What are your gaming pet peeves?

[DarksideEric]

Whether they are a giant sized "I effing hate when they do this" or smaller "really, can't they just come up with something else?", what are some of your gaming pet peeves?

One of mine is the following:

- Arrive in 1,000 year old temple
- Find a brand new sub-machinegun behind a hidden door
- Proceed to find five magazines of ammo in the brand new commonplace wooden crates

 

[Dirk]

I'm a fan of music and as such, I enjoy a good soundtrack. Maybe it's the limitations of the platform or maybe I'm secretly racist, but every GBA game I've ever played, I've played on mute. Nintendo, I KNOW I'm too old for your games, but don't insult me with that Barney-and-friends-ten-second-loop-kindergarten shit you're masquerading as a soundtrack.

Another joke without a punchline is any fantasy-based RPG (including MMORPG's) where character creation takes twenty minutes, then a few levels in you're wearing the same generic armour as everybody else.

 

[DarksideEric]

I'm a fan of music and as such, I enjoy a good soundtrack. Maybe it's the limitations of the platform or maybe I'm secretly racist, but every GBA game I've ever played, I've played on mute. Nintendo, I KNOW I'm too old for your games, but don't insult me with that Barney-and-friends-ten-second-loop-kindergarten shit you're masquerading as a soundtrack.

Another joke without a punchline is any fantasy-based RPG (including MMORPG's) where character creation takes twenty minutes, then a few levels in you're wearing the same generic armour as everybody else.

So what about games like Zelda and Mario, do you keep them on mute?

And I agree, one thing I loved about Dragon Age II was that the characters actually got their own personal armor rather than the generic stuff running around.

 

[Akhilleus]

Mine isn't as much to do with the developers as it is multiplayer users. One thing I can't stand are annoying headsets. I don't really mind what they say, but if their sound is all echoed or loud or ruffled then I just get annoyed. Either way I usually just end up muting it anyway.

As far as the developers go, one thing I don't like is lack of creativity. I'm a big fan of custimization for every aspect of the game, and if they don't have that then it's sort of boring for me.

 

[Dirk]

So what about games like Zelda and Mario, do you keep them on mute?

And I agree, one thing I loved about Dragon Age II was that the characters actually got their own personal armor rather than the generic stuff running around.

I didn't play Mario other than the original Super Mario Brothers and even that was ten years ago. That was a good soundtrack, though! Limited, yes, but there were a number of good arrangements.

Zelda, eh... I know Link is like the most powerful thing in the universe and everything, but I just couldn't take to the game. If Link were real, he'd get beat up in high-school.

*

It wasn't exactly armour, but there's this one dusty, underrated gem - Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. You could "design" your own wacky gear or spells. You were stuck somewhere between the magical dark ages and the Victorian Era. You could be anything from a handlebar-moustachioed gnome with a Tesla gun to a dark elf with magical burning horns and it would show on the character model.

 

[One Punch Doug Crashin]

Reason why I don't game online. 8-13 year-olds thinking they're adults by cursing up a storm. That's a big pet peve. I don't wanna play online and have to mute you.

 

[M]

A lot of open world games really annoy me because they'll tell me at some point during the story that shit's gonna go down real fast because dragons/Martians/Cthulhu will show up ANY SECOND and destroy the world!!!!! .....oh and here's 15 hours worth of side quests as well so if the extremely urgent problem of imminent destruction gets a tad boring you can kill time picking carrots or delivering a jar of marmalade to the king of the thieves. That just always seems like lazy writing which pisses me off since the main reason I play games are the stories, and a game doing everything it can to distract the player from the story kinda defeats that purpose.

Another gripe of mine is with fantasy games - always elves, dwarves, dragons, orcs, trolls, gnomes and imps/goblins. ALWAYS. Why can't someone come up with something different that's not either one of the usual cliches or a mythology ripoff?? It just seems like a cop out when you see a character creation tab and it's the standard "normal" humans, sexy elves, short hairy dwarves etc.

Also the word "epic" and anyone who uses it. To anyone who doesn't understand and/or uses this word: think of Michael Cole saying all his catchphrases on repeat, that is what you sound like when you use the word "epic" to describe something.

I would say people online are a peeve of mine, but that would be a bit hypocritical since I only use online matches as a medium for discussing anime with my friends. I get equal amounts of hate mail telling me to shut up and friend requests for being so extremely amazing at everything

 

[Rayne]

My biggest pet peeve is the increasing tendency for developers to create games like so:

Tunnel
Tunnel with side room
Cutscene
Tunnel
Tunnel
Tunnel with side room
Cutscene
Mini-boss
Cutscene
Tunnel
Tunnel with side room
Cutscene
Boss

Four hours of this, add in a multiplayer mode, and ship that bitch. $60, and the odds are that your game won't work entirely on launch day. I'm pretty down on console gaming entirely as a result of this; there aren't enough good games out there to justify a PS4 or XBox One, and I'm not about to re-purchase a PS3 just so I can play The Last Of Us.


I have gotten hooked lately on Final Fantasy XII, which I never played when it was out on the PS2. I totally understand why people didn't like this game, and people should have been thankful after what they did to the franchise with XIII.

 

[DarksideEric]

Another gripe of mine is with fantasy games - always elves, dwarves, dragons, orcs, trolls, gnomes and imps/goblins. ALWAYS. Why can't someone come up with something different that's not either one of the usual cliches or a mythology ripoff?? It just seems like a cop out when you see a character creation tab and it's the standard "normal" humans, sexy elves, short hairy dwarves etc.

It's funny, as a designer one goal of mine is to make a fantasy game that somewhat does something different.

I'd still use Elves, Humans, Orcs, etc, but my idea is to turn them on their heads somewhat.

Such as, normally Elves are the bright, young, ageless and nurturing race of fantasy.

An idea I've been rolling around with is making Elves something like a life leech. They'd live the shortest amount of time and have a constant aura about them that draws in life energy to fuel the amount of power they wish to have. The longer they wish to live, the less amount of power they'd have and vice versa.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Underwater levels. Don't ask me why exactly, because I'm not exactly sure, but I hate playing any video game just to be told I must complete a water level. It aggravates the shit out of me. Usually the controls are berserk and part of me gets creeped out at the surreal view and landscape. It's weird I know but it's just something I try to avoid whenever possible.

 

[DarksideEric]

Underwater levels. Don't ask me why exactly, because I'm not exactly sure, but I hate playing any video game just to be told I must complete a water level. It aggravates the shit out of me. Usually the controls are berserk and part of me gets creeped out at the surreal view and landscape. It's weird I know but it's just something I try to avoid whenever possible.

So you avoid Mario and Zelda? They are well known, especially Mario and Ocarina of Time, for underwater levels.

Effing Water Temple.

You get my last PM?

 

[Spidey Revivey]

So you avoid Mario and Zelda? They are well known, especially Mario and Ocarina of Time, for underwater levels.

Effing Water Temple.

You get my last PM?

Show me somebody that really really enjoyed the Water Temple, and I will show you a liar. I said I would try to avoid them whenever possible. With Mario and Zelda, it is just something to have to deal with from otherwise perfect games.

And I have, just haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Heading to dinner I will check it out soon.

 

[M]

The water levels in the 2d Mario games are alright, they don't punish you too much and the music is absolutely delicious. The Zelda water levels though....

Found another pet peeve: levels which are dark as hell and tell you to find something dark that's the same colour as the walls, floor, and roof. The Last of Us does this like 7 times during the story and it completely breaks the flow, they could've completely removed those parts too and it wouldn't change a thing.

Your life drain idea sounds pretty cool, is it something akin to the health bar pulling double duty as a ratio of mana as well? It seems interesting to me but also really hard to balance properly. What sort of game is it? Since you mentioned elves I'm going to guess an RPG of some sort?

 

[Dagger Dias]

You guys who are complaining about water levels of Mario or Zelda clearly haven't played through the Labyrinth Zone or the 3rd Scrap Brain Zone world in Sonic 1. Goodness, it's like the developers wanted to torture the players.

A big pet peeve of mine is when a track in a game that you have to hear often (such as the main battle theme of an RPG) sucks. If you're going to play a track often in a game, make sure it's a good one. Another is games where everyone is able to be customized to fill any role in gameplay. I prefer having characters with predetermined roles they are best at so that I know who should be the healer, who should be the fighter, and so forth. Too much freedom is a con rather than a pro sometimes.

 

[DarksideEric]

Your life drain idea sounds pretty cool, is it something akin to the health bar pulling double duty as a ratio of mana as well? It seems interesting to me but also really hard to balance properly. What sort of game is it? Since you mentioned elves I'm going to guess an RPG of some sort?

RPG yes. More specifically either a StratRPG or Action RPG.

Currently it's just a part of lore, no actual mechanics.

The idea is that Orcs were the first race and the immortals, yet could not reproduce nor die naturally so they began testing how to create both for themselves.

Elves are the result of them trying to learn how to stop their immortality.

Humans are the result of them trying to learn how to reproduce. Humans in the lore are the "healers" that are trying to help the Elves control their power.

 

[DarksideEric]

You guys who are complaining about water levels of Mario or Zelda clearly haven't played through the Labyrinth Zone or the 3rd Scrap Brain Zone world in Sonic 1. Goodness, it's like the developers wanted to torture the players.

A big pet peeve of mine is when a track in a game that you have to hear often (such as the main battle theme of an RPG) sucks. If you're going to play a track often in a game, make sure it's a good one. Another is games where everyone is able to be customized to fill any role in gameplay. I prefer having characters with predetermined roles they are best at so that I know who should be the healer, who should be the fighter, and so forth. Too much freedom is a con rather than a pro sometimes.

So did you dislike, say... Final Fantasy III's (real III, not VI) ability to change Jobs/Classes?

I am somewhere in the middle ground.

I like predetermined Job/Classes but with some wiggle room. Not like Where the Black Mage can learn Shield Charge or something, but customization within that Job/Class. Like if Black Mage could branch off into Necromancy or some sort.

 

[Dagger Dias]

So did you dislike, say... Final Fantasy III's (real III, not VI) ability to change Jobs/Classes?

I am somewhere in the middle ground.

I like predetermined Job/Classes but with some wiggle room. Not like Where the Black Mage can learn Shield Charge or something, but customization within that Job/Class. Like if Black Mage could branch off into Necromancy or some sort.

No I like FF3's class system. You know what the Summoner can do, in comparison to what the Ninja can do, and so forth. They have predetermined roles per class. The fact that Luneth/Ingus/etc can go from a Sage to a Black Belt doesn't bother me. I meant more along the lines of FFX. By the end of the Sphere Grid Auron is no longer the obvious choice for melee fighter, Lulu is no longer clearly the best offensive caster, anyone can do anything as good as anyone else. I prefer knowing what roles everyone brings to the table and being able to set groups up that way. Sure, in the beginning the guys attack better than the girls while the girls cast better than the guys, but I am the type of gamer that is a completionist. I had to finish the grid for everyone. Ignoring that task would have been like playing Pokemon without catching them all.

That's another. My need to complete a game 100% prevents me from enjoying it to the fullest extent until I have fully done everything I possibly can rather than just playing through for the fun of it. That's more on me than the games themselves though.

 

[DarksideEric]

No I like FF3's class system. You know what the Summoner can do, in comparison to what the Ninja can do, and so forth. They have predetermined roles per class. The fact that Luneth/Ingus/etc can go from a Sage to a Black Belt doesn't bother me. I meant more along the lines of FFX. By the end of the Sphere Grid Auron is no longer the obvious choice for melee fighter, Lulu is no longer clearly the best offensive caster, anyone can do anything as good as anyone else. I prefer knowing what roles everyone brings to the table and being able to set groups up that way. Sure, in the beginning the guys attack better than the girls while the girls cast better than the guys, but I am the type of gamer that is a completionist. I had to finish the grid for everyone. Ignoring that task would have been like playing Pokemon without catching them all.

That's another. My need to complete a game 100% prevents me from enjoying it to the fullest extent until I have fully done everything I possibly can rather than just playing through for the fun of it. That's more on me than the games themselves though.

Ah, understood.

So how did you feel about VII's system, and I think VIII? I can't remember VIII's too well.

And while I think you mentioned not being a big fan of Tactics, how do you feel about "Sub Jobs"?

 

[Dagger Dias]

So how did you feel about VII's system, and I think VIII? I can't remember VIII's too well.

And while I think you mentioned not being a big fan of Tactics, how do you feel about "Sub Jobs"?

7's was fine. You could mess with stats due to the materia's effects, but everyone still had clearly "recommended" roles from their base stats. Aeris and Yuffie were better casters than Cloud, Barrett, or Cid for instance.

8's system I mostly hated, but it was very easy to form a broken party. Level up Squall to 100 while never levelling anyone else. Give him the Lionheart Gunblade. Junction a bunch of Ultima spells to his attack. The monsters will be roughly level 35 due to the game averaging your party's level to create the monster's level. Cast Aura on Squall and unleash a Limit Break attack few creatures will survive. This works well on Irvine with his ultimate weapon and lots of Pulse Ammo too, if you'd rather do that.

I don't remember much about Tactics at all, it's been far too long.

 

[DarksideEric]

7's was fine. You could mess with stats due to the materia's effects, but everyone still had clearly "recommended" roles from their base stats. Aeris and Yuffie were better casters than Cloud, Barrett, or Cid for instance.

8's system I mostly hated, but it was very easy to form a broken party. Level up Squall to 100 while never levelling anyone else. Give him the Lionheart Gunblade. Junction a bunch of Ultima spells to his attack. The monsters will be roughly level 35 due to the game averaging your party's level to create the monster's level. Cast Aura on Squall and unleash a Limit Break attack few creatures will survive. This works well on Irvine with his ultimate weapon and lots of Pulse Ammo too, if you'd rather do that.

I don't remember much about Tactics at all, it's been far too long.

Sub Jobs, at least in Tactics, allowed you to retain whatever abilities you learned from one Job while in another. I don't remember if Sub Jobs effected your Main Job's stats or not. In FFXI your Sub Job was half of your Main Job level and did have an effect on stats.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Sub Jobs, at least in Tactics, allowed you to retain whatever abilities you learned from one Job while in another. I don't remember if Sub Jobs effected your Main Job's stats or not. In FFXI your Sub Job was half of your Main Job level and did have an effect on stats.

FF5 had something like that. It led to weird possibilities like a Samurai being able to cast Curaga, Knights who can Summon Leviathan, Blue Mages who can do Dragoon Jumps, Chemists who Dance, and more. You retained any abilities you mastered. It overall is part of the issue I brought up in an earlier post. Far too much freedom and customization. FF9 had a much better idea where there were lots of abilities to learn, but you always knew Steiner was a fighter. You always knew Eiko was a summoner. When you know for sure what someone brings to a party, it makes mixing up character lineups much more fun to me.

 

[DarksideEric]

FF5 had something like that. It led to weird possibilities like a Samurai being able to cast Curaga, Knights who can Summon Leviathan, Blue Mages who can do Dragoon Jumps, Chemists who Dance, and more. You retained any abilities you mastered. It overall is part of the issue I brought up in an earlier post. Far too much freedom and customization. FF9 had a much better idea where there were lots of abilities to learn, but you always knew Steiner was a fighter. You always knew Eiko was a summoner. When you know for sure what someone brings to a party, it makes mixing up character lineups much more fun to me.

However in Tactics, I feel, they balanced it out nicely (I haven't been able to check how stats were effected). In Tactics, yes you could have a Knight cast Cure/Curaga, but it would be no where near as powerful (and you wouldn't have as large a Mana pool) as a White Mage/Black Mage or White Mage/Summoner. The most effective classes in Tactics are the ones that have actual complimentary Sub Jobs. For instance Monk/Knight is a very powerful Bruiser while Dragoon/Knight is perhaps the best tank.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Here's one unrelated to Final Fantasy or RPG games. A pet peeve of mine is in the original Tetris game anytime that the types of blocks shown in the bottom left or bottom right of this image showed up in the game. They were my least favorite and often the hardest to find a place to fit into the structure. I'd be close to forming a line and along comes one of those blocks with seemingly nowhere to put it.

 

[DarksideEric]

Here's one unrelated to Final Fantasy or RPG games. A pet peeve of mine is in the original Tetris game anytime that the types of blocks shown in the bottom left or bottom right of this image showed up in the game. They were my least favorite and often the hardest to find a place to fit into the structure. I'd be close to forming a line and along comes one of those blocks with seemingly nowhere to put it.

Lol, I personally hated the Block far more than the Stair pieces. Often times I'd get it and have to have part of it hanging off some other piece.

 

[M]

RPG yes. More specifically either a StratRPG or Action RPG.

Currently it's just a part of lore, no actual mechanics.

The idea is that Orcs were the first race and the immortals, yet could not reproduce nor die naturally so they began testing how to create both for themselves.

Elves are the result of them trying to learn how to stop their immortality.

Humans are the result of them trying to learn how to reproduce. Humans in the lore are the "healers" that are trying to help the Elves control their power.

Sounds pretty interesting, reminds me of a reverse set up to the lore behind the orcs and elves in The Lord of the rings where the elves are immortal and the orcs are the ones born from some weird thing the elves did (I think, it's been too long since I read/watch the trilogy :/ )

As far as too much freedom in customising people in RPGs is concerned I don't really care much if I can make a knight also a master caster as I like to mess with the combinations. What does annoy me is when preset stats of a character are completely pointless/terrible and it seems like the designers ran out of ideas for stat spreads. It's always a bad sign when a game has a stat that is completely pointless to use over anything else and the characters they give you are all specialised in one stat because you know that sooner or later you will get a character that's specialised in that area and they'll be completely useless.

And screw those Tetris blocks.