Poll: Worst game-lengthening scheme.

[Sixcess]

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!

Ah yes, but that game has fully voiced fetch quests, which makes all the difference. Right?

Or not. If it's quest text I can skim over it for the details that matter (what, where and how much covers it - why doesn't really come into it) but a fully voiced cut scene explaining how important it is for you to pick up 10 droid parts is a one dollar quest in hundred dollar wrapping paper.

Oblivion might have been worse though:

NPC: Oh please, won't you go into the forest and find my stolen pumpkins*
Me (thinking): You do realise there's an actual Portal to HELL just over that hill two minutes from your home, don't you? I mean, do you really want me to go and find your goddamn pumpkin or would you rather I saved the world?

[sub]*I think it was pumpkins. Or potatoes, or something...[/sub]

 

[DannyJBeckett]

Pacing, dude. Pacing.

Fuck pacing then. If a part of a game is boring and feels pointless, the devs fucked up, no matter why you are forced t go there. These "Do something for me first" quests feel boring and pointless 99.9% of the time.

Ok, well let's look at it that way. As soon as you start the game you can kill any enemy in one blow, jump higher than anyone else, out smart anyone else, recruit anyone to your side just by asking without any cost or requirement. The game ceases to be a challenge and you get bored of it even quicker. If you fuck pacing, you fuck the game.

 

[teebeeohh]

unskippable cutscenes
they give me flashbacks to soul reaver 2 which makes me roll up in a fetal position on the floor and cry myself to sleep. So it takes me longer to finish a game

 

[Scorekeeper]

Grinding is the one thing that eventually ends my playthroughs of Pokemon games. I greatly enjoy those games but can't stand the pre-Elite Four (second round) grinding.

 

[Scarim Coral]

To me it's the fetch quest and backtracking. If the story is one of those must save the world than why would I fetch [item x] for you? The same can be said with the backtracking as it is a real waste of time.

 

[Dethenger]

Grinding. There's only one game that I had to grind in that I would actually play again: Wind Waker.

Fuck Tingle.

 

[negimafan587]

Endless grinding= most final fantasy games pre 7. I just cant get into them...
And the unskippable cutscenes in tales of vesperia made me wanna kill myself!! I mean come the fuck on! Who in the hell thought you would wanna watch a five minute cutscene after loosing to the boss for the 18th time?
Rant complete...

 

[Weealzabob]

Fetch quests. All other padding while annoying, they're just mild irritants compared to the ungodly hatred I feel toward fetch quests. Wind Waker should have had a place in my heart as an all time classic, but having to find those goddamn charts and then pay that freak Tinkle to translate them, so I could then go fetch the actual triforce pieces in very deliberate spots in the world, that burned deep.

 

[SirCannonFodder]

Forcing us to endlessly repeat the same 5-10 minutes of gameplay because that's when the last checkpoint before the boss/sudden spike in difficulty was.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Mortal Kombat's "Play with every character for 24 hours" Trophy.

EUAGH.

 

[dark-mortality]

One thing annoys me... The-fashionably-late-to-the-party tactic. Oh, there was a major villian I could have killed here five minutes ago? Doh, welp.

 

[Darkeagle6]

Unskippable cutscenes aren't really like the other three options in the poll; they're usually a result of a slight (at least) lack of planning from the developers, and are really only a problem in specific cases (the aformentioned "long cutscene before a boss fight" example, or when a game has long cutscenes in general). My point is that while they may artificially lenghten the game experience, I sincerely doubt that developers make unskippable cutscenes to intentionnally make it longer (rather, it seems as though it'd be more of a case of not implementing a scene skip features).

The other three, on the other hand, are presented as game content but are felt by the player as an artificial gameplay load that cheapens the experience. As for myself, I'd say it's a tie between backtracking and a billion fetch quests. The popular Wind Waker example of the charts and tingle actually never bothered me all *that* much, since they made you do a variety of things and explore parts of the map you might not have seen yet, but it definitely could have been paced better (introducing the charts earlier, encouraging the player to look for them in between dungeons so most players don't find themselves doing it all at once, etc.)As for the ruppies, I got the money upgrades early, so I didn't have any problems. I realise there are few who were as lucky, though...

I actually can't think of a bad offender for these categories right now, though I know I've played some. I usually keep the better experiences in my memory

 

[someonehairy-ish]

A few games do something really annoying where they make it look like you've almost finished... then they spring some bullshit plot twist on you and you have to redo a whole chunk of the game.
Like Red Faction: Guerrila. Or however it's spelt.

 

[DannyJBeckett]

Who said anything about being all powerful and starting the game at the highest level?

Seeing as you are already arguing against points I never made and grasping at straws, I dont think its necessary to continue this.

(As for cost and requirement when recruiting, I will point to Mass Effect. One of the many, MANY games in which people join your party through more natural means, without this do something for me first business. The game feels more organic and real as a result.)

I know you didn't say anything about godlike powers at the start of a game. I was just using them as examples of what no pacing in a game gives you. A game that paces itself properly gives you access to more powerful abilities after you complete a sufficient challenge. Characters giving you a fetch quest is simply a primitive form of this aspect of gameplay. The reason Mass Effect doesn't put you through this 'do something for me first nonsense' is because your character is already in a position of power at the start of the game. Let's say that Shepherd is only a lowly Corporal at the start of the game: Do you think Liara is going to bend to your requests for her to follow you from the get-go? No, of course she isn't. Proper pacing comes hand-in-hand with proper storytelling. Let's take in another example: In Oblivion to get further up the ranks in the Thieve's Guild, you need to steal more things and sell them off to fences throughout Cyrodiil. That way, you get trusted more and more by the higher-ranks in the guild. This is essentially, an unspoken fetch-quest, but it is necessary to both gameplay and the storyline, as no intelligent member of the Guild is going to trust an initiate with hauling back a famous statue.

 

[AbstractStream]

All four of these make me want to tear my hair out. If I had to pick the WORST one though, it would be a tie between backtracking and grinding. One can be more tolerable than the other depending on the situation. For example, if the backtracking has effing mazes and ridiculous encounter rates then grinding is more tolerable. Actually no wait. I think I just made it clear for myself. Backtracking is the worst one. I can still deal with grinding. (Especially if it has good music.)