Board 8 > Mind-bogglingly bad choices for developers to make in a modern game

(+) Yeah! (+)

So you know that old gaming trope of the main character telling the player where to go by repeating the same line every 60 seconds? And it's really really annoying and I feel like I've definitely seen it less in recent years because devs most have realised how annoying it is?

Shadow of the Tomb Raider still pulls that shit

I'm actually kind of stunned. I mean yes, it's beyond irritating, but fucking wow. Who actually thought this was acceptable to still be doing? Isn't this a relic?

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Weapon degradation in Breath of the Wild.

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The Last of Us did that.

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Pressing B deletes everything you've written and goes back a screen instead of deleting the last letter you wrote

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ctesjbuvf posted...

The Last of Us did that.

Last of Us was way more linear than modern Tomb Raiders

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XIII_rocks posted...

So you know that old gaming trope of the main character telling the player where to go by repeating the same line every 60 seconds? And it's really really annoying and I feel like I've definitely seen it less in recent years because devs most have realised how annoying it is?

Shadow of the Tomb Raider still pulls that shit

I'm actually kind of stunned. I mean yes, it's beyond irritating, but fucking wow. Who actually thought this was acceptable to still be doing? Isn't this a relic?

Well, Lara's all about unearthing lost relics, right?
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Friend codes

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Shadow is pretty easily the worst of the modern TR trilogy and that's one of the reasons. Story sucks too and is just kind of boring, although there is one awesome scene later that I dig. Also not enough stealthy combat encounters, I really enjoyed sneaking around with the bow in the first two and in this one there wasn't enough of that.

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2013 > Shadow > Rise

Fight me
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Murphiroth posted...

Shadow is pretty easily the worst of the modern TR trilogy and that's one of the reasons. Story sucks too and is just kind of boring, although there is one awesome scene later that I dig. Also not enough stealthy combat encounters, I really enjoyed sneaking around with the bow in the first two and in this one there wasn't enough of that.

That one scene is so good that it make Shadow my fave of the trilogy

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UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENES

UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENES

UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENES

ffffffffffffffffffff

The worst mechanic I've ever seen in a game past 2010 is Terraria's forced spreading of Corruption/Crimson/Hollow once you kill Wall of Flesh. You can get permanently locked out of the endgame in your world if you don't speedrun to beating Plantera before the jungle gets destroyed or you spend literal dozens of hours sectioning off Corruption/Crimson and Hollow biomes from the rest of your world by building copious amounts of hellevators or by buying a Clentaminator and absurd amounts of purifying solution. Oh! But you can't remove all of it because there are items required for crafting endgame equipment that you can only get in these biomes. So your best bet is standing over pits and tossing dynamite for 20 hours. And when you go and break a crimson/corruption altar to spawn hardmode ore in your world, you also have to worry about the game randomly converting a block to a spreading block, potentially ruining those 20+ hours of mindless boredom. Because for some reason the developers thought an altar having a 66% chance of converting nearly any block in the world to a spreading block was an amazing idea and not at all just spiteful as fuck toward its players or an idea that literally adds nothing to the experience except frustration and more tedium. Garbage.

I'm glad Journey mode finally fixed the absolute worst thing about Terraria (and honestly, the worst thing in any game I've ever played in my opinion). I'll give the devs that, even if they took 9 years to address everyone's number one complaint about the game. At least they finally did something about it, which is more than I can say for, as an example, the Splatoon devs telling fans that they know better than we do and that's why they didn't remove the rotation garbage in Splatoon 2.

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snake_5036 posted...

as an example, the Splatoon devs telling fans that they know better than we do and that's why they didn't remove the rotation garbage in Splatoon 2.

what is this

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Yeah stage rotation is great in a game like Splatoon 2. I just wish it were more balanced (I feel like there are a few stages that show up like 2 or 3 times a day every day and a few stages that only pop up like once every few days).

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redrocket posted...

what is this

If you mean where the devs said this: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/09/splatoon_2_designer_explains_why_the_maps_rotate_and_salmon_run_is_time-limited

If you mean why it's garbage:

Because there are entire modes that straight up aren't available just so the devs can have the idol gimmick in the game. No mode should be locked out just for rotations, and no maps should be left out of rotation to force artificial diversity in maps (even though random maps is fine and yes, even voting maps are fine, despite what complainers say). I get immensely sick of stages far faster having them being the only 2 available versus every other multiplayer series on Earth where the selection is random or voted on. Imagine if Smash Bros only let you play 2 maps for 2 hours. Imagine Mario Kart if they rotated CC modes, so for 2 hours you'd be SOL with 50cc for all online matches. This is a TERRIBLE mechanic and having two games in a row using it, I can safely say that voting/random is better all around. Also, with voting/random, we don't need to have unskippable cutscenes and dialogue every 2 hours showing us the damn maps. We can just keep playing instead of being interrupted.

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First thing that came to mind was Xenoblade Chronicles 2 having a gacha system when it's not even trying to wring money out of you with it. The point of that system is explicitly not to make games more fun, so that never made sense to me.

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PC games not having a text chat is one that I find infuriating.

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snake_5036 posted...

If you mean where the devs said this: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/09/splatoon_2_designer_explains_why_the_maps_rotate_and_salmon_run_is_time-limited

Everything in this article is 100% true. There are times when developers make bad design choices, and those should be fixed, but when a developer intentionally makes a design decision with a deeper meaning of why they think it helps the game, those usually turn out better. I mean even earlier in the topic we have this point

TheRock1525 posted...

Weapon degradation in Breath of the Wild.

Someone complaining about a feature in the most buckwild successful game of the decade in a topic dedicated to the worst of all design blunders. It's the perfect example of why "fans" shouldn't be listened to if you have a vision of what you want for your game to be.

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KH3 having save points

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SantaRPidgey posted...

Someone complaining about a feature in the most buckwild successful game of the decade in a topic dedicated to the worst of all design blunders. It's the perfect example of why "fans" shouldn't be listened to if you have a vision of what you want for your game to be.

But the weapon degradation feature in Breath of the Wild does absolutely suck.

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I literally stopped caring about it once I realized I would always have enough equipment

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Leonhart4 posted...

I literally stopped caring about it once I realized I would always have enough equipment

This. I'm convinced people who hate it hoard weapons and never realized there's absolutely no reason to.

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But the game itself is perfect, and degradation is the foundation on which it's built. It's like looking at a garden and being like "yeah the earthworms are gross tho. Bad design"

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SantaRPidgey posted...

Someone complaining about a feature in the most buckwild successful game of the decade in a topic dedicated to the worst of all design blunders. It's the perfect example of why "fans" shouldn't be listened to if you have a vision of what you want for your game to be.

If a game being wildly successful means it is exempt from criticism, then I assume you no longer have anything bad to say about Pokemon Sword and Shield!

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The degradation is annoying. My issue isn't running out of weapons, it's constantly having to change to a new one.

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I mean, sure, it's a hassle. I'm not denying that.

I just think it gets too much hate for a feature that doesn't really affect the game that much.

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Man, I wish I had the same experience you guys did, because I felt like I was always running out of decent weapons, and faced with having to get through obstacles with wooden swords that seemingly bounce off of enemies. I even prioritized getting the Master Sword, just to then deal with the thing needing to recharge.

WHO THE FUCK ASKED FOR AND WANTED A MASTER SWORD TO CHARGE LIKE ITS A CELLPHONE?

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it affects the game way more than people act like it does, weapons break so quickly that you'll rarely get through a single combat encounter without breaking at least one

unless you go out of your way to avoid the game's fun combat system, which is stupid

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I dunno. I just learned to be conservative with weapon usage and not go fighting everything in sight. Or try to use stuff that doesn't degrade a lot, like bombs and stuff.

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StealThisSheen posted...

If a game being wildly successful means it is exempt from criticism, then I assume you no longer have anything bad to say about Pokemon Sword and Shield!

Hello Sep. Wow great retort, really good job with it.

My point was you can't take a nugget out of something that was designed mindfully as a (clearly successful*) ecosystem and tout is as "mindboggling bad choices"

I'm not sure you could find the article where Matsuda said "We intentionally left textures in sword and shield low poly because we believe it would create a richer gameplay experience more tailored to the way it was meant to be play"

*In this case I'm talking about success as far as the merits of acclaim and how far the game pushed the boundaries in design and concept. I'm not going to argue with people who think BotW didn't reach success in these fields because 1. They're wrong 2. It has nothing to do with the actual thing I'm talking about

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Shonen_Bat posted...

it affects the game way more than people act like it does, weapons break so quickly that you'll rarely get through a single combat encounter without breaking at least one

unless you go out of your way to avoid the game's fun combat system, which is stupid

Sure, but enemies will usually drop at least a couple to replace what breaks.

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I guess I also didn't have a problem using the crappy weapons against the random mobs and saving the actual good weapons for situations that warranted them.

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having to replace lost weapons isn't the problem, it's every battle getting bogged down by multiple interruptions of "oops my weapon broke, time to stop what I'm doing and get a new one"

the breakable weapons were fine as a mechanic for a while, but once you have more weapons than you know what to do with it's just a constant annoyance that shouldn't still be part of the game but is for some reason

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Guys you're missing the point, it doesn't matter if it's "bad" or "good" that weapons break. The point is the game is built around the weapons breaking and the game itself is good. You're supposed to be annoyed when your weapons break, because thats what gives you the relief when you find new powerful weapons. Thats what makes literally every korok seed a blessing. I know y'all have played rpgs where you opened chests, and had literally no emotional response when you find a legendary weapon, because the legendary weapon you found was just slightly worse than the one you have. This is a game built around the entire world being fun to explore, and every discovery giving you something. And whether or not you personally liked BotW you have to admit the game knocked that ambitious ideal out of the park.

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there's not much relief in finding a powerful new weapon when it's also going to be scrap metal within half an hour

at least imo, it accomplishes the opposite and makes you not care about the weapons you get because of how expendable they all are

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Shonen_Bat posted...

having to replace lost weapons isn't the problem, it's every battle getting bogged down by multiple interruptions of "oops my weapon broke, time to stop what I'm doing and get a new one"

the breakable weapons were fine as a mechanic for a while, but once you have more weapons than you know what to do with it's just a constant annoyance that shouldn't still be part of the game but is for some reason

*shrug*

I just got used to it after a while and it stopped bothering me. Don't know what else to say.

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in fighting games with online, not giving a penalty to rage quitters is the dumbest thing ever

well, any game with competitive online

that should be a staple, you program that in EVEN IF YOUR GAME DOESN"T END UP HAVING ONLINE

IT SHOULD STILL BE THERE

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Doom Eternal devs apparently thought it would be a good idea for the "restart mission" option to reload your save data from when you first ever loaded into that mission.

So let's say for instance you back out of that mission and go replay five others to hunt collectibles. Then you return to said mission and restart - all of your progress you just did on previous missions is erased. I lost over 5 hours of progress I made because of this. Completely, entirely wiped.

This is the most mindbogglingly horrible design decision I've experienced in arguably any video game, forget just modern, and it all but ruined a game I otherwise loved.

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SantaRPidgey posted...

Guys you're missing the point, it doesn't matter if it's "bad" or "good" that weapons break. The point is the game is built around the weapons breaking and the game itself is good. You're supposed to be annoyed when your weapons break, because thats what gives you the relief when you find new powerful weapons. Thats what makes literally every korok seed a blessing. I know y'all have played rpgs where you opened chests, and had literally no emotional response when you find a legendary weapon, because the legendary weapon you found was just slightly worse than the one you have. This is a game built around the entire world being fun to explore, and every discovery giving you something. And whether or not you personally liked BotW you have to admit the game knocked that ambitious ideal out of the park.

I don't get this argument.

A game can be good despite something in it being bad, even a core element. It absolutely DOES matter if weapons breaking is "good" or "bad." Like, very few people argue that they love the weapons breaking, or that they love the dungeon structure, for instance. The argument is typically that they love everything else so much that the negatives aren't as important to them. If, in somebody's eyes, a game would be improved by removing/changing something, then it can absolutely apply as a "bad choice."

The fact the weapons breaking is such a hot issue is for a reason.

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oh god please don't turn this topic into another debate about the weapon degradation in BotW.

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No option for autosave, in either direction (not including autosave at all OR forced autosave).


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Surskit posted...

oh god please don't turn this topic into another debate about the weapon degradation in BotW.

I'm not even trying to argue about the weapon degradation itself since I have no real opinion on it. I just don't get Santa's argument of saying something can't count as a "bad choice" if the overall game is good.

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snake_5036 posted...

The worst mechanic I've ever seen in a game past 2010 is Terraria's forced spreading of Corruption/Crimson/Hollow once you kill Wall of Flesh. You can get permanently locked out of the endgame in your world if you don't speedrun to beating Plantera before the jungle gets destroyed or you spend literal dozens of hours sectioning off Corruption/Crimson and Hollow biomes from the rest of your world by building copious amounts of hellevators or by buying a Clentaminator and absurd amounts of purifying solution. Oh! But you can't remove all of it because there are items required for crafting endgame equipment that you can only get in these biomes. So your best bet is standing over pits and tossing dynamite for 20 hours. And when you go and break a crimson/corruption altar to spawn hardmode ore in your world, you also have to worry about the game randomly converting a block to a spreading block, potentially ruining those 20+ hours of mindless boredom. Because for some reason the developers thought an altar having a 66% chance of converting nearly any block in the world to a spreading block was an amazing idea and not at all just spiteful as fuck toward its players or an idea that literally adds nothing to the experience except frustration and more tedium. Garbage.

I love terraria.

This whole thing is 100% true and the main reason I don't take the game farther than the wall, usually.


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Cutscenes that you can't skip or pause.

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Oh god, unpauseable cutscenes are degrees worse than unskippable ones.

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Great_Paul posted...

Cutscenes that you can't skip or pause.

This is my #1 problem with FFX. It might be a top-3 FF for me if the cutscenes were skippable; instead it's mid-tier. (Still a good game, but not up to the level of FF9, which is my #3.)

Cutscenes that you can't pause but trying to pause automatically skips them.


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Lolo_Guru posted...

I love terraria.

This whole thing is 100% true and the main reason I don't take the game farther than the wall, usually.

I also love Terraria, and that post isn't true in the slightest from my experience. Sure, crimson/corruption/hallow start spreading after you beat the Wall of Flesh, but never fast enough to force any sort of strict time crunch.

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