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Generally accepted things in gaming that baffle you

Why do 90% of all JRPGs have only one battle theme? You spend most of the game battling.
Yeah, it gets really annoying having overworld background music constantly being interrupted by the same old music theme that in no way blends or matches the ambiance or atmosphere of your current surroundings. Imagine, walking through a dank, dark cavern with ominous music in the background then... UPBEAT BATTLE THEME! :D

I wonder why JRPG designers haven't put much thought into developing more dynamic music that takes into account of the current overworld and has an appropriate predefined battle track that can seamlessly be played after the overworld track stops. Then it won't seem like you're listening to a different and disjointed track.
 
Blue Geezer said:
walking around houses/towns ransacking, stealing and destroying items and no one ever tells you off!!! infact its promoted as a good thing to do.....

lol especially when you tell off others for stealing in said games. Fucking hypocrites.
 
Okay, okay, okay. Here we go. Rage already building.

Online games with "perks". Just... send them all to hell. Yes, I understand that progression is a good thing, and it's important to dangle the carrot. Perks are great in that regard -- the more you play, the more you get rewarded, right?

Only, this immediately disqualifies me from playing online games.

Uncharted 2 is the perfect example. Every game goes through it's honeymoon multiplayer phase, when everyone's busy learning the controls, mistakes are funny, and if you don't quite know what you're doing you usually have a couple people playing who are also in the same boat. It's a good time! Everyone has fun.

And then, the Divide -- the hardcore players keep playing non-stop, while the casual players start to get left in the dust. Eventually, you find yourself in games filled with really, really good players who have been playing it religiously. And guess what? The more you play, the more powerful you are. As you play, you unlock perks, which means that casual players aren't only unpracticed, they're easier to kill.

What the hell is this? Who decided multiplayer should be totally inaccessible to those who can't devote hours a day to playing? Shouldn't it be exactly the opposite, in order to level the playing field a bit? Getting constantly curbstomped online isn't fun at all, and this system all but ensures that happens.
 
NullPointer said:
And my all time biggest shooter pet peeve. Enemies that can see you through bushes or behind walls. Is it really that hard to keep enemy AI from seeing through bushes? Really?

Crysis has you covered.
 
BIONIC-ARRRMMM!! said:
Mute FPS main characters are somehow more immersive
"It's like he's an extension of my actions!!" lolnerds

Yeah no. The way that some people find silent protagonists more meaningful than speaking ones is because they fill in the holes (or not, just leave it a mistery) of said characters themselves. Gives more room for imagination, gives the feeling of more depth to the character, you name it. Hemingway, bro.
 
Silent main characters. I HATE this more than I can describe. Am I playing the role of a mute bastard who stares off in space all day?

Multiplayer for every game, or asking for it in every game. You have a billion games where you can play deathmatch with your bros all day. Stop asking for it in Mass Effect, Skyrim, Batman, etc etc

The notion that all Nintendo needs to do to fill a gap for core games, wether it's for a new console or just a slow period is release ANOTHER mario/zelda/metroid/smash bros game. When will you people get tired of them?

No pad support on PC. In current times this is becoming much less of a problem but there's still several instances of developers holding out (looking right at you Bioware). There's no excuse for a multiplatform game to not have the option of using a controller, especially when one of the biggest pc only games of the year will have it.
 
Waves and waves of infinitely respawning enemies that are as dumb as nails that wont stop coming until you cross an invisible line.
 
Bunji said:
$15 map packs
Or rather, any DLC with expensive prices for what little they offer, especially on games that was 60 dollars to begin with.

I am sad that MW2's 15 dollar map pack sold 2 million day one on the 360 alone.


EDIT: Wow. What the fuck at the silent protagonist hate.
 
One thing that comes to mind in terms of "things I irrationally hate on principle that don't seem to bother other people" is how prolific pre-ordering still is in an era where supply is never short. I understand that there are pragmatic reasons for doing so as company's sweeten the pot more and more with both real and artificial incentives, but even disregarding the savings and bonuses I can't tell you how many times I've heard of people just embracing it as something that you "just do" without question whenever you're interested in a title. I understand why company's want you to do it, but I don't understand why consumers so willingly embrace some degree of commitment to purchasing a title months, sometimes more than a year out from release.

End curmudgeonly rant.
 
malingenie said:
The Notion, early in gaming and still rampant in a giant fraction of the gaming industry and fanbase that more challenge = better game.

Back in the NES days it seemed to be "the harder it is for you to see all my content the better!".

I never understood that philosophy, but I am emphatic enough to know that some crave their 'nightmare' modes.

Two factors in the NES era: Many games came from the arcade, where the main idea was getting as many quarters out of a player as possible, hence the difficulty.

Games also tended to be short (like under 90 minutes), as they didn't really do saving back then. So, in order to lengthen the game and create value, they ramped up difficulty.

As for me: Retailer-specific pre-order bonuses. They started out as annoying, and they're becoming evil as more and more important stuff is now being hidden. Missions? Weapons? That's ridiculous.
 
Or rather, any DLC with expensive prices for what little they offer, especially on games that was 60 dollars to begin with.

Yeah exactly, map packs just feel like the biggest offender to me.
 
Steve Youngblood said:
One thing that comes to mind in terms of "things I irrationally hate on principle that don't seem to bother other people" is how prolific pre-ordering still is in an era where supply is never short. I understand that there are pragmatic reasons for doing so as company's sweeten the pot more and more with both real and artificial incentives, but even disregarding the savings and bonuses I can't tell you how many times I've heard of people just embracing it as something that you "just do" without question whenever you're interested in a title. I understand why company's want you to do it, but I don't understand why consumers so willingly embrace some degree of commitment to purchasing a title months, sometimes more than a year out from release.

End curmudgeonly rant.
While I agree, there are some titles where it matters. I remember Jackson talking about how high pre-order numbers for Scribblenauts were important for an unproven property, and of course theres the niche stuff like my Atlus DS RPGs that usually have very small shipments.
 
Some developers treat saving and loading as though it isn't part of the game, when it's so painfully clear that it's one of the most important and fundamental decisions a developer needs to make.

Also, closely related: Why don't more developers use a setup that allows for temporary saving anywhere? Much better than standard old quicksaves, and it SHOULD quiet people who whine about that sort of thing.
 
That we should move towards making games incredibly easy and never provide any kind of interesting challenge for the player to overcome, instead we'll just make you look cool (I'm looking at you, Ubisoft).
 
Unopenable, indestructible wallpapered on doors. Impassable grass and slight inclines.

Oh and jump as the only way to get over obstacles higher than 2" high, although this is receding slowly as animation improves.
 
HK-47 said:
Crysis has you covered.
Nice.

OK, one more. My biggest game biz pet peeve: Charging for multiplayer DLC. It splinters the community, splits playlists, and forces all kinds of weirdness into matchmaking systems that *try* or fail to take into account the various combinations of DLC that players might have. so either you can't jump online with friends who haven't bought the maps at all, or you *can*, but the game just kicks you out when loading a new map. Or take the new Firefight map in the latest Reach DLC. I have yet to get one single matchmaking game with that map. Not once.

The way it should work? Charge for single player DLC, and keep the multiplayer maps free. Yeah, FREE. As in all players get the content when going online, and nobody gets split. Either pay for the development of map packs by selling single player content, or stupid avatar t-shirts and socks, or just bite the bullet and write it off as a measure that reinvigorates the community, adds another opportunity for marketing, and keeps the title in gamer's collections rather than being sold back to the game shop.

This whole system of premium map packs is the stupidest, greediest, short-sighted, aggravating, steaming pile of horse shit that has occurred this generation.
 
SalsaShark said:
Yeah no. The way that some people find silent protagonists more meaningful than speaking ones is because they fill in the holes (or not, just leave it a mistery) of said characters themselves. Gives more room for imagination, gives the feeling of more depth to the character, you name it. Hemingway, bro.

So Gordon Freeman has more depth because when Alyx talks to him he just stands like a dummy without as much as nodding in agreement, really?
Yeah, no.
 
Non-skippable cut scenes. I'm sure your story is very nice and all, but I'd rather get back to playing the game.

Majine said:
Splitscreen. Kill it now.
Screw you. The most fun I have had with games and friends have involved splitscreen multiplayer. Shooters that don't support this are less likely to be bought in my circle of friends.
 
Paying money to play p2p online games. 'Hey you guys, pay us money so we can use your bandwidth to run our service'.
 
How about silent protagonists that aren't really silent: NPCs just reacting to you as if you're talking without any idea what you said.

Zelda does this with lots of "Really!? That thing happened? And then what? Wow!"
 
Jrpgs where you have to fight someone to get them to join your party, and during that fight they have like 10,000 HP and a bunch of crazy spells, then they join you and have 250hp and their only spell is a level one fire spell.
 
Willy105 said:
Games over $20.


really? What baffles you about that? There is an enormous cost involved with developing a game. Developers need to recoup that cost because it is a BUSINESS.

The market price is also based on demand. People are willing to pay $60, so the games cost $60. Same reason why they make $150 collectors editions: because people have a high enough demand to buy them.

Learn economics.
 
StuBurns said:
That's the generally accepted opinion I would say, and I find that opinion baffling.

You're going to have specify. Is it something to do with how a HUD is supposed to be quickly and easily legible and as novel as it is to put it all on the suit it actually works against the intended purpose of a HUD despite clearing up the screen for a more immersive and less "gamey" presentation?

You don't really think the idea of an integrated HUD has absolutely no positive qualities, do you?

scar tissue said:
This.
I fucking hate Valve FPS because of this. Don't tell me Portal 2 still has this...

Your priorities are fucked. Valve rulez.
 
PKrockin said:
DLC. Particularly hats in TF2. Why anyone would throw their money away like that is beyond me.
You can still craft hats without paying any money. Unless you're just talking about the promotional ones.
 
scar tissue said:
This.
I fucking hate Valve FPS because of this. Don't tell me Portal 2 still has this...

The issue is still present in P2, but I can't imagine doing the gravity flips/switches with an animated body instead of a floating gun.
 
PKrockin said:
DLC. Particularly hats in TF2. Why anyone would throw their money away like that is beyond me.

TF2 DLC is best DLC. It totally doesnt matter (or is free) and I can make most of them anyways if I wanna spend days refining for worthless cosmetic shit.
 
BIONIC-ARRRMMM!! said:
So Gordon Freeman has more depth because when Alyx talks to him he just stands like a dummy without as much as nodding in agreement, really?
Yeah, no.

SalsaShark said:
gives the feeling of more depth to the character

good job reading
 
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