Most annoying or hated gamemechanics

[zuulan]

We have discussed all about favorite and hated Tags or character types. But there is time to ask

what is most hated gamemechanics?

I think one of most annoying game mechanic is:

How time is represented : Day is usually divides 3-4 part, morning, noon, evening and night. Tyis totally feels silly especially some tiny action like going to shop or going to the gym or having little event scene will take whole part of day, ak 6 hours. Instead of use normal time like QSP games usually use.

Another annoying idea is Character roles, where safety reason default role for the character is Roommate or Landlady and give people ability to rename thouse roles. But they act in some roles. Instead of having trigger words when, charater roles are named the certain way they talk like a person in that role should.

Most annoying is thats story is locked on some stat and stat is locked behind story, so you cant move foward with story unless you acquire that stat and you cant aquire that stat couse you can only aqire it with moving foward with another part of story. Same category goes also places in semi sandbox games. Like there is park or bathroom and you get message you realy dont have reason to go there now. Is it realy hard to find utility for thouse places.


What is Annoying or hated game mechincs in your opinion?

 

[Deleted member 5132390]

I've seen too many people saying they hate farming in RPG-like games, or in Sandbox games, but this both genres are which have this mechanics in majority. This is probably anchored with the fact you mentioned before: How some parts of the history are locked behind benefits you must get farming or repeating scenes that, in a short time starts to bore. I have played two games with this mechanics and I can understand why the people gets tired easily with this kind of mechanics and all the hate is technically justified. We don't need more farming in games, we have enough with the console games, lol.

 

[Sphere42]

RNG hands down. I would say "micro"transactions but those aren't even a game mechanic. Dishonourable mention for forced-online singleplayer especially for porn games.

Second place goes to any kind of deliberate time wasting. I don't really care whether it's stat/item grind, repeated unskippable cutscenes, mostly walking or a giant empty "sandbox". Each of these can be good if used with care and purpose but usually aren't. For one that's almost exclusive to porn games: Game Over Rape especially with the Virgin Ending Gallery Unlock. Because nothing screams "waste of time" like working hard to get that "good" ending only to be shown the project's entire CG budget was blown on the non-content you spent hours to avoid.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

Dice rolls for basic actions. I don't mind RNG elsewhere like in procedural generation, but don't make me gamble for things like attacking or casting spells. By far the worst game I've played for RNG was Conquest of Elysium 5.

Escort missions. I don't think anyone likes these. So many ways they can go wrong. NPC is vulnerable, it becomes babysitting. NPC is invincible, it becomes a boring on-rails mission.

Rock-paper-scissors unit balance in a strategy game. Too simplistic and lopsided. Space 4X games love their lasers-guns-missiles triad, and a lot of medieval fantasy games have swords-spears-axes. At least the space 4X allow you to mix & match. Worst game I've played in this regard is AI War 2, where it seemed every unit had like a 9001x damage bonus against some other type of armor or unit type.

RTS in general is a pointless bastardization of the strategy genre, only way I can stomach it is if it's designed around being pausable. E-sports RTS are absolutely absurd with that APM crap and players doping just to keep up. Because that's what comes to mind when you think of strategy, right? Button-mashing and Adderall.

QTEs. A game mechanic for young children, enough said.

 

[F4C430]

The #1 and #2 for me is when the only sexual content is in a gameover state, or when sexual content causes HP damage especially when 0 HP leads to a gameover.

 

[InteriorCrocodile]

Choices that aren't really Choices:
I hate being railroaded into decisions just for the sake of plot. For porn games its usually a dumb setup for the sex to happen. Sometimes it's not that bad and I can just ignore it, but other times it just makes the story feel poorly written and takes me out of the experience.

Time wasting mechanics:
As others pointed out before, I hate wasting time. While I can sit through and grind away at a game that has decent art or a well written story, I would enjoy it a lot more if I didn't have to. You don't have to completely get rid of it, just make it a shorter ordeal. If it takes me more than a couple of minutes to get from one scene to another, why? Is there a point to the struggle or are you trying to pad out the game time?

Meaningless side quests:
This last one is for RPG games in general. I hate it when there are a shit-ton of side quests that amount to doing the same thing over and over again. I would rather have ten interesting, well-crafted quests with multiple outcomes and stages than a hundred "collect x amount" or "kill x amount" quests.

 

[Meaning Less]

Days Limit or Time Sensitive Quests that fail if you ignore them.

The sense of ugency suddenly shifts my playstyle into trying to be as effective as I can with the time I have which removes a bit of the casual fun and completionist playstyle approach I usually take.

Not that this is always bad but it is probably the only game mechanic that annoyed me in the past, I'm not a big fan of it unless there is good reason for it.

 

[khumak]

My least favorite is timed minigames that must be beaten DURING a sex scene. First you have the annoying minigame itself to contend with. Second, you don't even get to enjoy the sex scene because you have to focus on the stupid mini game instead.

 

[Jonboy80]

I hate speed/accuracy minigames. Like having to hit a sequence of arrow keys in a couple of seconds. An example is the fighting mini game in Being A DIK.

I also hate word-based games like the anagram homework, again, in Being A DIK. If you're gonna do it, actually make all possible words viable answers. One of the homework assignments ignored a simple word like "ode", for example, but had less common words that you had to try and figure out.

More annoying than hated would be when a character references you as Mister/Miss [First Name]. I'd rather input a surname at the start so that doesn't happen.

I dislike unavoidable sex scenes. Like in one VN called Do You Like Horny Bunnies?, your new boss forces herself on you in the first five minutes. I like to control who my character hooks up with from the get go or, at least, have the option to respond to the situation negatively instead of having my character be fine with it.

Outside of AIF games, I can't stand lootbox and microtransaction heavy games, especially when core gameplay is tied to it. I don't mind it if it's cosmetic stuff but when you make an OP piece of gear tied to lootboxes or MTs, you've lost a customer.

 

[zuulan]

I agree with Most of previus opinions, just forgot to add another.

Totally hate in RPGM games where world scales with you. Like you are level 0 you gonna kill level 1 Slime monster and as you grind up like being level 1000, then there will be level 1000+1 slime monstersm that is totally silly especially when there is also some plot hole where some Newby says he's trining on slimes to get experience. So scalable world is total BS have seen on Monarch of magic where you kill demigod and then go back to newby zone and have super monsters there.

 

[Ratrio]

insta fail stealth sections in games that weren't made for stealth. Seen this in a few rpg maker games and it's always poorly done and annoying.

 

[woody554]

most of these things are meant to be obstacles, ie. their core function is frustrate you so that getting past them feels good. seems like they're working.

 

[zuulan]

Timewasting or pointless grinding or roaming around without goal never feels good. Pointless obstacles often mean people will quit.

 

[Sphere42]

most of these things are meant to be obstacles, ie. their core function is frustrate you so that getting past them feels good. seems like they're working.

Either they themselves are failing because we realise what they're doing with no particular effort during regular gameplay, or the rewards suck because they don't feel good enough to offset the suffering.

See, when I'm playing a desert survival game I do expect to wander around a vast desolate landscape for ages, and finding some muddy water feels good even if it means more "busywork" in the crafting menu. But when the game hands me some cash and a smartphone and says "you're in Amsterdam, get fucked!" yet the only place you can possibly get condoms or mandatory anal lube is in the red light district all the way across town from your flat then it's clear the creator just didn't give a shit about making things sensible or enjoyable.

 

[JoGio]

Tedious navigation/progression, which can come in many forms.

In a sandbox:
- You have to click very specific parts of the screen (like doors) to move from place to place before you can access the world map. Those doors could be anywhere on the next screen so you have to constantly search for them every time you enter a new room.

Combine that with grind and I find myself going crazy click click click clicking to get to where I need to.

In an RPGM Game:
- I love exploration in these kinds of games, especially when the world has locations worth exploring, but I utterly despise how high the encounter rate is. Some games are so bad at this that I pretty much don't engage in the combat system. I save edit so my character has god-like stats that one-shot everything and ignore combat altogether.

I would rather have a handful of fights that really matter when venturing out than 10 encounters that I know I'll win without trouble. It's a frustrating waste of time.

 

[lavender69studios]

Grinding can make me stop playing a game. All other stuff I'm usually cool with it.

 

[Doorknob22]

I'll focus mostly on decisions (and do some shameless self promotion to my own game).

1. Choosing between two girls - I think most players want both.
2. False plot choices - "Would you like coffee or tea?": if the difference between two choices is minor, why offer it in the first place? When it has no effect on the plot, spare me the "choice" please.
3. False dialog choices - if I must ask the other character all three dialog options before I can proceed, it's not much of a choice, is it?
4. Blind choices - "you hear the thugs running at you from the alley, where do you want to hide: A. Behind the dumpster B. Behind the car" or "She seems exhausted from all the dancing: A. Get her something to drink B. Suggest you go outside" - how can a player know which option is better? Blind guessing?
5. Dead end choices - you chose wrong, you're dead or she slapped your face and left.
6. Forcing the players into sex with characters they dislike.

Spoiler: Shameless self promotion to my own game

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[Trickstar]

I hate when there is a bunch of choices that ultimately amount to nothing. If I'm given a choice I want it to actually mean something.

 

[Jaike]

GOR, ROR or defeat rape as the only sex in the game. Japanese devs love that.

1. Choosing between two girls - I think most players want both.

That's sort of a reasonable wish for the player, but it's even more reasonable for a dev to decide to force a choice if it fits the game. But saying it's the most annoying or hated sounds a little extreme?

 

[Jonboy80]

That's sort of a reasonable wish for the player, but it's even more reasonable for a dev to decide to force a choice if it fits the game. But saying it's the most annoying or hated sounds a little extreme?

Gotta agree. I'm not sure if I'm the minority or not but I tend to prefer going after one LI. Which is odd because I've lived a polyamorous life. That being said, I hate being forced to go with an LI. Like in Treasure of Nadia. You have to hook up with every LI to progress in the game. I'm all for harem from time to time but, oftentimes, I want to see meaningful and emotional character interaction over more shallow physical attraction.