Poll: Worst game-lengthening scheme.

[anthony87]

Devil May Cry 4 is the worst offender.

Oh you're at the halfway point of the game?
Go through all the stages again in reverse order.

What's that you say? The bosses?
Fight them all again in reverse order

Well how about that, you've gotten back to the first area of the game.
Here...have a boss rush

Seriously, every boss barring ONE is fought at least twice!

And don't even get me started on that fucking dice game...

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Anything that you have to collect but the section isn't accessible for now so you have to back to it with the right items later

:< Makes me sad because I always forget where stuff was. If games are gonna do that they should let you mark stuff on your map.

 

[The Harkinator]

"Oh hero, you want to pass through this gate? I will let you, but first you must do something for me."

Every RPG, ever. Ugh.

Ah well you see its all part of the backstory! they're trying to show how some characters you encounter in RPGs understand the concept of 'Proving Worth'.

Though every RPG should come with the option to say:

'I'm trying to save the world here! If you hadn't noticed that includes saving your selfish hide too. So why don't I prove my worth by you letting me past to continue on my quest to avert the death of everyone?'

Without being blocked and told:

"But you must collect magical macguffin #27 or I will not be satisfied you are worthy."

 

[triggrhappy94]

Most non-end-of-the-game boss fight quests can be called fetch quests. What kills me is when they are poorly disguised fetch quests.

Cut-scenes don't bother me to much, but then again I've never played any of the Metal Gear games.

Backtracking can be a *****, but I try to plan out my quests so I don't have to, or at least be doing something else while I run around. Same with grinding: I just watch something on my laptop.

What really pisses me off is Alone in the Dark. I just stopped playing when I got to the blow up the death wangs part. Still haven't finished that game.

 

[Mister Eff]

Devil May Cry 4 is the worst offender.

Oh you're at the halfway point of the game?
Go through all the stages again in reverse order.

What's that you say? The bosses?
Fight them all again in reverse order

Well how about that, you've gotten back to the first area of the game.
Here...have a boss rush

Seriously, every boss barring ONE is fought at least twice!

And don't even get me started on that fucking dice game...

You posted what I came on this thread to post. Almost exactly word for word. Damn that game annoyed me.

 

[loudestmute]

I chose other, because it's the near impossible puzzle that always gets to me. The one that relies on luck more than actual logic, so it's near impossible to do without looking it up.

Thank you for reminding me of that pet peeve. Adventure games had an odd logic known only to the game designer and maybe the hint book writer for quite some time, but then Myst came out.

---Tip Sheet for mid-90s game developers---

Wanna make money hand over fist? Put out a game on five CDs that's mostly prerendered backdrops and low-res FMV! It's the way of the future!

Someone complaining about your puzzle design relying on too much moon logic? Tell them they aren't appreciating the surreal nature of your interactive experience. Now they're the ones failing at life!

Can't bring yourself to publish something with the festering stink pile you call a "script?" Bring in someone, anyone from Hollywood to help out. They're professionals, so they're bound to fix all your writing problems!

Blew all your budget on hiring some washed-up soap actor to half-heartedly read your dialogue, and now you need an extra two hours of gameplay? Take the pre-rendered levels you already have, and grab even more screenshots. Now, when the player has to navigate the environments, make sure he has to clock more times than someone playing Diablo to get across the room. They'll never be able to tell you were phoning it in!

Can't turn a profit anymore in a market that's supersaturated with shovelware adventure titles? License the Build engine and learn to draw in two dimensions again. First Person Shooters are the new cash cow!

 

[Kuriko]

I hate unskippable cutscenes the most. :C Especially when you're going through a 2nd run-through and you STILL can't skip them...

 

[fix-the-spade]

Create artificial longevity, that's what they do!

Instant death and repeating enemies (or worst, repeating instant death enemies).

By far the worst offender: Halo 2

Case in point: The Sniper Jackals

On Heroic and Legendary, these little delights have the capacity to kill you in a single shot, as well asa hitscan weapon and the ability to draw a bead on you wicked fast.

However, much worse is the manner in which they spawn on New Mombasa and Uprising. Specifically, at a number of points killing one triggers the immediate spawn of a second, directly behind the first.

Not only is the spawn instantaneous, the Jackal is facing you and already aiming, unless you duck behind cover it will kill you, every, damned, time. The shots from those little bastards come so fast that the second can kill you faster than you can fire two shots from the sniper rifle, it's that unfair.

The levels they feature in usually had dozen of them, making each checkpoint a test of memory more than your skill, memorise every position and make your shot with the first bullet every time, or else re-start the section AGAIN.

There's a reason they were downgraded to using Carbines in Halo 3...

A close second going to The Flood, Elites and Brutes, who all gained the ability to kill you in one melee strike from Normal upwards, worst for the elites who could do it from any angle, seemingly from ten feet away.

 

[Johnson McGee]

I hate unskippable cutscenes the most. :C Especially when you're going through a 2nd run-through and you STILL can't skip them...

Worst of all when they're right after a checkpoint, particularly before a difficult section or boss fight.

 

[Kuriko]

I hate unskippable cutscenes the most. :C Especially when you're going through a 2nd run-through and you STILL can't skip them...

Worst of all when they're right after a checkpoint, particularly before a difficult section or boss fight.

ESPECIALLY when it's like that. =__=

It's like.

*Dies against boss*

*Goes back to checkpoint*

....

*15 minute unskippable cutscene*

AAARRRGH.

 

[Elsarild]

I don't mind unskippable cut scenes.

Well, I do, but only on the second play through, or I am playing a game I don't care two shakes of milk about, which, obviously doesn?t happen too often.

And grinding, while I am against it, if implemented correctly, I don't mind that too much either.

I think my worst fear is millions of side quests and backtracking.

But in a game like Dead Island where side quests are the main course of the meal, I don't mind it too much, but I do get burned out after a while and tend to skip many of them near the end.

So I think I?m going to go with backtracking on this one.

 

[The Abhorrent]

"Endless Grinding" was my vote, but I would like to say that's under a fairly specific context; as in literally "endless", not just figuratively.

To be more precise, the type of endless grinding which the MMORPG genre implements; the grind is continuously being extended through the addition of more content, which is then encouraged by having that new content requiring that you acquire the new gear from said content in order to complete it. Ultimately, the point of the game then devolves into a functionally unending gear-progression-ladder ("GPL" for short); one frequently subject to absurd stat-inflation and often encourages some of the worst cases of elitism you'll find in any gaming community.

To say these games drag their content out is an understatement, as they frequently are played for years by the same people; almost everyone will eventually end up quitting the game due to them being fed up with this endless cycle, typically well past the point the game has over-stayed its welcome. The inherent addictiveness of the genre isn't helping either.

As sad as it is to say, someone has contrived a way to make a game functionally endless... and people have actually fallen for it en masse (and are paying a periodic subscription fee to keep playing it). The game is constantly being lengthened, and seldom are those extensions actually beneficial to the game.

And yes, I do have a bit of a grudge against World of Warcraft. Why do you ask?

---

As for the other options in the poll: back-tracking, fetch-quests, and cutscenes? Those are at least enjoyable to a degree, if not by everyone. Back-tracking is an integral part of games where exploration is a strong element, with the player finding new routes and short-cuts through older areas as their capabilities increase; finding those, along with other hidden secrets, can give back-tracking an appeal to many. Fetch-quests, while they tend to be boring and/or redundant on their own, can lead to other discoveries and diversions; there's also the possibility that a fetch-quest could be executed quite well with a good premise, interesting story elements, a neat setting, unique mechanics, and so on (though you'd probably forget it is fundamentally a fetch-quest at that point). And cutscenes? A good story can be conveyed through those cut-scenes, and good pacing won't make the fact they're unskippable a problem (repeat play-throughs not withstanding).

But endless grinding? Never is that a good thing, especially when it's quite literal. At best, grinding is integrated with other gameplay (and/or story) elements; such that the player never feels like they're actually grinding.

The moment the player feels like they're grinding, you have a problem.

 

[viranimus]

Converting a single player game into an MMO format. Thank God we didnt have a game release on Dec 20th that does just exactly that and sells for 80$ or else i would be pissed.

... oh wait...

DAMNIT!

 

[slackbheep]

Backtracking. Oh god, the backtracking.

 

[Alssadar]

I despise grinding out of all of them. It's boring, monotonous work of *wait 30 seconds, find enemy and have pre-battle dancing, fight for thirty seconds, end, repeat unto infinity for three hours*
Fetch quests are also annoying, but at least in games like Fallout you get some pretty eye candy or exploration along the way. The same goes for backtracking a bit, there's something positive you can find in those areas.
I've also yet to find unskippable cut scenes a major issue, mostly due to my ability to not lose that often, or they become skippable the second time or such.

(As for my problem with grinding, I can't really explore have the same thrill; the grinding I've encountered has never been in games with good exploration aspects)

 

[CrystalShadow]

Interesting question. There's quite a bit of low tricks devs can pull to force more hours into their games. But after reading through your list, what instantly began to grind my gears just by the mere thought is: Unskippable Cutscenes.

But are unskippable cutscenes really the technically worst way to add more length to a game? After all, cutscenes... SOMETIMES, don't last too long. Whereas endless grinding can take hours.

In my eyes, I still think unskippable cutscenes are the worst because with endless grinding for example, you are still actually playing the goddamned game. Unlike with the cutscenes, that seems to throw the fact that it's a GAME out the window and says "Fuck you" while you sit there and watch.

I guess I can see why you'd think that, but it strikes me as a little odd. Sure you don't play games to watch a film...

But films can be interesting, as can cutscenes. (They become annoying of course, if you have to watch the same thing a million times, no matter how good it was the first time.)

But therein we see the issue.

Grinding is repetitive by definition. Being interactive doesn't make the repetition better.
Personally, I'd rather watch an interesting cutscene than be in control of doing some boring repetitive action.

And grinding anything at all is bound to be really repetitive, because if it wasn't, it wouldn't really be grinding.

 

[Toby Kitching]

When a big boss shows up, you fight for a while and beat them, and then a few minutes later the boss creature/whatever shows up again, and again, and again. it's like grinding but it consumes all of your consumables insanely fast.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

eh it depends on which game it is and HOW they do each of those annoying things

if the unskippable cut scenes are right before a boss and you have to go through them every time you die...yeah that is fucking awful

but also, i think the next worst one in my mind, is the backtracking shit, i have the biggest "are you fucking kidding me" face on everytime that happens, it took me 2 HOURS TO GET HERE, you couldn't have told me to pick up that special piece of bread before?!?!?!

 

[DannyJBeckett]

Having Hideo Kojima write it.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner here, people!

I'm not sure what I would choose from the poll, but the thing that puts me off a game them most is artificial difficulty, where the game suddenly makes enemies more powerful than usual for the sake of giving you more of a challenge. "Oh, well I'm sorry I'm doing well at your game! Perhap you should have given consideration that people may get this good this quickly!"

It's kind of averted in some games where they just place you up against a bigger class of enemy, as you were going to face them sooner or later. But when a faceless mook, the likes of which you've killed countless times suddenly has 50% more health and does double damage, or when a racer suddenly shoots past you like their car is fuelled by darkmatter, then that just pisses me off.

Next to that, I'd have to say grinding.