Common Elements in Video Games that You Find to Be Annoying
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Feb. 3, 2019, 11:58 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Like most people my age, I played video games in my youth (and I still play video games on rare occasion, today), and I enjoyed the majority of those games, but some games contained elements that annoyed me to no end, so I now wish to discuss common elements in video games that players find to be annoying.
The first element that I dislike is excessive level grinding; in RPG's, the characters need to level up to become more powerful, but, in some games, this becomes monotonous, consuming many hours that could be spent doing other things. Sometimes, a new item or ability will make the characters more powerful, but, more often than not, the characters simply need to fight battle after battle to be able to defeat an especially powerful boss monster or escape a decidedly dangerous dungeon. For example, I have played the first two Breath of Fire games as well as Final Fantasy VI and VII, and I did find myself becoming annoyed at needing to level grind so much (if I recall correctly, FFVI was the worst offender out of those games, ironically, as it is my favorite of those four, but the others were not too terrible in that regard).
The next element that I dislike is required mini-games; mini-games, in their own right, are very enjoyable ways to add depth and diversity to games, but, when they are actually required to advance the plot, they are obnoxious and frustrating, and the two worst offenders, for me, are the Subrosian dance in Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and the Goron dance in Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages. When I first played those games, it took me many attempts to succeed at those mini-games, so, if I ever decide to play those games, again, I hope that I will be able to complete those mini-games with greater ease.
The common video game element that annoys me most of all is trial-and-error gameplay, in which the only way to learn what the player is supposed to do is to attempt it and, if mistakes are made, to learn from those mistakes. A particularly good example is Dangerous Dave for DOS, a platformer very similar to early Mario games, in which there are some floors through which the character can fall, but there is no way at all to know if the character shall fall through the floor until it actually happens, which is insanely frustrating, and the fact that that game does not have a save feature makes it far worse.
What does everyone else say about this? What are some common elements in video games that you find to be annoying?
Hands down the most annoying thing is not just a cutscene/dialog that you can't skip.... but having that right before a boss fight/typically difficult part of the game where you are bound to die more than just once or twice....
Or something like the game over scene in Castelvania Symphony of the night...
February 4, 2019 6:49 a.m. Edited.
Dark Souls series are trial and error regarding to which path you have to choose at any given time, but this feels miles better than having a "quest/compass arrow" pointing in the direction of the next quest. In the very first DS, the first time you had a choice in where to go, you had 2-3 paths total. None killed you outright and you had to complete them anyways, so at best you chose the order in which things happen. The game structure is a funnel, where you have the wide end where you start in terms of options, at the thin part where you have just one clear path to the ending.
Compare with a modern RPG where you are given a quest and your journal and map are immediately updated with what you need to do and where. This feels much worse than having no direction - you are brought along, set piece by set piece, towards the end and the gameplay structure resembles a string.
So, yes, I hate the "quest arrow" in RPG games. It is insulting and if your game needs it, it probably needs to be better designed.
February 4, 2019 7:02 a.m.
My biggest video game pet peeve is puzzles which are easy to figure out, but pointlessly time-consuming to implement.
For example, I once played a game where you had to pull levers, which would move blocks, which would unlock a door. The puzzle itself was not too challenging, and I figured it out rather quickly. However, these levers were all placed quite far apart from one another, so I ended up spending more time running to lever A then B, then back to A, then all the way over to C, then.... you get the picture.
Compare to Portal--sometimes the puzzles might have been easy to figure out but difficult to impliment, just as the puzzle described above was. However, Portal's difficulty with implementation involved perfecting one's timing, not simple busy-work.
February 4, 2019 10:13 a.m.
I also dont like open world games that should not have been open world. Take Zelda BotW for example. While still a very good game i dont agree that Zelda should be that open (and empty). The Zelda series is good because of its story and dungeons and BotW lacked on both because it had to be open world.
February 4, 2019 11:50 a.m.
Well games that feel like upon release that they are unfinished, is what I dislike. I happen to play Xbox, and one such game called Destiny which released originally Spetember, 2014. At launch, there were many complaints that the game was sorely lacking in content and others were unsatisfied with aspects of the story, etc. There was much more content that was planned to be released originally, but late into development the storyline was changed significantly shortly before release. Also, other content was cut and later re-sold as downloadable content (DLC) rather than being assets in the game people would have paid for...
However, the game would in time improve after multiple updates and content releases over the next 2 years, but there were some times still that there existed a drought in content to do. Nearly 3 years in, and I thought the game was shaping out to be quite good (I have put around 2,000 hours into this game btw). Through the ups and downs I stuck around because I was such a fan of the Halo series that Bungie originally created and Destiny I similarly took an interest in too.
Then Destiny 2 was announced in time by Bungie/Activision and players learned that all the gear that they have earned and collected over time was to be lost with Destiny 2. Destiny 2 released and again faced issues with content present upon release. There were complaints that they changed things not needing to be changed, dumb-downed way too much to appeal to more casual gamers,and the dull grind to earn more and better gear to get more powerful were some issues. Gamers had to wait for the game to again improve with future DLC, with some such content expansions being rushed in some regards. Many people, compared to what it use to have been, have moved on and abandoned the series sadly. It has improved certainly though, and I hope by now they have learned from some of their poor choices and I do hope with their recent split from their publisher of Activision, that they now don't rush through releasing things. Only time will tell how little/much they were to blame rather than their publisher for the decisions made in regards to the hasty launch of content, and other areas of complaints like microtransactions, the prices of DLC, etc.
A destiny 3 is in the works, and Bungie now publishing the grand on their own have a lot of work cut out for them as a studio for the next title to be a success and convince many original fans back.
February 4, 2019 1:45 p.m. Edited.
CrimsonKing says... #9
Open worlds mailnly because most of the time the game is boring and not engaging.
February 4, 2019 3:14 p.m.
smackjack - While I have not played Breath of the Wild yet, its being open world is not a departure from the rest of the series, but rather a return to the old way of doing things. Both The Legend of Zelda and A Link to the Past were non-linear open world games, where you could do the dungeons in whichever order you wished.
So, even assuming arguendo that Breath of the Wild was a poor implementation of open world gaming, I would hesitate to say it "should not have been open world" given the franchise's roots.
February 4, 2019 4:08 p.m.
Flooremoji says... #11
I just hate needles puzzles that are confusing, like in one game I played, I just could not tell from wich direction I came from, so I couldn't figure out the puzzle.
The other two are tracking down far away objects (Like finding the warrior dogs in Okami), or bad/non-existent respawn points where you have to do (time consuming) tasks just to get back where you were.
February 4, 2019 6:04 p.m.
hmmm, I honestly really enjoy video games atm (course atm I'm just playing arena, skyrim, and wow, all games that have essentially existed quite awhile and don't have some of the elements other games have lately).
Now the things that annoy me a bit in those games would be mana screw 5 games in a row to the point it feels like a bug (the deck has god damn 25 lands in it and I just need to keep drawing them!!!), so a game mechanic of mtg that's been around forever, that you have to admit really feels good when a mono red player kept that 1 land hand and doesn't draw one for the next 3 turns. but yeah the feeling that I have to close the game after each match to fix a bug feels bad...
For group games like wow what I don't like is the people attending those group content completely unprepared, not putting any effort in learning their character that is actively hugging the ground each fight if they're not running bad stuff into the group, you actively spend 9 hours a week those 19 people, put at least 1 hour a week into learning how not to make those collective 180 hours miserable...
subrosian says... #2
I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED
oh you didn't like the dance. Cool. Fine. Probably didn't like the sweet flute prize either, or the swimming dinosaur it summons.
Anyway, lately my least favorite parts of games are boring or poorly written dialogue and long, unskippable cutscenes. Usually in conjunction. Bonus points if the cutscenes are presented as though they're gameplay, like in an escort mission or a tailing mission in a stealth game. It certainly made me want to never play Assassin's Creed 4 (or any other game in the series) again.
So how do you feel about the Dark Souls/Bloodborne series? They're pretty much entirely about trial and error, but it always feels really rewarding to me by the time I figure out how to traverse a part of the game.
February 4, 2019 4:17 a.m.