Instant turn offs when playing a video game

[msdstc]

Rubberband ai. After platinuming horizon turbo I officially vowed to never waste time on a rubberband ai game again.

 

[Peek-a-boo!]

Abrupt difficultly hikes that seemingly come out of nowhere.

Although I thought 'Quantum Break' was above average, the last boss was just the most ridiculous leap in difficulty! Thus, I swiftly abandoned the game there and then, and watched the ending on YouTube.

I am presently having trouble remembering other examples however, when you're enjoying a game that's bumbling along at a nice pace and is consistent in terms of challenge, it makes an abrupt difficulty hike all the more disheartening to endure.

I just simply do not have the time to attempt a boss or a scenario over and over again...

 

[Kazooie]

Platformers on Nintendo consoles where B is jump. I don't mind it in stuff like BotW because jumping isn't as important in that, but to me A is always the jump button. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Click to shrink...

Nah, the main button is the jump button and on Nintendo systems with four face buttons that's B. You also use cross on PlayStation and A on Xbox to jump. It's not about the name, but the position.

My biggest turn-off is a character editor. I just want to play and not be bothered with any kind of customisation. Strong second place: Long intro sequences or extensive tutorials.

 

[MysticGon]

Bad frame pacing, especially in games that let you control the camera. Makes me ill.

 

[Zephy]

I like walking in games, so any game that fudges that in some way will annoy me, for example :
- mismatching animation and movement speed like in Persona 5 (to a ridiculous extent in this one).
- extreme left stick sensitivity with only a minuscule window for walking normally, like in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
- unnecessary intermediate speeds (tied to the previous issue), also like in ACO. I never want to jog in a game. Like, ever. Not once. Either I want to take my time and walk, or I want to get somewhere quick and and I'll run at max speed.

 

[HitMissYeah]

Time Limit to finish the game. I prefer playing games at my own pace.

 

[dean_rcg]

Bad controls

 

[Deleted member 15428]

EA

 

[score01]

Areas in games where you are constantly taking damage for just being there. I don't have time for that stress.

 

[Zlug]

When the main character cannot stop to talk, monologues and such. It pisses me off so bad that I turn off the volume.

 

[nekkid]

It's not always as bad as in my head, but I let out a big sigh whenever I get to a tutorial that tells me how to craft or customise my weapon.

 

[seroun]

Half naked girls that look like teens.

Click to shrink...

Embarrassing, blatant fap bait costumes for female characters

Click to shrink...

Hate this and loli stuff.

Also like git gud games. Fuck that shit.

 

[NightShift]

Always online single player games. It's something I deal with in multiplayer games but that just makes sense but being pulled out of a game due to my shitty internet connection for no reason annoys the fuck out of me.

That's pretty much it for me though. I'm willing to give any design decision a chance even if I don't like it at first.

 

[Grimsey]

Maps that spew out countless icons with things to do.

Less is More.

Less is More

Less is More.
Less is Mor...
Less is Mo...
Less is M...
More is really less value.

Click to shrink...

I accidentally looked at the first image and had to lie down for a bit.


Mine is when (inevitably when walking into a very large room) a cutscene triggers and a large boss monster yells at you for a couple seconds for no reason.

How dumb do they think the player is that they have to identify the boss in this fashion? What is the player's reaction supposed to be? Why is the boss even yelling in the first place?

 

[moerser]

i wont even watch trailers of a game if its genre is described as "soulsborne" or "roguelike"

 

[FreeMufasa]

Crafting, resource gathering, stat allotment, fetching etc.

Basically anything that makes me feel like I'm working.

 

[ApeEscaper]

Long tutorials at the start

 

[superNESjoe]

Games not respecting my time. Either taking 10-15 minutes to even let me start playing, or bombarding me with exposition to the point of being invasive.

If by an hour in I've spent more time waiting than playing I'll usually drop the game and never touch it again.

 

[Alek]

Controls that aren't customisable and feel bad out of the box.

Ghost Recon Wildlands is a good example. Has quite a bit of input lag and generally feels a little 'off' all of the time.

 

[archreaper93]

Nothing.

 

[eXistor]

Platformers on Nintendo consoles where B is jump. I don't mind it in stuff like BotW because jumping isn't as important in that, but to me A is always the jump button. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Click to shrink...

The way the buttons are laid out, using it oldskool style is just not natural like it was on NES, Y/B is the closest to it and the layout makes it very comfortable to use.

 

[Lyng]

Bad/clunky controls
Overly restrictive / linear ways to complete quests ie. getting failstates for not doing a mission exactly like the dev envisioned.
Loli characters
P2w micro transactions

 

[MrWonderworld]

Long tutorials and incessant cutscenes. Just let me play the game.

 

[RAWcolour]

Bad UI design. Ugly fonts and menus are the fastest way to kill it for me.

 

[Shudouken]

Forced minigames. I watched a trailer and bought the game because I liked what I saw, and now I'm forced to play a different game? Why?
Also I have a very low tolerance for repeated unskippable cutscenes. Like in pokemon sun & moon where it took up to 20 seconds for every battle to start.
Missable sidequests are another big turn off, especially when there are so many the game practically forces you to use a guide. I want to shift between advancing the story and exploring at my own pace.

 

[a_mad_bag_of_cats]

Some things I have desensitised to such as over sexualisation - I don't condone it, I just mostly ignore it (the climax attacks against Joys in bayonetta in particular).

But instant turn offs? Unnecessary grinding or gating progression by forcing you to level up/grind. Games where their design are centred on (aggressive) monetisation/micro transactions - now considering the first point about unnecessary grinding yet I really like warframe - warframe isn't guilty of aggressive monetisation, I'm thinking more those shitty ftp games with random currency
0.99$ small sack of shit
1.99$ slightly bigger sack of shit
9.99$ a bag of shit
19.99$ A big bag of shit and exclusive polished turd

Games like this aren't designed to be "completed"

 

[Sankara]

White male protagonists

 

[CheeseWraith]

If I am introduced to a microtransaction storefront before the tutorial has ended I usually give up with the game (and refund, if I did pay for such storefront).

 

[amprainy]

Single movement speed or no walking animation in a third-person game
Invisible walls
No option to toggle off HUD
Level scaling

 

[Listai]

Leading off with long introductory cutscenes. Let me play the game before I decide if I want to give a shit about the stupid story.

 

[LAM09]

Poor performance
Long loading times
No customisation options or very few

 

[Primal Sage]

Missions that start with having a long drive/traversal in order to do the actual mission. If you then die during the fight, the checkpoint you respawn at is "do the drive again". Killed GTA4 for me.

Don't needlessly waste my time, game.

 

[Dr Pears]

Games, especially RPGs where other enemies don't follow the game's rules.

I'll explain by examples:
1. Bosses that can't be inflicted with status effects for whatever reason.
2. Games with MP where the enemies/bosses uses high MP-costing attacks non-stop.
3. Enemies with impossibly high HP, attack or other stats but when in your party, it's nowhere near that high.

 

[takriel]

"Enjoying the game so far buddy? Let me interrupt you right here and teach you the gameplay basics in this pop-up tutorial"

"Enjoying the game so far buddy? Let me interrupt your freedom of movement right here and bring your character to a crawling halt, so that they can comment on what's obviously happening without getting too far in the level"

"Enjoying the game so far buddy? Let me make life miserable for you by having these overly small fonts"

"Enjoying the game so far buddy? I don't think you really know what's happening right now. Let me make sure your character comments on every small thing so that you always know what's up"

 

[Reektan]

A bar that I have to fill up in order to do a thing to progress by performing multiple repetitive tasks as if I am in some sort of lab test. Urgh.

 

[GUNDAM STARDUST]

I hate unskippable opening splash screens that make you watch all the logos for developers, publishers, 3rd party tools, etc.

Bonus: mystery save systems. Hate that in Forza Horizon I just back out without "saving" or it notifying you that it's autosaving. I know you all looked for the proper way to exit the game just like me.

 

[leenbzoold]

When i press a button, there has to be a positive gamplay effect immediately. No pesky animations wasting my time.

 

[adit]

puzzle element in non-puzzle games, if its too much i usually drop that game, wasting my time

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

Overly long and unnecessary tutorials.

 

[SprachBrooks]

I've got a few but off the top of my head:

• Silent protagonists
• RPGs where your clothing / armour don't change even though you've equipped different ones
• No difficulty selection
• "Souls-like"
• Inability to invert both the Y- and X-axis
• Building bases and other such gameplay mechanics
• Not being healed automatically and status effects removed after battle in certain JRPGs
• Limited voice acting
• STAMNA BAR
• WEAPON DEGRADATION

 

[dunkzilla]

Bad movement animations in conjunction with boring traversal.

Unpauseable cut scenes.

 

[MrKlaw]

Unskippable and forced timing text. Dragon quest builders has this and I bloody hate it

 

[SirNinja]

Mobile games where the only way to save progress in the cloud (and/or to transfer progress between devices) is via Facebook.

 

[Soj]

Input lag

Hate it more than anything. There's no excuse for it. Control responsiveness should be an absolute priority when making a game.

 

[StarErik]

Crap that breaks the fluidity of the gameplay. Currently playing Link's Awakening DX and those god awful power-ups have like 3 text boxes every god damn time. I just don't care that the power flows through me, I just want to play. When you try to avoid power-ups because of text you know it's real bad. I hope they fixed this in the remake. Just play the info the first time ever and then never again.

Same goes with Twilight Princess, you get these pop-ups when collecting rupees. Sure, it's only the first time... as long as you never exit the game. When going back in you get them again.

And then there's Skyward Sword. They fixed the rupee thing. But NOW, everytime you collect a treasure a pop-up is shorn, then the game opens the menu for you, plays an animation where the treasure is placed on the collection screen. It is so damn slow. Some people shouldn't be allowed to make games.

 

[Gelf]

Slow walking and talking sections or those basic obstacles where you have to move a plank with your AI partner for more excuses to chat. Also if it has too many of those slow QTE sections where you just have to press X to do a minor action like chopping wood.

Crafting systems where I have no clue where I'm supposed to find all these materials. Though I'm actually playing Monster Hunter World at the moment it's probably in a very sub optimal way as I'm just crafting what I can see is available rather than actually focusing on actually acquiring specific parts too much.

Games with any focus on dating mechanics.

 

[ieu]

Enemies who don't react to being attacked, no flinching, no hit stun, nothing.
As far as I'm concerned this is the very basics of game design, tell the player when they are being effective, and if this is wrong then there's no point seeing how the rest turns out.

 

[Greywaren]

Off the top of my head:

• Overly sexualized women and/or ridiculous outfits for them when they're in combat situations. Read: massive cleavages, high heels, bikini armors, etc.
• Cutscenes or dialogues constantly interrupting the gameplay to explain something obvious.
• No difficulty options.
• Damage-sponge enemies/bosses that don't require any strategy and just waste your time.
• Being forced to stop and grind/farm to progress in the game.
• Restrictive time limits.

There's probably more stuff, but I can't think of anything else right now.

 

[P A Z]

There was a part in the Octopath Traveller demo where you explore a cave, I'm going into one of the little nooks cos I can see an item or something and when I go in an enemy pops up, I beat the enemy but forget to explore and pick up the item and leave this nook before remembering I didn't get the item so I go back into the nook and the enemy spawns again and I don't know what you call this game design/mechanic but it instantly turned me off the game.

 

[Zoon]

Bad m/kb controls.
No way to adjust volume.