What'll Take You Out of a Game?

[guppy]

Whether you're turning it off, or just soldiering through it. What sort of features, gameplay, characters, sounds, etc. do you dislike in gaming?

 

[Waffles]

Unrealistic human behavior in games supposedly set in reality always bothers me... like, when characters start spitting out the same lines every couple minutes.

Immersion-breaking HUDs and other on-screen reminders that I'm playing a game are usually major strikes against them, too. I don't want my objectives flashing loudly or checkpoints being announced in big letters, for example.

And, while this is really minor, recycled sound effects take me right out of it, too.

 

[guppy]

Unrealistic human behavior in games supposedly set in reality always bothers me... like, when characters start spitting out the same lines every couple minutes.

Immersion-breaking HUDs and other on-screen reminders that I'm playing a game are usually major strikes again them, too. I don't want my objectives flashing loudly or checkpoints being announced in big letters, for example.

And, while this is really minor, recycled sound effects take me right out of it, too.

You're gunna laugh your tits off (idk if you have tits, I am just saying this) but because I am ADHD sometimes I need a character to say the same thing 3x otherwise I don't know what they said. No lie. I'm playing Final Fantasy right now, and I am thanking god that they repeat themselves 10x because there's times when I will look down and think "what in the hey did they just say?" True story.

I hattteee flashing. In all games, old and new. Get it outta here. Do not want. I do love when a game says in an American inflection as a Japanese individual stuff like "CHECKPOINT!" but maybe that's just me. But that also tends to just be in racing games, and I never know what I am doing or anything in them. All of them. So that's maybe something that helps folk like me.

I've been turning the sound off on a lot of retro games as a whole. I don't care if their tracks are beautiful, because the buh-rink, buh-rink that plays every time I cast something or move a cursor is killing me. So yeah, I feel that too =)

 

[Don Patch]

I've a few, lol.

• Bugs and glitches in moments of critical play - I don't want to fall through the floor or get hung up on a rock on the ground while trying to save the world, lol
• Rubberband-y opponent AI
• Busted "gas lighting" hit boxes - If I see my foot or sword or whatever swish right through something without it registering, I'm gonna have a bad time. Same for watching something swing in-front of/over me and then watching my character go flying. Just, UGH lol
• Loot boxes/aggressive or piecemeal micro-transactions - See any modern racing or fighting game where nearly at launch the majority of the game is being sold to you as "additional"; I'll not even loo at a game, even if it's technically "good" if that's the way they designed it.
• Jank camera

 

[Waffles]

You're gunna laugh your tits off (idk if you have tits, I am just saying this) but because I am ADHD sometimes I need a character to say the same thing 3x otherwise I don't know what they said. No lie. I'm playing Final Fantasy right now, and I am thanking god that they repeat themselves 10x because there's times when I will look down and think "what in the hey did they just say?" True story.

Totally respect that, dude.

If it helps you, it helps you. And I'm happy for ya.

But I personally can't stand it. Everything I said above was embodied on Wolfenstein (2009) and I had to quit.

 

[guppy]

Totally respect that, dude.

If it helps you, it helps you. And I'm happy for ya.

But I personally can't stand it. Everything I said above was embodied on Wolfenstein (2009) and I had to quit.

Never played that game, but I can't imagine playing a big budget game like that and having those issues. That's actually really trash.

I've a few, lol.

• Bugs and glitches in moments of critical play - I don't want to fall through the floor or get hung up on a rock on the ground while trying to save the world, lol
• Rubberband-y opponent AI
• Busted "gas lighting" hit boxes - If I see my foot or sword or whatever swish right through something without it registering, I'm gonna have a bad time. Same for watching something swing in-front of/over me and then watching my character go flying. Just, UGH lol
• Loot boxes/aggressive or piecemeal micro-transactions - See any modern racing or fighting game where nearly at launch the majority of the game is being sold to you as "additional"; I'll not even loo at a game, even if it's technically "good" if that's the way they designed it.
• Jank camera

I thought bugs would take me out of a game, yet I keep playing Night School games. Which are buggy little shit-butts. Hehehe on falling through the floor. Hahaha! Also on getting caught in an invisible prison. I had that happen recently when playing some game and was very sad that I had to restart. But I think it was a demo, and I just ended up telling the developer.

Loot boxes kill me, especially in "free" games where it's all cosmetics. My gal spent so much damn money on costumes for her Overwatch characters and they're all gone. She just got into Overwatch 2 and god help us all. She's mad susceptible to that kind of stuff, but it made me think better of people who like that kind of stuff. Because I looked down madly at people who pay crapola funds to corporations gaming or otherwise (I'd be pissed they'd feed a system that encourages them). Instead I'll just keep opting out on the whole and let people keep churning that addiction wheel on their own.

I get sick af off of jank camera and most 3D games from PSX/early PC are off the table. I am not sure what causes it, but I know it when it makes me =(((((((((((

 

[sandogma]

In 3D games, invisible walls and areas that appear totally accessible but there is a laughably poor excuse of an obstacle thats supposed to represent you can't get further, like a rock or traffic cone that is clearly shorter than my characters jump height.

 

[Waffles]

When your character dies by setting their foot on a puddle.

Like, come ON! I have seen you slay Lovecraftian monsters, survive shoot-outs with hordes of enemies, walk out the fall from a three-story building and tank a wagon riding your spine, but your feet gets wet and you immediately quit on life? XD

 

[Nachzehrer]

Two words: Yellow Paint

 

[guppy]

In 3D games, invisible walls and areas that appear totally accessible but there is a laughably poor excuse of an obstacle thats supposed to represent you can't get further, like a rock or traffic cone that is clearly shorter than my characters jump height.

My gal was born part mountain goat I think, in that games she has a need to cliyiyiiyiiimb! I've sat watching her climb to places in games that were not probably meant to be climbed to, and she'll go at something for way longer than I ever would. In fact at all, I accept the rails. But this? Makes me blood boil too. Especially when you're not given the ability to jump. Which I believe made me feel like a chump while playing...is it Dark Souls? Is that right? Old anime-rpg-y-zelda-y thing?

Two words: Yellow Paint

Vhy?

 

[Boo Man]

Vhy?

The yellow paint thing makes games too easy and also breaks immersion.
I remember getting stuck on a games for weeks until i finally found the right thing to push, jump over, climb or pick up. Solving a problem for yourself is rewarding, following a linear pathway marked by yellow paint is just plain boring.

I'm playing the Silent Hill 2 remake atm and they've tried to disguise the yellow paint as white cotton and make it subtle as possible but its still just as bad.
may as well have a radar with a big arrow pointing in the right direction..

Or in racing games the line in the middle of the road that turns red when you need to slow down?!
man i hate that line and some games you cant even turn it off ><

 

[Inkingsama]

When the game suddenly changes it's approach for gameplay from skill to numbers. Terranigma is a very good example of this: an adventure game with some rpg aspects but most of the time you are just relying on skill and pattern recognition to overcome obstacles when suddenly you get to the bloody mary boss fight and now numbers matter, so go out there and kill skeletons for 30 minutes to level up a single time so now the boss actually takes damage.

It only happens that single time across the entire game, which makes it seem intentional.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Not sure if I can remember it all so
-Unskippable cutscenes: I don't mind if it's the first time I saw it, but if it happens when I start a new game+ especially when it's a really reaaaaaaaaaally long one, it will start to bother (especially when I tried to finish it quickly but the timer is still counting in cutscenes)

-Loud/weird sound effects: For an example, despite liking Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap, something just doesn't feel right whenever link swing his sword. I don't mind if Link do a barrel and sound like that like in Ocarina of Time because it's not too frequent and there's actually a delay. However, since the sword is beneficial since the beginning, your ear will starts to hurt
I think if the developer could add like one of those things where you can adjust speech volume then that would've make it better and less stress to your ears (but I already finish it so, maybe if they brought it back)

-Random difficulty spikes/bad level designs: Now there is a difference between both of them of course, but sometimes these 2 things always seemed to appeared together despite the differences. Like those old Retro games where the enemies (that are almost invincible) keep spawning randomly and you're at a platform that has no space at all to escape. Another example is when the level make it look like it could be a cakewalk, and then without a warning it turns into a Dark Souls

Not saying Dark Souls is bad (I've played it, it's good) but please, just let some casual games be casual and not making me fight 100 Bed of Chaos or Dragon Calamity

 

[guppy]

The yellow paint thing makes games too easy and also breaks immersion.
I remember getting stuck on a games for weeks until i finally found the right thing to push, jump over, climb or pick up. Solving a problem for yourself is rewarding, following a linear pathway marked by yellow paint is just plain boring.

I'm playing the Silent Hill 2 remake atm and they've tried to disguise the yellow paint as white cotton and make it subtle as possible but its still just as bad.
may as well have a radar with a big arrow pointing in the right direction..

Or in racing games the line in the middle of the road that turns red when you need to slow down?!
man i hate that line and some games you cant even turn it off ><

Am I missing what yellow paint is? I literally was thinking of an RPG with yellow walls or something. Not sure what it is elsewise.

Oh, okay - I can read. Yeah okay I gotcha. So it's basically games that railroad you? I used to think that I loved obtuse gameplay, but I think as time goes on I don't mind simpler mechanics. As long as games aren't explicitly playing themselves. I've had a lot of trouble with moon logic and adventure games, and it makes me hesitant to play new ones. Which stinks, cause I know there's a sea of great games overall. But I think if you get me stuck long enough, I will just go find something else to occupy my time.

But I hear you, the both of you - to each their own =P!

I think if they did that with the remake of SH2 (which I haven't looked into because I don't really dig remakes too much) it's probably just to make things more accessible to er...make money. Because of what I said up there. Which might be a product of our over-accelerated world in general.

You're killing me in the funniest of ways. I love when games have big old fucking "STOP, STOP" crapola because I play games without them and cannot. I mean I can't play them. And then I have to turn them off. But I have awful reaction time, and I think it might have something to do with that.

When the game suddenly changes it's approach for gameplay from skill to numbers. Terranigma is a very good example of this: an adventure game with some rpg aspects but most of the time you are just relying on skill and pattern recognition to overcome obstacles when suddenly you get to the bloody mary boss fight and now numbers matter, so go out there and kill skeletons for 30 minutes to level up a single time so now the boss actually takes damage.

It only happens that single time across the entire game, which makes it seem intentional.

What do you think even causes this? Too many cooks in the kitchen or spaghetti sticking logic? You described this great though, I totally get it.

Not sure if I can remember it all so
-Unskippable cutscenes: I don't mind if it's the first time I saw it, but if it happens when I start a new game+ especially when it's a really reaaaaaaaaaally long one, it will start to bother (especially when I tried to finish it quickly but the timer is still counting in cutscenes)

-Loud/weird sound effects: For an example, despite liking Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap, something just doesn't feel right whenever link swing his sword. I don't mind if Link do a barrel and sound like that like in Ocarina of Time because it's not too frequent and there's actually a delay. However, since the sword is beneficial since the beginning, your ear will starts to hurt
I think if the developer could add like one of those things where you can adjust speech volume then that would've make it better and less stress to your ears (but I already finish it so, maybe if they brought it back)

-Random difficulty spikes/bad level designs: Now there is a difference between both of them of course, but sometimes these 2 things always seemed to appeared together despite the differences. Like those old Retro games where the enemies (that are almost invincible) keep spawning randomly and you're at a platform that has no space at all to escape. Another example is when the level make it look like it could be a cakewalk, and then without a warning it turns into a Dark Souls

Not saying Dark Souls is bad (I've played it, it's good) but please, just let some casual games be casual and not making me fight 100 Bed of Chaos or Dragon Calamity

God the one thing I've wished for was that game systems were as accessible (customizable maybe more than accessible) as computer games tend to be. Because those volume sliders would be all over the place for me. But having the ability to flip stuff around is important - and it's so frustrating I'd rather go without than have to listen to something that's annoying me.

I hate random difficulty spikes and won't play games with endless hordes of monsters seemingly piled on top of your little spritelings =/!

There's a game called Psychoduck that I really dig and helped me better understand myself as a gamer. Because it takes its time and introduces mechanics little by little. Allowing you a little bit of freedom to mess around getting from point a -> b. It's by no means a thinker, but it's simple and fun. Sometimes, when I pick up a rougelike I am so frustrated by the sea of text flying my way explaining the mechanics. Just give me little bits, drip fed. I'll absorb things much better. This could be a me thing, but I feel like it's more than likely not. (Same with story chunks, and for unskippable cut scenes - I had to go through the opening of Titan's Quest multiple times and to this day hate it.)

 

[Boo Man]

Am I missing what yellow paint is? I literally was thinking of an RPG with yellow walls or something. Not sure what it is elsewise.

Oh, okay - I can read. Yeah okay I gotcha. So it's basically games that railroad you? I used to think that I loved obtuse gameplay, but I think as time goes on I don't mind simpler mechanics. As long as games aren't explicitly playing themselves. I've had a lot of trouble with moon logic and adventure games, and it makes me hesitant to play new ones. Which stinks, cause I know there's a sea of great games overall. But I think if you get me stuck long enough, I will just go find something else to occupy my time.

But I hear you, the both of you - to each their own =P!

I think if they did that with the remake of SH2 (which I haven't looked into because I don't really dig remakes too much) it's probably just to make things more accessible to er...make money. Because of what I said up there. Which might be a product of our over-accelerated world in general.

You're killing me in the funniest of ways. I love when games have big old fucking "STOP, STOP" crapola because I play games without them and cannot. I mean I can't play them. And then I have to turn them off. But I have awful reaction time, and I think it might have something to do with that.

yeah i think most people will give up and play another game as soon as they "get stuck"
i guess game developers try to overcompensate for this with yellow paint & training wheels
the funny thing about SH2 remake is they hold your hand quite alot so you dont have to look up a guide or walkthrough, but then alot of the puzzles and riddles are so difficult i end up looking at guides for the answers anyway

 

[DunkeyKong]

God the one thing I've wished for was that game systems were as accessible (customizable maybe more than accessible) as computer games tend to be. Because those volume sliders would be all over the place for me. But having the ability to flip stuff around is important - and it's so frustrating I'd rather go without than have to listen to something that's annoying me.

I hate random difficulty spikes and won't play games with endless hordes of monsters seemingly piled on top of your little spritelings =/!

There's a game called Psychoduck that I really dig and helped me better understand myself as a gamer. Because it takes its time and introduces mechanics little by little. Allowing you a little bit of freedom to mess around getting from point a -> b. It's by no means a thinker, but it's simple and fun. Sometimes, when I pick up a rougelike I am so frustrated by the sea of text flying my way explaining the mechanics. Just give me little bits, drip fed. I'll absorb things much better. This could be a me thing, but I feel like it's more than likely not. (Same with story chunks, and for unskippable cut scenes - I had to go through the opening of Titan's Quest multiple times and to this day hate it.)

I agree, it should've been a standard for games now. Instead of flooding players with unnecessary amount of texts, games should teach players with a simple method like showing what that or this button does, and making sure players learn it slow and steady

Sometimes I think some developers knew what they're doing because ain't no way we're supposed to read all of that text just to know what a single button does (They're not plots, they're tutorials). Unfortunately, some of those things won't change anytime soon since most of these companies or devs just do their own thing

 

[kokonatsu17234]

it would be crappy story and shitty gameplay or boring gameplay
it would take those two together to turn me off completely.
if the story is shit i can soldier through it if the gameplay is engaging enough or fun
even if its the other way around, but mixing it together is just a disaster.

 

[dejiko]

constant tutorials...just let me play, nyo!!!

 

[kokonatsu17234]

constant tutorials...just let me play, nyo!!!

oh i forgot about this
i hate it when you get plunge into combat and out of nowhere as you attack the game pauses with a pop up window telling you how to attack

 

[dejiko]

exactly! idea factory games are very egregious when it comes to this, you basically have tutorials throughout the whole game nyo >.>

oh i forgot about this
i hate it when you get plunge into combat and out of nowhere as you attack the game pauses with a pop up window telling you how to attack

 

[kokonatsu17234]

exactly! idea factory games are very egregious when it comes to this, you basically have tutorials throughout the whole game nyo >.>

yeah, i forgot what game it is but there's this one game i played that still gives me tutorials while i'm trying to fight the final boss

 

[dejiko]

yeah, i forgot what game it is but there's this one game i played that still gives me tutorials while i'm trying to fight the final boss

insane www just throw us to the wolves and let us figure it out!

i love how so many indie games are going back to old-school and not holding your hand anymore, like the good old days =w=

 

[kokonatsu17234]

insane www just throw us to the wolves and let us figure it out!

i love how so many indie games are going back to old-school and not holding your hand anymore, like the good old days =w=

honestly yeah, even if its the old school way
it somehow a breathe of fresh air when a game literally lay down all of the thing you needed to know in the game at the start and doesn't show up again after.
that's why I like fromsoft games, the tutorials is either thrown at you at the beginning or make it an optional thing by leaving it on the floor for you to interact with

 

[guppy]

yeah i think most people will give up and play another game as soon as they "get stuck"
i guess game developers try to overcompensate for this with yellow paint & training wheels
the funny thing about SH2 remake is they hold your hand quite alot so you dont have to look up a guide or walkthrough, but then alot of the puzzles and riddles are so difficult i end up looking at guides for the answers anyway

I have been fighting the urge to use walkthroughs on these old games so hard. But sometimes I get so damn stuck and find myself pouring over things trying to understand how I was supposed to know to do x in the first place. Did I miss some dialogue? One of them I had to do a video walkthrough, cause I didn't understand what I was reading on GameFAQs. And I didn't feel so badly when I heard the guy in the video say that he's never been so stuck in his life and that he almost quit the game because of it. Phew!

Don't get me wrong, I'll give something a juicy amount of goes. Even walk away and come back within a week to see if something changed. But I have found in general that I game not so much for the challenge, but the entertainment. Yet I also don't really play "comfy" games. So I suppose there's some challenge there. Just not moon-logic/challenge walls I suppose.

I agree, it should've been a standard for games now. Instead of flooding players with unnecessary amount of texts, games should teach players with a simple method like showing what that or this button does, and making sure players learn it slow and steady

Sometimes I think some developers knew what they're doing because ain't no way we're supposed to read all of that text just to know what a single button does (They're not plots, they're tutorials). Unfortunately, some of those things won't change anytime soon since most of these companies or devs just do their own thing

I've always had this theory that programmers and endlessly practical. And designers are hopelessly minimalist. And never shall the two meet in the middle =P! It's actually super rare when you meet someone who has both skills. Probably less so nowadays than in the past. But I do often wonder why this isn't just the standard for games nowadays. But then again a new standard is to have your games play themselves for you. And I wonder if a majority of gamers are doing alright?

 

[guppy]

it would be crappy story and shitty gameplay or boring gameplay
it would take those two together to turn me off completely.
if the story is shit i can soldier through it if the gameplay is engaging enough or fun
even if its the other way around, but mixing it together is just a disaster.

JRPGs come to mind because damn sometimes they churn the two together in a mediocre slur. But I actually kinda like turning my brain off with them. It's just...I don't know. You're not breaking the mold with the lather, rinse, repeat hero narrative. Then again you can point to any media and say that. And I'm not sure what the alternative is. But there have been some JRPGs I've turned on, played for 4 minutes, and just turned off because I felt like "not another one of these..."