Lemme give you a brief summary of the terms used for the uninitiated:
Plot Armor - Characters being made invincible in the game engine, either temporarily or for the entire duration of the game. IE: children in Skyrim are apparently beyond harm of any kind. Kind of makes it hard to sympathize with the annoying little shits...
Faux Choice - Being presented with options with little to no actual consequences on the events of the game. IE: Dragon Age 2's ending. You'd think there would be some marked differences between choosing to save a group of embattled but dangerous people or choosing to wipe them out- but not really. The encounter is identical, you just start on the opposite ends of the map based on your decision.
Mandatory Party Members - I'll take Mass Effect (the whole series) as an example here. Lots of RPGs these days like to give you a plethora of choices about who you want to spend the game's story with. It's more impressive when they also give you the option of sending people whose guts you hate off to go sweep for landmines. What's bad? When 1-2 party members get some arbitrary plot device anchored to them and you wind up stuck with them. IE: I don't give one fuck about Liara T'soni. Okay? Not even half of one. She exists to justify the lezzed out green alien sex fantasies of neckbeards.
Unbalanced Classes - The Wizard. Pick The Wizard. I don't care what RPG you're talking about, the guy who can set the air on fire by squinting at it is invariably the best pick for a player. It's impossible to realistically balance power between that guy, and a guy who swings sharp pieces of metal for a living. Damned if they don't try (and fail) in every single RPG that's ever been made though...
Bags of Spilling - This is a problem exclusive to RPG sequels. Basically, your bag of spilling is where you were assumed to have held all the experience/items/abilities you acquired over the course of the last game. When you pass the threshold into a sequel, the bag does its job and makes you as threatening as a standard giant rat.
Ham Handed Racist Themes - This is a modern RPG problem. Seriously, I'm tired of plotlines that have to do with short/taller/pointier/more magical/hairier versions of people being marginalized by assholes. We get it: uneducated people are prone to prejudicial forms of thinking. Tell me another damned story already...
Cut & Paste Settings - Why does it *always* have to be Europe in the dark ages? Why can't it be the Caribbean at the turn of the century, or Australia when it was colonized, or Egypt at the height of its power or- well you get the idea. Please, some variety.
Half Done Romances - Let's take a look at say... Overlord as an example here. Here's the thing: if your love interest in a game isn't completely integrated into the experience/story (meaning if they don't actually *DO* anything but show up and have an implied sex scene with you...) then they don't belong in the game. They're window dressing, that's all. And what's worse is that games never try to approach the topic from any angle but the actual courtship. Like once you've actually jumped in bed with your romances in most games, that's it. You've completed your romantic journey. I can't think of a game that tried to address things like marriage or relationship troubles or parenthood. And those things are all kind of par for the course for romantic relationships...
Honorable Mention: Binary Morality Systems - Look, the idea of trying to read intent into a gamers actions? It's great, in theory. But reducing everyone's moral and ethical inclinations to either selfless altruism or self interested dickishness? It's not a good way of going about it.
Plot Armor - Characters being made invincible in the game engine, either temporarily or for the entire duration of the game. IE: children in Skyrim are apparently beyond harm of any kind. Kind of makes it hard to sympathize with the annoying little shits...
Faux Choice - Being presented with options with little to no actual consequences on the events of the game. IE: Dragon Age 2's ending. You'd think there would be some marked differences between choosing to save a group of embattled but dangerous people or choosing to wipe them out- but not really. The encounter is identical, you just start on the opposite ends of the map based on your decision.
Mandatory Party Members - I'll take Mass Effect (the whole series) as an example here. Lots of RPGs these days like to give you a plethora of choices about who you want to spend the game's story with. It's more impressive when they also give you the option of sending people whose guts you hate off to go sweep for landmines. What's bad? When 1-2 party members get some arbitrary plot device anchored to them and you wind up stuck with them. IE: I don't give one fuck about Liara T'soni. Okay? Not even half of one. She exists to justify the lezzed out green alien sex fantasies of neckbeards.
Unbalanced Classes - The Wizard. Pick The Wizard. I don't care what RPG you're talking about, the guy who can set the air on fire by squinting at it is invariably the best pick for a player. It's impossible to realistically balance power between that guy, and a guy who swings sharp pieces of metal for a living. Damned if they don't try (and fail) in every single RPG that's ever been made though...
Bags of Spilling - This is a problem exclusive to RPG sequels. Basically, your bag of spilling is where you were assumed to have held all the experience/items/abilities you acquired over the course of the last game. When you pass the threshold into a sequel, the bag does its job and makes you as threatening as a standard giant rat.
Ham Handed Racist Themes - This is a modern RPG problem. Seriously, I'm tired of plotlines that have to do with short/taller/pointier/more magical/hairier versions of people being marginalized by assholes. We get it: uneducated people are prone to prejudicial forms of thinking. Tell me another damned story already...
Cut & Paste Settings - Why does it *always* have to be Europe in the dark ages? Why can't it be the Caribbean at the turn of the century, or Australia when it was colonized, or Egypt at the height of its power or- well you get the idea. Please, some variety.
Half Done Romances - Let's take a look at say... Overlord as an example here. Here's the thing: if your love interest in a game isn't completely integrated into the experience/story (meaning if they don't actually *DO* anything but show up and have an implied sex scene with you...) then they don't belong in the game. They're window dressing, that's all. And what's worse is that games never try to approach the topic from any angle but the actual courtship. Like once you've actually jumped in bed with your romances in most games, that's it. You've completed your romantic journey. I can't think of a game that tried to address things like marriage or relationship troubles or parenthood. And those things are all kind of par for the course for romantic relationships...
Honorable Mention: Binary Morality Systems - Look, the idea of trying to read intent into a gamers actions? It's great, in theory. But reducing everyone's moral and ethical inclinations to either selfless altruism or self interested dickishness? It's not a good way of going about it.
