clipping on the character select screen....

No criticism allowed I guess.

 

[Deleted member 35204]

yes

 

[gabdeg]

I often thought I'd do but then when it actually happens I draw no enjoyment from it whatsoever. Bad product got bad reception, in the end there is nothing to gain for me. Sad that the people working on it didn't get the chance to put their hours into something that doesn't suck.

 

[Odeko]

I suppose there's some truth that. And even beyond that, plenty of games sell decently or even well and don't get sequels because the makers want to do other things (see: Kid Icarus Uprising).

But just like how people don't want to see bad behavior rewarded, part of me wants to see what I consider good behavior (in terms of game design/story/art/whatever) rewarded.

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It's such a bummer that Kamiya has been on the receiving end of so many sales disappointments. His games are all something special

 

[EkStatiC]

Only when a Ubisoft game fail.

 

[Bruno MB]

I would lie if I said that I never hoped for a game to fail.

 

[Deleted member 10737]

no, never
yeah, sometimes

 

[Vinc]

No. Even if I don't want a particular game to be what a certain studio is making, I realize their continued success is the only thing that can lead to further investment.

 

[WestEgg]

I was going to say no, but...

Soulja Game.

 

[Allforce]

I don't enjoy seeing games FAIL financially but I'll admit I kind of love the shitstorm when a highly anticipated title goes sideways at launch.

Mass Effect Andromeda was absolutely hysterical with all the gifs showing the terrible animations and faces.

 

[Wamb0wneD]

Schadenfreude towards the publisher, yes. Not the devs though.

Well maybe the THPS 5 devs. What a travesty that was.

 

[maximumzero]

Only one I can think of recently was the Playstation Classic. Just an awful product from top to bottom.

 

[Cels]

i hope shitty pc ports fail.

i also hope games with exploitative microtransactions fail.

 

[Shryke]

Oh yeah definitely. Especially games like Battlefront 2 and Fallout 76.

 

[Alienous]

Gamers have such a warped understanding of anti-consumerism that I cannot fathom what this alludes to

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Selling a buggy, near broken product?

I'm not sure you tried to fathom at all.

 

[Deleted member 8752]

Can't really think of a single time I wanted a game to fail outright.

 

[Hailinel]

I was going to say no, but...

Soulja Game.

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...Yeah, I have to agree with that one.

 

[ShiningBash]

Nah, never.

Bit fucked up to in most cases considering a large number of games coming out nowadays is a collaboration between dozens of people. Game development is a difficult business and many people have put their livelihoods on the line to deliver a product. To have it fail and ridiculed must be a gut punch considering the amount of effort that goes into making a game. It's hard for me to not sympathise with that.

The mere fact that someone spent eight years working on a single game boggles my mind. That's 70080 hours. Imagine putting that much time into something only for it to fail. I honestly think publishers need to put the people behind the games in the forefront so gamers can come to the realization that there are actual humans behind the games they enjoy instead of just rebelling against a singular faceless corporate entity.

Seeing people elated at the fact that Telltale went under was really fucked up. Especially when you take into account that there was no severance pay meaning people went back to their families empty-handed.

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Totally agree with this and nicely put.

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Co-signed.

 

[bbq of doom]

Nah, never.

Bit fucked up to in most cases considering a large number of games coming out nowadays is a collaboration between dozens of people. Game development is a difficult business and many people have put their livelihoods on the line to deliver a product. To have it fail and ridiculed must be a gut punch considering the amount of effort that goes into making a game. It's hard for me to not sympathise with that.

The mere fact that someone spent eight years working on a single game boggles my mind. That's 70080 hours. Imagine putting that much time into something only for it to fail. I honestly think publishers need to put the people behind the games in the forefront so gamers can come to the realization that there are actual humans behind the games they enjoy instead of just rebelling against a singular faceless corporate entity.

Seeing people elated at the fact that Telltale went under was really fucked up. Especially when you take into account that there was no severance pay meaning people went back to their families empty-handed.

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Precisely.

 

[Deleted member 442]

I did with Street Fighter 5

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I find that interesting in a way because prior to the game launching people were pretty much all pulling for it to be a success, it was only in the post launch window that the criticism really became a big thing.

At least that's my recollection.

People seemed generally hyped up about a new fighting game and it had a lot of promise and potential, I don't really remember that many people gunning for it to be a failure before it came out.

MVC:I is one that I can totally get though. It had the wrong approach and design, Capcom pushed ahead when they should have pulled back and their management of the community was poor. It is normal for those who criticised it ahead of time to feel a sense of vindication when a game doesn't achieve its potential, particularly if their points of criticism are seemingly borne out in the wider audience.

I wouldn't say I go full on schadenfreude, but there's a certain sense of mild amusement when a game that is massively hyped ends up under performing or not delivering at all. Are we all forgetting the No Man's Sky launch?

 

[Kewlmyc]

Kinda, depends on how big of a scam the game comes off as.

Battlefront 2, Fallout 76, and Mighty #9 come to mind. You can relish that a game with shitty practices failed, and still feel bad for the people who worked on the game, but didn't designed the shitty practices.

 

[Genesius]

Really only games that are nakedly predatory in their monetization. Or games that are flagrantly trying to ride the coattails of another game's success by being a crapped out unoriginal knockoff.

Both of which are rarely the actual developer's fault and more an edict from some upper management suit, so I do feel bad for the actual labor in those cases.