12 Video Game Annoyances That Need to Die

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[H] forum member Railhaus sent us this link to "12 Video Game Annoyances That Need to Die" today. I have to admit, some of the things on the list are spot on, others...not so much. ;)

This is the Golden Age of Video Games, or maybe it's just the Golden Age of People Who Like to Complain About Video Games. Or maybe it's both -- every six months brings us something magical, and along with it comes some horrible new business practice that makes video game publishers some of the most hated companies in the world.
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It's a pretty good read. The funny thing is they probably put more time and thought into writing the article than the story writers for a game put in. Their one point about taking a 2 hour movie and turning it into a 12 hour game is really a great point. It's kind of like someone wrote a well rounded book, it got condensed into a movie, but then that movie was turned into a game. But rather than going back to the book which had much more detail in it they used copy / paste to put filler in. Imagine reading a book based upon the game. Chapter 1 has story. Chapter 2 is side story. Chapter 3 is more story. Chapter 4 is a copy / paste of chapter 2. After a while you would probably just start skipping chapters until you got back to the part that mattered.
 
Honestly? I feel dumber for reading that drivel and feel bad for giving it page views. He has a few valid points, unfortunately they are lost in the noise of all the useless moaning.
 
Bloody Screen (So Real)

Hero walking toward the camera with Michael Bay explosions in the background.

Brown

Motion Blur

Shaky Cam

Lens Flairs

Nuclear Glow HDR Lighting
 
You can actually blame the consumer for some of the items ... when games became mass market the publishers and developers tried to satisfy the broadest demographic they could (which gave them the best return) ... many of the things he was complaining about (combat centric, lack of story, limited morality, etc) are there because people want them there ... hard to argue that companies should do things that will make their games more niche because niche gamers don't like mass market games that make billions in revenue ;)
 
He complains about pretty stupid things. But I have GAMES GREATEST SINS!

#1 QTE or quick time events.

Please stop it. It's stupid and lazy game play design. When I see a cut scene I usually relax and watch the clip, only to find that I was suppose to press a meaningless button to advance. So now I gotta watch the clip again.

Shenmue-QTE.jpg


#2 Worthless Side Quests.

No game is fun when you run around to find a quest to do, which usually only directs you to do more of the same boring game mechanics that you've already been exposed to. Only to get a reward that is meaningless. Things like feathers in Assassin's Creed games to bulletin boards in Far Cry 3. This is not extending the game anymore. Put actual game play in your games. Don't be lazy, I know a weekend game when I see it.

#3 Game tutorials.

Please no more how to play your game tutorials. You should be able to teach the player how to play the game through the game. I'll figure out which button does what in the game like I've always have, by pressing the buttons. I don't need a pop up message to come onto my screen, or some whiny voice to tell me what to do. At that point the game might as well be playing itself.

#4 Games are too easy today.

Takes away the satisfaction and accomplishment that comes with finishing a game. To the point that finishing a game has no real meaning anymore, other than wasting your time. Games like Assassin's Creed Black Flag look great, but I was essentially face rolling on my keyboard to beat the game.

#5 Where are the flipping bosses?

Modern games seem to throw away the concept of the boss. Instead the big finish is more of what you've been fighting, which are trash mobs. I don't want to see more solders anymore. Give me something big and hard and difficult to fight. What's the point of me running around with a grenade or rocket launcher when there's no hard boss to fight? To instant kill normal guys? Like the sniper rifle doesn't already do that.
 
What about pay2win trash and pseudo pay2win trash. If your game is so long and drawn out specifically to get people to pay to skip half of the garbage content to actually play the fun parts then it's terrible game design. Pay2Win need to die, now.

There are plenty of good games that make good money with a cosmetic item only approach. It works well and it doesn't completely ruin any gameplay.
 
Pretty much why I have given up on single player games.

Although I can appreciate the artwork and imagination behind a large open world, when the game play degenerates into a series of meaningless errands, it gets old pretty quick. Linear and quasi-linear FPS games are even worse- they end up being marginally interactive action movies with even thinner plots.
 
Ashbringer said:
#3 Game tutorials.

Please no more how to play your game tutorials. You should be able to teach the player how to play the game through the game. I'll figure out which button does what in the game like I've always have, by pressing the buttons. I don't need a pop up message to come onto my screen, or some whiny voice to tell me what to do. At that point the game might as well be playing itself.
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Sorry I prefer these to long and slow "training" missions. imo you are picking at something small here.


Bosses... I dunno, honestly in the games I play they seem more out of place then anything. This goes to the point of the OP... it is stupid having to put 60 bullets into a boss just 'cause. Big bosses are ok in some games though that fit it. Having some big voltron robot at the end of BF4 would be stupid, but one at the end of voltron would be fine.

I find myself gravitating to games with stories, I play to continue the story. Gameplay is a fun interaction, hopefully a good puzzle or action, but ultimately I am trying to get to the next part of the story.

At the end of the day every game becomes monotonous, they are are derivatives of previous games in multiple ways and dev teams can't make a 15-30 hour game without repetition.

Honestly I love Arkham for it, mindless mashing if I want, that looks cool to boot, then I get to see what crazy crap the Joker came up with.
 
My work filter called the website "tasteless," so I couldn't read the article. I'm sure that says a lot about the website's content ;).
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Honestly? I feel dumber for reading that drivel and feel bad for giving it page views. He has a few valid points, unfortunately they are lost in the noise of all the useless moaning.
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As soon as I saw it was cracked, I clicked away. They are one of the dumbest online "news" sites out there. I always feel robbed when I read anything of theirs.
 
dandirk said:
Sorry I prefer these to long and slow "training" missions. imo you are picking at something small here.
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No, I'm not picking on something small here. Games have gotten to the point where tutorials are the entire game. Look at Navi from Zelda. Everyone hates her, but why? Because she's a constant game tutorial. Probably the only flaw with Ocarina of Time. Batman games are also constant tutorial games. Just watch the Egoraptor video, cause it does a pretty good job explaining it with Megaman. Cause it's the main strength of Megaman games, in that they don't need a tutorial to teach you how to play the game.

hqdefault.jpg

Bosses... I dunno, honestly in the games I play they seem more out of place then anything. This goes to the point of the OP... it is stupid having to put 60 bullets into a boss just 'cause. Big bosses are ok in some games though that fit it. Having some big voltron robot at the end of BF4 would be stupid, but one at the end of voltron would be fine.
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But an infinite wave of mobs coming at you is totally OK and plausible? If we were going for realism I would agree, but what game even comes close to being realistic? I can't help but feel that they avoid boss fights cause it requires more development time then just throwing already made mobs at you. Here's more of the same!

Traciatim said:
What about pay2win trash and pseudo pay2win trash. If your game is so long and drawn out specifically to get people to pay to skip half of the garbage content to actually play the fun parts then it's terrible game design. Pay2Win need to die, now.

There are plenty of good games that make good money with a cosmetic item only approach. It works well and it doesn't completely ruin any gameplay.
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Pay2Anything needs to die. Specifically because you shouldn't need to pay for anything in a game when you already bought the game. But that market is probably already quickly dieing. Today's concern is with the abuse of DLC's. Seems no game is without day1dlc.
 
How about sites that are so flash and ad heavy that they run like crap on a high end machine. Oh, you know, like the site that the "article" is on?
 
I actually like the screen effects. The problem I have with them is how it's used. Bloody screens is one of the worst ones, as it's only there to show you are dying, but at the same time, you have no clue how close you are or not.

I like Dirt and Water because it's their to block vision, because of rain and stuff. It can get annoying, but at the same time, I think its a valid effect.
 
pothb said:
I like Dirt and Water because it's their to block vision, because of rain and stuff. It can get annoying, but at the same time, I think its a valid effect.
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I hate that! Why make a beautiful game but only show me part of it? The only thing these effects do is remind me that I'm playing a video game.
 
Maximus825 said:
I hate that! Why make a beautiful game but only show me part of it? The only thing these effects do is remind me that I'm playing a video game.
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This is my opinion on flash bangs in games. Nothing i love more then having 30 seconds of white screen every 2 minutes. Which because i am in a video game doesn't do anything but prevent me from aiming.
 
Ashbringer said:
No, I'm not picking on something small here. Games have gotten to the point where tutorials are the entire game. Look at Navi from Zelda. Everyone hates her, but why? Because she's a constant game tutorial. Probably the only flaw with Ocarina of Time. Batman games are also constant tutorial games. Just watch the Egoraptor video, cause it does a pretty good job explaining it with Megaman. Cause it's the main strength of Megaman games, in that they don't need a tutorial to teach you how to play the game.
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Totally right. I've been playing GTA V on the 360 here and there and they are constantly giving you new button functions. Is it something I am going to have to remember, or is it a minigame? Impossible to tell, so the end result is it's hard to remember what every button does.
 
pothb said:
I actually like the screen effects. The problem I have with them is how it's used. Bloody screens is one of the worst ones, as it's only there to show you are dying, but at the same time, you have no clue how close you are or not.

I like Dirt and Water because it's their to block vision, because of rain and stuff. It can get annoying, but at the same time, I think its a valid effect.
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This was done amazingly well (IMHO) in Metro 2033 and Metro last light. But it was only in the parts where you were wearing your gas mask, and you could wipe in clear. To me that added a ton of immersion because if you were wearing a gas mask, you'd have that exact effect in real life.

So i'd say it has a place, but it should be used sparingly, and only where it fits within the game world.

Boss fights should be hard, but they should require thinking and not just endless shooting till it dies. Maybe you need to hit it with a specific attack (or environmental effect) that causes it to be vulnerable. Or maybe it's armored, and you need to cause the boss to move close to something explosive and make it explode. These actually require problem solving to solve, and not just "shoot it till it's dead." These are the kinds of boss fights that are challenging, because unless you somehow already know how to beat the baddy, you have to figure it out. And even if you DO know the strategy to beat the boss, it can still be way harder to get accomplished. But that adds to the immersion instead of the player going "how in the hell can this thing take so much bloody damage?!?"

I also agree about tutorials in the game. A well designed game can teach you how to play as the game progresses. There's a lot of different ways ths can be accomplished, but again it takes more development time to implement this over what we have now.
 
To all the comments on making "stuff" appear on the screen, I completely agree when it comes to first-person games. They need to treat it like we're looking through a person's eyes, not a frakking camera. Third-person, I could forgive some lens flare because it's more like being followed by a camera, but it should still not be to the point where it's disrupting your view. It's a game FFS, it's supposed to be fun and accessible first and foremost. If you're added "realism" detracts from the fun, then you're doing it wrong.
 
Ashbringer said:
#3 Game tutorials.

Please no more how to play your game tutorials. You should be able to teach the player how to play the game through the game. I'll figure out which button does what in the game like I've always have, by pressing the buttons. I don't need a pop up message to come onto my screen, or some whiny voice to tell me what to do. At that point the game might as well be playing itself.
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LOL. Try that with some old school game/sim like Falcon or SU27 (learn to read Russian!).

Might work with button masher console games though. After all, there's not that many buttons.
 
This was done amazingly well (IMHO) in Metro 2033 and Metro last light. But it was only in the parts where you were wearing your gas mask, and you could wipe in clear. To me that added a ton of immersion because if you were wearing a gas mask, you'd have that exact effect in real life.
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I wore gas masks for hours on end in the Army, two different types, never once had to wipe it clear unless water got on the lens from the outside or sweat from the inside. No fogging up at all except in the most humid of days.
 
lcpiper said:
I wore gas masks for hours on end in the Army, two different types, never once had to wipe it clear unless water got on the lens from the outside or sweat from the inside. No fogging up at all except in the most humid of days.
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Were they post apocalyptic Russian gas masks that magically protected you from radiation though?
 
Half that article was about white male privilege in games and sexism. Describing Last of Us as "Grizzled White Male Slaughtering Zombies in a Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland" nearly killed me.

How David Wong keeps his job is beyond me.
 
itomwisp said:
This is my opinion on flash bangs in games. Nothing i love more then having 30 seconds of white screen every 2 minutes. Which because i am in a video game doesn't do anything but prevent me from aiming.
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Don't get hit by flashbangs...

Isn't that the idea behind flashbangs? Prevents you from seeing and hearing the enemy coming. If you take out the effect, then what would be the point? Saying "take flashbangs out" is basically he equivalent of saying, take status' out from video games, because it prevents you from fighting in perfect conditions.

The idea I was getting at, is that, it provides immersion, like what might happen though in a less than realistic way in a situation where you would be riding a dirt bike and your face is covered by mud kicked up by the racer in from of you.
 
Astronomica said:
Half that article was about white male privilege in games and sexism. Describing Last of Us as "Grizzled White Male Slaughtering Zombies in a Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland" nearly killed me.

How David Wong keeps his job is beyond me.
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I agree. The guy definitely sounds like a beta male parroting politically correct feminist propaganda because he has little experience with real women.

If he had ever actually played a social virtual world game with real women, he'd know that when given the ability to create their own avatar, women usually create sexy characters.

Same thing with female artists. They draw sexy women with little diversity in body types.

You see it at comic and game conventions to. How many women dress up as sexy slave Leia vs. how many dress up as Jabba the Hutt?

Then there's the business aspect which the author doesn't seem smart enough to comprehend. If your audience is mostly white men, then you usually cater to that demographic for the highest possible sales. Which usually means an idolized version of themselves for an avatar. This isn't TV or movies, a game character is usually an avatar that represents the player. It's how they want t see themselves.

If he wants diversity how about an obese transgendered Eskimo with a mental handicap? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but that's not how most people want to picture themselves in a fantasy world. It wouldn't sell. If he really thinks it would he should start investing in the concept.
 
1. Achievements - i guess this started in kindergarten, with smileys and ribbons.
2. Artificial Intelligence - muli-core cpu's 8gb of ram minimum, and we cannot get AI that you can really interact with?
3. Eye candy - nothing worse than an expansive city scape that you can never explore, or a window that you can shoot with an RPG and it never breaks, same with wooden doors.
4. Bosses and or cut scenes that require a certain way to finish - nothing i hate more when playing a game with a great story and atmosphere like Deadspace and having to repeat the same sequence over and over because you need to have the timing down perfectly. This takes me out of the story and just becomes annoying.
5. Stories - We need more open world / sandbox games. Let the player make the story, while its nice to have games with a great story, ie Deadspace, it would be great to see more open world/sandbox.
6. unlimited weapons - carrying multiple long weapons with 1000 rounds is just ridiculous, Just try wearing full combat gear (look it up), one long weapon, side arm, a couple of chuckers, and 200-250 rounds of ammo. See how much running, jumping and climbing you do. (i have done it)
7. Graphics - if the six above are not an issue, i can get over mediocre graphics, game play should be first and foremost.

Some games hit the mark on many of these issues for me, but none have ever had them all.
 
The first 6 (part 1 of 2) were really spot on. I think just about everyone can agree since this is stuff we despise around here. The second 6 (what was linked) was much more personal taste and it seemed it was closer to what he thinks would make some already solid games even better. I agree with a lot of what he was trying to say, but I think some of his examples could have been chosen better.

Here are the first 6 topics:

#6 Games where you pay money to win (aka micro-transactions and worse)
#5 Social Gaming Bullshit Instead of Real-Life Multiplayer on the Sofa. (I don't fully agree with this one but then I am an older gamer, so I can't just hop over to my buddy's house anymore to play for hours. Also, as a PC gamer, this didn't happen much to begin with. That said, it is cool to have a couple of console games on hand for when the situation arises. The sub-points he makes about multiplayer games dictating single player campaigns is spot on though.)
#4 Restricting How and When We Can Play (I think we all agree this is bullshit. Console exclusives suck ass)
#3 A.I. Hasn't Gotten Better in Decades (Actually, I feel it has gotten worse in many games. I have a theory it is why so many games are going the zombie route (no AI needed))
#2 Story-Breaking Mini Games (with few exceptions, these suck in most modern games. especially the quick time events. I do however tend to like tavern games that are added to some games so long as you don't have to play them if you don't want to)
#1 Every Game Has at Least One Element That's Basically Broken (true)
 
itomwisp said:
This is my opinion on flash bangs in games. Nothing i love more then having 30 seconds of white screen every 2 minutes. Which because i am in a video game doesn't do anything but prevent me from aiming.
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It'd be sweet if they were able to turn up your volume so loud (just for the flash bang) so that you were also audibly stunned!
 
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