Why do some games get a pass for jank and others don't?

GamesWhy do some games get a pass for jank and others don’t?When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: GSC Game World)

A smiling man in military fatigues

Recent updatesJankorjanky, loosely defined, is how we sometimes refer to the elements a game when they don’t work quite as intended: an NPC getting stuck in a doorway, a quest marker appearing in the wrong place, a car violently flipping upside-down when you bump into it, and other clunky occurrences that contribute to an “unpolished” feel in a game.)

Recent updates

Jankorjanky, loosely defined, is how we sometimes refer to the elements a game when they don’t work quite as intended: an NPC getting stuck in a doorway, a quest marker appearing in the wrong place, a car violently flipping upside-down when you bump into it, and other clunky occurrences that contribute to an “unpolished” feel in a game.)

When I say “playing” I mostly mean “staring at loading screens.” Between Stalker 2’s endlessly compiling shaders and Flight Sim’s eternally activating packages, I spent most of the week glumly waiting for a progress meter to reach 100%. But that was just the start. Once the games actually loaded, they were janky as hell.Stalker 2 charmingly so, butFlight Sim not as much.

Jank is weird because it causes one of two diametrically opposed reactions in me: it’s either “Haha, love it” or “I demand the party responsible be marched through the street and pelted with rotting vegetables while a stern-looking woman rings a large bell and chants ‘Shame! Shame!'”

Why is jank forgivable, even lovable at times, and why is it infuriating at others? It all boils down to a few variables:

Personal history

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Oblivion man

Open worlds

(Image credit: Hello Games)

No Man’s Sky

Open worlds are complicated and I am extremely forgiving of jank within them. Sandboxes have a lot ofstuff, and that stuff wanders around and bumps into other stuff. Wildlife, monsters, and people have to travel across complex terrain, interact with each other, and navigate around or over or through objects and obstacles. That’s tricky business, especially when the player shows up and adds (or maybe removes) more objects and obstacles, or even changes the terrain.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Progress

(Image credit: Microsoft)

A plane leaning on its nose in a field while someone looks at it

When jank starts really irritating me it’s usually because it’s costing me time. I can’t complete a mission in Stalker 2 because the final baddie is stuck behind a wall and can’t be killed? That sucks, because first I have to spend time and effort trying to kill him through a wall, and eventually I’ll have to give up and restart the mission, sometimes from the very beginning. Likewise, if I can’t finish a 45-minute flight because I can’t reach the airplane’s parking space because it’sunder a damn building, that’s not so cute.

But there is a flipside to jank killing time: jank saving time. In another Stalker mission a group of enemies never perceived me as a threat—even after I began shooting them in their dumb faces. I performed one of the worst landings of my life in Flight Sim, but it jankily awarded me an S-tier rating even though I wound up parked in the bushes. Thanks, jank! I almost forgive you for wasting an hour of my time earlier.

Expectations

(Image credit: GSC Game World)

A man in a gasmask warming hands over a fire

Every game is an early access game now. Games are gonna launch with bugs and glitches and problems and jank, and then there will be post-launch patches and bug-fixes and a smoothing out of some of the bumps. How many games have we seen this year that launched into immediate “Mixed” reviews rating on Steam due to jank and leveled out to “Positive” a few days or weeks later? Plenty.

So if you’re going to play a game the second it launches, it helps to expect a certain amount of jank. I know, that kinda sucks, and not just for players but for hard-working developers who may not have the time or resources they need to deliver the game in the condition they’d hoped. But it’s the reality of things. I even had to take a break from my beloved Stalker 2 after one-too-many progress halting bugs that first week. Play a game on day one and you’ve gotta expect some jank, and if you don’t half-heartedly subscribe to this new reality then I think the only solution might be to stop playing games on day one.

Humor

(Image credit: CD Projekt)

Cyberpunk man holding a hot dog

I’ll forgive just about anything if it makes me laugh. Cyberpunk 2077 was a hot mess at launch but dang, was it ever funny. Right outside V’s apartment building there was a turn in the road that not a single car or truck could make without smashing directly into the concrete barrier at the curb. I stood there for ages watching NPCs shatter their windshields, gouge furrows in their doors, lose their front and rear bumpers, and sometimes completely destroy their vehicles.

Sometimes jank is so good, we just can’t live without it.

This bit of jank lasted formonths. There’d be patches and updates and bugfixes, and every time I installed a new patch and booted up the game I’d run down to that spot on the corner and see if NPCs were still wrecking their cars against that barricade. And the day it was finally fixed… I was honestly a little bit sad. I sometimes wish unintentionally funny jank would never get patched. I’m not alone in this: when Bethesda patched out those weird moving mannequins from Skyrim, a modder immediatelymodded them back in. Sometimes jank is so good, we just can’t live without it.

Of course, I may be overthinking all this. Maybe the reason we forgive jank is simple: we love games, even when they’re flawed. If we only loved things that were perfect, we’d never love anything at all.

More about games

Dead By Daylight: The Junji Ito Collection

Image for Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes a run at improving parkour, as Ubisoft strives to make the system less ‘like a gas pedal’

Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes a run at improving parkour, as Ubisoft strives to make the system less ‘like a gas pedal’

LatestMy Summer Car, the absurdly detailed Finnish life sim about vehicle maintenance and drinking in your underpants, smashes into 1.0 after nearly a decade in Steam early accessSee more latest►

Latest

My Summer Car, the absurdly detailed Finnish life sim about vehicle maintenance and drinking in your underpants, smashes into 1.0 after nearly a decade in Steam early access

The protagonist of My Summer Car smoking a cigarette outside while a truck in the background pumps out a septic tank.

My Summer Car, the absurdly detailed Finnish life sim about vehicle maintenance and drinking in your underpants, smashes into 1.0 after nearly a decade in Steam early access

See more latest►

Most Popular

The Witcher 3’s now 2-year-old bonus quest is our first taste of the ‘vibe’ CD Projekt is going for in The Witcher 4

2024 was the year updates for old games beat out all the new ones for me

Train like you game with this adventure-inspired workout

‘It’s simply impossible to make a difficulty level that’s just right for all players’: How Final Fantasy 14’s lead battle designer has been playing a precarious balancing game for Dawntrail’s dungeons and raids

Please join me in getting super excited for all the cool looking survival games coming in 2025 (and beyond)

Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: ‘sweaty’ teamplay vs. casual fun

Call of Duty’s $28 Squid Game skins are the perfect crossover for our capitalist dystopia, and Activision knows exactly what it’s doing

These are the 14 biggest upcoming RPGs of 2025—get ready for another amazing year for the genre

Five new Steam games you probably missed (January 6, 2025)

I’ve seen enough: No more forcing singleplayer studios to make mediocre live service games

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Personal history#

Open worlds#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Progress#

Expectations#

Humor#