What is your most hated feature in computer games?

[Lethn]

So I'm studying some brilliant books on C++ programming and really enjoying it because now I can look at code and make proper sense of half the stuff I was thinking that when I put my code into action and make a real game that isn't just interactive graphics what are the things that people most hate that I should keep out? There are some really obvious ones but I wouldn't be surprised if I missed some that other people truly despise having in their games. My most hated feature so far in a game hasn't been unskippable cutscenes or not being able to while combat happens ( even though those are pretty fucking awful those can be easily fixed by a competent programmer and good game design) but infinitely looping RPG statistics or A.I cheating and I'll explain what I mean for those who wouldn't understand what I mean by this.

So for RPG statistics, I'm talking about things like experience points, health points, all that good stuff, now when these kind of things go up quickly and they don't have a limit of 100000 then it can actually make games fairly entertaining, but lately I've seen games developers abusing the shit out of these statistics even in singleplayer games because it's much more easier to add several 0's onto a statistics than it is to make a nicely crafted game scenario for a player to go through. Yes, I understand why they've done something like this, no I don't see the fucking point in it, it's abysmal and it drives me insane, I'm sure you've seen it yourselves but MMORPGs in particular abuse the shit out of statistics and all game developers are doing is dragging it out as long as possible in a desperate effort to keep the player in the game. They've gone from trying to make games entertaining and interesting to interact with to just being absolutely tedious, the worst part is, this kind of thinking is infesting other genres as well! You've got all these shooters now instead of making at least half-decent scripted scenarios to just adding thousands of perks or slightly different game models RPG statistics vomited all over them.

Then comes the A.I cheating, we all know humanity's A.I isn't that advanced yet, it can't even recognise speech very well never mind command an army properly, but lately I've gotten pissed off with another form of lazy coding known as letting A.I spawn free troops that all have better statistics than yours. Yes, I'm talking about an RTS, more specifically Shogun 2, I'm aware that this tends to happen badly on hard difficulty but this is happening even on 'easy' mode! I remember playing the original Halo and all they did was give the enemy twice as much health and you half that. What the geniuses at creative assembly have done though is because they don't want certain clans winning they give other clans entire stacks of very powerful units so they'll give the Takeda a bunch of later game units and the Uesegi as well or they'll compensate for the A.I stupidity by giving them huge armies to play with leaving you the player with a tiny amount of troops and the only option of getting steamrolled by them because of course they've taken away the skill element of the gameplay since Rome Total War and replaced it with statistics instead. I just had a situation where I was playing with a smaller force against a much bigger force that my enemy had amassed unfairly despite having only one province ( which would mean he would have to cheat to get as many troops as he did ) and despite this I managed to ambush him from a forest by luring him. By all accounts, I should have at least been able to decimate is forces slightly but instead what happened despite taking the enemy completely by surprise with my entire force engaging a couple of unsupported units my troops just went up and ran away! The fuck? If that were a real battle they would have at least had a good portion of those units hacked away before they could do anything.

Game Dev: Hey boss! We realised something, our players keep chewing through our content like no tomorrow
Boss: What? At this rate we'll actually have to start being creative again in order to keep our jobs!
Game Dev: What should we do? They got through our last game in just a couple of hours
Boss: Add more zeros
Game Dev: Zeroes?
Boss: Yes, if we add more zeroes that should slow them down enough and stop them getting through everything so fast until we make our next game
Game Dev: Great idea! Maybe we could add even more zeroes on the next game too so it lasts even longer!
Boss: Excellent! Get it done!


Anyway, bit of a long rant I know, but let me know what other hates you have in computer games so I don't repeat the same mistakes other game developers have

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

You want the truth? What I hate in a game is the lack of support. Take note from Crytek's actions. They destroyed Crysis 2 and Crysis 3 BY NOT FIXING the obvious bugs.

[Lethn]

Now I know exactly what you mean with that one Creative Assembly still haven't patched the A.I cheating despite it being pointed out to them several times and the bugs in Fallout are ridiculous too.

[favdesu]

I think you all know D3? That's pretty much everything I hate in one game united.

[Lethn]

lol! Knew the internet is the place to ask these sorts of questions

[newtothescene]

Lack of choices - too much of a lot of otherwise fun games are linear.  

Want to gain experience? Well, that can only be done by killing X or completing Q.  If it makes sense some type of training ground or area where heroes can improve themselves in a way that is non-traditional might be fun.  How about experience for crafting or talking to NPCs or anything else that kind of sort of fits the game.

Want to explore the world?  Well, you can only go to zone A until level X and then zone B until level Y....  Look for ways to balance the world zones so that it can be explored in a more natural way.

Want to build a skill/talent tree?  Well, these 3-5 choices are all you really have.  Let the player have more choice in this area.  The tiered tree is frustrating - let me put my points wherever the heck I want them.  If balance is a concern then balance the abilities, not restrict the choices.

Want to run a group event?  Well, only if you have X number of players that can commit to 1+ hour of coordinated time.  Either allow the event to scale difficulty with group size allowing a wider range of options (x-3 to x+3) AND/OR allow empty spots to be filled by computer controlled heroes that can be average/mean of group skill/power/level/gear/whatever.


Not sure there are good solutions to all/any of these, but hope it helps

New

  

[jaywaka2713]

What books did you read on C++? Did they honestly make you feel like you can just pick up a laptop and start plugging away at an idea you have decided to program?

[FirstAscent]

What books did you read on C++? Did they honestly make you feel like you can just pick up a laptop and start plugging away at an idea you have decided to program?

I can't imagine so. You also need to learn: vectors, dot products, normals, parametric equations, root finding, ray tracing, sampling theory, procedural geometry, data structures such as linked lists and trees and hash tables and k-d trees, properties of light propagation, analytic geometry, inverse kinematics, LOD, shaders, texture mapping, how cameras work, properties of the atmosphere, L-systems...

[Akka]

I hate it when levels start to stretch them self like gum.

Wonder what is behind this corner? Ohh surprise! Another giant spider. I wonder what this spiders eat down here, because here is nothing except giant spiders!

As soon as you have enough replications for the player to notice it gets boring and that's exactly what a game should not be.

[jaywaka2713]

What books did you read on C++? Did they honestly make you feel like you can just pick up a laptop and start plugging away at an idea you have decided to program?

I can't imagine so. You also need to learn: vectors, dot products, normals, parametric equations, root finding, ray tracing, sampling theory, procedural geometry, data structures such as linked lists and trees and hash tables and k-d trees, properties of light propagation, analytic geometry, inverse kinematics, LOD, shaders, texture mapping, how cameras work, properties of the atmosphere, L-systems...

Touche. +1

[Lethn]

lmao! Not right away of course but they certainly helped me understand the damn stuff better, I'm currently look at C++ Primer and it's got some very nice explanations unlike some of the damn tutorials I've looked at.

[jaywaka2713]

lmao! Not right away of course but they certainly helped me understand the damn stuff better, I'm currently look at C++ Primer and it's got some very nice explanations unlike some of the damn tutorials I've looked at.

Did you ever move on from C++ Primer to something more advanced?

[Lethn]

I'm looking at all sorts Jaywaka, C++ Primer is to help me understand the code better and be less noobish SFML and OpenGL is where I want to be towards the end.

[jaywaka2713]

I'm looking at all sorts Jaywaka, C++ Primer is to help me understand the code better and be less noobish SFML and OpenGL is where I want to be towards the end.

Yeah. Try looking into books like http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321334876/?tag=stackoverfl08-20 and http://www.amazon.com/dp/020163371X/?tag=stackoverfl08-20 after that one.

The book from the founder of C++ is http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321563840/?tag=stackoverfl08-20

Might be a good read

[Lethn]

Woh! I still need to get through the first lot I got recommended and each one is almost a thousand pages long! lol but in regards to getting games coded right away, things have gotten a lot easier now with stuff like SFML and did you know how simple game loops are? This is what I meant with the RPG statistics where they take the lazy option, they quite literally take their original code and then just add zeroes to the numbers they've put up.

I've even managed to make a very basic RTS style camera with arrow keys, the mouse stuff is what's most complicated I've found, oh and other programmers seem to hate my formatting so I need to look at that properly

[pizza]

Cut scenes that you can't skip. I mean I'm trying to play a game here not watch a movie

[Cyberdyne]

Game over -> [ THIS PERIOD OF TIME IS WAY TOO LONG ] -> New game

Once a game is over, getting into a new game should be a few clicks and a few seconds at the most.

[Lethn]

Cut scenes that you can't skip. I mean I'm trying to play a game here not watch a movie

I don't know about you but I wonder if unskippable animations fall into this category as well, I keep thinking back to all the total war games that had this problem where those bloody agents would spam those animations on you constantly before you could finish a turn.

[Damnsammit]

I hate buying a game from the homos at EA Sports, only to have to pay another $15 to play it online, which is the only reason I bought the game in the first place.

Madden is one of the worst series in the history of video games.  In 1996 it was awesome and then I think it has gotten worse every year since.  I haven't played since the disaster that was 2012, though.  Stupid, stupid, EA.  First they killed the best MMO ever made (Ultima Online) and then they monopolized and destroyed every sports game since...

[$1LK]

- People using mics in fps games. I hate in halo when some wannabes think they're all leet because they can coordinate with microphones. Sure it helps, but you don't need it to win if you know how to think.

They need to make a bad ass fps game where nobody knows the map layout and nobody has a mic, because I'd be GOD.