Gaming conventions that need to die.

Okay, maybe "die" is too strong of a word. But this post was inspired by two highly praised games that I played recently: Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us. They were both great games and I loved them, but there was one aspect that annoyed the bejeezus out of me: looking for $hit.

I mean, seriously, wtf? In Bioshock Infinite, I spent a stupid amount of time looking for gold coins. Even when there's a clear goal and objective, I halt the pacing and narrative flow of the game to look for gold coins in every single garbage can. Does that even make any f***ing sense within the context of the game? Why would people leave gold coins in garbage cans in the first place? And considering that the story makes my character out to be a sort of antichrist figure and public enemy #1, wouldn't it be better to NOT look out of place by rooting through garbage cans for coins? The Last of Us handled that a little bit better. At least the stuff you find makes a bit more sense, and the context makes it more plausible that the character actually WOULD look for supplies and ammo wherever he could find them. But that's still not fun and it still interupts the game's pace. I'm sure that John MvClane in Die Hard was looking for ammo and supplies wherever available too, but the filmmakers didn't burden the audience by making them have to actually WATCH that $hit. It's still just sort of a chore. Anyway, your turn. I'm not really saying that any gaming convention needs to die, I suppose there's a place for everything. But what are some of the most annoying things that break immersion or otherwise diminish the fun of otherwise great games?MrGeezer

One example that's kind of similar to having to collect things is when I play any Zelda. I have to cut every Goddamn piece of grass in existence before I can proceed.  I believe this obssession began after ALttP and it's not yet died and is bordering on ruining my enjoyment but I can't help it.  Or for FPSes I have to shoot out all the glass windows even if I can't afford to waste ammo.  I don't really see how developers can avoid this though, as it's really not a fault of design (ok, the gold coins I can sort of see, but not TLoU/ Zelda's grass/FPS glass where it fits) but more so the anal OCDing of the player.  Placing it in context helps but not by much.

I also don't care for recharging health and a few other things I can't recall right now.

For me it would be boss fights and grinding. These two elements annoy me to no end.

Now boss battles can be a lot of fun but I also think they are overused. I don't believe I need to provide a reason why boss battles shouldn't be mandatory for video games, each game with boss battles should have to provide me with a reason why they exist. In the TLOU they did a great job, it never felt forced, predictable or out of place. It worked within the gameplay and narrative.

Grinding is an issue which pisses me off to no end. The last game I played that forced me to grind was MGS Peace Walker and my god I f*****g hate that game. What a pile of crap. A watered down grindfest with atrocious boss battles and annoyingly poor design. I'm amazed to this day that some people consider this the best in series. It's literally worse than all MGS games in nearly every conceivable way.

Got a bit carried away, let me try this again. The problem with grinding is that you find yourself replayng sections for such ridiculous reasons. The monotony of this is horrifying enough but to halt the progression of a game to complete what should be side activities like gathering pieces of intel or replaying boss battles for A.I parts is an incredibly poor way to stretch out the length of a title. Boss battles I can deal with, grinding I cannot.

Anyway I hate cheap/shallow RPG Elements appearing in games that can't make use of them, namely The Entire Bioshock Franchise. Theres nothing more annoying than playing the game on hard and upgrading your equipment to the point it becomes easy again or Vice Versa alongside that theres level scaling, the enemies become bullet sponges and their weapons get stronger. Its all so bloody redundant and unbalanced. . . . and inconsistant. Ofcourse nobody thinks theres anything wrong with that, they don't compare it with better games they compare it with System Shock.

For me it would be boss fights and grinding. These two elements annoy me to no end.

Now boss battles can be a lot of fun but I also think they are overused. I don't believe I need to provide a reason why boss battles shouldn't be mandatory for video games, each game with boss battles should have to provide me with a reason why they exist. In the TLOU they did a great job, it never felt forced, predictable or out of place. It worked within the gameplay and narrative.

contracts420

For me it would be boss fights and grinding. These two elements annoy me to no end.

 

Now boss battles can be a lot of fun but I also think they are overused. I don't believe I need to provide a reason why boss battles shouldn't be mandatory for video games, each game with boss battles should have to provide me with a reason why they exist. In the TLOU they did a great job, it never felt forced, predictable or out of place. It worked within the gameplay and narrative.

 

Grinding is an issue which pisses me off to no end. The last game I played that forced me to grind was MGS Peace Walker and my god I f*****g hate that game. What a pile of crap. A watered down grindfest with atrocious boss battles and annoyingly poor design. I'm amazed to this day that some people consider this the best in series. It's literally worse than all MGS games in nearly every conceivable way.

 

Got a bit carried away, let me try this again. The problem with grinding is that you find yourself replayng sections for such ridiculous reasons. The monotony of this is horrifying enough but to halt the progression of a game to complete what should be side activities like gathering pieces of intel or replaying boss battles for A.I parts is an incredibly poor way to stretch out the length of a title. Boss battles I can deal with, grinding I cannot.

contracts420

Well bosses aren't mandatory for video games. There are plenty of games that don't have them. Like most shooters. But I see what you mean. They are in pretty every game aside from them, and sports games and such. But there are exceptions. But I never really played a game where I felt they were entirely out of place. Except for the Goldeneye. Both the original and remake had one boss battle that felt entirely out of place.

I wish that developers would understand that boss fights are not necessary. If they don't fit the game's setting, don't include them. There's nothing worse than playing a game that is gunning for a semi-realistic setting, and then having to fight a boss that is just a normal guy with 1 million hp.

Actually, if you can't design an imaginative boss fight, don't include one. Bosses that are just normal enemies (or bigger enemies) with 1 million HP are generally awful. Make it interesting, or don't include it.

Moral and Dialog picks being such a important past of the game. Too many use them in place of having a good role playing system in the game.

I hate cutscene that stay in the character PoV. I find with those short cut scene like in Gears and War when they have a dialog scene while slowing the main character. It one of the things that take me out of the game.

Also

In some games you must have boss fights like JRPG.

Grinding is a side effect of a power up system. The game creator can not know when the player will need to grind. Whining about grinding is like whine about traffic.

I wish that developers would understand that boss fights are not necessary. If they don't fit the game's setting, don't include them. There's nothing worse than playing a game that is gunning for a semi-realistic setting, and then having to fight a boss that is just a normal guy with 1 million hp.

Actually, if you can't design an imaginative boss fight, don't include one. Bosses that are just normal enemies (or bigger enemies) with 1 million HP are generally awful. Make it interesting, or don't include it.

ReddestSkies

It does seem like many developers throw in boss battles just for the sake of having them. Would like to see some devs try to be more creative and thoughtful about their usage of boss battles.

like: more often than not the number one reason you'l die is because enemies will overwhelm you either in numbers or in power, in some cases its both, luckily theres plenty of upgrades to even that out . . . but oh no "I don't have enough $$ to buy this and that upgrade" because you lose money when you die, the money you need to balance the game out to prevent death is taken from you as punishment for dying. . . . . And thats not even the worst part ! If you die enough times, the game will go easy on you and just let you win, no seriously, I found that out just now, the Siren kills me about 10 times (I don't suck. . . . I just wanted to see what happens when you die broke. . . . I swear, no really, I do. ;) ) and then decides to give me a pitty win. . . . . F#CK HER ! But I had alil bit of fun, I guess.

Bioshock Infinite was an overall disappointment. The Last Of Us turnedout better than expected and has restored my faith in ND after Uncharted 3 crap. Hype for upcoming releases has gotten out of control period. Game related things I would like to see die or fade away are:

Time limit sections that pop up out of nowhere

QTE crap

Escort missions

Stamina bars, carry limits and being overencumbered (it's a video game, not reality)

Bad companion / enemy AI

Tacked on multiplayer / single player (God Of War, Battlefield 3)

'Simon says' missions needed to unlock levels or bonuses (hello Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and beyond)

Franchises that streamline or dumb down gameplay for newcomers while ignoring it's core audience (Bioshock Infinite)

Trailers that show only cinematics and no actual gameplay

Announcements for teaser trailers (GTA V)

Cheats and Easter Eggs being as pre order bonuses (what up Ni No Kuni)

Day 1 DLC announcement for unreleased games

Season passes

Games being relesed with bugs and glitches(Skyrim ;))

Came in expecting talk of E3s and TGSs and whatnot.

OT: Grinding and hand-holding.

^I came in here to defend TGS and say PAX should die.

Okay, maybe "die" is too strong of a word. But this post was inspired by two highly praised games that I played recently: Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us. They were both great games and I loved them, but there was one aspect that annoyed the bejeezus out of me: looking for $hit. I mean, seriously, wtf? In Bioshock Infinite, I spent a stupid amount of time looking for gold coins. Even when there's a clear goal and objective, I halt the pacing and narrative flow of the game to look for gold coins in every single garbage can. Does that even make any f***ing sense within the context of the game? MrGeezer

To pile on a bit - the first Bioshock and all those audio files. So, I'm supposed to believe that the key players in Rapture recorded all their darkest secrets, then tossed the recorders on the ground in public in chronological order? Really?

These files in general in games are just getting absurd. They used to be a great tool for exposition and versimilitude when they were used well. I always thought the early RE games did a great job. The files were hidden in rational locations with contents that spoke in realistic tones about something that the author could be expected to write about but at the same time would have more importance than the writer could ever imagine - an importance that would be understood by the player coming across it. And then you get to RE4, and you find a file about the fight with the ogre that you just had a couple screens ago. So i'm supposed to believe that there was someone watching me fight that ogre, and he had a typewriter, and he wrote all about it in the pouring rain, then left it in that shack a couple paces down the road for me to find?

Also, it seems like the invention of trophies/achievements has led just about every game to fill itself with little bobbles for the player to find. I don't care, personally, but I know the OCD crowd probably had to up their meds this gen.

Tutorials of course. Just make games easy to get into. :( I want to learn to move around and jump by myself. 

I disagree with getting rid of tutorials, but the key is to make the tutorial part of the game. Think about Half-Life 2 or BioShock Infinite. I know there's been a lot of scorn poured on Infinite in this thread but it did the interactive tutorial perfectly. The arrival at Columbia and then the Raffle Fair were perfect examples of how you can integrate tutorials into gameplay.

I'd get rid of exploding barrels. Borderlands 2 has multiple types of exploding barrels and it got to the point were I was like, enough is enough.