Pet Peeves with Games?
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I hate RNG so much
I don't get it. Life has too much RNG, I play video games because it's a predominantly skill-based controlled environment.It's like picking up a piano and there's a 35% chance F# is just F every time you play the damn note
I guess it makes sense if you're role playing and want your experience to mimic real life, which is why they're mostly used in RPGs, but I also feel so immersed playing skill-based games without RNG, so I can't assess its actual value.
The reason they're in RPGs is the same reason they're in any other genre. In a war game, you could be a tactical genius, but the RNG is there to simulate dumb luck, so the game is about forcing you to play the odds, because victory is almost never guaranteed. When the result is deterministic, there can often be a single 100% correct answer, and RNG throws a wrench in that. Something similar can be applied to loot games, where you're rolling with the punches based on what you've found.
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These days I think my biggest gripe about games is those which through intentional design decisions either massively disrespect the player's time, intelligence, or most often both. I'm looking very hard in Nintendo's direction, here. Miyamoto says: If the player is not locked into a succession of inescapable and slowly plodding text boxes where they're offered neither choices nor agency, it must mean they're not sufficiently engaged!
This was marginally acceptable when we were twelve years old and had all day to sit in front of the video game console, and arguably nobody knew any better. But now gamers are adults. We have jobs and chores to do and some of us have kids, and most people have only a very limited slice of time left in the day for gaming. That time should be spent actually playing the game, not waiting for your game to get out of the way of its own damn self.
But games are now going in the wrong direction, to ever greater heights of trying to manipulate players in to make the fucking thing their full time job, either due to incompetence (in single player/traditional console games) or greed (in online/live service games).
So. Also cutscenes you can't skip even after you've already seen them (this includes all the dumbass logos before the game actually starts), dialog boxes you can't skip after you've seen them the first time as well, doubly so if you can't press some button to cause them to skip their typing animation and simply display in full. Extra quadruple especially if you were too cheap to have your game voice acted — yes, Nintendo, that means you again, see me after class — because then you didn't even have the excuse of trying to keep the text synchronized to the voice lines.
I'm a sight reader. I assure you, I can read your text as fast as you can put it on the screen. That's probably why I write so many words. You don't need to slowly type it out one character at a time with little scritchy bleepy bloop noises. If other people need that for accessibility purposes, fine. But let me turn it off. And if you are going to insist on forcing me to pause for several seconds at the end of each paragraph before the prompt appears and allows me to press A to receive the next text box, I'm afraid I'm going to have to hunt you down and slap clean out of your chair with this here rubber chicken.
This explicitly also includes games which force the player to grind for some critical resource or progression or need some absurd amount of in-game currency to do anything, and are clearly designed around the grinding being the point. I already have that. It's called a job. If the grind can be conveniently eliminated by paying a microtransaction; in that case your game just got uninstalled. I'm also including stuff like, "You need this item to access this content, but it randomly drops and too bad for you that you need ten of them and it's a 1/1,000 chance. Go kill more spiders. No, not those spiders. Only these specific spiders, which spawn in this specific area, but only with a 1/50 chance. The other spiders that spawn here are the wrong type."
No Man's Sky in particular is deeply guilty of this, forcing you to go to specific planets in specific types of systems which you often have no way of filtering or searching for to look for specific objects which may drop specific materials which you are required to have multiple of to build some object for your base/ship/suit/whatever. Let me just say, I'm glad that the item duplication bug in that one remains unpatched.
Games which force you to stop progression for a completely arbitrary reason, and for no other purpose than to be annoying. One example I can name off the top of my head here is Spiritfarer. This is a game that, by and large, revolves around doing menial chores to cater hand-and-foot to ungrateful people, all of which require engaging in some manner of real-time minigame. You do this while scooting all around the world to visit areas you need to be physically present in to trigger events in which you can gather required resources. Your boat sails itself once you plot a route, leaving you free to engage in said minigames (with varying levels of tedium) while it steams away in the background. The game has a day and night cycle. Your boat stops moving at night. You have to run all the way down the length of your boat (which gets progressively larger as you play) to go to bed in the cabin at the rear, whereupon the smarmy going-to-bed jingle can't be skipped, wait for the fade to black, and then run back to where you were to pick up what you were doing before you were interrupted for absolutely no compelling gameplay reason. Fuck you very much.
::: spoiler Also,
Don't even come at me with, "But realism! Everyone needs to sleep!" First of all, the other denizens of your boat don't sleep because they are all dead souls. And second of all, the game can't even hold it in until the actual ending before revealing that so are you, so it turns out Stella doesn't even need to sleep either.
:::The latter complaint also includes games which insist on stopping the action dead incessantly to pop up a message box and have your mission control fairy tutorialize at you in a condescending and unskippable manner. Especially if it's not on your first playthrough. Frankly, if you can't figure out a way to teach your game's most basic mechanics to the player naturally and have to resort to unskippable popup nagging, you suck and you need to find a new career. Game development obviously isn't for you.
What games have you played that prompted the complaint you brought up regarding sight reading? I’m the same way, and sometimes I find I have to turn subtitles off because I want to actually enjoy the voice acting instead of skipping through everything. The Witcher 3 was especially hard for me in this regard, along with Baldour’s Gate 3. I just started Clair Obscur the other day, and I’m really enjoying the way they subtitle each line out into pretty short chunks because I’ve found I’m much better able to actually listen to the dialogue with their way.
I’m trying to think of a game I’ve played where I have the opposite problem, the one you’re describing where you can’t skip dialogue sections, and I’m coming up blank. Not trying to say you’re wrong, I’m just really curious at this point. I mostly play RPGs and online FPS games, maybe thats part of why I can’t think of an example?
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Single saves. Me and husband have one computer (we're broke?) and too many games have a single save. So we can't play that game trading off cause there's only one save. Like Baldur's Gate 3? Amazing. Billion saves, hell a billion for each character even. Heaven's Vault? Wild Bastards? One save. Guh.
Nintendo is infamous for this. Animal Crossing is a great game on the Switch, but it’s meant for one person. You can join an island, but unless the island creator has everything unlocked, you can’t progress the game. And even if they have, there are certain recipes you can’t get without cheating (treasure islands) for some reason.
Pokémon is the same way. They literally want you to buy a second Switch.
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Nintendo is infamous for this. Animal Crossing is a great game on the Switch, but it’s meant for one person. You can join an island, but unless the island creator has everything unlocked, you can’t progress the game. And even if they have, there are certain recipes you can’t get without cheating (treasure islands) for some reason.
Pokémon is the same way. They literally want you to buy a second Switch.
Oh yes, wasn't even thinking of that. Part of my twins gift to me of New Horizons was the promise they wouldn't play the game as well because it's one island and it's miiiiine. So many other games on the switch, just use a profile and bam! New game! Bah Nintendo.
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This might have been the issue as well? All the saves were in the Cloud. But I'm not very techy. While I can follow instructions (I think), software seems to hate me. The hardware, we're friends!
If that was the issue then doing two separate user accounts on the PC, then having a primary steam account (the existing one with all the games) and a secondary new one, and putting them into a Steam family together just like the person I replied to said would be functionally equivalent to yall having two separate PCs with your own steam accounts when it comes to saves and steam achievements and stuff, but you only need to buy and install the game once. It’ll also let you have separate config files so if one person like controls bound one way and the other another you’re not having to rebind each time yall swap who is playing and everything.
Edit - I, as an adult, took shrooms then accidentally overwrote my dad’s Skyrim save file on his PS3 back in the day and I felt terrible about it :/. I totally understand how annoying save handling can be.
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If that was the issue then doing two separate user accounts on the PC, then having a primary steam account (the existing one with all the games) and a secondary new one, and putting them into a Steam family together just like the person I replied to said would be functionally equivalent to yall having two separate PCs with your own steam accounts when it comes to saves and steam achievements and stuff, but you only need to buy and install the game once. It’ll also let you have separate config files so if one person like controls bound one way and the other another you’re not having to rebind each time yall swap who is playing and everything.
Edit - I, as an adult, took shrooms then accidentally overwrote my dad’s Skyrim save file on his PS3 back in the day and I felt terrible about it :/. I totally understand how annoying save handling can be.
Rebound keys is important because husband has cerebral palsy and needs to heavily modify the layout, that's good then!
So many games also don't allow that as well, multiple key maps!
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Mine always is, completely forgetting what I was doing and where I was going after not touching a save file for a long time. This is happening to me right now with Stardew Valley.
I'm in Year 4, married Maru, have a decent farm going, I have yet to build the movie theater I just found out so that's something I can do. And I know up until that point, I called it a conclusion of a game, but yet I forgot completely about there being some minor goals or things I wanted to do. Completely out of my head. It was a year ago since I last touched that save.
This happens a lot with old saves, because sometimes I have had something in mind as to how I was going to play the game or where I was going with a character.
I love when a game makes me think. To figure out how to progress, or just how to beat an enemy or solve a puzzle.
What I don’t like is when you do the thing and it doesn’t click. Like you do it a second too fast or slow. Like come on, I did the thing, now let me move onto the next thing.
I once played a game that let you skip a mission after failing it so many times. Seriously, why should the game just end because you don’t have perfect timing? That’s not entertaining for me. Keep the thing moving, somehow.
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My biggest pet peeve are collectables in games not primarily about exploration.
I guess it can be implemented in a fun way, but I hate backtracking or not being sure I can continue without looking in every corner in a segment of a level.
Replayed Mario Galaxy and it was pleasantly surprised being able to play it in your own way.
~I am aware that nothing is stopping me to do so, even with collectables. Unfortunately I hate half progress bars just as much TT.~
Yeah, playing Sniper Elite 5 atm, clearly the game was designed to follow your own path, however there are collectibles/things to find and/or information key to finishing optional objectives in basically every building. Then sometimes after finishing every main objective on a map, I'm resorting to running around like a madman slaughtering small pockets of remaining nazis because I've run out of patience after a 1-2hr mission - therefore ruining my otherwise perfect stealth run -_- .
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- Games that offer stealth as an option over combat, but have mandatory combat bosses.
- games that have excessive grinding as part of the main gameplay.
- Games where randomness is the primary factor in winning and losing.
Games that offer stealth as an option over combat, but have mandatory combat bosses.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a great game, but this was a serious issue. The game has a (notoriously buggy) achievement for finishing the game without killing anyone, but every boss requires a loadout of lethal weapons to take down, leaving a minimum of slots for non-lethal alternatives. Very annoying.
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Since they just have the one pc, they should be able to just make a second user on the pc then sign in to the single steam account. The new user won’t have any save files in the local user directories, so the game gets launched and you’ll only see the “second” set of saves. No idea how this would work with cloud saves on the steam side though.
That would be even more work IMO
Unless they want to separate their non-game files, too
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The reason they're in RPGs is the same reason they're in any other genre. In a war game, you could be a tactical genius, but the RNG is there to simulate dumb luck, so the game is about forcing you to play the odds, because victory is almost never guaranteed. When the result is deterministic, there can often be a single 100% correct answer, and RNG throws a wrench in that. Something similar can be applied to loot games, where you're rolling with the punches based on what you've found.
I'm just glad my favorite games don't have any of this and are still infinitely replayable.
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Mine always is, completely forgetting what I was doing and where I was going after not touching a save file for a long time. This is happening to me right now with Stardew Valley.
I'm in Year 4, married Maru, have a decent farm going, I have yet to build the movie theater I just found out so that's something I can do. And I know up until that point, I called it a conclusion of a game, but yet I forgot completely about there being some minor goals or things I wanted to do. Completely out of my head. It was a year ago since I last touched that save.
This happens a lot with old saves, because sometimes I have had something in mind as to how I was going to play the game or where I was going with a character.
is waiting for me at the lab" or "I think I should [y]", it starts to piss me off.It's like they don't trust the player to play the game "right". Games are more than just sprinting from one objective to another. Can't even take the time to fully look over a puzzle before the game starts telling you what to do next.
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Mine always is, completely forgetting what I was doing and where I was going after not touching a save file for a long time. This is happening to me right now with Stardew Valley.
I'm in Year 4, married Maru, have a decent farm going, I have yet to build the movie theater I just found out so that's something I can do. And I know up until that point, I called it a conclusion of a game, but yet I forgot completely about there being some minor goals or things I wanted to do. Completely out of my head. It was a year ago since I last touched that save.
This happens a lot with old saves, because sometimes I have had something in mind as to how I was going to play the game or where I was going with a character.
One of the best examples of a game that did it right was Heaven's Vault. The game was decent/mediocre (imo) but every time I opened it it summarized what I did last time and it had awesome timeline history
In Stardew valley no matter what you had done its so easy to just start doing something you like and the game smoothes you in. Its plot has zero time limits after all
Forgot to add my pet peeve: non adjustable time/turn/action/decision limits in single player games. I hate when I have to play a game with 'perfect knowledge'/wiki to get desirable outcome because I wanted to schmuck around trying things instead of focusing the main plot/whatever the game wanted me to do. Games like Homeworld, FTL, Phoenix Point and some CRPGs I made an error early into the game and instead of giving me a way to correct my mistake the game just became unwinnable at the end. "I have to live with the consequences of my actions." Some people love that but for me it ruins the feeling. Games aren't real life. I just spent 10+ hours and I can't continue anymore? Sucks.
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That would be even more work IMO
Unless they want to separate their non-game files, too
Wait, so how does that work for games that store saves in ‘c:\users%user%\my documents’ and stuff? That’s why I assumed they’d also need a separate user account on the pc.
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I have many pet peeves when it comes to games, but the biggest that I can think of off the top of my head is the boss fights in games that don't let you use the weapons & skills/techniques that you'd used to get to that point. It just pisses me off when they let you develop a character with particular skills and weapons only to force a particular combat style that's contrary to what you'd used up till that point.
RPGs are absolutely terrible about giving you the ability to inflict status effects on enemies, but not giving random encounter enemies enough HP to justify inflicting statuses, and then also making the bosses immune to them.
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What games have you played that prompted the complaint you brought up regarding sight reading? I’m the same way, and sometimes I find I have to turn subtitles off because I want to actually enjoy the voice acting instead of skipping through everything. The Witcher 3 was especially hard for me in this regard, along with Baldour’s Gate 3. I just started Clair Obscur the other day, and I’m really enjoying the way they subtitle each line out into pretty short chunks because I’ve found I’m much better able to actually listen to the dialogue with their way.
I’m trying to think of a game I’ve played where I have the opposite problem, the one you’re describing where you can’t skip dialogue sections, and I’m coming up blank. Not trying to say you’re wrong, I’m just really curious at this point. I mostly play RPGs and online FPS games, maybe thats part of why I can’t think of an example?
Basically every console RPG ever. Certainly those which are not voice acted, and present characters "talking" at you by slowly ghost typing their lines out one character at a time into a text box and then awaiting your input at the end before proceeding to the next line, but inevitably with the dialog box refusing to even start listening for button presses until some seconds after I've read the text multiple times over, plus its partially completed form several times more.
I'm adding another dishonorable mention on this front which isn't even a text box: That fucking treasure chest opening animation in Vampire Survivors. If you know, you know.
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Games that load your audio settings only after you enter the main menu.
Thanks for destroying my ear drums, Dark Souls.
I've also seen volume settings not kick in until you loaded a save file. Also, PS1 era Final Fantasy games that don't acknowledge your button mappings until the save has been loaded, so that B is select and A is cancel on the main menu, but the other way in-game.
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Wait, so how does that work for games that store saves in ‘c:\users%user%\my documents’ and stuff? That’s why I assumed they’d also need a separate user account on the pc.
Good question. At the very least, steam will cloud sync it regardless of where it's at on the drive so that's an option
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Mine always is, completely forgetting what I was doing and where I was going after not touching a save file for a long time. This is happening to me right now with Stardew Valley.
I'm in Year 4, married Maru, have a decent farm going, I have yet to build the movie theater I just found out so that's something I can do. And I know up until that point, I called it a conclusion of a game, but yet I forgot completely about there being some minor goals or things I wanted to do. Completely out of my head. It was a year ago since I last touched that save.
This happens a lot with old saves, because sometimes I have had something in mind as to how I was going to play the game or where I was going with a character.
You should play Policenauts. Its a visual novel adventure game from Hideo Kojimas early days in 1994-1996 following a private eye investigating a disappearance on a space station.
When you load a save file, the game gives you a summary screen of the events in the game that have happened so far (at least it does in the SEGA Saturn version that I played). Its the first instance I recall of this happening in video games, and I do wish it could return in more games. Its possible that other games had this before, but if there was a game that did, I dont know it or remember it.
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I believe it is going to be a huge deal as the gamers are aging out. (And if you play on a Tv).
Give me a freaking texts size option!
And not just size 6 to size 8! Big effin text!
It is a huge pet peeve of mine.Game developers should add text size options to be big enough or at least legible enough at small resolutions like 240p. This can help scale UI design too accomadate for potentially huge text sizes.
