# Games you wish you loved. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 26, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502 "2015-06-26T01:24:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/1 "2015-06-26T01:24:14Z")
What are some games that you really want to love, but that you just can’t mentally access? Minecraft. When I was a kid, I couldn’t ever build cool lego models from my own imagination. I went gangbusters on the instructions, but I just don’t have it in me to build cool stuff from my head. Sports Manager Games. I love the concept of deep statistical simulations, fiddling with contracts, and so on. I just… couldn’t care less about soccer or baseball. If they ever put out a “Galactic Overlord Manager” game, I’d probably buy it. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/2 "2015-06-26T01:45:16Z")
The new genre of physics-based building games (Kerbal, Besieged, etc) are mainly just good at showcasing my total lack of skill at physics-based building. Crusader Kings II is a game that I could perhaps get into and enjoy, but the whole “Ok, first watch these ten hours of YouTube tutorials” aspect keeps me from getting involved. I guess I was just put on this gaming earth to shoot shit. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/3 "2015-06-26T01:51:19Z")
Hah, Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis are pretty much “European Monarch Manager,” which might be why I enjoy them. Agreed on the physics games: I also want to love those but can’t wrap my head around them. ---
**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/4 "2015-06-26T03:20:58Z")
Homeworld. A friend of mine lent me both games many years ago, and never asked for them back. Every two years or so, I get sick of hearing the hype and say to myself “This time, I’m going to finish it!” Then I start, get bogged down in endless repetitive grind, and give it up for another two years. I don’t know what the problem is; the near-universal praise the games get make me think it must be me. It’s strange; I don’t have a problem with other RTSes (though I do find them to be by far the weaker half of the strategy team). > [@Jophiel](#): > > The new genre of physics-based building games (Kerbal, Besieged, etc) are mainly just good at showcasing my total lack of skill at physics-based building. > > Crusader Kings II is a game that I could perhaps get into and enjoy, but the whole “Ok, first watch these ten hours of YouTube tutorials” aspect keeps me from getting involved. > > I guess I was just put on this gaming earth to shoot shit. You could just read the manual- or, rather, you could’ve when the game came out. Nowadays, you could just read the manual, plus the manuals for all the expansions you’ve got, plus the patch notes, and ultimately not save much time. As a bonus, you’d avoid the endless video tutorial-maker rambling (I didn’t even try them; there’s only so much blather and repetition I can stand when I’m trying to learn something complicated), and you’d get the wonderful experience of reading CK2 patch notes, which (in my experience) are surpassed only by those of Dwarf Fortress (which is another game we’ll probably see mentioned here). I think my favorite so far is “fixes to Danish and Norwegian bastards”. ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/5 "2015-06-26T05:21:00Z")
Any of these build your own empire/city/army sandbox games offered on the iPad. I just don’t have the patience to spend months building an economy before getting to the cool war part. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/6 "2015-06-26T07:13:33Z")
I realize the OP was talking about video games but I’m a tabletop gamer. The games I wished I loved are deck building games like Dominion, Eminent Domain, A Study in Emerald, Legendary, and City of Iron. The people I game with love these games so I sometimes end up playing them even though I’m not a big fan. I’d be happier if I enjoyed them as much as other people do. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/7 "2015-06-26T09:11:31Z")
Ico. People seem to adore it. I see a simplistic platformer with a terrible camera and tagged on combat. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/8 "2015-06-26T10:11:36Z")
I’d like to enjoy tennis. My wife likes to play it sometimes, but when we play it involves spending 95% of the time chasing after balls. I’m also impressed by Minecraft, but after 5 minutes of playing it I decided it was too much like work for me. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/9 "2015-06-26T12:36:20Z")
I wanted to adore Kerbal but it was just buggy enough to take the joy out of it for me. I loved Europa Universalis I and II but the newest version is simply too troublesome to play. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/10 "2015-06-26T13:09:28Z")
Along the same lines as Minecraft, I really want to like Dwarf Fortress. I’ll start playing about every six months or so, barely get through a year or two in game time, then just wind up dropping it again. Losing is NOT fun! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/11 "2015-06-26T13:10:59Z")
Open world games. Everything from GTA to Elder Scrolls. If the maps are too big I lose interest, get bored, and just want a game I can play without having to walk in the woods for hours on end. I wish I enjoyed walking from place to place, exploring dungeons, and that I had the memory to remember where things are located. As a massive fan of Mass Effect I’m worried that the new game is going to be so huge and so expansive that I’m not going to like it because I’m going to get lost ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/12 "2015-06-26T15:06:00Z")
Sid Meyer’s Alpha Centauri. I love Civ, and I’m a science fiction fan, and a lot of fans say that it’s the best one of the series, so SMAC should be right up my alley, right? Except it just doesn’t click. I think that the problem is the lack of perspective: In Civ, I can say “I’m building railroads in AD 900! I’ve got men on the Moon in 1492! Woo-hoo!”. In SMAC, though, is it good to have monopole transit tubes by 250 years after landing? I dunno. There’s no benchmark to beat and get excited about. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/13 "2015-06-26T16:41:07Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Crusader Kings II is a game that I could perhaps get into and enjoy, but the whole “Ok, first watch these ten hours of YouTube tutorials” aspect keeps me from getting involved. > > I guess I was just put on this gaming earth to shoot shit. I got bored trying to watch those videos, and just started playing anyhow (though I did frequently alt-tab over to the CKII wiki.) I had more fun learning by making mistakes. In most cases, there’s no absolute “game over”, and you can keep playing an interesting game even if you’re reduced to a county or two. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/14 "2015-06-26T16:59:27Z")
I don’t think there are any. Not in the sense of like “I know that this game is actually good, and I just don’t like it.” There are plenty where I think “I wish this game was better, because I see the potential for it to be a completely awesome game, and it’s not.” but that’s not the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cornelius_Tuggerson)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/15 "2015-06-26T17:00:14Z")
Mentioned this before on the boards - I really wanted to like Divinity: Original Sin. I used to love old school, hardcore isometric RPGs that didn’t hold your hand and let you die. D: OS is just like that, and die I did, over and over. I was making progress though, so it was all good. But eventually I got to the mines and picked up some weapons that gave one of the PCs the rot(the special bag for them was in the other ones inventory), and since I didn’t have any invisibility potions, all my saves from before the mines got overwritten due to the invulnerable death knight guys and having to stealth. I wandered around for a bit using heal spells to mitigate the rot and overwriting even more of the salvageable saves, but eventually I just gave up. I am just a filthy casual now I guess, where do I hand in my badge? ---
**Author:** ![Tixenfleaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9a140/32.png) [@Tixenfleaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tixenfleaz)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/16 "2015-06-26T19:06:33Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > I got bored trying to watch those videos, and just started playing anyhow (though I did frequently alt-tab over to the CKII wiki.) I had more fun learning by making mistakes. In most cases, there’s no absolute “game over”, and you can keep playing an interesting game even if you’re reduced to a county or two. That’s what I did. CK2 is currently my favorite game, and I still don’t know what I’m doing a lot of the time. I rather suspect that if I knew where all the nuts and bolts go, I’d be able to power game it pretty easily. And it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/17 "2015-06-26T19:38:41Z")
The _Batman: Arkham_ games. I’ve tried playing them several times but the story and combat just don’t seem to ‘click’ for me. I’m not a big fan of 3rd person games anyway but these looked like great fun so I picked up the GOTY editions on a Steam sale. No dice. Loved _Shadow of Mordor_ though. :o 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/18 "2015-06-26T20:43:29Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I’m also impressed by Minecraft, but after 5 minutes of playing it I decided it was too much like work for me. We had a computer at work that we installed games on. Somebody offered to install Prison Tycoon on it for me. I said if I wanted to run a prison, I’d just turn off the computer and go back to work. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/19 "2015-06-26T20:55:31Z")
Community-hand poker. It’s totally displaced all other forms, including all individual-hand forms, even in private-game circles. Five years ago, googling “poker” got you traditional-form answers and secondary pointers to THE etc. Now, it gets you THE, a little Omaha, and references that there used to be other forms. I adore traditional poker. I loathe community-hand games. My choice is to never play again, or learn to love THE. I fold. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502/20 "2015-06-26T21:21:47Z")
First-person shooters. I have friends who get together and have hours-long gaming sessions (via headsets, etc). And I can’t play them. Ever since Goldeneye, which was the first one I ever played, they give me motion sickness. I’ve tried taking Dramamine, with no relief. I’ve tried digital/HDTV, no relief. I beta-tested a game once called [Heretic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heretic_(video_game)) (a friend’s brother was doing some of the “clean up” on the graphics, so we got to play to make sure everything kept operating effectively). After about 4 hours of that, I started vomiting. And a lot of those games are really cool, and probably a lot of fun. But I’ll never know. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-you-wish-you-loved/723502.md?page=2)