Watching/reading/playing bad shows/stories/games

glennmagusharvey

After replying to a comment from Noimporta in another thread here, I got to thinking: Y'know, there's actually value in experiencing bad art.  Because I get to think about, okay, what went wrong?  For example, if I felt you enjoyed the characterization, and the setting was interesting enough, then why did the story fail to catch my interest?  If it's about the pacing, what was bad about the pacing?  And so forth.

Y'know how for great works you get all these reviews containing lavish praise of like, every aspect of the work?  In some ways, I think that experiencing poor-quality works actually helps me gain a better understanding of what a work good.

Yeah, I know, this thread isn't a complaint thread.  Discuss anyway.

MillerCross

Hmm, I prefer reviewing stuff I dislike. I feel better at expressing dislike. At least, when it comes to media.

RocketDude

Yeah, if I dislike a game, I try to figure out what pissed me off about it.

InsanityAddict

A lot of stuff is So Bad It's Good for me pretty easily.

TheMightyAnonym

For me, the worst show possible is one that is "So OK It's Average". I can't stand works like that, and could not bear to watch them all the way through - doing so would be a huge chore.

LouieW

glennmagusharvey,

I think you make a good point about it being easier to see what makes a work good from experiencing a poorly made work. Still, I think that sometimes it can be very frustrating to experience a poorly made work, especially in the case of bad games. While I agree with InsanityAddict that a lot of the time it is a "So Bad It's Good" type situations, I think that just as often you encounter a game that is very difficult and annoying to play because of some error in controls, camera angles, or the like.

In those cases, the errors are so obvious that I really do not think you needed to play such a game in order to understand how important something basic like having controls that are responsive is. In other situations I think that the graphics in a game are just so annoying to watch that playing it for "So Bad It's Good" reasons is pretty difficult. I would point to the recent retsupurae of Star Strike as one example of that. I might just be oversensitive to that kind of thing though since I suppose some people are much more patient than I am.

As for bad shows and stories, I think that watching them and reading them can be somewhat enjoyable if you are good at being snarky or have someone with which you can snark, but I do believe that when one watches, reads, or plays something that one dislikes, one uses time that one might otherwise use for something one does enjoy. Your mileage may vary on that though because I suppose some people tend to just like watching stuff that they think is poor quality.

glennmagusharvey

Well, if there's one dealbreaker I respond to it's poor interface design in games that greatly increase tediousness or unintuitiveness or decrease control responsiveness..

nohaynicklibre

I agree with Anonym

IanExMachina

I have to say with more active mediums like games I find it harder for them to be So bad It is good, possibly as I have to put effort into them and so am expecting something out.

Films/Tv are the easiest as it is more passive, easier to sit back and laugh and comment.