Decline Your Most Hated Gameplay Elements? (poll)

[Zombra]

Large empty, dead towns that would have been much better as Menu Towns.

This is a big one. "Everything has to be simulated in the game space." No it goddamn doesn't.

 

[V_K]

Depends on what you call empty and dead. Personally, I enjoyed huge cities in Daggerfall or Star Trail, for example, even if they weren't very high on unique content - but the systemic content they had and the sheer immersiveness of having a big place to explore more than justified their size. I found them a much less of a hassle than, say, menu cities in Darklands - too many options made them confusing and unwieldy, and getting to unique content (where they had any) was harder.

 

[octavius]

Depends on what you call empty and dead.

16x16, 22x22 or larger map with only a shop, an inn a training hall to find, and not even random encounters.
That was the worst aspect of Disciples of Steel and made me initially rage quit it.

 

[V_K]

Depends on what you call empty and dead.

16x16, 22x22 or larger map with only a shop, an inn a training hall to find, and not even random encounters.
That was the worst aspect of Disciples of Steel and made me initially rage quit it.

Ah, yes, that I agree with. But how many games do those though?

 

[mondblut]

Large empty, dead towns that would have been much better as Menu Towns.

This is a big one. "Everything has to be simulated in the game space." No it goddamn doesn't.

Depends. Daggerfall wouldn't be a tiny slice of the game it was were it not trying to simulate everything in the game space.

 

[sser]

This is such an impressive list (seriously).

 

[Zombra]

"Everything has to be simulated in the game space." No it goddamn doesn't.

Depends. Daggerfall wouldn't be a tiny slice of the game it was were it not trying to simulate everything in the game space.

I don't disagree here. It certainly can be done in a way that adds to the experience. And simulating a world is just about the only thing Daggerfall really has going for it. But the assumption, that many devs seem to have, that it always should be done, regardless of gameplay impact, is dumb.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

""people"" who dislike quest timers should be euthanized.

 

[Momock]

Don´t know if it has been mentioned already, but I would say, instant-kill traps are hugely annoying. Even if you constantly use your thief for scouting, what´s the point placing traps that most likely leads to loading a savegame for most players? I don´t like to excessively save-load, and if those would be replaced just with damage-dealing traps or whatever, they would be so much easier to bear. Not ideal game design.

Another thing, when NPC-characters suddenly decide to fight each other to death and you cannot do anything about it. As an example that eventually has lead to me restarting the game: Baldur´s Gate 2, in the Underworld, when suddenly Keldorn the Paladin decides to kill Viconia the Drow. Why exactly then, with no apparent sign that Keldorn was just at the edge of murdering her..? Earlier saves wouldn´t help, and eventually I had to decide whether I continue without my only cleric (Viconia) or load a game which is many hours before this situation. Again not really great game design.

Totally great design in both cases. Damage dealing traps is as good as no traps (unless we are talking hardcore dungeon crawl with no saves during the dungeons, or roguelikes, where consuming the ressources for healing is a big deal). NPCs fighting each other is the result of your decisions or lack of them, it's perfectly fine too. Having to leave one of this fuckers behind is an interesting choice to make and will make this run memorable.

 

[kangaxx]

Unviable class options is an interesting one, because it should basically be a non-issue in the internet age. But back in the day when I was a whipper-snapper I did find myself getting fucked over with bad builds on occasion.

If it's done fairly then I think it's fine for a game to have a failure-through-build option, but when a game is just badly balanced it can be frustrating. From memory SS2 somewhat did this to me when I first played it through in '99.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Looks like I hate 90% of that list :D

 

[Ol' Willy]

Your Most Hated Gameplay Elements?

RTwP combat

 

[Jabata]

Hm, there are a lot of things on that list that are appealing. My vote would count towards

Escort quests

What I like most about the escort quests is that the one you are escorting usually moves too fast for you to just walk and too slow for you to run.

And of course:

Puzzles that require moon logic to solve

Even though back in the days I was hooked on Leisure suit Larry and the Myst series. I even think for the first one Sierra had a hotline to help people that were stuck.

 

[Momock]

Even though back in the days I was hooked on Leisure suit Larry and the Myst series. I even think for the first one Sierra had a hotline to help people that were stuck.

There's no moonlogic in Myst. It's just that you have to experiment to understand how everything works.

 

[Bliblablubb]

Wanted to vote, but there was no Kingcomrade "all of the above" option.
Can't be arsed to check every box like a good monkey.
Sorry.

 

[Reader]

I hate mandatory talk with companions.
It is full of pointless Q&A like "What do you do here?" or "How is your [sex] life?"
Then there is some revelations to trigger player's empathy like "My parents don't love me!" or "They fucked me in the ass!"
And then the ending like "I love my parents no matter what and therefore i now can shoot with 100% acc once in a day"
or like "fucking in the ass just makes me stronger and now i can see better in a dark places"
There was no such shit in BG.

 

[Bliblablubb]

After reading about BG2 party interaction here, I actually remembered that I hate how everything revolves around the player. Love interests just form a queue to be wooed by the player in basically every game.
IIRC in BG2, Aeri would hook up with the bard and it was even played out with party dialog.

Nowadays entitled players consider every available waifu there property, so pulling off something like that would just lead to a twatter shitstorm about NTR and all that crap.
Sad.

 

[Jabata]

Even though back in the days I was hooked on Leisure suit Larry and the Myst series. I even think for the first one Sierra had a hotline to help people that were stuck.

There's no moonlogic in Myst. It's just that you have to experiment to understand how everything works.

Аh, yes of course. I still remember in ages beyond myst how I had to power a mechanism (or was it an entire station) by following a rapidly orbiting sun with a telescope. Good stuff! I am not saying it is really that far fetched but it is not the thing that would come up first at least in my mind. Don´t get me wrong though, the game does a pretty good job to give you directions and it is good overall, but you have to read every journal/book/page that you find in order to complete it and rarely can you depend entirely on logic.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

Great list.

I didn't realize how much Geralt's annoying "examine" animation or "Extinguish" animations pissed me off because you can't instantly break out of it.

BTW, I'd also consider adding in the next versions of this list:

1. Level designers who put dumb interactions (like Light/Extinguish) next to or in front of loot boxes you actually want to open.
2. In "tense" quests or sequences, including a ton of lootable containers guaranteed to over-encumber you or require a slow walk back to town to sell it rather than continue with the quest.
3. Cut scenes that prevent you from looting the corpses you just killed and teleports you elsewhere so you can never go back and get your lootz. (This is even worse when a no-warning triggered cut scene forces a level transition from a level you're not "done" exploring yet and can't go back to.)
4. Any game where falling to your death is more a danger than the enemies you face (Witcher!) and then includes enemies that often can fight you next to cliffs (Witcher's Sirens/Harpies). Yay.
5. Smuggler's Caches on Skellige implied to be actual discovery rewards rather than the sheer hell they represent.

 

[Gregz]

Great list.

I didn't realize how much Geralt's annoying "examine" animation or "Extinguish" animations pissed me off because you can't instantly break out of it.

BTW, I'd also consider adding in the next versions of this list:

1. Level designers who put dumb interactions (like Light/Extinguish) next to or in front of loot boxes you actually want to open.
2. In "tense" quests or sequences, including a ton of lootable containers guaranteed to over-encumber you or require a slow walk back to town to sell it rather than continue with the quest.
3. Cut scenes that prevent you from looting the corpses you just killed and teleports you elsewhere so you can never go back and get your lootz. (This is even worse when a no-warning triggered cut scene forces a level transition from a level you're not "done" exploring yet and can't go back to.)
4. Any game where falling to your death is more a danger than the enemies you face (Witcher!) and then includes enemies that often can fight you next to cliffs (Witcher's Sirens/Harpies). Yay.
5. Smuggler's Caches on Skellige implied to be actual discovery rewards rather than the sheer hell they represent.

Tried to add some of these, but the poll limit has been reached

Looks like polls can indeed only have 100 options.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

Tried to add some of these, but the poll limit has been reached

Looks like polls can indeed only have 100 options.

It's telling that clearly there's more than a hundred things wrong with RPGs nowadays.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Now, do a felipepe and add 200 votes to RTwP combat.
Thinking it took your two weeks to add that option...

 

[VHS9000]

Your Most Hated Gameplay Elements?

Fight music interrupting exploration.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

You had "deterministic skill checks" but its the opposite that annoys me; random chance of success that encourages save-scumming and the equally obnoxious "variable and arbitrary stat increases at level up" that does the same.

 

[kangaxx]

You had "deterministic skill checks" but its the opposite that annoys me; random chance of success that encourages save-scumming and the equally obnoxious "variable and arbitrary stat increases at level up" that does the same.

I agree, particularly if the outcome of the check is significant. For example in BG3 there's a really early one that either results in a fight or a new party member... who is going to accept a failed roll if they want that person in their party?