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The many sins of bad game design
El Guaco
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The sins of bad game design
This is a list of things I've been thinking about for a long time. I'm sure it's not an exhaustive list, so feel free to contribute. But there are recurring evils in video game design that really bug the crap out of me. These are crimes so heinous that it's a wonder that we as gamers put up with them. Most of these are things that break immersion and remind you that you are playing a game, and this particular game the devs decide to screw you over as cheaply as possible.
Caveat: These are games, so I'm not expecting perfection or absolute realism. I understand that a game is an artifical thing with its own set of rules. I'm not advocating everything be done my way, but I do have some expectations when games attempt to convey some kind of alternate reality. First person shooters are most prone to these issues, because absolute realism would make games too hard and not fun.
1) Infinite enemies & respawns. This is a cheap underhanded trick developers use to force a player to perform heroics feats they wouldn't otherwise try in an attempt to speed up game pace and keep a steady progression. It's most often employed until the gamer reaches a certain goal where the enemies stop respawning. I'm not talking about arcade games where that's the whole game, I'm talking about games where you have to perform some task and the only way to complete it is to rush headlong into your enemies with guns blazing. I recently played the Call of Duty 4 demo, and I found that even in a modern FPS, this cheap tactic was used. A "realistic" FPS was using arcade tactics that just fly in the face of real world combat.
2) Invulnerable enemies. Similar to #1, often times you find yourself in a situation where the objective is to take out enemy A, but you can't hurt A directly, oh no, you have to run across the map the long way around so that some scripted event can occur which destroys enemy A. This is especially heinous when your attacks are clearly hitting and would kill an elephant. Too bad, you have to do it their way.
3) Scripted Events that enable other sins. Now, I'm not against scripted events in general, but when a SE is used in conjunction with infinite/invulnerable enemies the game designers are taking their story and forcing it down your throat. Stories should feel organic and spontaneous. It shouldn't feel like you have to bend over backwards to prevent the unending onslaught of the enemy AI.
4) Cheating AI. As a programmer, I understand the difficulties of making an intelligent opponent. It's much harder than it sounds. And I am also aware of the human psychology where we tend to focus on the negative rather than the positive. That being said, I don't want an opponent that cheats because the developers were too lazy to write something clever instead. When enemies appear prescient or clairvoyant, it breaks the immersion.
5) Impossible obstacles. This is actually a broad range of things from a locked door to a bulletproof window. In many RPGs, your character has the strength of 10 men or the mighty power of arcane magic, but he can't open a damn locked chest? How about FPS where your ability to jump is limited to a short hop, or the fact that climbing or mounting obstacles is not even possible? That rocket launcher will kill a tank, but won't blow apart that wooden door?
6) Inability to save your progress. This is the 21st century. There shouldn't be any technical excuses for this. Making the game arbitrarily hard so that you are punished when you fail or die is just torture to a gamer. Make a special achievement or award for people who play hardcore, but don't take away our ability to put down the game on our own terms at any given time.
7) Excessive cut scenes. Every time you take away the control of the game from the player, you risk losing the gamer's attention. Or worse, you annoy the gamer completely. I buy games to play them, not to watch someone's pathetic ambition of being a movie director.
8) Retarded helpers and escort missions. I lumped these two together because they're really the same thing: another way of making the game arbitrarily more difficult than it should be. Leading a squad of highly trained soldiers should not require a ton of hand-holding, but often times they can't aim for shit, get in your line of fire, or hide and wait until you take out the guys giving you trouble. Escort missions are also bothersome because of similar reasons, they usually can't help, get in the way, and run out into the open like sheep to the slaughter. This is especially heinous when the enemy AI has no problems whatsoever picking you off from a long distance. Interesting how the bad guys can kill you quickly but your buddies shoot like they're blindfolded. The AI should be equal on both sides, allowing you to be the tipping point if you are quick and decisive.
9) Inability to customize controls. Most games have pretty standard controls these days, but it's still inexcusable not to take the time to give users some customization. If I can't do something as simple as invert the Y-axis or swith the left and right stick functions, you're being lazy. Not everyone is right-handed and most game controllers are fairly ambidextrous. Don't assume your preferred setup is going to please everyone.
OK, this is getting really long, so I'm gonna quit for now. Discuss.
This is a list of things I've been thinking about for a long time. I'm sure it's not an exhaustive list, so feel free to contribute. But there are recurring evils in video game design that really bug the crap out of me. These are crimes so heinous that it's a wonder that we as gamers put up with them. Most of these are things that break immersion and remind you that you are playing a game, and this particular game the devs decide to screw you over as cheaply as possible.
Caveat: These are games, so I'm not expecting perfection or absolute realism. I understand that a game is an artifical thing with its own set of rules. I'm not advocating everything be done my way, but I do have some expectations when games attempt to convey some kind of alternate reality. First person shooters are most prone to these issues, because absolute realism would make games too hard and not fun.
1) Infinite enemies & respawns. This is a cheap underhanded trick developers use to force a player to perform heroics feats they wouldn't otherwise try in an attempt to speed up game pace and keep a steady progression. It's most often employed until the gamer reaches a certain goal where the enemies stop respawning. I'm not talking about arcade games where that's the whole game, I'm talking about games where you have to perform some task and the only way to complete it is to rush headlong into your enemies with guns blazing. I recently played the Call of Duty 4 demo, and I found that even in a modern FPS, this cheap tactic was used. A "realistic" FPS was using arcade tactics that just fly in the face of real world combat.
2) Invulnerable enemies. Similar to #1, often times you find yourself in a situation where the objective is to take out enemy A, but you can't hurt A directly, oh no, you have to run across the map the long way around so that some scripted event can occur which destroys enemy A. This is especially heinous when your attacks are clearly hitting and would kill an elephant. Too bad, you have to do it their way.
3) Scripted Events that enable other sins. Now, I'm not against scripted events in general, but when a SE is used in conjunction with infinite/invulnerable enemies the game designers are taking their story and forcing it down your throat. Stories should feel organic and spontaneous. It shouldn't feel like you have to bend over backwards to prevent the unending onslaught of the enemy AI.
4) Cheating AI. As a programmer, I understand the difficulties of making an intelligent opponent. It's much harder than it sounds. And I am also aware of the human psychology where we tend to focus on the negative rather than the positive. That being said, I don't want an opponent that cheats because the developers were too lazy to write something clever instead. When enemies appear prescient or clairvoyant, it breaks the immersion.
5) Impossible obstacles. This is actually a broad range of things from a locked door to a bulletproof window. In many RPGs, your character has the strength of 10 men or the mighty power of arcane magic, but he can't open a damn locked chest? How about FPS where your ability to jump is limited to a short hop, or the fact that climbing or mounting obstacles is not even possible? That rocket launcher will kill a tank, but won't blow apart that wooden door?
6) Inability to save your progress. This is the 21st century. There shouldn't be any technical excuses for this. Making the game arbitrarily hard so that you are punished when you fail or die is just torture to a gamer. Make a special achievement or award for people who play hardcore, but don't take away our ability to put down the game on our own terms at any given time.
7) Excessive cut scenes. Every time you take away the control of the game from the player, you risk losing the gamer's attention. Or worse, you annoy the gamer completely. I buy games to play them, not to watch someone's pathetic ambition of being a movie director.
8) Retarded helpers and escort missions. I lumped these two together because they're really the same thing: another way of making the game arbitrarily more difficult than it should be. Leading a squad of highly trained soldiers should not require a ton of hand-holding, but often times they can't aim for shit, get in your line of fire, or hide and wait until you take out the guys giving you trouble. Escort missions are also bothersome because of similar reasons, they usually can't help, get in the way, and run out into the open like sheep to the slaughter. This is especially heinous when the enemy AI has no problems whatsoever picking you off from a long distance. Interesting how the bad guys can kill you quickly but your buddies shoot like they're blindfolded. The AI should be equal on both sides, allowing you to be the tipping point if you are quick and decisive.
9) Inability to customize controls. Most games have pretty standard controls these days, but it's still inexcusable not to take the time to give users some customization. If I can't do something as simple as invert the Y-axis or swith the left and right stick functions, you're being lazy. Not everyone is right-handed and most game controllers are fairly ambidextrous. Don't assume your preferred setup is going to please everyone.
OK, this is getting really long, so I'm gonna quit for now. Discuss.
El Guaco on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
1) Inconsistent behavior of game world compared to expectations of how things should be. If I expect X to happen (eneamy can't see me, I can break a door, I can climb over a wall this high) within the game world it is annoying when it does not.
I actually considered categorizing them, but it started to feel like I was writing a white paper instead of a thoughtful forum post. Plus, these specific sins are done so often they deserve mention, IMO.