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[equil]

Paying for DLC that is already on your disc...

 

[Mr_Appleby]

ok i'm late to this thread but..

Why do 90% of all JRPGs have only one battle theme? You spend most of the game battling.

OH FUCK FOR THE LOVE OF ALLCAPS THAT IS HOLY, THIS.

 

[Astery]

Almost? standard pricing of $0.99 app games. How developers maintain a living with that? People are actually whining when it's anything higher, it spoiled people too much imo. A nice little game called Game Dev Story cost like 5 bugs and people are complaining about the price.

"item malls" as the sole business structure of an MMORPG game that people love. I've worked in a company using this structure, encountering designs and excessive unnecessary grinds are made in the game designing process for making people buy stuff in item malls.

A game releases-> day 1 paid DLCs -> alt costumes paid DLC for each character -> A 'super' or 'extra' version of the original game that adds very little as a retail game. And people suck that up.

A game port to every fucking thing and every fucking year. People buy them every fucking single time. I don't get it.

 

[MrHicks]

that first person view is somehow more immersive

all i ever do is picture myself as a magical floating arm with a gun where's my fucking body dammit

third person for life ugh

 

[Branduil]

MMORPGs in which you can't actually accomplish anything tangible besides leveling.

 

[zlatko]

Why are we still using hosting/peer to peer in multiplayer shooters? Better methods exist(dedicated servers), and even better ones could be made, but it seems developers are just too lazy to innovate on their own for net code which either makes or breaks your games online these days.

This rings even more true for fighting games.

 

[jufonuk]

Violence/Gore/Profanity = OK

Nudity/Sex = No way

I dont want to play rapelay etc jsut that, why have to censor it like GTA IV?

now I come across as a sex perv..awoo

 

[VeryGooster]

ok i'm late to this thread but..

OH FUCK FOR THE LOVE OF ALLCAPS THAT IS HOLY, THIS.

I can't really defend that notion because I agree, but I do like those moments in JRPGs where the battle theme DOES change (typically to something darker or more serious in tone) to emphasize the seriousness of the battle story-wise or skill-wise, not necessarily including final boss themes either.

Edit: Since people are mentioning violence, I can't stand it when games are excessively violent but the developer passes it all off as tongue-in-cheek/commentary.

 

[snoopeasystreet]

Allowing the player character to do something in a cutscene that they can't do in game. I don't care how bad ass it is, either let me do it in game or do something else.

 

[madara]

Apologetic cumbersome Resident Evil controls. I constantly feel like I am fighting the controller with those acclaimed games. I have even heard the reason they are like walking through quicksand is intentional to give a B movie feel and add to the suspense, lol.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Company logos that take up a bulk of the start up of the game.

 

[luxarific]

Story > Gameplay IMO

Chief example: Bayonetta. Amazing gameplay. Everything else, including story.....atrocious. Hated the game.

Truth. I think gamers have gotten so used to bad stories they find them acceptable.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Except that gamers have no sense of good storytelling. Simply giving them something big and grand will make them automatically assume that "zomg the game has epic story!"

Case in point: Bayonetta is essentially just that - a parody of action games and their story.

 

[blizzardjesus]

Brown n bloom, theres millions of other colors, use them.

Lead free solder, because of this our systems are breaking. Screw the environment, bring back lead.

 

[danmaku]

Truth. I think gamers have gotten so used to bad stories they find them acceptable.

Or maybe they just don't give a damn. It's an action game ffs, the story is entirely optional and you don't have to suffer through the cutscenes if you don't want to.

 

[Phonomezer]

Yeah that's another one. Xbox live. You want me to pay for peer to peer gaming? Seriously? Nah thanks I'll just buy the PS3 version.

I like XBL, especially cross-game chat - something that is glaringly absent from PSN. I hate using the fucking chat room, it's ridiculous.

Splitscreen. Kill it now.

Crazy talk.

Story > Gameplay IMO

Chief example: Bayonetta. Amazing gameplay. Everything else, including story.....atrocious. Hated the game.

Everything about Bayonetta was fantastic. The story is as campy as the characters and the OTT action - I loved it.

 

[Nab]

I actually really like regenerating health. It's not like it's less immersive than having your dude stand on health kits that are randomly on the floor and he suddenly becomes healed.

They both make no sense, but regenerating health makes the game more fun. So it wins as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Darth Kupi]

That the MGS series had good writing.

Its C-grade anime at best.

 

[Holy Order Sol]

nothing will make Bayonetta a good game.

Its gameplay does. Hell the music is awesome too.

 

[enzo_gt]

That online gameplay is a complete replacement for the superior split-screen experience and thus no effort should be put in at all for split-screen capabilities.

 

[RayStorm]

Non-skipable Tutorials before you actually get to the main menu.
FFS Turn10, I don't need to drive the Audi R8 3 times to set up my multi-screen.

Also NFS: Shift1 did something similar. This just plain sucks.
...as much as non skipable videos (Hello NFS again).

Also not includig LAN in your games when they (Forza 3) actually use the very same LAN for multi-screen.

Having more cars than I'd ever need in racing games just to race on the same 20 race tracks.

The death of arcade racing games. Or make that: Racing games in fantastic (Yet real world like) locations.

The lack of a port of Daytona 2.

Everything SEGA did and continues doing.

Outrage over pay-content already included on the disc/Launch Day DLC. Why should the timing of the release or the method of delivery matter if it's okay to ask for money in order to more content than advertised?

 

[KKRT00]

Shaking and jumping all over the place screen, blur and blood filters after every hit - some games are unplayable [for me] because of it like for example: Call of Juarez. I can understand that in single player [more immersion etc], but in multiplayer it just stupid, especially when it doesnt affect your aiming, just annoy You all the time.

Lack of statistics in modern RPGs and Hack and Slashes, its so hard to make an additional tab with statistics [dps, mana/energy, accuracy, armor etc] and bonuses that affect them? Its even worse when item/skill dont have even described statistics at all - Mass Effect is one of the biggest offender in this area, but other RPGs and hack and slash games arent better [like Torchlight for example].

Matchmaking! Make it optional, but dont ruin multiplayer experience with making it the only options.

As somebody said, lack of customizable controls on consoles - its just fucking stupid. I hate to have running on L3/R3, or grenade on R2 and if You give us customization option make sure to have options for merging keys, like in hold L1 and press X to do something - its really easy.
An in PC games, lack of ability to make secondary bind is also fucking stupid [looking at You Crytek!]

On PC = settings in general. Its really so hard to make additional tab called advanced with things to customize like graphics [motion blur strength, menu transparency, hud size and position, fov, depth of field strength, hdr, particles resolution etc]

And dont let me even start on multiplayer designs. I sometimes believe that most of current multiplayer designers were raised on new games [like fps designers on Halo/cod 4+] games. Really its just getting annoying how stupid decision they make.

 

[LordAlu]

OH FUCK FOR THE LOVE OF ALLCAPS THAT IS HOLY, THIS.

One of the main reasons I loved Grandia, which had four (or maybe five?) different battle themes, including two main ones depending on the disc you were on.

 

[Priestfact]

This would probably be solved with server lists, but in Halo, and I guess Call of Duty, why can't I pick which map and game type I want? Who cares if I just want to play Assault on Hemorrhage all day. Why do I have to roll the dice and hope I get that map and game type every time I play online?

Why can't I find servers of people who play customs? I'm stuck with inviting randoms or my friends who may or may not be online.

 

[Moppet13]

Anyone mention how Final Fantasy Characters have like 10 belts yet?

 

[MNC]

not having an autosaving feature at good locations. Come on, splinter cell, what the fuck.

 

[The Technomancer]

Committing genocide with no consequences or mention.

I hear people on podcast/forums frequently complain about things like gender or race inequality in games and act likes it's gaming biggest moral dilemma (Duke Nukem being the most recent) while completely turning a blind eye to the fact that in many games, your character is committing mass murder (all in self defense of course) on other characters/creatures in the game and rarely do the games acknowledge that (and if they do, it's usually to reward you).

I don't have an issue with it so much (I do wish more games would at least bring it up though) but it just makes the "morality in games" debates I see/hear frequently kinda silly when gamers as a whole look over many other wrong-doings like murder (most games with combat), theft (most RPGs, Sandbox, and Adventure games), and slavery (Pokemon).

Obligatory

 

[JudgeN]

Low percent drop rates and Adhoc only multiplayer

who the hell decided that I should have to fight something 30+ times to get that 2.5% drop rate item, its fucking bullshit. You all know the game i'm talking about.

 

[Kitschkraft]

Silent Protagonists

Reloading moves the perfect amount of ammo from your bag to your gun instead of actually changing magazines

These, also :

- Everyone in the entire universe leaving some sort of post-it note/recorded message/video record of tasks and events in their lives. Bioshock, fallout, dead space, etc etc etc all do this and it's starting to become more irritating. New story mechanic please. And no, don't just copy Valve with all the characters writing and drawing on walls either, although it's interesting to read sometimes, I don't find it any more or less immersive. I understand the reasoning behind it, but it's become very stale.

- Party games of any kind where you can only take like 1 or 2 members instead of the entire crew. A lot of RPG's do this. Mass Effect does this. Fallout NV does it as well (Although at least in NV the characters offer a reason for why they won't come). Once again, I completely understand the designers reasoning behind this. I'm sure that the AI and memory involved makes it difficult (Maybe we really do need that 8 Gigs of ram next gen?), and I'm sure that narrowing the party down makes for easier level design. I'm still tired of it though.

- Stealth. The entire genre is fucking ridiculous. I hate everything about it. Lets start by not arming individuals with an arsenal of weapons and work from there.

 

[elektrixx]

I'm not sure if someone's already mentioned this, but it's getting shot in a cutscene for massive damage when during gameplay the character will take hundreds of bullets only to regenerate health.

We need consistency people!

 

[Roto13]

Oh yeah, DRM. <- Dumbest Idea Ever.

That's not really accepted, though. Nobody likes DRM.

They still made tons of money during those times. Early X-Box and PS2 systems were sold at a loss.

The vast, vast majority of their money during those generations came from the Game Boy. Their home consoles certainly didn't "print money."

 

[Ranger X]

I'm not sure which Tomb Raider game it was, but when Lara couldn't make a certain kind of jump she'd just either shake her head or say "no", like she was talking to herself - thus no immersion breaking.

Now, in a game where the fourth wall doesn't matter, looking at the screen and asking WTF could work ;P

I know what you're saying about immersion, but games cant communicate everything that goes on in the body of your character, and people don't just walk off of cliffsides without some heavy duty internal resistance. I understand giving the player total agency over their character, but all the same that doesnt mean completely ditching the idea of self preservation when it comes to stupid stuff like jumping into spike pits and sauntering into bottomless pits.

I agree with you but about the bolded, I think there ARE ways to communicate this to the player without breaking the immersion. About anything can actually be communicated I think. It's entirely dependant on the game design and it seems many game designers outside don't get it.

/Iambetterthanthemofcourse

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Committing genocide with no consequences or mention.

I hear people on podcast/forums frequently complain about things like gender or race inequality in games and act likes it's gaming biggest moral dilemma (Duke Nukem being the most recent) while completely turning a blind eye to the fact that in many games, your character is committing mass murder (all in self defense of course) on other characters/creatures in the game and rarely do the games acknowledge that (and if they do, it's usually to reward you).

I don't have an issue with it so much (I do wish more games would at least bring it up though) but it just makes the "morality in games" debates I see/hear frequently kinda silly when gamers as a whole look over many other wrong-doings like murder (most games with combat), theft (most RPGs, Sandbox, and Adventure games), and slavery (Pokemon).

Already posted about this:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=27280871&postcount=177

It can be done well(I think Tactics Ogre has handled it pretty nicely), but I doubt most game writers are competent enough to tackle it.

 

[djtiesto]

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.

Resonance of Fate does this and it's awesome... Starts out all subdued and then as soon as you start doing Hero Actions and kicking ass, the music totally goes off. I really agree with you that RPG devs should be looking into more dynamic music structures instead of an upbeat battle theme that has nothing to do with the music playing currently in the environment... but something more interesting than just adding a few tribal drums or weird buzzing noises in the background like they do in a lot of western RPGs.

 

[Misterinenja]

I'm not sure if someone's already mentioned this, but it's getting shot in a cutscene for massive damage when during gameplay the character will take hundreds of bullets only to regenerate health.

We need consistency people!

I have figured out a genious solution for this problem but I'm not gonna tell it since somebody will totally steal it!!!!!

 

[Fimbulvetr]

nothing will make Bayonetta a good game.

Other than the fact that the gameplay is great?

I hate the "read a book" type of response to complaining about a story.

A video game isn't just gameplay, like a book is just reading/story. A game is all elements together, or at least it should be.

It is, but it's kind of weird to see people say story is the most important part of a game when so few games nail down having a good story.

Truth. I think gamers have gotten so used to bad stories they find them acceptable.

Or they just ignore them because if they didn't they couldn't possibly play games anymore.

Anyone mention how Final Fantasy Characters have like 10 belts yet?

That baffles everyone. Next.

 

[poppabk]

Allowing the player character to do something in a cutscene that they can't do in game. I don't care how bad ass it is, either let me do it in game or do something else.

In a similar vein, you tackle thousands of enemies, shooting, punching, kicking, jumping, stabbing your way through swarm after swarm of them then you finally reach your target and switch to cutscene and bam, bad guy knocks you out with a gun butt to the back of the head which you never see coming. Even worse sometimes you end up in a room with 5 of the same henchman you have been taking down by the dozen, but in the cutscene this is overwhelming odds and you surrender or are forced to run.

 

[-viper-]

excessively long campaigns. who the fuck wants to play the same game for 100 hours.

20 hours is my absolute limit.

 

[Mattdaddy]

Characters who can take an untold amount of bullets, stab wounds, bludgeonings, explosions and incinerations during the normal course of gameplay... but get killed (permanently) by one stray bullet during a cutscene.

This has always irked the shit out of me.

 

[matrix-cat]

FPSes without player character animations. The idea that your character is running around day and night with a gun awkwardly held out in front of his face with his arm bent is bad enough, but having doors magically open and buttons press themselves instead of just animating a hand reaching out to do those things really irks me. I also feel that third person view is more 'realistic' than first person, because in real life I can move my head without moving my entire body. I can be aware of my immediate surroundings without physically turning to see them, which is exactly what third person view provides in a video game.

Really short load times that still show you a black screen with "Loading..." at the bottom. Surely you can come up with something less intrusive. Even just a black screen with nothing on it is acceptable for a few seconds.

Shooters with regenerating health where your character still haemorhages blood whenever they get shot. OK, I know nobody is going to be with me on this one, but when I like to come up with my own explanations for certain mechanics in games that are solely gameplay related. For instance, in a game like Uncharted I imagine that Drake never gets shot during gameplay. When you get 'hit' it's really a bullet just barely missing you, and as the screen desaturates you're getting closer and closer to that one bullet that will hit and kill you. Then you take cover and hide for a bit, meaning the enemies lose sight of you and you're out of danger. I can make this work in my mind because Drake doesn't fire out enormous plumes of blood every time he gets hit, there's just an on-screen shot indicator. It makes the one cutscene bullet he takes in Uncharted 2 that much more meaningful. In Gears of War, however, Marcus is like a blood pinata; he's clearly being shot and then just getting better really quickly, and there's no story explanation for it at all and it tears me up.

 

[Xilium]

Already posted about this:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=27280871&postcount=177

It can be done well(I think Tactics Ogre has handled it pretty nicely), but I doubt most game writers are competent enough to tackle it.

Yeah, I kinda figured someone would have brought it up already. I really don't mind it being there as it's just the nature of video games to constantly have you repeating some type of action. So I understand why it happens, but it would be nice to at least have something as simple as the "orphans created" statistic in Alpha Protocol to acknowledge that.

 

[SneakyStephan]

FPSes without player character animations. The idea that your character is running around day and night with a gun awkwardly held out in front of his face with his arm bent is bad enough, but having doors magically open and buttons press themselves instead of just animating a hand reaching out to do those things really irks me. I also feel that third person view is more 'realistic' than first person, because in real life I can move my head without moving my entire body. I can be aware of my immediate surroundings without physically turning to see them, which is exactly what third person view provides in a video game.

Again with the 'realism' argument.
There is a reason why actions like button presses or switching to a grenade are instant in most games and not in others (e.g survival horror games sometimes).
It's called pacing.

I shouldn't have to explain that concept, so I won't.

 

[Murkas]

DLC
Launch DLC
Preorder DLC
Retail Exclusive DLC
Exclusive DLC in a Multiplatform game
DLC charcters in fighting games
Online passes
OTT gore in a game that trys to be serious
The lack of fast paced FPS's where you can carry 10 guns at once and hipfire everyone
Games Journilism
The "I don't want to stare at a man's ass so thats why I pick female" argument. Why the fuck will you be staring at his ass?! Just say "hey, I prefer female" and I will glady accept it.
Unskippable cutscenes
Unpausable cutscenes
Unskippable Logo's before the game starts
Lack of a Jeremy Kyle game
Sequels that are the same but just has more stuff
Registering for a Publisher account to play online
Manual's that are 4 pages long including cover and back

All of the top of my head.

 

[Frankfurt]

Lazy people that complain about save points.

 

[poppabk]

Instant grenade buttons being a good thing. I don't care about the realism side, but it should take you some effort to switch to and then throw a grenade if just to limit grenade spam.

 

[Barrett2]

Asking me to select a language more than once.

Bro, if I chose to play it in English yesterday, there's a pretty goddamn good chance I'll make the same choice today.

 

[SneakyStephan]

Unskippable Logo's before the game starts


All of the top of my head.

Delete stupidgamelogo.bik and all his friends.

I agree with your entire list though, good stuff.

 

[ultron87]

Instant grenade buttons being a good thing. I don't care about the realism side, but it should take you some effort to switch to and then throw a grenade if just to limit grenade spam.

This all depends on the power of grenades in the game. If it's a CoD grenade that can kill a full health enemy in a fairly big radius I could support more effort to throw one.

If it's a Halo grenade where, depending on the grenade type, it either can't kill an enemy at full health or it only kills an enemy at full health when they are standing directly on top of it (or it's stuck to them) I think being able to instantly throw them is a good feature.

 

[matrix-cat]

Again with the 'realism' argument.
There is a reason why actions like button presses or switching to a grenade are instant in most games and not in others (e.g survival horror games sometimes).
It's called pacing.

I shouldn't have to explain that concept, so I won't.

The thing is that there are plenty of third person games where animation takes priority over control responsiveness, but I can think of very few first person games. A hand reaching out to open a door doesn't need to be the same five second long animation every time, it could be changed up based on the speed I'm moving at. From slowly turning the handle and opening the door to knocking it down with my shoulder if I sprint at it. Your character in Crysis was fully animated and it never got in the way of the gameplay; he'd even bend over and pick up new guns instead of somehow absorbing them through his feet like every other character.

 

[Mr. Spinnington]

the guy who said double jumping. that stuck with me for days

Well, it's a weird decision to play video games if you mainly want a good story, and don't care much about gameplay. You'll be able to find way better stories in books or movies.

weirder to hate on Bayonetta for story. what little there was was completely off-the-wall in good fun and none of it stuck with people in comparison with the 100% best action gameplay