Poll: Worst game-lengthening scheme.

[Donnie Restad]

Challenge maps and collectibles. I'm thinking mostly of Arkham Asylum and City, where finishing the actual game doesn't really count for anything, because there's still some sort of thing you have to get before you can say you're really done with the game.

I know it's an optional thing, and I don't usually go for them, but it just irks me when you've beaten the game and it tells you you're less than halfway towards completion. It almost feels like the developers are disappointed in me for not doing what they want me to do.

 

[Zantos]

They're all annoying, but backtracking is probably the worst for me. "Now you must go back to the place miles away that you only just returned from to do something else. No you couldn't have done that while you're there. Because I said so, that's why! What are you doing with that sword?"

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Collectibles are the biggest offender for me, not only lengthening the game - but requiring external sources to obtain.

It's gotten to the stage where I won't purchase a game if collectibles are present, and there isn't a reasonable collection method in game.

Have you ever heard of Brutal Legend? That game induces collectable seizures.

OT: Forced grinding.

That's why I stopped playing Final Fantasy XIII. That game's linearity and grinding made it unbearable.

 

[pope_of_larry]

a poorly done boss fight gauntlet where they but boss (no save point or heath restore) boss fight (no save point or heath restore)and then one more boss fight and they keep repeating this. if it is done well it is fun like the last fights in cave story + ,but if it done bad it will just take hours.

 

[Devin Curry]

Other:
Missions that don't do anything. The Sonic series mostly does this, and they just take the same level and change it slightly so it has a different goal. And you beat it and get... Nothing!(or at least you have to do all of them to get the one thing it unlocks)

Kinda like a fetch quest, but you don't do very much Fetching, you just do a boring optional thing for nothing. They can be done right, but most of the time they weren't.

 

[realslimshadowen]

Backtracking. Now there's nothing wrong with having to revisit areas. It's when the travel time can't be cut short in some way that's just blatant padding. For example, WoW, though a massive persistent world, has a lot of ways to travel fast, and while you have to be a certain level to get some of them that only really comes into play when you reach a level where they become necessary. And in some cases travel time is used as loading, in which case it's barely justifiable.

At any other time, it is padding. That doesn't necessarily make it bad. Sometimes it's actually a design decision, as in Metroid games where it's used to enforce the feeling of loneliness. But too often, the game could be made so much better--and incidentally have playing time cut to about a third--with a fucking map you can blink around with once you've explored all areas.

 

[RubyT]

For me it's backtracking.

Worst offender here is coincidentally my favourite game ever: Gothic. An action RPG from 2001, sadly little known.

You start on your supposedly last quest to kill the evil and it's essentially a long, boring dungeon crawl that is so the opposite of what made the first 100 hours of the game great for me. And then you come to a door and you're being told that you're missing something.

So you have to go back, play a couple of hours in the beautiful open world again, just to remind you how boring the dungeon crawl was, and then go back in. And of course, the dungeon has been refilled again.

 

[njrk97]

for me other reskinign bosses their was literlay only 3 uniques bosses in sonic colors out of iv levels you has to fight the same boss but it wasnt just you didnt beat hime the first time it was it another comepletly differant one god it anoying

 

[Sprinal]

I Find grinding to be the worst.

really I can't stand it.. Kill x monsters to level y times to actually be able to kill monster z

It just in my opinion sucks..

Against this though I don't like how in Oblivion, dragon age etc where the monsters level with you either.

I personally prefer just having some creatures level with you and also seeing lower leveled mobs with mobs that are also a similar level to you..

Thats just me though... Maybe thats why I don't like MMO's very much

 

[Raggedstar]

Hmm, which one does Skyward Sword fit into? I guess it fits into backtracking and fetch quests. Both are pet peeves of mine, though in my favourite genre (3D platformers, though platformers in general are somewhat guilty) you tend to see backtracking a little more. I don't want to go backwards. I want to explore and see new things!

 

[Brown Cap]

Backtracking can actually be helpful and interesting in some (but few) cases. I mean even in Dead Space and Resident Evil (specifically 4), there are a few extra scares or items.

The Cutscenes usually add to the plot. If you can't skip them, it's really just a inconvenience.

Fetching quests, however, are boring, repetive, and often pointless.

 

[Vigormortis]

I'm inclined to pick grinding as, save for maybe Diablo 2 and (to a much lesser extent) Borderlands, grinding is ALWAYS an instant turn off for me. I HATE grinding with a passion. I don't play games to work. That's what a job is for.

That said, I have to go with "other" and fill it in with "All of the above". Each of those detracts from a game greatly in my eyes. If a dev is too lazy or too uncreative to think of a good way to fill out their game, or for what ever reason feels compelled to "fluff up" their game with pointless crap, then they have no business making a game. End...of...story.

 

[Pat8u]

other for me its vehicle sections the likes of mass effect argh and mass effects side quests especially the one on luna but I still enjoy me1 for some reason

but then padding in games usaully make all the other things seem more fun because if everythings fun, fun will become boring

oh and i also hate backtracking because when i was playing morrowind for the theives guild trying to steal this helmet I found a thing called boethiahs pillow book I was going to take it but just passed on it then when I handed in the helmet quest he asks me to get a copy of that same book, so I ended up console commanding it in.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

IMO the worst scheme doesn't lengthen the game at all. Instead it drops a shitty cliffhanger ending on you, essentially telling you to 'spend another $60 on the sequel and maybe we'll provide some closure this time'.

 

[w00tage]

ALL of them. There is no consumer-side justification for lengthening a game beyond its natural conclusion, just like there's none for lengthening a book, TV show or movie just to reach a certain number of pages/minutes.

 

[nokori3byo]

For me, it's poorly situated checkpoints. This got to be a real ballache when playing Gears of War on harder difficulties. If you are going to have a time-sensitive escape sequence in which you have to run a gauntlet of heavily-armed meat-shields to get to your APC before it gets destroyed, then put the check point right before said gauntlet. DO NOT make the player run up and down two flights of stairs and engage in a gun battle before the whole sequence starts. That's just bloody tedious. The whole thing is trial and error to begin with, but the moronic placement of the checkpoints makes it a painful ordeal. Seriously, I had been enjoying aspects of the game up to that point, but that sequence made me hate the game as a whole.

As for grinding, I'd say it's usually something you do to yourself rather than have forced on you, at least in recent years. There are rigorously anti-grinding games such as recent Bioware titles and there are games like Skyrim that seem to say, "Hey, it's your time, if you want to use it casting Courage 500 times to level up then knock yourself out."

 

[witheringsanity]

i was gonna tick "tiresome backtracking", then i remembered... metroid, castlevania... i actually enjoy backtracking in these types of games, since you normally go through what was once a really tough area with your new power-ups, and feel like a total badass.

so yeah, it's a tie between grinding and fetch quests

 

[thejackyl]

Worse two I can think of are:

Forced Grinding - Which is obvious what it is and
Forced Backtracking - Which I'll explain a bit her because it might confuse some people

With that second one being said, That's one of the reason's I love the Metroid series before Prime. (and I loved those until the forced backtracking). For example, Super Metroid... I don't remember any time you were force to "backtrack". Yes you revisited places more than once, but it was only to get to a new section of the area (hint: New), and there was a sense of progression. Now, for example: Metroid Prime, you had to find cave etchings or something, which you could find them by accident while you play, but chances are you wont. If you didn't find all 8 when you go to fight the last boss, too bad you have to scour the planet with only vague hints of where to go. Some of which, I'm certain were in old areas where you had to use the latest gadgets you got to get them. Same thing happened in Prime 2 with the keys. Where as Super Metroid, the only backtracking I really remember is going to the boss statue to be transported to Tourain, which you only HAVE to go to once after you have killed the other bosses.

Tlr Version: Returning to old areas for a scavenger hunt = annoying. Returning to old areas as access routes to new areas = a sense of progression.

Note: I played both Prime 1 and 2 before I had internet access, so I couldn't just look up the locations. and even though I can now, I have no urge to dig out my Wii/Gamecube to try again.

 

[Shavon513]

Not a fan of grinding, especially searching for respawning enemies repeatedly. At least fetch quests and random side quests make leveling up less boring.