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Outdated/Annoying Gaming Mechanics.
VGAddict
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
What game mechanics were good, or at least tolerable in the time they were introduced, but need to go away, or are just plain bad? I feel one mechanic is parts in games where after you complete an objective, you have to go back to a certain place to be given your next objective. Why can't you just tell me my next objective right after I finish the previous objective?
All it really does is artificially lengthen the game.
It wouldn't even be so bad if you were just instantly transported to the area where you learn your next objective. Having to travel back to that area breaks the flow of the game.
All it really does is artificially lengthen the game.
It wouldn't even be so bad if you were just instantly transported to the area where you learn your next objective. Having to travel back to that area breaks the flow of the game.
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...I guess that's not a mechanic.
This was something that was huge in the NES era and was a crutch. There may be some truth, and I realize this is generalizations coming up, to video games being easier now and harder back then, but games being harder back then doesn't mean it was for the better. Frankly, as an adult, I have no patience for having to die in order to learn I was supposed to do this, that, or the other in a video game. The medium has moved along and evolved. That's not to say dying, or instant deaths, are a bad thing. But my favorite example of this is from Mega Man 5.
Which way, left or right? Touch the bottom of the screen, and the game pauses for two seconds while it does its scroll before giving you control of Mega Man again. It looks like it shouldn't matter if you're fast enough.
Here's the scroll. Something doesn't look right. Remember, the game is paused at this point during the transition.
And now you have control again! Except it doesn't matter because you chose poorly and can't do shit about it.
Giving players foresight is pretty much the name of the game in difficulty when you're doing any sort of real time gameplay (quick note: I know that changing the penalties for failing an action or choice are also part of difficulty but I'm talking about this specific part of it). The more foresight, the easier things are. But when you switch the foresight over to zero visibility, shit sucks and is not fair or fun. It is dumb. Now thankfully this isn't something really done anymore - even among indie devs. Which I'm personally happy to see because some indie game fans are hipster assholes who think that kinda stuff is okay.
A mechanic that's actually still in swing that really does need to die is actual randomly-generated failure. There is nothing rewarding or challenging about that. It is just an abrupt end to your experience. "Dying is fun!" may have some legitimacy to it, but this is where it crosses the line. I'm not sure how much more I can elaborate on this. When I'm exploring a randomly generated dungeon, I shouldn't get a game over just because I went through a door or opened a chest. Penalize me - penalize me harshly even! But don't end the experience. Because I will end my consumer relationship with you.
You mean like when video games have that one level or one section that's supposed to be stealth and it's not a stealth game by nature?
Yeah. Burn it to the fucking ground, goddamn. Either be something entirely or don't try to be it at all.
I actually happen to like the sort of unfair difficulty of some games and having to die quite a few times before I learn how to proceed, and that doesn't make me some sort of fucking hipster asshole either. It just means I have a different opinion of what's fun than you do, and that's fine because we're all entitled to our own opinions. But I think the premise for this entire thread is fucking stupid because I doubt there's a single universally reviled game mechanic.
QTEs?
Well let me say this - if it's gonna be done, there's a way to do it right and a way to make it aggravating. If the time it takes to try again after death isn't long, then it's easier to stomach (using Mega Man again, if you die at a boss, at least you're in that hallway right before them).
also, grinding!! having to run around doing the same annoying random battles/encounters/kill x of y missions. if a game can't find a more natural/enjoyable way to make you (at least feel)more powerful then there's a problem.
Guild Wars 2 tried to dress everything up pretty, but it was the same as every other MMO.
Games seem to be phasing this out, thankfully but not completely yet. Such an irritating, boring thing that has never been fun or challenging, just annoying. Skyward Sword might have had great motion control sword play but man did I hate encountering those balance beam moments.
Save points are like DLC: great idea on paper, but in reality the implementation almost always sucks. I want save points in every town, after every cutscene, before every boss fight, before every story branch and dialogue option, before every point of no return, before every missable (be it a drop or whatever), on each new map/area/location, before every puzzle ESPECIALLY jumping puzzles and multiples distributed evenly across every segment of game that takes more than 30 minutes.
Alternatively you can just dump that outdated shit and implement quicksaves because this is 2013. Thank you.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
I get annoyed with pacing. When you die in a game, don't linger the camera on the death, quickly jump to a resume prompt. Also, always make the cut scenes skippable.
I second the sentiments about slow walking NPCs. WoW is really bad about that.
I think he was talking about bonfires, in which case... bwuh? Dark Souls absolutely hinges on them, the game would be pretty much ruined if there were quicksave / quickload.
It's certainly not convenient, but not everything in every game needs to be convenient.
Also unskippable cut scenes. Especially right before some difficult boss fight.
Oooooh, let's make the player have to replay stuff unnecessarily because we are super hardcore
that's exactly what this thread is about. It doesn't add to your game to have that bullshit, and the only reason some players like yourself argue for it is stockholm syndrome AFTER they've already played it because they have to justify all the bullshit they went through.