Things in Video Games you Hate

[Judge Spear]

This isn't really about games themselves, but rather a community thing. I kinda like seeing people go through a game optimally as opposed to blind or casual runs. So I prefer speedruns to longplays.
I hate how I can't find speedruns without bullshit on YouTube anymore.

Do whatever you want on Twitch, but when I go for a VoD, I don't care about you.
I don't wanna see your fucking face. I don't wanna hear your nasally fucking voice. I don't give a shit about your loud borders shrinking the game view by 20%. I don't care about your stupid simp Twitch dono's, bad in jokes/meme popups, and other obnoxious fluff effects.

STG superplayers can get clean videos up of live runs done in MAME and there was a point before Twitch where this was not a thing. So clean uploads can definitely still be done.

 

[DemonHazardDeer]

- Games that don't respect your time.

- If you are given a tutorial you want it to respect your intelligence.
Take portal for example they slowly drip feed you features at a great rate (which is good tutorial)
Then you take other games where you have to read a manual or read a guide to figure out how to do stuff.

- Unskippable cutscenes (or non-interactable cutscenes)

- Escort missions like Ben said. Divinity 2's escort mission to get the ship to the end to the point where you don't do enough damage because you changed the configuration of your dragon skills in a previous save prior to it. To eventually be in a perpetual failure state (literally would of 100%'d it).
If you have a mission to defend someone. I wish you could tell them to stay still... That battle would be so much easier.
It was also the same reason i never beat "Dragon Rage" they had an escort mission too...

- Underwater levels, they never get them right in the game. It is equivalent to a space battle. Just floaty controls with 3 dimensional movement with swimming in some form. They are usually extremely slow.

- Microtransactions that are things from the original game but sold to the player. Increasing the grind so people are more likely to want to pay for it. "Pay for Convenience" which is toxic in how games are made these days. Then you have the issue where these microtransactions are predatory in nature where they are there just to make people pay more because of FOMO.

- Battle Passes, especially when those have the ability to "Skip" the grind with a limited time. It preys on people who fear of missing out on something.

- The narator from Biomutant... Literally talking as an interpreter of every character in the game. Eventually being a copy paste job of every faction leader's voice line repeated 5 times. "You beat me... But i wont give up".

- Looking for Groups automated systems in MMOs. That literally kills the community in any game. It was originally "talk to people and befriend them"... Now it is press button and play with random people that literally you may never meet again so you might as well NEED everything and greed nothing.

I have thousands of more gripes about Video games... but i prefer people being able to talk.

Don’t forget the lives system, literally just made to waste your money in arcades and time on home consoles

 

[Inferndragon]

Don’t forget the lives system, literally just made to waste your money in arcades and time on home consoles

I actually enjoyed games with lives in arcades... Even though it was designed to make you waste money.
If you were good at the game you'd spend less money. Eventually making it so for £1 you could complete a whole game if you are good enough.
House of the Dead 4... Shotguns.

In the end it taught you "Get gud". But yeah for accessibility reasons it is pretty bad for most players.

 

[DemonHazardDeer]

I actually enjoyed games with lives in arcades... Even though it was designed to make you waste money.
If you were good at the game you'd spend less money. Eventually making it so for £1 you could complete a whole game if you are good enough.
House of the Dead 4... Shotguns.

In the end it taught you "Get gud". But yeah for accessibility reasons it is pretty bad for most players.

My problem with it at this point is that games have found ways to teach you to get good with punishments for playing poor, they have since DMC 1 at least, you play bad, you get no style, you get less money to buy cool new moves. Now lives mainly only serve their purpose as time wasting for the sake of nostalgia. I would've loved Sonic Mania if it respected my time more but they just had to put in lives cuz the originals had them

 

[Inferndragon]

My problem with it at this point is that games have found ways to teach you to get good with punishments for playing poor, they have since DMC 1 at least, you play bad, you get no style, you get less money to buy cool new moves. Now lives mainly only serve their purpose as time wasting for the sake of nostalgia. I would've loved Sonic Mania if it respected my time more but they just had to put in lives cuz the originals had them

Well DMC you had cheats too. A ton of games would always have some hidden cheat left in for people.
Then now companies sell you those cheats as paid microtransactions.

 

[MonsterTeddy]

+ Animals that are hyper-aggressive towards you. It's often painfully unrealistic, and I don't want to kill animals. I just don't.

+ Events with super fun game mechanics or minigames that you NEVER get to play again outside of the event. WHY?!

+ Character customization that pretends to let you play any race, but no matter what skin color you choose, you still have white facial features.

+ Gendered clothing. I know making clothing fit different character models is easier said than done, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

+ Dark, gritty graphics where everything looks dirty.

+ The inability to jump. I want to jump, that is all.

+ Gacha games.

 

[Baalf]

Another thing I really hate seeing, is that even if you have a big non-human character, like a dragon for example, that is supposed to be a good guy, they almost ALWAYS have to be an antagonist ar one point. Whether they are being controlled, they attack you by mistake, or they somehow have no choice but to kill you or be killed, a big non-human entity can never simply be a good guy. Tales of Vesperia was horrible with this, and it's a big thing that killed the game for me.

I don't remember if I said this or not.

 

[DemonHazardDeer]

Well DMC you had cheats too. A ton of games would always have some hidden cheat left in for people.
Then now companies sell you those cheats as paid microtransactions.

True, and I do like cheats don’t get me wrong, but what I like is games that push you to get good without wasting a shit ton of your time. Going back to DMC, I really like that they discourage you from using healing items by reducing your score. It’s not overly punishing but also tells you “hey you didn’t do this legit so we’re gonna punish you and push you just a bit too be better”

 

[Judge Spear]

Ok, so I like Battle Network a lot. But if I have to be honest, if it weren't for the bosses, genius battle system, addicting customization, and multiplayer, these would easily be the worst JRPG's at *least* for the GBA. Because Capcom seemed to want to take the hundreds of horrendous design philosophies of the genre and up them to 11.
Oddly enough being a grind is not one of those issues, but the other ways it makes you advance your game state are impish and infuriating.

Let me lay out one of the many examples of what I'm talking about in just BN3:

Spoiler: bear with me

So there's a tournament going on in the game because 2000's shonen. They email you that the next stage of this tournament takes place in the beach area. So you need to go to the newly accessible beach square on the Net. But you don't have a pass. I'll get to that in a bit...

MegaMan tells Lan "Hey Lan let's invite all our friends to the beach!". Terrific...
That means you have to go to each of Glyde, Roll, and GutsMan's home pages to directly ask them (because in the year of our lord and savior 20XX, they cannot just send a fucking text despite there existing an email system they use even when their lives are in imminent danger).

So you go to Glyde. "I can't go."
You go to Roll. "I can't go".
You go to Gutswhere the fuck is he? :l

GutsMan is arbitrarily not on his fucking homepage which also happened to be highly inconvenient to get to. A program is there to tell you that GutsMan is in Yoka 1 for some endurance test that means nothing to the game. And if you know where to find him prior, you still have to go TO GutsMan's HP, talk to that fucking program, and now GutsMan will appear in Yoka. Dex's home to get to his computer more directly is also randomly locked.
So you go through ACDC to get to the station and go to Yoka 1 to meet Gutsman so he can go "YEEHAW!"

And what is the point of all that? So the game can give you this fucking email...

This series does this padded scavenger hunt bullshit a lot. There's tons of instances like these and it's aggravating because these are really fun games when they remember to BE games. JRPG's do shit like this a fuck load. It doesn't even help that BN has even worse writing than Pokemon. I already think JRPG's universally tell bad stories so even if I played it for the writing, it doesn't justify these obnoxious fetch quests with it's stories or characters.
Battle Network just makes the slog worth it through fulfilling, brilliant fighting and it's deck building system.

 

[ben909]

when small rocks give more stone then large ones

 

[Plouc the Dragon]

Two things I hated the most while growing up: Dancing and workout.

Dancing does not part of every rhythm games is because one inclusion; you have to line up the icons in the cursor by hitting the arrow pad, face or side of the drum, etc. to register a hit, gain life gauge, and get a perfect score and rhythm. Dancing is the pure opposite of rhythm for one minor thing: Follow the dancer on-screen like you were looking at the mirror.

Workout failed me the most in my life because I keep ignoring workout games like Wii Fit series and Ring Fit Adventure because I ended up getting lil chubby during COVID.

 

[Judge Spear]

Two things I hated the most while growing up: Dancing and workout.

Dancing does not part of every rhythm games is because one inclusion; you have to line up the icons in the cursor by hitting the arrow pad, face or side of the drum, etc. to register a hit, gain life gauge, and get a perfect score and rhythm. Dancing is the pure opposite of rhythm for one minor thing: Follow the dancer on-screen like you were looking at the mirror.

Workout failed me the most in my life because I keep ignoring workout games like Wii Fit series and Ring Fit Adventure because I ended up getting lil chubby during COVID.

Ok, I know I'm still kinda drunk but seriously...
what?
What the FUCK are you talking about sometimes?

 

[Imperial Impact]

Ok, so I like Battle Network a lot. But if I have to be honest, if it weren't for the bosses, genius battle system, addicting customization, and multiplayer, these would easily be the worst JRPG's at *least* for the GBA. Because Capcom seemed to want to take the hundreds of horrendous design philosophies of the genre and up them to 11.
Oddly enough being a grind is not one of those issues, but the other ways it makes you advance your game state are impish and infuriating.

Let me lay out one of the many examples of what I'm talking about in just BN3:

Spoiler: bear with me

So there's a tournament going on in the game because 2000's shonen. They email you that the next stage of this tournament takes place in the beach area. So you need to go to the newly accessible beach square on the Net. But you don't have a pass. I'll get to that in a bit...

MegaMan tells Lan "Hey Lan let's invite all our friends to the beach!". Terrific...
That means you have to go to each of Glyde, Roll, and GutsMan's home pages to directly ask them (because in the year of our lord and savior 20XX, they cannot just send a fucking text despite there existing an email system they use even when their lives are in imminent danger).

So you go to Glyde. "I can't go."
You go to Roll. "I can't go".
You go to Gutswhere the fuck is he? :l

GutsMan is arbitrarily not on his fucking homepage which also happened to be highly inconvenient to get to. A program is there to tell you that GutsMan is in Yoka 1 for some endurance test that means nothing to the game. And if you know where to find him prior, you still have to go TO GutsMan's HP, talk to that fucking program, and now GutsMan will appear in Yoka. Dex's home to get to his computer more directly is also randomly locked.
So you go through ACDC to get to the station and go to Yoka 1 to meet Gutsman so he can go "YEEHAW!"

And what is the point of all that? So the game can give you this fucking email...

View attachment 135001

This series does this padded scavenger hunt bullshit a lot. There's tons of instances like these and it's aggravating because these are really fun games when they remember to BE games. JRPG's do shit like this a fuck load. It doesn't even help that BN has even worse writing than Pokemon. I already think JRPG's universally tell bad stories so even if I played it for the writing, it doesn't justify these obnoxious fetch quests with it's stories or characters.
Battle Network just makes the slog worth it through fulfilling, brilliant fighting and it's deck building system.

I would argue that 4.5 is the worst offender.

Ok, I know I'm still kinda drunk but seriously...
what?
What the FUCK are you talking about sometimes?

He's a fat dragon and wants to stay fat.

 

[FoxZarz]

Tutorials
The games that have the best tutorials are the ones you didn't even knew it haved one. Like Half Life 2, if i remember correctly, the game don't teach you that you can throw the saw blade to the dead guys with headcrabs, you discover that after finding out that thoose things could cut out planks obstructing doors. Tutorials are best when they teach you things without directly saying it to you.

 

[Rap_Daniel]

Time limits, time limits, TIME LIMITS, TIME LIMITS! I'm looking at you, Super Mario!

 

[PanthersForFun]

Energy systems in mobile games. The kind where you can only play a certain number of levels before having to wait hours for your energy to recharge. It's like they don't want you to play the game.
Also when a game's easy mode is too easy but the mode above it is way too difficult.

 

[a sleepy kitty]

I hate how in many games the males get all the cool armor, yet us females get the most revealing of armors (metal bras, etc).

 

[Minerva_Minx]

Armor is bad enough.

armor and a crap story? Ugh, that's a slog...

 

[Amepix]

The fact Pokémon still doesn't have a way to skip the tutorial if you already know how to freaking play the darned game

 

[ben909]

The fact Pokémon still doesn't have a way to skip the tutorial if you already know how to freaking play the darned game

there are comics about this

 

[Deleted member 160111]

I hate how in many games the males get all the cool armor, yet us females get the most revealing of armors (metal bras, etc).

I'm also annoyed by the armor brassiere. The fact is that statistically most of the players are men. Men often play as female characters to look at their booty while they run for hours from one quest to another. An armored bra is the same. Everyone already knows that such armor is ineffective, but in them the female character is more attractive.

Play for the mens, be above lust!>:0

 

[ben909]

<joke> but it's enchanted somehow so it still works, and the bra also reduces damage taken if an arror hits your leg or head</joke>

 

[Pomorek]

I don't have many pet peeves when it comes to games, but this one is really annoying. Forced updates for Skyrim which don't fix anything of substance but they throw the modding API out of whack, causing my heavily modified game to stop working altogether.

Sometimes it's getting ridiculous. Earlier in the autumn, an update was released said to improve something with the Chinese characters rendering. Seems like such a minor fix (and how come they didn't notice it earlier throughout the game's 11 years of existence, does it really need patches still at this point?!), but mods obviously stopped working... And if we're to believe one user on Steam, said problem with character rendering remained! Which is corroborated by the fact that there was another update released shortly.

A forum opinion which I'm inclined to believe was that Bethesda is doing this on purpose, to screw with people using mods from outside of their own limited "Creation Club". However, among the many little wonders of Skyrim-related coding that exist in the wild, there's a page on nexusmods.com which maintains "downgrader patches", bringing the API back into previously working order. The good folks there release such a patch typically within 24 hours from an update. So if Skyrim suddenly stops working, I need to keep calm and wait for a day at most... Lately, I actually managed to manually decline an update in Steam for long enough that the patch was ready.

 

[Punji]

I understand programming true randomness is very difficult, but I feel the demand and practical application within the video games industry more than warrants this.

I absolutely hate the current commonly used "seed" systems and such where some probabilities are inherently fixed, yet display a probability as though it was a genuine chance. Anyone can test it with just about any game on the market, take a high-probability shot and when it misses reload and take the exact same shot again, repeat thirty times and when 31 "95% chances" to hit all miss it becomes pretty obvious. Even better, take a different shot with someone else and magically the impossible shot can suddenly land. It's not fun.

Some game systems can help work around this by providing alternatives for success and/or by giving the play a reasonably practical means to guarantee a successful hit. Phoenix Point has a dual ring cone of fire for example. The outer ring is the full volume a shot may land in and the inner ring is where a shot should land 50% of the time. The size of these rings are set and cannot increase or decrease in the middle of combat, are generally standardized only differing by character abilities and proficiencies, and are tied to character-weapon interactions. Therefore, it is possible to position both the character and his firing cone in a place where failure is literally impossible. Another easy solution is having no hard cap on success probability. A sufficiently stacked encounter can easily reach (over) 100% with enough planning and strategy, preventing scripted failure.

This is insanely frustrating in games like Battle Brothers. A very difficult and punishing tactical medieval fantasy turn-based game where the chance to hit is hard capped at 5%-95%. meaning the player is always at the mercy of the seed regardless of how skilled his characters are and how pathetic and terrible his opponent is. The number of times I've had a very important 95% miss only to be hit by an enemy 7% is inebriating. I get that there is never a truly "100%" in real life, but we're talking a professional fighter who has been fighting to the death nearly every day for his entire adult life and kills multiple people and monsters every single day in-game, making the exact same swings and motions literally hundreds of times to even thousands in a single playthrough, much less in his storied life prior to player control. But somehow the half-starved peasant wearing a sack on his chest was able to dodge this attack and retaliate against this human terminator with little more than improvised weapons and farming tools. Yeah, okay. Don't even get me started on the plot armour some special characters get, dodging ten "30%s" in a row.