Why games feel different to every player

Video Games often bring people together, but can also divide opinion. Every game can be loved or loathed, but why?

There are times when you boot up the game, you live it, the credits roll, and you know you’ll never experience anything quite like that again (even if there is a great New Game+). In those moments we may be caught thinking, “Everyone needs to play this game and love it… or else.”

But sometimes, other people insist on having other opinions. And while you might not click R3 and L3 to activate Spartan rage, it’s hard not to feel frustrated when there seems to be such a gulf between your 10/10 and someone else’s 4/10. Or when the game the industry seems to be worshipping feels like the fabled case of a naked emperor showing off his new clothes (no slight on The Emperor’s New Clothes board game).

So how do we make sense of it all? Why is one player’s hallowed ground another player’s wasteland? And what does all this mean for reviews and the scores we give games?

Some games attract division

It’s pretty easy to assume that those who hate first-person shooters, period, aren’t going to get into Black Ops Cold War or Doom Eternal - and it might even turn them off Cyberpunk. But even among people who love a genre or particular franchise, differences of opinion can be as wide as a Rockstar open world, with just as many bullets being fired in the space between.

That was the case with The Last of Us Part II, which won Game of the Year at the 2020 Game Awards. Some of the conversation surrounding developer Naughty Dog’s darling resembled a warzone - and not the kind covered in interesting loot. But although TLOU II drew out the darker side of the internet, there was also a nuanced conversation taking place among the nail bomb explosions.

WeThePlayers members landed on both sides of the fence. Acheria’s review said, “There is no joy and you will never have a moment of satisfaction while playing this game. But…. Is it a bad game? No…. Far from it.”

Put that perspective alongside Gandheezy’s. “The Last of Us Part II is a technical masterpiece,” they said. But although they praised the dialogue, they said, “any positive commendations for the story as a whole unit are completely beyond my comprehension.”

Between those declaring TLOU II a masterpiece and those calling for the head of Neil Druckman, there was a kaleidoscope of opinion. And you couldn’t definitively say that one player was right and another was wrong.

Almost every gaming experience is part of another

Part of the reason people lashed out against the Last of Us Part II so much wasn’t because of what they hated, it was because of what they loved. And the object of that devotion was the original Last of Us.

Our experiences of games can sometimes verge on the sacred. So when a developer takes a franchise we adored in a direction we don’t like, it affects us more deeply than when a new franchise is produced. So those new to the Resident Evil games might rate the remakes higher than those who remember the old versions more fondly.

WeThePlayers member Deathnote-911’s Resident Evil 3 review called it “a rushed cashgrab”, adding that “the added content in the remake doesn’t make up for the cut content.” But LedLeech’s review said, “I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I actually think it’s slightly better than the RE2 remake.”

Whether it’s the new Assassin’s Creed RPG-style trilogy compared to the originals, the FFVII remake held up to the 1997 classic or even the widely-loved God of War reboot next to the old trilogy, you can’t separate a new game from the experiences you had with its predecessors. And that’s going to affect the opinions of some players more than others.

Some games demand more of you

Some players like a snappy experience, others prefer to start a new life in a game. And there’s a level of appreciation you can only find for some titles if you’re ready for many hours. If you have a low-tolerance for grinding or farming or side missions, your experience is going to be very different to a player who revels in such tasks.

WeThePlayer’s member Motion said in their review of No Man’s Sky that “you’d better be prepared to give your life over to it if you want to love it. If you plan on playing this game for 1-3 hours a day I'd say don't bother.”

One player’s frustration is another player’s challenge accepted. And we’ll all take the constant “You died” screens on Demon’s Souls differently. Some of us will throw our controller out the window, others will relish the fight like a shark with a bloodied nose. And onlookers like Girlfriend Reviews will wonder why they love a game that doesn’t seem to love them back.

You can’t quantify everything

Some games need a variety of perspectives because they’re just so hard to pin down. When reviewing Death Stranding, Danny O’Dwyer (we recommend his documentary series Noclip) said that “Death Stranding is one of the best games I’ve played this year for reasons I don’t fully understand. And the more I think about it, the more I think I enjoyed playing it.”

It was so difficult to put a number on Death Stranding because it was so difficult to describe what the game even was. You spent the first twenty hours of the game trying to figure out what the hell you were playing. And at the end of it (if you got that far), you were left with a memory of an experience that was possibly boring and wondrous, marvellous and maddening.

“It’s hard to blindly recommend it to strangers,” said Danny O’Dwyer. “It’s kind of like a Lars Von Trier movie. I know I enjoy watching them. I’m not sure if they’re good. And they’re not exactly the kind of film I recommend to other people.”

It’s a matter of perspective

Even when the game seems like a more simple iteration of games we love, it can help to have another perspective. Skill Up described Immortals Fenyx Rising as the best thing Ubisoft has put out in 2020,” while Downward Thrust said, “it turned out to be quite forgettable.”

The sticking point here was the puzzles, which Skill up said were “well constructed” and “continue to engage you even towards the tail end of the game.” While Downward Thrust penalised the game for requiring you to complete “a tremendous amount of not very interesting puzzles at every corner.”

Each player’s experience is unique and while people can argue against your perspective, they can never debunk our experience.

That probably doesn’t mean we should grab our torch and pitchforks and go and burn down the houses of those who think differently to us (unless you’re playing AC Valhalla). But it does mean, even if others don’t get it, or even if the journalists or game awards don’t rate it, our own experience matters in the gaming conversation.

We started WeThePlayers so that we could hear the voice of more players. We want to get your take on the latest, greatest and most difficult to score games. Write a review for us.