Pet Peeves of Gaming or DAMN YOU GAME DEVS!

Kyanbu The Legend · 10-23-2012, 04:03 PM

So I thought this would be a pretty neat thing to discuss. And I'm sure we can learn quite a bit from it too.

What are your gaming pet pevees?

What are the things you really hate to deal with in game? The design choices devs make that ticks you off or is otherwise hard to deal with in-game?

For me it's bottomless pits. In some cases they're fine but I can't really stand when they are spammed all over the place, in areas where they really don't belong. Sonic Advance 2 and 3, Sonic Rush (Rush Adventure though not as much as part 1), Sonic Unleashed, and Sonic Adventure 2 are pretty big offenders of this. Largely due to these titles being focused on speed, something that does not mix well with surprise bottomless pits.

Ryong · 10-23-2012, 04:12 PM

Sonic Advance's game design became bottomless pit spam after a while, yeah, always ticked me off.

I always get annoyed at any platforming game that suddenly decides that doing 20 tiny jumps to climb some stairs is a good idea.

I'm also not a fan of gigantic combos in fighting games simply because if you screw up an attack and the other dude starts comboing you you have nothing you can do.

phil_ · 10-23-2012, 04:55 PM

I'm not a big fan of games where equipment's main function is to make the numbers bigger, or where there are so many different numbers that making the numbers bigger might be a bad plan because it makes other numbers not as much bigger, or where they hide the numbers but knowing the numbers are absolutely necessary for advancing through the game.

In short, I dress my video dollies in what looks good and hope for the best. I know it's me, not the game, and hope I can be forgiven for not giving Lunar more of a chance.

Edit: While Lunar's on my mind, I don't care for "girl as reward" in games. I know Mario did it, but Mario is its own reward.

RobinStarwing · 10-23-2012, 05:34 PM

Seemingly normal-looking everyday chests that you can't open or you will not get a weapon in a game and you need a guide to know WHICH FUCKING ONES!!!!!!!!!! YEAH I AM TALKING TO YOU SQUEENIX!!!!! ALSO GIVING US A WHINY-ASS EMO BITCH WITH A LAUGH ONLY BEAT IN ANNOYANCE BY THE DUCKHUNT DOG!!!

In other words, hard to get powerful weapons without at least something noticeable.

And badly-designed character personalities. (Seriously, Yuna in both X and X-2 was more fun.)

Jagos · 10-23-2012, 06:27 PM

I find it funny that more people liked Tidus as a main but if you so much as show that Cloud grew before Square retconned him everyone gets hit by the nostalgia bug and forgets he got better by the end.

My main pet peeve is the one where I jump through a thousand and one hoops for a prize...

Then find something better right around the corner...
That's usually when you know the devs just said "yeah screw this, they already paid us."

@#%&!

Kyanbu The Legend · 10-23-2012, 06:48 PM

Jagos's is right. Cloud gets over himself as soon as you get him back early in FF7 Disc2.

Unfortunately Advent Children happened and old Cloud's never been the same since. With KH1 and 2 making it oh so much worse for the poor guy's rep.

Which leads to my next pet pevee. I really hate it when devs decide to put the fan's opinions over common sense. Especially when it's trying to catter to fan boys and girls. Another Sonic example, Shadow the hedgehog while an okay game at best, only happened because Sega asked if the fans wanted it and they said yes. Heroes happened because fans wanted good old light hearted Sonic back.

And an FF example would be FF7's many games and it's characters sometimes getting flanderized a bit here and there (like Cloud going from developed character back to emo in Dissidia FF to an extent, KH1, and KH2).

Listening to your fans is a good thing but you should still know a bad idea when you see one. Not all of the fans are right you know.

RobinStarwing · 10-23-2012, 07:10 PM

How about stupid AI? I don't mind when it's the enemy that shows it but Harvesters in Command and Conquer have this HUGE habit of going into the enemy base when it is shortest way back to the Refinery. Also, FF XII Revenant Wings comes to mind.

Also, I hate Tidus and Cloud equally but my major FF Char-rage is on the Mommy Issues Small-Dicked Big Sword carrying-freak Sephiroth. Talk about what they did to him! O_O

Oh and yeah...game economies and escort missions.

Arcanum · 10-23-2012, 07:12 PM

Grinding is the worst thing in existence. MMOs, JRPGs, whatever. I should be the appropriate level for the next set of content just by playing and enjoying the game, not by killing monsters that have nothing to do with anything, or getting 10 orc bones for farmer McFuckwit who already has 30,000,000 orc bones lying around his house thanks to previous adventurers.

I also hate the FF games (and similar JRPGs) because in addition to the grind they're all like "hey we got this awesome story, but if you try and find out what happens next before doing all these side quests and killing some random monsters for good measure, you're going to get fuuuucked." So in other words, I don't like being baited by plot just to be stonewalled by game mechanics.

Bells · 10-23-2012, 07:14 PM

The thing i think it hits most people about that is that we are used to see a heroe's journey to the end. Not AFTER the end.

That goes for movies, books and games... we see characters grow and develop, and by the end of their journey (if it's a good story) the character has changed and worked on his flaws and the flaws of the world that were his obstacles...

But most of the time, we don't see what happens AFTER that.

Taking Cloud as an example, i wouldn't consider Kingdom Hearts... that can be consider an alternate reality. Nor would i consider Dissidia, cause that one has a whole time-space continuum reality going on... so you can't really precise "what" Cloud is in there...

On the other hand, we have Advent Children, and i think it's pretty fair to say that the movie does really nothing to add to any of the characters... it's just Enjoyable fan babble, really.

The same goes for Link... i don't know what happens to the Hero of time after his weekend of adventures and everything he has seen... i don't know what happens to Samus. I know Mario goes Go Karting sometimes between adventures... but that's pretty much it.

As for game pet peeves, the first one that pops to mind is Fake Freedom. Skyrim is a HUGE offender in this... that's when the game teases you constantly with freedom and choices, but once you look a bit beyond the surface, you see it's all smoke and mirrors. Mass Effect does that also... less in 2, but a lot in 1 and 3.

Aerozord · 10-23-2012, 07:19 PM

No one has mentioned escort missions? I can count all the good examples of good escort missions on one hand. The bad ones I have trouble counting thanks to blocking those things from memory.

Also another I was talking about just earlier

Ok game devs, when you are playtesting and no one can figure out what to do, that does not mean you need to give insultingly obvious indicators to us. It means you designed that part poorly and need to fix it. I dont need to be told what the freakin left analog stick does, and I certainly dont need a forced tutorial of it WHERE I HAVE TO DEMONSTRATE KNOWING HOW TO MOVE!!!!!!

10-23-2012, 04:03 PM	#1
Kyanbu The Legend Local Rookie Indie Dev Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: New Jersey Posts: 5,497	Pet Peeves of Gaming or DAMN YOU GAME DEVS! So I thought this would be a pretty neat thing to discuss. And I'm sure we can learn quite a bit from it too. What are your gaming pet pevees? What are the things you really hate to deal with in game? The design choices devs make that ticks you off or is otherwise hard to deal with in-game? For me it's bottomless pits. In some cases they're fine but I can't really stand when they are spammed all over the place, in areas where they really don't belong. Sonic Advance 2 and 3, Sonic Rush (Rush Adventure though not as much as part 1), Sonic Unleashed, and Sonic Adventure 2 are pretty big offenders of this. Largely due to these titles being focused on speed, something that does not mix well with surprise bottomless pits. __________________

10-23-2012, 04:55 PM	#3
phil_ Just sleeping Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: At home, probably in bed. Posts: 6,482	I'm not a big fan of games where equipment's main function is to make the numbers bigger, or where there are so many different numbers that making the numbers bigger might be a bad plan because it makes other numbers not as much bigger, or where they hide the numbers but knowing the numbers are absolutely necessary for advancing through the game. In short, I dress my video dollies in what looks good and hope for the best. I know it's me, not the game, and hope I can be forgiven for not giving Lunar more of a chance. Edit: While Lunar's on my mind, I don't care for "girl as reward" in games. I know Mario did it, but Mario is its own reward. __________________ Be T-Rexcellent to each other, tako. Last edited by phil_; 10-23-2012 at 04:58 PM.

10-23-2012, 05:34 PM	#4
RobinStarwing C.M.B.A.S.O.B Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Everywhere until you look at me. Posts: 737	Seemingly normal-looking everyday chests that you can't open or you will not get a weapon in a game and you need a guide to know WHICH FUCKING ONES!!!!!!!!!! YEAH I AM TALKING TO YOU SQUEENIX!!!!! ALSO GIVING US A WHINY-ASS EMO BITCH WITH A LAUGH ONLY BEAT IN ANNOYANCE BY THE DUCKHUNT DOG!!! In other words, hard to get powerful weapons without at least something noticeable. And badly-designed character personalities. (Seriously, Yuna in both X and X-2 was more fun.) __________________ *NPF's resident Crazy Magnificent Bastard Ass Son Of A Bitch (CMBASOB)* Accept No Substitutes Also known as "The Least Interesting Man in The World" according to multiple surveys

10-23-2012, 06:27 PM	#5
Jagos FRONT KICK OF DOOM! Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Howdy pardner... Posts: 6,399	I find it funny that more people liked Tidus as a main but if you so much as show that Cloud grew before Square retconned him everyone gets hit by the nostalgia bug and forgets he got better by the end. My main pet peeve is the one where I jump through a thousand and one hoops for a prize... Then find something better right around the corner... That's usually when you know the devs just said "yeah screw this, they already paid us." @#%&! __________________ Copyright musings World ramblings Scifi stories

10-23-2012, 06:48 PM	#6
Kyanbu The Legend Local Rookie Indie Dev Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: New Jersey Posts: 5,497	Jagos's is right. Cloud gets over himself as soon as you get him back early in FF7 Disc2. Unfortunately Advent Children happened and old Cloud's never been the same since. With KH1 and 2 making it oh so much worse for the poor guy's rep. Which leads to my next pet pevee. I really hate it when devs decide to put the fan's opinions over common sense. Especially when it's trying to catter to fan boys and girls. Another Sonic example, Shadow the hedgehog while an okay game at best, only happened because Sega asked if the fans wanted it and they said yes. Heroes happened because fans wanted good old light hearted Sonic back. And an FF example would be FF7's many games and it's characters sometimes getting flanderized a bit here and there (like Cloud going from developed character back to emo in Dissidia FF to an extent, KH1, and KH2). Listening to your fans is a good thing but you should still know a bad idea when you see one. Not all of the fans are right you know. __________________ Last edited by Kyanbu The Legend; 10-23-2012 at 06:51 PM.

10-23-2012, 04:12 PM	#2
Ryong Professional Threadkiller Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Brazil Posts: 3,798	Sonic Advance's game design became bottomless pit spam after a while, yeah, always ticked me off. I always get annoyed at any platforming game that suddenly decides that doing 20 tiny jumps to climb some stairs is a good idea. I'm also not a fan of gigantic combos in fighting games simply because if you screw up an attack and the other dude starts comboing you you have nothing you can do.

10-23-2012, 07:10 PM	#7
RobinStarwing C.M.B.A.S.O.B Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Everywhere until you look at me. Posts: 737	How about stupid AI? I don't mind when it's the enemy that shows it but Harvesters in Command and Conquer have this HUGE habit of going into the enemy base when it is shortest way back to the Refinery. Also, FF XII Revenant Wings comes to mind. Also, I hate Tidus and Cloud equally but my major FF Char-rage is on the Mommy Issues Small-Dicked Big Sword carrying-freak Sephiroth. Talk about what they did to him! O_O Oh and yeah...game economies and escort missions. __________________ *NPF's resident Crazy Magnificent Bastard Ass Son Of A Bitch (CMBASOB)* Accept No Substitutes Also known as "The Least Interesting Man in The World" according to multiple surveys

10-23-2012, 07:12 PM	#8
Arcanum Strike the Earth! Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Canada Posts: 3,185	Grinding is the worst thing in existence. MMOs, JRPGs, whatever. I should be the appropriate level for the next set of content just by playing and enjoying the game, not by killing monsters that have nothing to do with anything, or getting 10 orc bones for farmer McFuckwit who already has 30,000,000 orc bones lying around his house thanks to previous adventurers. I also hate the FF games (and similar JRPGs) because in addition to the grind they're all like "hey we got this awesome story, but if you try and find out what happens next before doing all these side quests and killing some random monsters for good measure, you're going to get fuuuucked." So in other words, I don't like being baited by plot just to be stonewalled by game mechanics. __________________ POS Almighty has spoken.

10-23-2012, 07:14 PM	#9
Bells That's so PC of you Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: In a Server-sided Dimension where time is meaningless Posts: 10,490	The thing i think it hits most people about that is that we are used to see a heroe's journey to the end. Not AFTER the end. That goes for movies, books and games... we see characters grow and develop, and by the end of their journey (if it's a good story) the character has changed and worked on his flaws and the flaws of the world that were his obstacles... But most of the time, we don't see what happens AFTER that. Taking Cloud as an example, i wouldn't consider Kingdom Hearts... that can be consider an alternate reality. Nor would i consider Dissidia, cause that one has a whole time-space continuum reality going on... so you can't really precise "what" Cloud is in there... On the other hand, we have Advent Children, and i think it's pretty fair to say that the movie does really nothing to add to any of the characters... it's just Enjoyable fan babble, really. The same goes for Link... i don't know what happens to the Hero of time after his weekend of adventures and everything he has seen... i don't know what happens to Samus. I know Mario goes Go Karting sometimes between adventures... but that's pretty much it. As for game pet peeves, the first one that pops to mind is Fake Freedom. Skyrim is a HUGE offender in this... that's when the game teases you constantly with freedom and choices, but once you look a bit beyond the surface, you see it's all smoke and mirrors. Mass Effect does that also... less in 2, but a lot in 1 and 3. __________________ *BELLS STORE : Clothes! You wear* them! Free US Shipping Subscription System? WTF?! Zazzle Black!**

10-23-2012, 07:19 PM	#10
Aerozord So we are clear Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Former murder capital of the world Posts: 13,824	No one has mentioned escort missions? I can count all the good examples of good escort missions on one hand. The bad ones I have trouble counting thanks to blocking those things from memory. Also another I was talking about just earlier Ok game devs, when you are playtesting and no one can figure out what to do, that does not mean you need to give insultingly obvious indicators to us. It means you designed that part poorly and need to fix it. I dont need to be told what the freakin left analog stick does, and I certainly dont need a forced tutorial of it WHERE I HAVE TO DEMONSTRATE KNOWING HOW TO MOVE!!!!!! __________________ "don't hate me for being a heterosexual white guy disparaging slacktivism, hate me for all those murders I've done."