Pet Peeves of Gaming or DAMN YOU GAME DEVS! - Page 2

mauve · 10-23-2012, 07:35 PM

Plot elements that go absolutely nowhere. The story will set up a character or a weapon/object to make you expect some kind of grand revelation in the plot, and then when you work your ass off trying to get to the point where the "great secret" should be revealed, it turns out to just be just underwhelmingly boring crap. ("What's that? A member of your party has some sort of connection to the main villain but doesn't want to talk about it? This theme repeats itself several times across the plot? Oh man, there must be some seriously heavy plot stuff there.....wait, wait, no, he just apparently met the villain once and kinda dislikes him cuz he's evil. No major conflict, no moral quandaries, no reason to care? No? Okay. That's cool. I'll just go back to not giving a damn about any of my party now.")

Puzzles or extra missions that need you to use abilities or controls that are NEVER EXPLAINED OR UTILIZED ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE GAME. I'm looking at you, Riddler Trophies in Batman: Arkham City. (What? I never told you that zooming in on individual explosive gels makes it so you can set them off one at a time instead of all at once like every other time in the game? Coulda sworn I did...might've been for like ten seconds while you were too busy ignoring the special combo instructions that never leave your HUD until you do it correctly sixty times. Oh well.)

Random logic puzzles that show up suddenly in games that don't seem to need them. You're running from zombies/demons/monsters/armed thugs? Welp, you're gonna have to stop to solve this Rubix cube/make a pattern out of matchsticks/ answer this random npc's stupid riddle/"hack" this "security console" with this convenient GUI program that looks like an 8-bit target shooting game before you can get through this door! Not to say the occasional puzzle is a bad thing, but if it doesn't fit the tone or style of the game, or if there are too many, it bothers me.

Toast · 10-23-2012, 08:03 PM

Gear appearance and stats that are tied together, especially in ways that don't allow for customization.

Grind.

An overemphasis/reliance on progression. Be it character progression or unlocks of cosmetic customization. I don't want to reach the peak of my character's power (or their looks for that matter) five minutes before the game ends. I want to reach that point with more than half of the story to go, so that my own skill plays as large a role as my build/gear/etc.

Poor ai. Harder difficulty levels that are supposedly more challenging but end up just being more tedious because the enemies' stats are boosted through the roof.

Prequels. Although this applies more to movies/books than games.

Aerozord · 10-24-2012, 04:14 PM

Acheivements/challenges/whatever based around failing something. Should never get a reward for losing 5 times in a row or being killed by a particular enemy

Grandmaster_Skweeb · 10-24-2012, 04:35 PM

Hand holding. If a player makes a poor choice/gamble let them live with the consequences. Chief irritation is excessive 'waypoints' and their ilk. I can understand not wanting to have to retrace steps after a while, but there's a defined lack of permanence (for lack of a better term).

That's why i like xcom so much. Any decision financially, tactically, or whatever carries an inherent risk of great gains or setbacks of varying degree. I want my choice to be my choice and live with it. If i lose half my team to a gambit i dont want to be nannied with 'aww well, here's your squad back and a cookie achievement for trying. Go ahead and try it again as many times as you want until you get the result we want you to have'

Taking away the weight of choice and consequences with too many safety nets and fallbacks diminishes the very point of even offering choices to begin with. That's what gets my goat.

Amake · 10-24-2012, 05:39 PM

Basically, Blizzard's entire design philosophy of bending over backwards to ensure no player experiences any momentary discomfort whatsoever. Every game of theirs I've tried in the last three or four years have unfolded a lot like that disease that makes you orgasm over 300 times a day. Sounds exciting at first, but it's exhausting, it kills brain cells and there's a challenge that should be there somewhere that just isn't, so you feel like you don't earn anything the game gives you.

**Revising Ocelot** · 10-24-2012, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerozord

Acheivements/challenges/whatever based around failing something. Should never get a reward for losing 5 times in a row or being killed by a particular enemy

Come on, you can hardly dislike this.

Aerozord · 10-24-2012, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revolving Ocelot

Come on, you can hardly dislike this.

funny as it is, that actually hits another peeve which I mentioned earlier. Sometimes Valve has this annoying habit of literally handing you solutions. Its a puzzle game DONT TELL ME THE SOLUTION

EVILNess · 10-25-2012, 08:00 AM

About the only thing that gets on my nerves is overly long tutorials or holding major features of a game back until you are a dozen hours in.

I think the biggest offender in recent memory was FF12.

A Zarkin' Frood · 10-25-2012, 09:54 AM

I hate when games try to excuse lackluster gameplay with tons of scripted parts and a maybe a good story. Those will be games I'd rather not buy ever. And instead watch an LP of.

Speaking of. I loathe"cinematic" games that choose camera angles for style rather than gameplay and try to be a shitty summer blockbuster.

Oh and I also hate whenever a game lets you push a button to perform some super flashy move or starts a little cutscene (that will break first person view if it's a first person game) that shows you doing cool shit. Fuck that.

Oh, I absolutely hate when first person games regularly go to third person for various reasons. Fuck. That. Shit.

Aerozord · 10-25-2012, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A Zarkin' Frood

Oh and I also hate whenever a game lets you push a button to perform some super flashy move or starts a little cutscene (that will break first person view if it's a first person game) that shows you doing cool shit. Fuck that.

unless it was Fallout 3/New Vegas VATS kills. since worst case you can just shut them off.

10-23-2012, 07:35 PM	#11
mauve So Dreamy Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Someplace magical Posts: 6,863	Plot elements that go absolutely nowhere. The story will set up a character or a weapon/object to make you expect some kind of grand revelation in the plot, and then when you work your ass off trying to get to the point where the "great secret" should be revealed, it turns out to just be just underwhelmingly boring crap. ("What's that? A member of your party has some sort of connection to the main villain but doesn't want to talk about it? This theme repeats itself several times across the plot? Oh man, there must be some seriously heavy plot stuff there.....wait, wait, no, he just apparently met the villain once and kinda dislikes him cuz he's evil. No major conflict, no moral quandaries, no reason to care? No? Okay. That's cool. I'll just go back to not giving a damn about any of my party now.") Puzzles or extra missions that need you to use abilities or controls that are NEVER EXPLAINED OR UTILIZED ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE GAME. I'm looking at you, Riddler Trophies in Batman: Arkham City. (What? I never told you that zooming in on individual explosive gels makes it so you can set them off one at a time instead of all at once like every other time in the game? Coulda sworn I did...might've been for like ten seconds while you were too busy ignoring the special combo instructions that never leave your HUD until you do it correctly sixty times. Oh well.) Random logic puzzles that show up suddenly in games that don't seem to need them. You're running from zombies/demons/monsters/armed thugs? Welp, you're gonna have to stop to solve this Rubix cube/make a pattern out of matchsticks/ answer this random npc's stupid riddle/"hack" this "security console" with this convenient GUI program that looks like an 8-bit target shooting game before you can get through this door! Not to say the occasional puzzle is a bad thing, but if it doesn't fit the tone or style of the game, or if there are too many, it bothers me. __________________ Yoo Hoo!

10-23-2012, 08:03 PM	#12
Toast Existential Toast Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Georgia Posts: 440	Gear appearance and stats that are tied together, especially in ways that don't allow for customization. Grind. An overemphasis/reliance on progression. Be it character progression or unlocks of cosmetic customization. I don't want to reach the peak of my character's power (or their looks for that matter) five minutes before the game ends. I want to reach that point with more than half of the story to go, so that my own skill plays as large a role as my build/gear/etc. Poor ai. Harder difficulty levels that are supposedly more challenging but end up just being more tedious because the enemies' stats are boosted through the roof. Prequels. Although this applies more to movies/books than games. __________________ “How dare you! How dare you stand there acting like your brand of suffering is worse than anybody else’s. Well, I guess that’s the only way you can justify treating the rest of us like dirt.” ~ Major Margaret Houlihan (Mash) “If we’re going to be damned, let’s be damned for what we really are.” ~ Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

10-24-2012, 04:14 PM	#13
Aerozord So we are clear Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Former murder capital of the world Posts: 13,824	Acheivements/challenges/whatever based around failing something. Should never get a reward for losing 5 times in a row or being killed by a particular enemy __________________ "don't hate me for being a heterosexual white guy disparaging slacktivism, hate me for all those murders I've done."

10-24-2012, 04:35 PM	#14
Grandmaster_Skweeb Doesn't care anymore Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 2,429	Hand holding. If a player makes a poor choice/gamble let them live with the consequences. Chief irritation is excessive 'waypoints' and their ilk. I can understand not wanting to have to retrace steps after a while, but there's a defined lack of permanence (for lack of a better term). That's why i like xcom so much. Any decision financially, tactically, or whatever carries an inherent risk of great gains or setbacks of varying degree. I want my choice to be my choice and live with it. If i lose half my team to a gambit i dont want to be nannied with 'aww well, here's your squad back and a cookie achievement for trying. Go ahead and try it again as many times as you want until you get the result we want you to have' Taking away the weight of choice and consequences with too many safety nets and fallbacks diminishes the very point of even offering choices to begin with. That's what gets my goat. Last edited by Grandmaster_Skweeb; 10-24-2012 at 04:37 PM.

10-24-2012, 05:39 PM	#15
Amake Keeper of the new Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: A place without judgment Posts: 4,506	Basically, Blizzard's entire design philosophy of bending over backwards to ensure no player experiences any momentary discomfort whatsoever. Every game of theirs I've tried in the last three or four years have unfolded a lot like that disease that makes you orgasm over 300 times a day. Sounds exciting at first, but it's exhausting, it kills brain cells and there's a challenge that should be there somewhere that just isn't, so you feel like you don't earn anything the game gives you. __________________ Hope insistent, trust implicit, love inherent, life immersed

10-25-2012, 09:54 AM	#19
A Zarkin' Frood formerly known as Prince. Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Right here, with you >:) Posts: 2,396	I hate when games try to excuse lackluster gameplay with tons of scripted parts and a maybe a good story. Those will be games I'd rather not buy ever. And instead watch an LP of. Speaking of. I loathe"cinematic" games that choose camera angles for style rather than gameplay and try to be a shitty summer blockbuster. Oh and I also hate whenever a game lets you push a button to perform some super flashy move or starts a little cutscene (that will break first person view if it's a first person game) that shows you doing cool shit. Fuck that. Oh, I absolutely hate when first person games regularly go to third person for various reasons. Fuck. That. Shit. __________________ >:( C-: Last edited by A Zarkin' Frood; 10-25-2012 at 09:57 AM.