Game design choices that should be outlawed

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Making the PlayableCharacter ALWAYS/most of the time, an Amnesic or Prisoner or the CHOSEN ONE !

 

[Saulkar]

Multiplayer maps that do not fulfill these criteria:
-Spawn positions are SAFE AND GUARDED. If I spawn in the line of sight of a SNIPER, the designers have failed.
-The map is designed with FLOW in mind, rather than one route that leads to campers.
-The map needs to accommodate players of all kinds; the spots campable by snipers need to be complimented by covered routes that lead around them.
-Spawn Timers are needed as well, so as to make teammates spawn together, giving a cooperative opportunity, rather than reinforcing individualistic tactics.
-Keep options open, so players are rewarded with experimentation, rather than playing out the same motions repeatedly.
-Do not make the most interesting thing there outside of the map. If the players are more interested in the city in the skybox, your focus is probably off

Raptor Jesus Murphy Christ! One of the most frustrating things is when the inaccessible background draws me away from the game and trying to navigate my way through invisible walls to get to it and explore. Here's looking at you Halo and Mass Effect. I am all for an interesting background but why does it have to be more interesting than what you are allowed to explore?!

 

[Choppaduel]

unskippable cutscenes: if you want your exposition manditory, at least give players a chance too fool around ala HL2.

QTE: just fuck off.

 

[Trogdor1138]

Character creation systems that only let you see your character from a few strict angles so that you can't see if they look any good. I'm looking at YOU, Mass Effect.

You forgot character creation under poor lighting conditions. Lookin' at YOU Oblivion.

Oh god, I remember when I played Oblivon (Christ that was a long time ago now...) and I couldn't see how he looked properly by default because the creation screen was muddled and had that terrible lighting, he looked completely different when I started the game. Seriously, how hard is it to get these things right? Especially since this is the first damn part of the game.

Also, to list some obvious ones that can get on my nerves: QTE in the cutscenes, long cutscenes before bosses that you can't skip and have to watch 14 times, Live systems, Invisible walls (seriously, this should not exist in most games now), Not being able to pause cutscenes, having an accidental button press skip them and having 3/4 of your "epic game" be filled with nothing but glorified fetch quests.

Also, somebody make a FPS game that I can genuinely enjoy now, similar to Goldeneye. Not just an endless spawning of boring enemies on a linear path. I haven't played an FPS I've really enjoyed in the last 5 years or so.

 

[Saelune]

Every game should have buttom mapping (you choose specifically which button does what). It made Oblivion and the 3D Fallouts better (Y to jump? Hell no)
I should be allowed to adjust it to make it better for me. I wanted this most with FEAR 2 which changed most of the controls around from 1 and I could not fix that.
Halo should get button mapping.

 

[Vault101]

for the love of god make your singleplayer a decent length

 

[CrimzenSymphony]

Credits Credits Credits... Credits that take well into 10 minutes or more to roll through, even with things behind them or scenes happening in the background, FOR THE LOVE MAKE THEM SKIPPABLE!!!! The worst to me seems to be modern FPS's, I.E. MW2.

QTE's are a game designer's way of saying, hey, this seemed to be way to easy and extremely well flowing... Let's put a 10 minute cutscene completely dependent on random button mashing 3/4's into it once we're lulled to sleep. Oh, and you'll have to re-see the cutscene to get back to the QTE.

My final beef is with "magic bullets". What I mean by that statement are bullets that cause damage coming from a non-killable source. MW2 and as much as I might like it, Medal of Honor are the worst offenders. There is very little I hate worse than having to shoot at an advancing army of people who are hell bent on killing me, only to have one enemy left but still get capped from the distance. RAWR!!!

 

[Defense]

Character creation systems that only let you see your character from a few strict angles so that you can't see if they look any good. I'm looking at YOU, Mass Effect.

You forgot character creation under poor lighting conditions. Lookin' at YOU Oblivion.

You forgot crappy character creation. Lookin' at Oblivion again.

 

[StBishop]

not being able to skip cut-scenes.

not being able to skip credits.

A.I that can snipe you and know your location from across three countries.

not having the original Japanese voice acting available in Japanese games.

games that give you only one save slot (mainly ds games guilty of this)

a cluster fuck of of an inventory system. this is 2011, i don't care if you are a shooter or an rpg. having to navigate through menus to find items, and to top it off, then look at too many stats is not fun. i want to play a game, not read menus and look at numbers for longer than it takes me to play the game.

Some of us enjoy agonising for hours over whether we want the shotgun which does less damage but launches grenades or the shotgun that does more damage, shoots faster but only shoots buck shot in Borderlands.

I like picking items from gigantic lists, so long as the stats make sense (speed, damage, strength, constitution etc.)

I think games should focus on single player more.

I was going to ignore Homefront. I was going to let it pass me by without a thought, "There goes CoD's rebellious cousin," I would say to myself as he passed, "Sure am glad I don't bother with that crowd anymore." I would say as I casually turned on DA 2 or Pokemon White.

But then my brother fucked it. He told me it would focus on the story of an average Joe trying to get home to his family, who he was seperated from due to a business trip or some such, getting help where he could! This guy doesn't know how to use a gun properly, he'd rather rig a car with an oily rag in the gas tank set alight to roll down a hill than shoot a guy, he's into stealth and espionage.
That's when I got excited. Could this be a genuinely good FPS with a story of agonising over the fate of your loved ones, betrayal and friendships forged in a war zone which was once your home? Was this to be a first person game of theif/bioshock quality? A stealth, first person, not really a shooter with a deep immersive story, a logical narrative arc and maybe some social commentary?

Fuck no! It's fucking CoD with Koreans in the future.

This shits me. If it's fucking CoD, call it CoD, if it's a fucking wow clone, at least own up to it like Rift did ("We're not in Azeroth anymore" as a tagline might not be classy but at least it's honest.)

So this is not really a game decision but umm, it's important.

PS. Make cut scenes skippable after a death/continue. Make QTE's a big feature (so that I don't buy/can return quickly your game) or don't have them.

Capcha: icycSla important
Yes, this is important.

 

[Saulkar]

What bugs me most about games that I feel should be outlawed?!

3 things! Lives. Why do we still have them? Most gamers today have never played in a videogame arcade. The feeling is not replicated.

2nd. The majority of the things in games environment like Mass Effect and Halo is the effing background. I like a good background but in numerous games the background has intricate environmental components that would be very interesting to explore. If you do not want me trying my hardest to get past the environmental barriers make sure the interesting stuff is in the foreground.

3rd!!! Kill barriers and invisible walls. Not only do they blatantly keep you from choosing your own path and make even more painful the reality of the previous statement. They absolutely kill suspension of belief.

 

[Cogwheel]

Your character has amnesia.

Lazy!

I don't suppose you've played Planescape: Torment?

 

[migo]

You know those really dumb design choices that developers throw into their games for some aethereal reason that we'll never know about?

For example:
- Choosing to count a game as a loss against you when you quit a skirmish match.
- Adding quick-time events spontaneously to cutscenes forcing you to watch them all over again if you fail.
- Giving you 1-hit deaths, maximum of 3 lives, and no continue option-- you die 3 times you start the game from scratch.

If I found the people who thought stuff like that was a good idea I'd throw his head into a table and then cuff 'im.

What about you guys? What intentional design choices do developers make that totally ruin your day?

The first is necessary, otherwise you have rage-quitters who ruin the experience for everyone.

The others I agree with. In fact, cut-scenes in general should be outlawed, unless they're just exposition concealing a loading screen for the next level, and QTEs should definitely be out.

 

[Stammer]

The first is necessary, otherwise you have rage-quitters who ruin the experience for everyone.

As I said in response to another person, this was specified towards offline matches. ie: campaign missions and skirmishes.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

I have a bone to pick with FPS that use "silencers." They're not "silencers" they're "suppressors" and they do not turn an incredible "bang bang" into an insubstantial "pew pew." They disperse the sound to make it harder to note where it's coming from, but not necessarily reduce the total decibels to a fraction of the original. If you shoot one, people are still going to know a shot was made, just not exactly where from. Also, it's for muzzle flash suppression.

The whole silent thing just bothers me to no end. Maybe because I've used them, but it just destroys all realism when a fully automatic rifle shooting large powder loads is quieter than a fruit fly fart.

Also, in shooters, Battlefield is the only one I've ever seen do this right. How loud are guns? Really? I mean, in CoD you can shoot all day long and still hear your buddy talking normal. In Battlefield, they make guns a pure cacophony of relentless noise that leaves your hearing temporarily subdued. It's also nearly impossible to hear somebody, even if yelling, while you are shooting, which is very realistic.

Guns are extremely noisy people. Silencers aren't magical noise dampening barrel extensions, and if you don't use ear protection, they can deafen you.

 

[Cogwheel]

Your character has amnesia.

Lazy!

I don't suppose you've played Planescape: Torment?

Nah. I was going to, but the outdated UI and general graphics hit me like a brick wall.

...Ow.

Your loss.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

- Choosing to count a game as a loss against you when you quit a skirmish match.

I take it you are a rage quitter that pulls the cord everytime you're about to lose then?
If you quit of course it should count as a loss, you gave up!

OT:
Giving me the option to save anywhere, I always end up abusing it.

Honestly you guys saying that if you quit it should be counted against you are ignoring what he's saying, I mean it's totally legitimate to not want to have a big fat YOU LOSE when you have to do something quickly.

I also abuse saves tho

 

[Cogwheel]

Your character has amnesia.

Lazy!

I don't suppose you've played Planescape: Torment?

Nah. I was going to, but the outdated UI and general graphics hit me like a brick wall.

...Ow.

Your loss.

Mmm. Does suck; I've heard it's a fun game. But design that old and graphics that iconic of the 90's grind on me pretty hard.

Funnily enough, it was okay when I played Diablo II.

Strange. And honestly, I quite liked how PS:T looked. The UI is bad, certainly, but it never stopped me. Guess I just have lower standards.

 

[Jovip]

Motherfucking weapons and armor degrading.
like i get it, it's realistic to a degree. but i don't believe my baseball bat is gonna snap in half when i hit 20 people in the head with it (dead rising series) or my gun is going to stop working after firing a few bullets (fallout Series). or all my armor is going to be needed to be smashed with a hammer again, and my weapon which apparently breaks after cutting through the soft demonic flesh of my enemys apparently is gonna break (diablo 2).

look i can list example after example. but games are supposed to be fun, stop making our weapons and protection break on us. It's just stupid, and annoying. Seriously, stop it. i will have no more of these shenanigans.

Also, we need to stop making everything multiplayer and 3d.
this is just stupid, it's fun and cool i get that.
but don't forget us people who hate people. and just wanna play a good game, by ourselves.
Thats really annoying. Make longer then 3 fucking hour single player campaigns.


While i'm on this rant i minus well continue.

Stop trying to make everything "immersive". i mean seriously, i wanna see what my stuff does. give me a pause menu, and inventory screen. My lists of equipment. it makes me feel powerful and accomplished. look at all the stuff i have. i mean i love the monster hunter series and 700 hours into gameplay, and my chest is filled with all my armor and weapons. i feel like a total badassed for having gotten it all.

Also, stop making games so fucking easy. it's getting to the point where i can play with one hand, be wanking with the other. and talking on the phone to an estranged criminal and still be kicking the games ass on the highest difficulty. Easy is supposed to be easy, not mentally handicapped. Give me a challenge when i ask for one, don't just jack up damage values on my enemys. cause i can play the game with that increment normally, we are supposed to avoid being shot aren't we?

Also, karma. i mean it was cool in sw:kotor 1. you saw the background of your party glow with morailty. but now it's like every game charecter has to suffer from multi personality disorder and be given stricly evil or good choices. it's getting annoying, and ridiculous. part of the fun of a game is palying someone elses story, give me a karma line i have to follow, give me that challenge of living in someone elses shoes. make me feel there pain. don't just craft something beautiful then throw it at me to let me do whatever.

And free roaming. i get that one, it was awesome back in the day. but now games that is just doesn't make sense to have let you roam around there few miles of world for the fuck of it. Make gameplay choices that make sense to your game. for the love of god.

You know what, i can pick and prod at more problems. but i have to wake up at 6am tommorrow...so i'll leave it at this.