Developing a taste for the medium

When first coming into contact with a very sophisticated cultural product, it is usually difficult to appreciate. Children, for example, often have to be taught to enjoy paintings or classical music, because those forms have developed along a trajectory somewhat independent of "popular culture." This teaching seems to consist of repeated exposure, forcing children to look at paintings or listen to classical music until, after a while (perhaps many years), they develop "taste." Possessed of taste, a person is able to appreciate a greater variety of cultural products, even of greatly different aesthetic standards--so long as they seem somehow connected to the class of products for which he has a taste.

So, GB community, I ask you: Did you have to learn to appreciate video games? Is there a certain kind of video game that you at one time hated, but over the years have learned to love? Are there games you see as sophisticated, contrasting with others you consider common?

I, for one, could not stand Indie platformers at first; but, the more games I play, the for I find myself appreciating them. I think I feel myself developing a taste for them--

Nope liked them instantly since I was 5-ish

No I generally like what I like and don't like what I don't like. I usually can tell within 15 minutes if I'll like a game or if I won't

Not sure what you mean by the third question. Narratively or mechanically? Narravitvely yes some stories are more mature than others. Mechanically no, while some games like an RTS like Starcraft are much more intricate than say a platformer I'm not sure I'd call it more sophisticated.

I guess I've been learning to enjoy and appreciate things in general. Not taking things for granted and such. I used to think that I didn't like Far Cry 2 until I realized while reminiscing that playing it was a great experience all along, and I picked it back up and loved it. There are other games that I don't think I would've enjoyed as much years ago, but mostly because of incidental things like my poor understanding of English or lack of interest in some topics.

I don't think learning how to appreciate things is limited to sophisticated cultural products and stuff. I learned to appreciate sincerity more than quality or sophistication, due in no small part to the Giant Bomb staff and community's genuine love for weird/dumb shit. So thanks, Giant Bomb!

I can't remember when I started playing games, but no, I've never had to learn to like 'em, I just kinda always have. I started with basic ones that came on some computers (like Chips Challenge and stuff like that) or were at school (like Oregon Trail) and it evolved from there.

Though I have learned to appreciate dumb things more. I think I picked that up from listening to / watching Jeff and Ryan, though I think all of the GB guys can appreciate fun but dumb things for the most part. Especially in regards to Saints Row 4 - as soon as the first stupid trailer hit I was in love.

I hated the idea of turn based combat as a kid and now I've found myself playing a lot of JRPG's. In fact, games that require more strategy in general interest me a lot. I also didn't like Deus Ex Human Revolution the first time I played it, but the second time is one of my fondest memories of last generation.

Video games in general, though, are things that I have enjoyed since I first played one. Interstellar Assault, on the Game Boy, in 1995.

I grew up playing games but it wasn't until quite recently that I thought of them as an artistic medium. Games kind of grew up with me and once I started seeing them do things that other mediums can't or don't I started to appreciate them more.

I, like everyone else in this thread, didn't have to learn to like games. But I did have to learn when to take them seriously and when to appreciate the inherent stupidity that games often boil down to. I think people trying to come at games from the extreme ends of the spectrum: i.e. games are just supposed to be dumb fun vs games are artistic statements 100% of the time would have a hard time appreciating what they've become. It took me a while to learn how to balance the two to get the most out of the games I play.

There are games that I used to consider common like the Call of Duty's and Gears of Wars but nowadays I get a lot of enjoyment out of analysing dumb games designed purely for entertainment. The beauty of games is that interactivity is the essential element. As much as we try to put some games above others on the grounds of artistic merit, at the end of the day if the way you play the game is poor then that colours the entire experience. Whether a game is common or sophisticated matters only when the fundamental interactivity allows you to engage with the ideas the game is trying to communicate, if there are any at all.

Regarding a game I used to hate: when Mirror's Edge came out I hated it with a passion. I was used to sharp platformers and slick first-person shooters and that game did neither perfectly. Later I came back to it and learned to appreciate why people love that game.

I was born with a controller in my hand.

Also, while I'm pretty arrogant, I'm not so arrogant as to believe any genre is somehow lower class or less sophisticated. All game types have their own merits- I'll try out new games just so I understand them even if it's not something I'm all that into it (like Minecraft or MOBAs).

It took me a while to get into RPGs based upon traditional Pen and Paper rulesets. Now I love them. I still can't play the actual PnP stuff, although I respect them.

I just play games. Saying something like, "I hate RPGs" or, "I hate platformers" is too dismissive to me. It's similar to saying something like "I hate onions." Sure, you may not like it as much as other stuff, but there is so many different ways to prepare it that, more likely than not, there is a way you would like it.

Basically, I think it's good to be willing to give things a shot, even if it's something you don't normally enjoy. Of course, I'm not saying go buy some 60 dollar game from a genre you don't normally like. I'm just saying be willing to try out a demo of it, or check it out through PS+, or if it pops up real cheap in some sale. You might end up enjoying whatever it is.

I think you have to be of a certain emotional intelligence or maturity (I'll use that criteria rather than AGE) to fully appreciate some games...
I'm really glad I played games like Journey, Braid, Gone Home, The Walking Dead when I did, because I think a lot of the emotional and cerebral components of those games would go straight over my head if I played them when I wasn't as mature/developed/insert word here...

I suspect if I replayed those kinds of games in a few years again, I would discover even more about them and about myself through them.
And in that regard I think games are analog to classical music, paintings and the like. It's not so much developing a taste as it is maturing and developing yourself to the point that some of those mediums resonate with you.

Very well put.

For as long as I can remember, I've always loved video games. I assume that like most people, I may not have appreciated some of the finer details in games when I a child, but...I don't even know how to describe it really. I feel like I just got more out of them compared to a lot of other kids I knew at the time.

I don't think I've ever really hated a genre. There were certainly genres I didn't fully understand when I was smaller, but that never stopped me from trying new things within those genres if I thought they looked cool. Even if games like Journey, Stanley Parable, and that whole "is this a game" genre came out when I was younger, I like to think I still would've have a blast. Again, there's a good possibility I may not have appreciated them to the fullest, but I can't see myself just refusing to play those types of games.

Not entirely sure what you mean by that last question, but I would consider something Street Fighter or Guilty Gear or any fighter these days as sophisticated. Not just in the sense that they're hard to pick up and master, but I feel like there's this entirely different layer to fighting games that most people will never be able to truly appreciate. I think it's due in large part to the fact that there hasn't really been a real mainstream, monumental hit in the genre. MMOs had WoW. Shooters had Halo and Call of Duty. MOBAs had LoL and DotA 2. And so on and so forth. I don't feel like fighting games have had that type of success yet that makes the genre, let's say, "manageable" for the masses. Smash Bros kinda sorta feels that gap, but I feel as if the overwhelming vast majority of people don't play that game in anything even remotely resembling a competitive nature. Street Fighter is obviously another popular one, but the amount of people who buy the game compared to the amount of people who stick with it for more than a week and actually get somewhat good is huge.

I learned to appreciate video game for more than a passing hobby by following industry and media figures as well as interacting with the medium's community over the years. I certainly didn't start out thinking of them on a higher level than most non gamers do.

I've been playing games for as long as I remember. But I never really thought about games. I didn't have a strong internet connection for much of my childhood and only really got into the gaming community online at the end of middle school. I hate to get info from G4 and reading game magazines from a stand in Shoppers before the manager told me leave.

Its weird to think that I have to be taught to think about what your playing. I think it was a video (I forget which) that was talking about level design in Half-Life that really got me thinking about games on a intellectual level. There were certain tricks that game designers used that carried to other games and genres like using lighting to guide players where you want to go. I never realised how much goes into making a game and it helps in appreciation a good game more.

If anything my appreciation for them is lessening as my expectations are constantly being set higher and higher, especially by games like The Last of Us. When I've experienced something as good as that it makes it more difficult to appreciate 'lesser' games. Maybe VR will reset my appreciation levels and allow me to enjoy lesser experiences again, but as of right now I just don't think a lot of games are worthy of my time. WHAT A SNOBBY THING TO SAY.

I think that in general most people can enjoy games on some level. I think the whole "acquiring a taste" thing comes into play with specific genres and games. I know that for me personally, RTS games are still something I'm learning to appreciate and understand. I can play a game like Company of Heroes, but I can't say whether its a game I'd enjoy playing without friends around. That said, because I've played a game like Company of Heroes I have a basic understanding of the genre and can at least jump into another RTS with a minimal understanding of what to expect.

On the other end of the spectrum, because I've played so many Adventure games over the years I can play smaller, more intricate games in that genre and appreciate the little things they do that differentiate themselves from other games.

At the same time, it seems patent that we ARE taught to like certain things, since the development of conventions for the virtual environments games depict and the development of the "real life" control mechanisms we use to interact with them occur in tandem.

Dual-analog sticks are a perfect example. It was only after 3-D environments came to consoles that the second stick even seemed sensible. If you recall, the N64 only had one stick and a D-pad, and it was years before the PS added sticks to the controller--was it when the PS1 came around? Now, however, developers construct the 3-D environments we interact with so that dual-analog control will afford a complete experience. I, for one, would not want anything less--the game-world NEEDS to meet the standard of the control mechanism I use to interact with it in order to be GOOD.

Nope.