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[bucket]

Find a boxed version of some Japanese watersports VN on eBay.

[Graknorke]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/45100/

This is my go-to gag gift on Steam. It is exactly what it looks like.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/45100/discussions/0/616189106424649958/

Gratuitous horse sex and DLC?
That... probably wins.

[Arbinire]

while I admit that a bit of something else carried over to my post, the thing of it is, any of these suggestions are gag suggestions.

Case in point.  The following wouldn't necessarily be considered a gag gift:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

but when given to this guy, it's a gag gift:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

While some of you love Stanley Parable and the like, some of us find them insulting.  This is how it is with any artistic expression.  Just because you disagree with it doesn't mean someone else wouldn't perceive it to be a gag gift.  Those rushing to defend these particular games(not in these forums specifically) are also usually the first to bash on games like Hatred or Leisure Suit Larry for their misogyny or "edgy" themes.  But these games are too art and are an expression of someone's emotions, whether that emotion is true misogyny or tongue-in-cheek social commentary.

People hate on things I like all the time, and you know what, I really don't care.  Alice in Chains is my favorite band, and I hear about how they aren't a real metal band, or a real grunge band, or how grunge isn't a real thing, or how it was a real thing.  Dwarf Fortress, one of my favorite games ever, yet I hear constantly from pretty much all of my friends I talk to regularly how horrible the graphics are, or the UI is, or how much better it'd do with a team/in the hands of the company.  It doesn't really bother me because I enjoy them.

I posted those 3 in particular though because the common argument for people who like them is "They aren't really games per se....they're art".  And I'd bet a bottle of wine that there is someone out there who genuinely loves Jesus Simulator.

[miauw62]

Tbh, that horse simulator looks well-made and is probably great for kids.

[Sappho]

Here's the difference:

"I don't like this game. I think it's a terrible game and I don't enjoy it and I don't understand why anyone would." That's a statement of opinion. I have no problem with that.

"If someone likes this game they deserve to be mocked." Or, in your exact words:

And if he does like them, you can call him a pretiontious hipster bullshit social justice warrior

That's what I have a problem with. Any game can be a "gag gift" if it's given to someone who is guaranteed not to like it. Of course it could. But what you said was that anyone who likes these games should be insulted. That is what's not okay.

When we say a particular game, Bad Rats being the obvious example, is a "gag gift," we mean that almost everyone who plays it thinks it's terrible. That does NOT mean that if someone likes it, we would mock them. If someone likes Bad Rats, good for them. They should enjoy it. Most of us wouldn't understand why, but we don't have to.

If people are mocking you because of games you like, or your taste in music, then they're just as wrong as you are to say that if someone likes the games you listed, they should be ridiculed. Here is the distinction I was trying to make: Bad Rats and most of the other games listed here are listed because most people don't like them. That's it. They're not listed here because we think anyone who likes them is an idiot. The Stanley Parable, Dear Esther, and the like are not suitable suggestions as "gag gifts" because they are enjoyed by a large proportion of the people who play them. They are unsuitable as "gag gift" suggestions because there is quite a good chance that the person receiving them will consider them genuine, thoughtful gifts rather than gags. To say "well if they like it then you should insult them" is just a terrible thing to say.

[Arbinire]

Here's the difference:

"I don't like this game. I think it's a terrible game and I don't enjoy it and I don't understand why anyone would." That's a statement of opinion. I have no problem with that.

"If someone likes this game they deserve to be mocked." Or, in your exact words:

And if he does like them, you can call him a pretiontious hipster bullshit social justice warrior

That's what I have a problem with. Any game can be a "gag gift" if it's given to someone who is guaranteed not to like it. Of course it could. But what you said was that anyone who likes these games should be insulted. That is what's not okay.

When we say a particular game, Bad Rats being the obvious example, is a "gag gift," we mean that almost everyone who plays it thinks it's terrible. That does NOT mean that if someone likes it, we would mock them. If someone likes Bad Rats, good for them. They should enjoy it. Most of us wouldn't understand why, but we don't have to.

If people are mocking you because of games you like, or your taste in music, then they're just as wrong as you are to say that if someone likes the games you listed, they should be ridiculed. Here is the distinction I was trying to make: Bad Rats and most of the other games listed here are listed because most people don't like them. That's it. They're not listed here because we think anyone who likes them is an idiot. The Stanley Parable, Dear Esther, and the like are not suitable suggestions as "gag gifts" because they are enjoyed by a large proportion of the people who play them. They are unsuitable as "gag gift" suggestions because there is quite a good chance that the person receiving them will consider them genuine, thoughtful gifts rather than gags. To say "well if they like it then you should insult them" is just a terrible thing to say.

while I admit that a bit of something else carried over to my post,

[lijacote]

I don't think this thread needs anyone shitting on social justice. Or this forum. Or the Internet.

[Graknorke]

Tbh, that horse simulator looks well-made and is probably great for kids.

But it's got the degree of DLC you'd expect in a F2P game. Also horse sex for kiddies.

[Rolan7]

Tbh, that horse simulator looks well-made and is probably great for kids.

It did seem interesting, but was disappointing.  The training events are very repetitive arrow-clicking affairs as shown in the video.  And when they brag that you can listen to the race announcer's exciting commentary?  Yeah, that's all the race is - a series of commentary textboxes until it's over.

The simplistic and repetitive gameplay might work for some kids, though, it's true.

As for gag-gifts...  You can't send these through Steam unfortunately, but there's always the Gamemaker games catalog:
http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/

There are a ton of decent games there, and a few actually good ones, but there are also countless hilariously bad and barely playable ones.  Lowtax Kyanka's "Gaming Garbage" exhibit on Youtube is a good place to look.

I might just burn a bunch of these onto CDs, along with some decent abandonware like Sim Earth and Sim Ant, to give to my young cousins.

[Virtz]

The Stanley Parable, Dear Esther, and the like are not suitable suggestions as "gag gifts" because they are enjoyed by a large proportion of the people who play them.

I'd say that's only because nobody in their right mind would buy them otherwise. Like you only have to play one of these "artsy" games before you get the general idea, you'll just avoid them afterwards if you don't like them. And pretty much nobody I know likes these sorts of games, so it'd work as a gag gift for my friends.

And really, you need thicker skin. Somebody somewhere really hates something you really like, and you shouldn't care.

[E. Albright]

It's not about "needing thicker skin". It's about maintaining a certain tone on the forums. I'm frankly pleased that we have the tone Sappho is striving to maintain rather than the tone I see on many forums.

[Bouchart]

Street Cleaning Simulator

[Lukewarm]

Take a look at their PC's stats, then get them something good looking that they'll never be able to run, at least not tolerably.

[HooliganintheFort]

Infestation: Survivor Stories.

[Ivefan]

Street Cleaning Simulator

Or Space station cleaning simulator
http://store.steampowered.com/app/246900/