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Post by phantomrachie on Jun 6, 2017 9:15:50 GMT
2017 has been a great year for games so far, in just the first few months there have been fantastic games in multiple genres so no matter your taste I'm sure there was an excellent game for you to play this year. That being said, even in the best games there is always some game design or gameplay concepts that can get annoying and since game devs can often latch on to game design elements that seem popular these annoying things can end up in multiple games.
I thought it would be nice to get a discussing going on commonly used game design or gameplay concepts that can end up frustrating or that you just don't like.
Mine are as follows:
Day/night cycles
Day/night cycles are often used in open world games to create immersion, however I find that because areas are not specifically designed around being explored at night that visibility becomes a real issue and it can become difficult to navigate at night. And while I get that it should be more difficult to navigate at night, I can't count the amount of times I've ended up trying to climb somthing that at night it looked like I could and then when the sun comes up I realise that I can't or I've gotten turned around or I can't see the collectable etc. The night cycle also always seems like it goes on for much longer than the day cycle.
IMO sometimes immersion can be sacrificed for player convenience.
That being said, I've no issue with sections of the game happening at night, but it works better when it occurs at set times and set locations because the devs can design the level to be navigated at night and give the player a better experience.
Weapon/Armour Durability
Weapon and armour durability is never not annoying but sometimes it is used in a more frustrating way. This mechanic is either overcome so easily that it may as well not be there, like in Fallout 3 & Fallout NV or your weapons break so often that it's possible to kill a bunch of mobs and end up with no working weapons, ala Zelda BOTW.
Ultimately this mechanic is just used to limit how long you can adventure for and give you somthing to spend your gold/bottle caps on, which is understandable for like an MMORPG but in a single player RPG, my inventory being full is enough incentive for me to go back to a town and who cares if I end up with a with a ton of money (which will happen regardless) in a single player game, it's just me here.
Having adorable animals that I can't pet.
Plenty of games have cats or dogs or other animals knocking around in towns, but so few of them will let me pet them, that is cruel!
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Post by gaycaravaggio on Jun 7, 2017 6:15:44 GMT
I don't really care that much for inventory or resource management. This makes some games frustrating to play if it affects the gameplay too much.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2017 6:48:05 GMT
Day/Night cycle was actually handled really well in Dragon's Dogma. Your first night without a lantern is... scary as fuck, let's put it that way. So make sure you always have your lantern!
I also hate inventory management. I would add to that, modding weapons. No I really don't care about adding a special pommel to that sword or a thing-y to my pistol. I don't fucking care. And I'm tired of looting that crap from dead bodies.
Collecting ingredients / making potions / combining. I hate this so much. It keeps popping up in RPGs. Collect 5 wild cottons, 2 newt tongues, and 3 wolf eyeballs... get da fuq outta here, I ain't doin that. Just tell me where I can buy the damn health potions.
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Post by phantomrachie on Jun 7, 2017 9:08:03 GMT
I don't really care that much for inventory or resource management. This makes some games frustrating to play if it affects the gameplay too much. Agree. I find this particularly true with games with parties. Constantly going into the menu to compare everyone's pants and decide if I want to keep the pants that look nice or use the pants that give me better stats. It becomes particularly frustrating when you add a detailed crafting system on top of that because now I have to care about all the junk I'm picking up. If I drop this cotton ball it means I can't craft my giant sword BUT if I don't drop it I can't pick up this metal I need for my helmet. Day/Night cycle was actually handled really well in Dragon's Dogma. Your first night without a lantern is... scary as fuck, let's put it that way. So make sure you always have your lantern! I also hate inventory management. I would add to that, modding weapons. No I really don't care about adding a special pommel to that sword or a thing-y to my pistol. I don't fucking care. And I'm tired of looting that crap from dead bodies. Collecting ingredients / making potions / combining. I hate this so much. It keeps popping up in RPGs. Collect 5 wild cottons, 2 newt tongues, and 3 wolf eyeballs... get da fuq outta here, I ain't doin that. Just tell me where I can buy the damn health potions. The worst part about potion making in a game is that it makes the health potions so expensive to encourage you to make them but it's like an endless fetch quest, contently collecting the same ingredients over and over again. I'm the type of person who finds a weapon and armour set that I think looks cool and so I tend to stick with that, so contently being forced to collect items to create slightly better versions of that equipment as I level gets annoying. I prefer a system like DA2, were weapons & armour level with you (some of them did anyway) or ME 2 or 3 were you just picked the armour that suits your play style and ran with it. No matter what a game says, crafting is rarely 'optional', if you want the most badass looking armour ( and who wouldn't) you have to invest time in crafting |
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Post by pessimistpanda on Jun 7, 2017 9:27:51 GMT
I like day/night cycles as lobg as they're there for something other than decoration. Different things should hapoen at night vs during the day.
I dunno if there's a standard name for this mechanic, but I DESPISE the power mechanic in Inquisition. I felt like it was very transparent padding to try and hide the fact that the main plot doesn't have that much substance.
The only other time I've seen it was in Tales of Xillia 2. In that game the main plot would periodically screech to a halt and force you to do mindless "kill x of y" quests to pay off your "medical fees". It was very millenial, lol.
Inquisition did a better job of integrating the mechanic into the story, but it wouldn't have been necessary if they'd made the main story the focus of the game, instead of giant, empty (but admittedly beautiful) environments.
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Post by phantomrachie on Jun 7, 2017 15:18:13 GMT
I like day/night cycles as lobg as they're there for something other than decoration. Different things should hapoen at night vs during the day. I dunno if there's a standard name for this mechanic, but I DESPISE the power mechanic in Inquisition. I felt like it was very transparent padding to try and hide the fact that the main plot doesn't have that much substance. The only other time I've seen it was in Tales of Xillia 2. In that game the main plot would periodically screech to a halt and force you to do mindless "kill x of y" quests to pay off your "medical fees". It was very millenial, lol. Inquisition did a better job of integrating the mechanic into the story, but it wouldn't have been necessary if they'd made the main story the focus of the game, instead of giant, empty (but admittedly beautiful) environments. I wouldn't mind a day/night cycle if somthing different happened at night, but normally it's just reduced visibility and frustration. Honestly I think any resource that blocks progress, be it 'power' or gold, is annoying. I should be doing side content because I want to, not because I need to grind for power, gold or other resources to continue the game. Like as much as I loved FF7, grinding was 100% necessary to grow all the materia needed to get all three master materia. And while I get that the three master materia weren't necessary to complete the game, grinding should always be optional (if needed at all) rather than necessary. |
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Post by pessimistpanda on Jun 7, 2017 15:22:27 GMT
I like day/night cycles as lobg as they're there for something other than decoration. Different things should hapoen at night vs during the day. I dunno if there's a standard name for this mechanic, but I DESPISE the power mechanic in Inquisition. I felt like it was very transparent padding to try and hide the fact that the main plot doesn't have that much substance. The only other time I've seen it was in Tales of Xillia 2. In that game the main plot would periodically screech to a halt and force you to do mindless "kill x of y" quests to pay off your "medical fees". It was very millenial, lol. Inquisition did a better job of integrating the mechanic into the story, but it wouldn't have been necessary if they'd made the main story the focus of the game, instead of giant, empty (but admittedly beautiful) environments. I wouldn't mind a day/night cycle if somthing different happened at night, but normally it's just reduced visibility and frustration. Honestly I think any resource that blocks progress, be it 'power' or gold, is annoying. I should be doing side content because I want to, not because I need to grind for power, gold or other resources to continue the game. Like as much as I loved FF7, grinding was 100% necessary to grow all the materia needed to get all three master materia. And while I get that the three master materia weren't necessary to complete the game, grinding should always be optional (if needed at all) rather than necessary. Oh yeah, grinding sucks hardcore, but what I mean is that at certain story points, this pop-up would appear and the chick who handles your debt would be like "The next installment is due! You need to pay at least XXXX gold!", and the next main quest just wouldn't trigger until you did it. It was awful. And you still had to grind ON TOP OF THAT, to buy and craft better gear. But, being a Tales game, if you pay the debt off in full (which isn't necessary to complete the game), you get a scene where they all go to a hot spring to celebrate, so... yay? |
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Post by phantomrachie on Jun 7, 2017 15:40:08 GMT
I wouldn't mind a day/night cycle if somthing different happened at night, but normally it's just reduced visibility and frustration. Honestly I think any resource that blocks progress, be it 'power' or gold, is annoying. I should be doing side content because I want to, not because I need to grind for power, gold or other resources to continue the game. Like as much as I loved FF7, grinding was 100% necessary to grow all the materia needed to get all three master materia. And while I get that the three master materia weren't necessary to complete the game, grinding should always be optional (if needed at all) rather than necessary. Oh yeah, grinding sucks hardcore, but what I mean is that at certain story points, this pop-up would appear and the chick who handles your debt would be like "The next installment is due! You need to pay at least XXXX gold!", and the next main quest just wouldn't trigger until you did it. It was awful. And you still had to grind ON TOP OF THAT, to buy and craft better gear. But, being a Tales game, if you pay the debt off in full (which isn't necessary to complete the game), you get a scene where they all go to a hot spring to celebrate, so... yay? that sounds so terrible that it deserves the Janeway deathglare  |
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Post by Vy on Jun 7, 2017 22:15:46 GMT
I think game elements are tools, and have their own uses. The problems rise when they're applied to genres where they don't fit. Weapon durability, for example, makes sense in survival or horror games, where it's used to help build tension and encourage wise resource management, but it's just frustrating in FPSes or RPGs.
I love inventory management when it's a well-done grid style system like Deus Ex, but list based systems irritate me for some reason. Load out "slots" are my preferred system, with newly acquired weapons going into a pool you can draw from like ME2 and ME3.
I also like weapon modification, if the mods are meaningful and if you're given limited "slots" to prevent you from just endlessly modding your weapons into ridiculously "tacticool" abominations. Again, I like how ME3 did it.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2017 22:29:29 GMT
- Escort missions
- Weapon durability
- Skyrim-esque compass instead of maps frustrate the living hell out of me
- Time critical missions
- Real time wartable like missions, where I have to wait 5 reallife hours for Cullen's men to return home, just to give me +5 chewed up bear hide that reeks of shit and some cheap ring I will sell at the next shop
- Not being able to pause during cutscenes
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Post by pessimistpanda on Jun 7, 2017 23:51:09 GMT
OH MY GOD WAR TABLE MISSIONS. I FORGOT ALL ABOUT THEM.
That shit is fucking obscene. If I can get up and walk away and the mission will complete on its own, then in what sense am I playing a game?
Leave that shit back on FarmVille.
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firmicute
The Beastmaster
them please, if you can be bothered :3
Posts: 342
Likes: 948
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Post by firmicute on Jun 10, 2017 19:25:06 GMT
eehh. I dont care for them but they also dont annoy me, I see it as something i can do for some loot, optional-and in some cases I want to do that..and use a guide.
But i'm doing that anyway, I dont care for spoilers that much, I like playing with guides&maps.
but.. shitty designed menues..
Durability systems
forced foraging- I am okay if its optional and if they give you the option to buy that shit- like in DAI where you only had to get the rare stuff but could buy the normal stuff in shops&the emporium.
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kalasaurus
The Beastmaster
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Likes: 1,446
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Post by kalasaurus on Jun 10, 2017 19:29:45 GMT
On my first playthrough of DAI, I skipped almost all of the FarmVille war table stuff and, embarrassingly, I ended up not getting Dagna. Oops... I also missed the whole Cullen and Samson subplot because of this, ha.
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Lionrage
The Beastmaster
Ginger Cloud Gayzer
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Post by Lionrage on Jun 10, 2017 22:11:05 GMT
Technically not so much design as sci-fi gaming stories that make use of some mystical 'wall' to protect the protagonists + friends behind from the big bad outside, mech(a) bodies and general generic aesthetics while as developers of said game you feel like  about all of it.  |
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firmicute
The Beastmaster
them please, if you can be bothered :3
Posts: 342
Likes: 948
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Post by firmicute on Jun 11, 2017 11:58:35 GMT
Technically not so much design as sci-fi gaming stories that make use of some mystical 'wall' to protect the protagonists + friends behind from the big bad outside, mech(a) bodies and general generic aesthetics while as developers of said game you feel like about all of it. wat? sry I'm a bit slower today but..wat? |
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Post by FadelessRipley on Jun 11, 2017 12:11:57 GMT
Day/Night cycles are usually very annoying to me, but I found myself enjoying them in FFXV for some reason. I think it was for the satisfaction of smugly defying Ignis about driving, then landing myself in hot water.  I like the camping aspect a lot, and driving around to find a camp spot was enjoyable. Also, I think something like DA2 where certain things only happen at night but you can choose when you do it is pretty good. Personally I don't like escort missions, especially when the NPC can be hurt or die. This is probably because I'm not the most skilled shooter unless I'm sniping. With sword & shield it's slightly less disasterous, but if there's a chance of friendly fire then the poor sod is f*cked. |
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Lionrage
The Beastmaster
Ginger Cloud Gayzer
Posts: 324
Likes: 1,451
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Post by Lionrage on Jun 11, 2017 13:47:04 GMT
Technically not so much design as sci-fi gaming stories that make use of some mystical 'wall' to protect the protagonists + friends behind from the big bad outside, mech(a) bodies and general generic aesthetics while as developers of said game you feel like about all of it. wat? sry I'm a bit slower today but..wat? Dylan / Anthem  |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2017 15:57:40 GMT
In terms of gameplay, I don't think there's anyting specific that irritates me.
When it comes to design though there are few things that piss me off more than the oh so classical "female = sexy = revealing clothes & male = brute = hulk on steroids body = burqa style clothing".
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Ponendus
Dashing Rogue
Australian Gaymer and Bioware Fanboy.
Posts: 22
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Post by Ponendus on Jun 12, 2017 2:56:22 GMT
I generally don't like open world. However, I like Skyrim. Go figure.
I think I am ok with open world generally as long as there is a good navigation system (otherwise I just get lost and I find 'finding my way' to the next story point tedious). There was something about Skyrim that was really fun however, something about the formula they got right, the encounters and the natural fluidity of the world was really beautiful. There was a good amount of 'story' hidden throughout also.
I didn't like DAI's open world though, I just found it largely pointless and empty.
I think my main preference will always be non-open-world games. Large areas are fine but they must be filled with purpose otherwise looking at pretty plants and rivers just gets old quickly for me.
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Ponendus
Dashing Rogue
Australian Gaymer and Bioware Fanboy.
Posts: 22
Likes: 90
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Post by Ponendus on Jun 12, 2017 2:58:42 GMT
In terms of gameplay, I don't think there's anyting specific that irritates me. When it comes to design though there are few things that piss me off more than the oh so classical "female = sexy = revealing clothes & male = brute = hulk on steroids body = burqa style clothing". I COMPLETELY agree with this. However, I think there is hope. I am seeing a lot of games moving away from all of this which is a good thing.  |
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about all of it. 
I like the camping aspect a lot, and driving around to find a camp spot was enjoyable. 
Much love right back at ya!
