VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: Warmsignal on May 12, 2014, 02:31:06 pm
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I think opinions vary on this. To me, shovel-ware is basically any game that comes as an afterthought to some other existing property. It's a game that usually has been contracted to some low cost development team who know little about the IP or how to make a decent functioning game. It's usually based off of things like movies, TV, pop culture, or something that really doesn't work as a video game very well. Something that is already guaranteed sales based on how popular the existing product already is. But you still can't be too quick to call a game based on something else as shovel-ware.
I think shovel-ware is something not to be confused with bad games. Yes, shovel often means a bad game, on the rare occasion can even mean a good game. But a game being poorly made is not in and of itself a qualifying criteria to be called shovel-ware. So there's shovel-ware, then there's bad games. So not every game that turns out bad was forced through just to make a dollar, or without better intentions. Not every game that was developed on a small budget was meant to deceive or rip-off consumers.
That's how I view it, anyways.
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This pretty much sums it up. Thank you.
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That seems like a pretty good definition of shovel-ware really. Movie Tie-Ins definitely seem to be the biggest issues with this. Battleship, Expendables, that Amazing Spiderman 2 game more recently, games that very obviously didn't look like they had a lot of real effort put into them and were most likely rushed to market.
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I consider shovelware games that are rushed to market, have little to no quality control, are are made deliberately as a shameless cash grab. Many of these games are released as part of some non gaming business or product advertisement, and are given shallow interactive content, at least just enough to sell a product.
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If that's your definition I would consider all the modern Lego games high-end shovelware. Pumped out because people will buy them based on the IP alone. My favorites are the classic board game and pet ones on mobile systems. Just like the power glove they're: so bad...... Oh and almost everything ever released by Gameloft.
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sports games, movie games, novelty brand games or anything by EA.
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What is IP here? IP means Internet Protocol for me haha.
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What is IP here? IP means Internet Protocol for me haha.
It means Intellectual Property.
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Shovelware to me is basically in the name. A game that is shoveled onto the community. Trash that somehow gets made and printed that really doesnt even belong out there. In the NES era, for example, it was a lot of 3rd party unlicensed crap. In the past few generations, its the multitude of just generic games with no purpose other than to possibly get a sale.
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Oh and almost everything ever released by Gameloft.
Heheheh... This and some of the XSEED games I played. Wild Arms: Alter Code F is just a bad game, in general.
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All those damn Kinect games
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All those damn Kinect games
What surprises me about a lot of those, is how many of them simply don't work. The functionality just isn't there. It works from what I hear for stuff like Dance Central, and some minigame stuff, but overall it's a disaster of a experience in any sort of REAL game. How does anyone look at Steel Battalion and go "Well, this seems like something I can sell for money."
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PlayStation Move games are teetering between shovelware and bad games.
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That seems like a pretty good definition of shovel-ware really. Movie Tie-Ins definitely seem to be the biggest issues with this. Battleship, Expendables, that Amazing Spiderman 2 game more recently, games that very obviously didn't look like they had a lot of real effort put into them and were most likely rushed to market.
Yet some Movie Tie-In titles, actually turned out to be more enjoyable than the movie. Reign of Fire for example.
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I think shovelware applies to very low budget titles of universally agreed upon poor quality that are clearly existing to cash in on uninformed purchasers....