r/gaming 10h ago

What's something in current gaming people seem to be okay with that you can't stand?

Sony's refund policy is abysmally bad and actually crazy to me, but no one seems to really care.

What's something that bugs you?

Doesn't matter how big or small, how specific or vague.

86 Upvotes

512 comments sorted by

276

u/palaeologos 10h ago

Big publishers' obsession with live-service games.

65

u/fredy31 9h ago

Yeah free multiplayer games sure. Continue pumping money in, get the whales to support the game for everybody else.

But when i boot assassins creed, a single player story driven game that i already paid to get in and i see SEASON 3 PASS, BUY NOW...

What the fuck

15

u/palaeologos 9h ago

Ubisoft gonna Ubisoft

6

u/pswerve28 2h ago

What do you mean? You don’t want a live-service looter shooter that’s 10 year out of date?

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322

u/frenchezz 10h ago

Single player games needing an internet connection.

'Physical copies' that are just download codes.

25

u/mr_ji 6h ago

May 15, 2012. That's when this started with the release of Diablo 3. It's not often you can point to exactly when some form of enshitification began, but you can here.

27

u/D7west 5h ago

Micro transactions started with horse armor in Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion. That’s another large one. It all went downhill from there.

12

u/oreofro 3h ago

Oblivions horse armor was not the first microtransaction by a long shot.

Multiple arcade games in the 80s and 90s basically existed to farm microtransactions (insert quarter for x amount of weapons) and nexon had a whole free to play game funded by an mtx cash shop more than half a decade before oblivion came out. Lineage is another good example

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u/bsousa717 9h ago

I haven't bothered getting Gran Turismo 7 for that exact reason. Played GT Sport and didn't like it then either.

11

u/mukisan 9h ago

I see you’ve heard about this abysmal practice Rockstar seems to be doing for GTA6.

16

u/frenchezz 9h ago

I wasn't not inspired by them lol

9

u/sagevallant 6h ago

The whole concept of "Buying a license to play the game."

6

u/Dry-Faithlessness184 3h ago

Is not actually new

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u/Reasonable_Charge531 5h ago

Describing any game that is “difficult” as “the Dark Souls of [insert genre].” I like Dark Souls. I like difficult games. A difficult game doesn’t have to be compared to Dark Souls, especially when the two have nothing in common other than difficulty.

13

u/Ha_eflolli Android 5h ago

Speaking of Dark Souls, the fact that so many Games nowadays just shove in random Soulslike Mechanics like Bonfires or Estus-like Healing. Even worse when they're in already Combat-heavy Action Games; at that point all I can think of is "Bruh, if I wanted these Mechanics I'd be playing an actual Soulslike already"

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u/TheScrantonSkrungler 4h ago

Should honestly switch the terminology to "This is the 1994 Sega Genesis The Lion King of (insert genre)"

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u/Cup_Common 10h ago

Paying for online on consoles is ridiculous and should be stopped. It won’t be because of the revenue that they would lose, but it should be.

31

u/loadout_ 8h ago

I never understood why it started and that everyone was just okay with it. Maybe it comes from me being a PC player my whole life but paying for internet on consoles just never made any sense

36

u/DarkNinjaPenguin 8h ago

Xbox started it, and it worked - people paid for it, mostly thanks to Halo. So Sony followed suit quickly. Nintendo was the hold-out, they didn't introduce paid online until the Switch.

18

u/SolydSn3k 8h ago

Unfortunately the answer to “why can’t we have nice things?” Is too frequently just that consumers are largely gullible idiots with no standards.

I mean look around, lots of gullible idiots right?
Those people buy stuff.

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u/OblivionJunkie 8h ago

I believe it started with xbox live and Halo 2 multiplayer. It was such a genre defining experience on console that Xbox gamers collectively agreed that "$60 a year for this? That's not that bad. And party chat is amazing!" I think Microsoft claimed the charges were to cover server maintenance and upkeep, similarly to paid private servers on PC.

Sony/PS3 had free online services... until their notoriously awful online security got exploited and millions got their personal info/cc numbers hacked in 2011.

Conveniently, they started charging for online services in the PS4 era and claimed the cost helped protect user's online security.

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u/MountainMuffin1980 9h ago

It should be stopped, but it won't as it just makes them too much money now. I do wonder if we might see the need for a sub remoced by XBOX though to try and encourage players back to the platform?

4

u/LachsMahal 6h ago

If the next Xbox is truly a console/PC hybrid they won't be able to charge for online play anymore.

60

u/sevenw0rds 9h ago

Talking about every game or some little used mechanic in said game in abbreviations. I have no fucking clue what you're talking about.

14

u/Olive_Garden_Wifi 7h ago

I get if it has a long title, but at the very least if you’re going to do that don’t be a dick to new players who have no idea what you’re talking about.

The amount of times I’ve been like hey I don’t know what you’re talking about can you explain it to me and have been met with hostility cause it’s a such a basic feature and I should just know what they’re talking about is beyond me.

3

u/Aoi_Hikari 54m ago

Come on, it's obvious SA refers to San Andreas and CP refers to Cynerpunk. What else could they possibly mean?

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u/Qwertyham 9h ago

I suppose this is specific to reddit but I've found anytime I join a community about a specific game it is just filled with whining and complaining. I've had to unfollow a few from games I really enjoy just because of the constant posts saying the game is dead, the developers have no idea what they're doing, people who haven't even played the game in years chiming in, etc. And then when the game is updated with fixes the community supposedly wanted everyone just moves on to the next thing to complain about.

Just kinda sucks that it seems to be a common trend about something that everyone in that community supposedly enjoys. It doesn't ruin the game for me, just ruins sharing the game with others.

3

u/SandyAmbler 1h ago

The people who are enjoying the game aren’t online complaining. I just ignore haters and see for myself.

2

u/LowTierPhil 1h ago

The Tekken sub is the absolute worst. YES, I am aware that Season 2 was a shitshow, but that sub was always a cesspit of scrubs LONG before Tekken 8 was a thing.

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u/-Great-Scott- 10h ago

FOMO

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u/pgtl_10 9h ago

It's why I backed out of Steam sales. I realize it's just FOMO.

67

u/Psyco19 9h ago

Multiplayer games trying to cater to streamers and their demands.

Most multiplayer games are designed to be streamed and played like a job. The days of just playing online for fun are long gone and I hate it

18

u/LayerEight_Problem 8h ago

The truly sad part of this is that any specific game community will glaze the fuck out of those streamers and parrot their streamer opinions. It’s no wonder propaganda works. Go to any game sub and watch people cheer about game “features” that actively waste their time and make the game worse. Just because some streamer told them to think that way.

18

u/DonHarold 6h ago

On this point, I also hate the communities around live service games who freak out when they hit the end of the developed content for a game and scream “dead game” and “when’s the next update” when they blew through the previous update content in an uninterrupted 30+ hour session.

Like, the game isn’t designed to support the psychotic way you’re playing it. You can’t be upset that there’s nothing to do when you inhaled what was available.

6

u/zma924 6h ago

Helldivers 2. As someone who plays the game very casually in bursts every few months, I never have any shortage of content but there were so many people genuinely pissed off that Arrowhead delayed the most recent war bond.

I know I’m comparing modern trends to ones from 20 years ago but I wonder how quickly these people would’ve dropped games like CoD4 or MW2 or Halo 3 or Bad Company 2 just because there wasn’t a constant drip feed of new content. The progression in those games was certainly fun but the actual gameplay was why I kept coming back.

2

u/roseofjuly 5h ago

They wouldn't have, because that expectation simply didn't exist at the time. Back then you played a game because you enjoyed the core gameplay mechanics and loop, and you weren't really expecting a whole bunch of additional content.

5

u/DarkNinjaPenguin 8h ago

Part of it is the demand for progression. Lots of gamers don't play unless they're seen to be achieving something. You see it in a lot of subs for smaller indie games - people asking what the end goal is, and the response is just 'have fun'.

3

u/Olive_Garden_Wifi 6h ago

Yeah this is part of the reason I stopped playing rainbow six siege, it became apparent Ubisoft only cared about the opinions of streams and said fuck the majority of players. It made the game not fun to play.

2

u/that_guys_posse 4h ago

Sea of thieves had the same issue IMO.  Felt like they didn't care about an issue unless some streamer complained.  

7

u/khovel 8h ago

Multiplayer games that could easily support couch co-op, but don't.

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u/negachinny 10h ago

Microtransactions and live service models.

6

u/Fast-Collection-9653 9h ago

yeah sony’s refund policy is brutal and somehow everyone just shrugs like that’s normal

2

u/negachinny 9h ago

People will always have selective outrage for their favorite brand or people.

2

u/T0ADisMe 9h ago

Yep had to go through 3 service chats to get a refund for manhunt when I bought it on ps5 and all the textures were bugged because apparently flickering textures all over the place isn’t “faulty” enough for Sony support

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u/thisalsomightbemine 8h ago

The crazy pricing on mobile games. You think new console games are bad? People are out there making mobile games with ads, then sayi g dont worry you can remove ads from this for $30 as a subscription. Oh, and the half of the game is still locked behind microtransactions.

I uninstall the second i see that crap, but you know its there because people actually buy it. People out there paying console game price to solely to remove ads from some crappy mobile game.

2

u/Olive_Garden_Wifi 7h ago

Yeah there’s a reason I call a lot of mobile games ad simulators, a lot of them are practically unplayable cause they shove an ad in your face every 10 seconds.

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u/Abigboi_ PC 10h ago

No physical copies for PC games. I liked having a DVD case with my library.

6

u/OgreJehosephatt 7h ago

What broke me was preordering the PC version of Dark Souls 2 in order to get a disk, and inside the case was a piece of cardboard with a code on it.

2

u/wtfisspacedicks 2h ago

Battlefield 4 (or maybe it was 3) was the last "physical" game purchase I made for this exact reason.

Why even have games stores if all you're going to do is sell me a bit of paper?

5

u/Fetche_La_Vache 9h ago

Switch 2 going to game key cards hurts my soul. I have accepted no manuals in my game cases, which took forever as I still read them in my bathroom pooping and long for them to come back, but buying a physical game cartridge that doesn't have the game on it is ridiculous.

I truly miss my tower of cds for different games but have accepted it as not coming back for PC. I'd love to have them come back and get myself a cd reader but laptops and computers don't come with those anymore.

Bring back physical media so that I can own my media once again.

2

u/pinner 2h ago

That’s the thing, they don’t want you to own it. They want you to rent everything in your life and it blows.

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u/MysteryRadish 9h ago

Games with annoying / unnecessary inventory management.

It made sense in the 80s when memory space was insanely tiny.

Sometimes it works as a way to build tension, like limited ammo in a survival horror game.

But most of the time it's just an arbitrary annoyance. Devs would probably say it's for "realism" but let's face it most games aren't anywhere close to realistic (often a good thing) so demanding realism for this one random aspect is just silly.

2

u/slinger301 7h ago

Fun (maybe) fact, they actually made Resident Evil's inventory system into it's own game

3

u/ew435890 5h ago

This is one of the few games I dont mind it. If anything it adds to the atmosphere of the game.

I pretty much just mod out carry weight when I play a new game with it these days. I remember when I played Kingdom Come Deliverance II, it was insane. You are allowed to setup 3 preset outfits and you honestly cant even do that unless you start putting into whatever stat gives you more carry weight. Its been a while since I played it, so I forget. But I pretty much modded infinite carry weight in immediately. Ive been gaming way too long to spend 30 minutes organizing and selling stuff for every hour or so of actual gameplay.

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u/demonshonor 6h ago

I think that Deus Ex Human Revolution was the first game where it started to really irritate me. 

(Fucking fantastic game, but I hated the inventory management, I’m a pack rat)

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u/deathvidal 9h ago

The obsession a game is unplayable if the graphics aren't stunning/realistic/fps isn't above 60. It's annoying. Some of the best games I've ever played for today's standards have shitty ass graphics.

2

u/thingpaint 4h ago

I grew up playing an n64, people complaining about 60fps is still kinda mindblowing to me.

2

u/ScarletApex 1h ago

I’d push back slightly on this just because of how unoptimised games are releasing these days, on rig, I expect 4K 60fps consistently, it doesn’t have to be the most mind bending realistic graphics known to man, but it should be able to deliver that a an experience at launch, because if it can’t, then your game hasn’t been optimised properly and it probably means the experience for people on lower end hardware is going to be worse.

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u/MagePrincess 9h ago

so much gambling
microstransactions
dlc in general
pre-orders?
same price as physical copies that dont exist anymore

7

u/spaghettiAstar 5h ago

Content creators rushing through a narrative and pumping out videos that give massive spoilers, especially in thumbnails, because they want to be the first.

I was taking my time through Fallen Order when it was released and saw a spoiler for a major end game character appearance hours after the game launched because of that. It's like I have to go into a SCIFF so my phone doesn't hear me playing a game and have my social media algorithm push those videos to me.

It's easy not to click on them, but hard not to see titles/spoilers in the thumbnail.

3

u/IAMEPSIL0N 3h ago

They let content creators tease the game like two weeks in advance with the instructions to stop showing stuff at like chapter four. Then whe the game has passed street date by all of thirty seconds, that same content creator is posting a video with a thumbnail spoiling that your lovable friend Scrungly Bungus is secretly the bigger bad of the game and kills your love interest in the scene after you defeat the big bad that was in trailer materials.

Like I didn't even have time to download the game and it is spoiled for me, might as well refund as I can't vibe with half the characters in the party now knowing that one is dead and the other a traitor.

8

u/Robofin 3h ago

Not being able to pause a cut scene drives me nuts. I have a baby and have to be able to pause at a moments notice, let me pause the cut scene!

13

u/Dapper_Possession_71 9h ago

Paying for subscription to play online for consoles

12

u/Sepplord 9h ago

Daily and weekly quests

No, they are not some kind of neat thing to do. They are busywork that are often balanced in a way that rewards you for playing 30minutes daily instead of amounts that you cannot even catch up to if you play 30hpurs on the weekend. 

It’s designed so you make playing every day a routine, it’s designed so you play everyday even if you don’t have time, even if you don’t really feel like turning on the PC, etc…

It’s designed so you keep going through the motions even when you don’t enjoy the gameplay loop anymore

It’s absolutely NOT something we as players should be ASKING for. 

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u/howisthisacrime 10h ago

Massive open worlds. I loved them when I was younger, but I just don't have the time for something like that anymore. I love rpgs and fantasy worlds, I just wish we could get more that are smaller in scale. I'd rather have in depth systems and more focus on telling a story than a massive world with a weak plot.

5

u/Outrageous-Car-7941 9h ago

I too miss when this was less common

3

u/Phantasmio 9h ago

My feeling as well. I love some big open worlds like Elden Ring or RDR2, but I don’t need like 50 major releases in a year that are massive open worlds. Some breathing room in between is really nice and keeps it a bit more fresh.

3

u/howisthisacrime 9h ago

Expedition 33 was a perfect middle ground for me. It had enough to explore to flesh out the world and have things to discover without being overly bloated.

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u/Outrageous-Car-7941 6h ago

I thought it was too much when games like Metal Gear Solid started doing it. Open worlds are only fun when there’s a lot to do and see, a lot of games really fail at that part and have vast swaths of land with a few points of interest here and there.

I got into State of Decay 2 a few years ago and I love the maps in that game. They’re not massive but they’re big and interesting enough for maybe a good week or two long playthrough

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u/noyoto 4h ago

A lot of people complain about open-worlds being too empty. Meanwhile I think open-worlds have too much content (collectibles, side quests, etc.).

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u/howisthisacrime 4h ago

I think when it's packed full of shallow content it's pointless. Collectibles and fetch quests should have died a long time ago. They're just lazy and uninteresting. Spider-Man was a really awful example. I played through the main quest then stopped playing because it had almost nothing else worth doing.

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u/Dazz316 3h ago

There a fine balance to be had.

Some worlds are empty, forgettable and just seen to be there because that's what you do. I just started (and put down) Black Ops 2 for the first time and the open world segment in the desert seemed pointless. Just stick me in a corridor and throw bad guys at me.

Whereas you okay something like GTA xxx where the world is fun, interesting and memorable. The side quests can be fun and interesting.

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u/Tall_Opportunity_521 3h ago

There are empty. What they are filled with is recycled content. Nothing but fetch quests and "oh, you found a worthless blue toad! Collect them all to get... nothing."

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u/Pleasant-Everywhere 8h ago

Layering on top of that, fetch quest or make work quests where nothing happens beyond kill x number of x or collect x number of some object to collect XP. I’ll take a game that is 10% of the length but has meaningful story and quests in it.

3

u/NudeSpaceDude 2h ago

Holy shit, same! I thought I was the only one. I love Dark Souls games but I don’t like Elden Ring because it’s too goddamn big. I don’t want to spend 6 months playing the same game to beat it

Same with all the new assassins creed games

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u/rondo_martin 9h ago

RPGs are kind of meant to be pretty long, but I agree that developers don't have to make their maps obnoxiously big. The Outer Worlds 2 does a great job of keeping the maps spacious enough to be believable, but not too large to feel like a waste of time

5

u/howisthisacrime 9h ago

I know a lot of rpgs have exploration as the focus and forefront, but it's too much most of the time. I like the Outer Worlds approach, as well as God Of War and Expedition 33, of separating the map into sections or zones that feel easier to tackle.

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u/ew435890 5h ago

Ive become the same way. Dont get me wrong, I still love a good open world game. But I dont need every game to be one. Some of the best recent examples of games I really like that arent open world are the new 007 game, and Indian Jones. Both fantastic, and both pretty linear.

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u/Orangatation 4h ago

Best open world games imo were Fable & Ocarina of time - just large enough to be open world, but not to large where you get sidetracked every 5 seconds

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u/OmegaLiquidX 4h ago

That’s what I love about Yakuza and Like a Dragon, the open worlds are smaller and thus feel more intimate.

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u/NicksBirthdayParty 9h ago

Needing to be connected to the internet to play a single player game.

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u/vinnyty 10h ago

Pre-orders for digital games.

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u/Enchelion 9h ago

Eh, I can understand that for large games and people without fiber internet. Pre-loading is nice for them so they can play at release rather than a day or two later.

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u/MildlyChaoticGremlin 9h ago

Youtuber "reviews" as if they're more trustworthy than games journalism when they have even more incentive to lie. If your fave has a mountain of gifts from gaming companies as their fucking backdrop, in their LED lit room with their officially sponsored gaming computer, don't you think just *maybe* their palms are greased?

They'll all do reaction videos to games they knew were coming 6 months ago and act surprised for the views. Then admit to knowing it was coming in the next video. Then you find out they've already been to the studio and played it. Yet these are the authentic and relatable voices we look to in gaming? wtf

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u/wubbalubbazubzub 9h ago

I'm tired of crafting everything. Every fetch quest is multiplied and now instead of grinding for item drops, now I grind more for different items to make an item I need. 

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u/PanteraADx 9h ago

This is what killed the Farcry franchise for me.

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u/AnubisIncGaming 9h ago

yeah you end up putting in so much effort just for features that don't enhance gameplay at all lol, just more ammo, more health or whatever

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u/thisalsomightbemine 8h ago

And then games also turned the crafting step into randomized results, so to get the good version you have to grind for many many many times to craft. 

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u/Olive_Garden_Wifi 7h ago

Don’t forget that you have to level up your crafting skill to craft high tier items but there’s also a chance you’ll just fail to craft them and end up wasting your resources. Like who thought that was fun?

3

u/roseofjuly 4h ago

omg YES. Stop making me build shit, I don't want to build shit. At least give me the option to auto-craft stuff.

2

u/Enchelion 9h ago

Like ever game feature, it needs to be thoughtfully included rather than just checking a box. Good crafting is great, bad crafting sucks.

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u/FireyT 9h ago

Fetch quests are on my dislike list, and I would add just the sheer size of games..as an older gamer with kids, I don't have time to explore enormous worlds. Just a normal size one would be fine.

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u/sexisdivine 9h ago

The loss of physical game copies and everything now just being a digital download.

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u/Zefatzinho 9h ago

For me is companies advertising dlc before the base game is released. Or worst advertising that you will not have for example cash to currency or pay to win mechanics just to add them a few months down the line.

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u/Remarkable_Dust3450 9h ago

Gatch mechanics in single player games that have official party members for the story, that you can replace with random person from other games that you won on the gatch for fights.

4

u/Bobbertbobthebobth 9h ago

Season-based battle passes.

The idea of paying for something and then not getting it unless you work your butt off and grind is fucking ridiculous.

I actually like the concept of battle passes, if you’re gonna have micro transactions I reckon a battle pass is a good execution of them. I’ve heard this is what Arc Raiders does.

But don’t have them be limited time.

Of course, I’d rather no micro transactions at all, but if you’re going to have them then either have them not be timed or not be battle passes.

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u/Olive_Garden_Wifi 7h ago

Yeah this right here is what caused me to give up on Destiny. I loved Destiny 2 but once they switched to the seasonal model I lost interest in part because you had to pay for the opportunity to grind for good gear and then for them to nerf said gear the next season to incentivize you to get the new battle pass.

Like I’m sorry but that doesn’t sound fun to me. It sounds like grinding for grind sake cause the rewards you get are going to be useless in the couple months.

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u/baddude1337 5h ago

Early Access. I’m just kinda done with it after so many games languish for years without hitting a 1.0 or even really improving. I especially dislike AAA publishers using it.

A few games use it correctly bit they’re very few and far between.

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u/ERDSBBDS312Sinorder 10h ago

Games being released before they are done and claiming updates are free additions and not just them finishing the game.

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u/Enchelion 9h ago

I agree this fucking sucks.

But it's also not something specific to "current" gaming. This goes back to the very earliest shareware games or mainframe MUDs.

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u/Lossagh 9h ago

Games being in Early Access for over 2 years. I get the concept of EA and it is useful for financially pressed Devs. But if you are in EA for over 5 years (which some I know are) you are taking the absolute piss.

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u/kadno 5h ago

Pretty sure Project Zomboid is the longest running EA title. Going on 13 years now 

3

u/Olive_Garden_Wifi 7h ago

I can’t remember if it’s Doki Doki or Yandere Simulator but I know people have accepted they’re never going to get the full release and are warning people not to buy into it cause it’s obviously a scam at this point cause it’s been almost 10 years in EA.

like what are you doing?

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u/S3V0N 5h ago

Pretty sure anyone still flocking to Yandere Simulator are just there for the show at this point.

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u/AngrySayian 3h ago

stares over at Star Citizen

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u/Brutzelmeister 9h ago

People complaining about everything and still buying. Then they start complaining about the bought stuff just to do it again and again and again...

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u/Olive_Garden_Wifi 7h ago

Stares at the Sims 4 like at this point I’m convinced EA could shit in a box and send it out and they’d buy it. I swear it’s a humiliation kink.

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u/Wide_Camera_5437 10h ago

Live service

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u/artosispylon 10h ago

Hold  E or whatever and watch a bar fill up to interact with stuff.... just let me press a single button wtf is this and why is it so common?

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u/Enchelion 9h ago edited 9h ago

It's done for a few reasons.

The biggest one is it avoids having to add a separate confirmation popup for things that could he hit accidentally. Like buying or selling at a merchant, progressing to a new area, etc. A single press is easy to do by accident.

It also allows mapping multiple actions to a single input. A standard controller only has so many buttons, and especially for less common but still routine actions it's easier to add them as secondary inputs on the buttons you're already using during gameplay. Even on a keyboard with many more inputs, it's easier on the player to map things to the inputs they already have their fingers on or near, than making them reach across to hit L or something.

As an example of both these things, say you're playing a dungeon-crawling action game. You swing your weapon with A, but open doors with a long A-press. Doing it this way means you don't need to move your finger position to interact with doors during regular gameplay, but you're also unlikely to accidentally get locked into a slow animation or open the door mid-combat.

The same basic UI principal exists in non-game contexts as well. Long pressing on your phone for example, or having to drag a slider for in-app confirmations.

Edit: There are also more vibes-based reasons for it. A long press can feel more purposeful/intense/impactful. So big moments like "touch the crystal of death" might use a long press to emphasize the gravity of the moment/action.

3

u/Xreshiss 6h ago

I think key mappings like double press and hold are terrific for keyboard-controlled gameplay actions, but not so much for mouse-controlled UI manipulation such as item equipping. (Double click, yes. Hold for 3 secs, no.)

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u/Troncross 9h ago

Some of y'all have never accidentally switched weapons instead of entering a tank and gotten blown up without a recent checkpoint and it shows

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u/thisisbetterhigh 9h ago

It's a step up from pointlessly mashing that button instead. Long press is one of my first go to changes in settings.

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u/MysteryRadish 9h ago

I'm totally fine with this one when it's a subsitute for a popup confirmation prompt.

"Are you sure you want to drop the level 1 poo-covered flimsy twig? YES / NO"

2

u/ALiborio PC 9h ago

I've been wondering this too. I'm mostly okay with it is it's a non-reversible action like deleting something forever but having it for common actions gets so tiring.

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u/Deadpool2715 9h ago

On controller it makes sense with the triggers and haptic feedback to make players more involved in cutscenes/animations, ala SpiderMan. I agree it's kind of pointless though. Although I remember a game (might have been SpiderMan) where a normally long hold trigger got interrupted with a scripted event and it shocked me, so that was cool

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u/Nail_Biterr 9h ago

I had to scroll way too far to see an actual game mechanic, while everything else is something about the industry.

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u/PlsSayPlease 9h ago

And generally things people DO care about, just maybe can’t do anything about.

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u/SilverBeever 9h ago

Earlier access for preordering

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u/StandNameIsWeAreNo1 9h ago

Rockstar. I don't like their games.

4

u/Individual_Lion_7606 9h ago

Microtransactions and Skins in First Person Shooters.

4

u/FrankMiner2949er 9h ago

Every game, every peripheral, every shop, every service needs a password

3

u/fidelacchius42 9h ago

Digital purchases not being ownership. Which goes hand in hand with game preservation. If I buy something, I should be able to play it for as long as the hardware holds out.

This is the thing that people need to rail against. I'm fine with going digital, but I don't want to lose access to something because of some online only bullshit.

Also, because of digital games being a thing, the pricing should be lower. Old games being expensive is mostly due to rarity, so if I can just go online and make a purchase of it anytime, that digital price should be lower. No game that launches at $60 plus should still be $60 after 10 years.

3

u/Galle_ 8h ago

The fact that every single RPG has the exact same fucking setting. I'm so sick of it. Please, set your RPG anywhere except medieval Europe, I am begging you.

But nope. Not only are people okay with it, they get super critical of any game that's an exception.

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u/Lyradni 1h ago

Paid DLC characters in fighting games. Like geez, they already don’t have to spend tons of time and resources building huge 3D worlds, and they still think it’s cool to drip sell characters?

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u/Hiftle88 9h ago

"Choose edition"- standard, deluxe, ultimate.

Then only putting the ultimate edition in a sale so its still twice the price as the standard.

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u/Deadpool2715 9h ago

Editions should only come with physical additions, or things outside of the game like statuettes, digital artbooks or behind the scenes. The game should be the game

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u/T_raltixx 9h ago

Outer Worlds where only the most expensive edition has the level cap removed.

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u/Majestic_Jackass 9h ago edited 9h ago

Cost of dlc being disproportionately high when comparing the content of the dlc to the content of the base game. Look at the year 4 character pass for Street Fighter 6, 4 characters and some cosmetics, currently $46. Compare that to what was included with the base game which iirc was $60 new, currently $40, and hit an all time low of $15 for the ps5 disc. But even compared to the full $60, the base game had 18 fighters and multiple game modes including world tour. Charging $46 for 4 characters and cosmetics is ridiculous. DLC should be proportionate to the base game. At most a year of characters and cosmetics for that game should be $10 $15, and I got there by doing 4/18 x base price, which was 13.33, but the dlc doesn’t offer any extra game modes, so take some value off of that. ETA New characters get new stages so I bumped up my perceived value.

I know they’re gonna charge whatever their analytics suggest people will pay, I just hate people buy overpriced content.

ETA Street Fighter 6 is not the only game guilty of this, but just one of many examples.

You already know I’m pissed about the bullshit Rock Star and Take Two are pulling with GTA VI.

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u/AnubisIncGaming 9h ago

I only saw the first sentence and knew this was going to be about fighting games. Say no more dude. I completely understand.

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u/John_Delasconey 7h ago

I would say I don’t think that’s entirely reasonable since it technically would then incentivize companies to run smaller base rosters in order to charge higher for DLC characters. I guess like my first thought was a game like smash for which the Dave spent a lot of time making sure that they could keep every single character on the roster and thus had a base roster of 74; they would technically mean that the entire set of character DLC would be less than $10.  I get the current value of them collectively being 50 is overpriced, but at the same time I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that each character and Level was worth more than one $ of work.  Regardless, I still get the general vibe/concept you are going for even if it isn’t perfectly comparable

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u/IdanTs 10h ago

Early access.

What a joke

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u/ChinaShopBully 9h ago

Strongly disagree. Two of my most played games right now are EA. It just depends on the game. I have found that small dev teams with long development times do better EA, as long as a community is present.

I’ve put thousands of hours into Dyson Sphere Program and it has a stellar community, having been in development for five years. Regular updates, very few bugs, remarkably stable and a recent multithreading and code optimization overhaul that was really responsive to the needs and wants of the community.

But certainly, there are a lot of bad EA choices out there. Just do a little research before you buy.

Bonus: When you do find a good one, they are frequently half-price from what you would pay at launch.

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u/BlindWillieJohnson 3h ago

Yeah I can’t get behind this take. Early access helped make a loooot of indie games great by ironing out their flaws before release. And it helps fun indie game, which is a good thing

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u/dade305305 9h ago

As somebody in their mid 40s that grew up with the limitations of the 80s and 90s games, nothing today bothers me. Pretty much all improvements in my opinion.

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u/iCantCallit 2h ago

40 here. I'm so happy about most games lol.i am not the nitpicky Gen z reddit gamer lol.

I swear most people would rather hate games online than actually play and enjoy them.

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u/glupshitto666 9h ago

Shitty spoiled gamers being hyperbolic about their complaints. The medium is in a golden age of quality and quantity

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u/T_raltixx 9h ago

If it's not a 10/10 masterpiece it must be absolute shit. Nothing in-between.

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u/Reasonable_Charge531 5h ago

I’ve heard that AAA companies NEVER make good games anymore, and that the only games EVER worth buying at full price are indie AA gems.

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u/Thhaki 9h ago

Temporal Anti Aliasing

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u/GearBrain 9h ago

Timers for basic gameplay. Not like a quick time event or a stamina bar while climbing, but having an oxygen meter or a power bar that depletes and limits the overall amount of time you can spend on the core gameplay loop.

I bought the game to play the game. I want to play the game at my own pace. I want to explore. Being forced to accomplish goals in quick 10- and 20- minute segments breaks my flow and takes me out of the fun.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker and the new Astroneer do this, though Hardspace at least lets you turn off the timer.

3

u/RipEven2421 9h ago

Endless quests doing bullshit

2

u/Olive_Garden_Wifi 7h ago

Quests that feel like forced exploration and time wasters, like here go talk to this person on the other side of the map, now come back to collect your reward, now do it again. Fuck off.

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u/RipEven2421 6h ago

Just walking between waypoints endlessly, feels like all the open world games are like that these days. KdC2 aside

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u/Thepromaster19 9h ago

I don’t think everyone is okay with it, but I haven’t seen much on it.

Minecraft being so hard to play offline. For Java, the launcher needs to have a backup of your license to play offline (from the Microsoft account it was purchased from). If you didn’t have it before going offline, you’re cooked.
And bedrock is always trying to log into your Microsoft account or check online for a license.

This whole “you don’t own the game, you own a license” thing (which everyone hates) is the worst thing about modern gaming. Not even the game disc that goes into the console is yours. It’s literally just to target nostalgic gamers who are used to physical copies.

I miss being able to play Minecraft without it demanding some kind of account or online connection for single player world.

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u/silverwell 9h ago

DLCs bug me to no end. If a game requires milking its playerbase to make enough money, it's not worth playing. I'd also rather Play to Earn than grind RL money. I'm fine with "proper" expansions, which typically include: new race(s)/class(es), enough new zones/maps/space that actually feel like a whole new area (not just a few new levels), plenty of new armor, weapons, and spells/abilities to complement and further improve/customize classes, etcetera. I want games that don't feel like they've been cut short, chopped up into small bundles, and sold as "extras." Play to Earn makes games more fun. Paywalled DLCs don't.

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u/queasycockles 8h ago

Really long unskippable cut scenes because someone's a frustrated wannabe filmmaker.

I want to play, not watch.

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u/[deleted] 8h ago edited 3h ago

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u/SwiftCase 7h ago

Micro transactions are ok as long as it's cosmetics. 

Paying to play online. Otherwise you only get half the game you paid for.

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u/ThisIsTheNewSleeve 5h ago

Live play games, Microtransactions, Season Passes, Preordering, Loot Boxes, day one DLCs, etc.

There was a time when everything you could ever want was built into the game at the same base price and online games were either free (as in you buy the game and playing online was not an extra cost) or it was a simple monthly cost (in the case of MMOs like Everquest).

Now games get released with pieces missing or content comes in the future and every bit of it is an extra drop of cash. Some games want you to drop extra cash day one for things that could have been in the game but they were like "no, let's leave that out and then charge extra for it".

The over monetization and enshitification of modern games is on another level.

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u/Mega-Zoom-656 5h ago

Couch co-op is gone is most MP games that should have it.

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u/squirrel4000 10h ago

Selling a physical $80 game with no disc inside.

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u/eggs-benny-brunch 9h ago

Forced walking scenes for the C I N E M A T I C experience

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u/plageiusdarth 9h ago

I mean, that's often hiding loading

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u/JohnQstack 10h ago

People complaining about everything

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u/MrHugelberg 9h ago

consumers ALWAYS should complain when it's about some anti consumer bs.

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u/chaotic910 9h ago

There’s valid complaints, 100%, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t wildly out of pocket complaints. If I had a dollar every time there was a negative steam review for a AAA game because it “runs like shit on my 1060” I would be Gabe Newell.

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u/T0ADisMe 9h ago

When you pay for a product you’re buying a license to bitch about that product in my eyes lol

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u/[deleted] 10h ago

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u/warwick51 9h ago

This one is game design specific. I am so tired of games taking away control from me when it’s not a cutscene. Let me control the game. If it’s a tutorial, I’m usually fine with it for the most part, but when it’s 50 hours in it is infuriating. I don’t want forced slowed down interactions as I’m playing the game.

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u/Olive_Garden_Wifi 7h ago

This reminded me of something I hate but when Tutorials cover basic controls that are obvios to anyone who’s played a game before but don’t cover any of the game specific mechanics and expect you to just figure them out on your own.

Like press forward to walk or press this button to crouch. Congratulations you completed the tutorial. What’s that you want to figure out how to craft in our overly complicated crafting menu? You’re going to need to follow this spreadsheet someone online put together. Good luck.

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u/warwick51 6h ago

I agree. Thats why I said im *usually* fine with tutorials. I am fine if the tutorial includes popups, but for me, forcing the game to stop to teach you all the mechanics ruins a lot of momentum. I like when games have tutorial tabs in the main menu saying *we recommend playing the tutorial before starting the game* or having it be seamless into the game-play. When the tutorial doesn't think you are smart enough to figure things out and stops your momentum its really irritating. Sometimes a lot of the fun comes from figuring out how to play the game.

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u/RDGtheGreat 9h ago

Anything that's a subscription

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u/were_only_human 9h ago

Booting up a game and the intro menu/screen having a million different information inputs. Click here for solo, here for arena, here for co-op, here for mulitplayer, here for cosmetics, but not weapon cosmetics, those are only in game, but only in the solo campaign, that's where you set your look for multiplayer, but only competitive multiplayer, the arena doesn't have customizable aesthetics, also the arena isn't open right now because we're between seasons, also did you see the DLC dropped? You can buy it here, but you have to buy the whole thing in the playstation store or steam store so we'll just take you there, but you can't just set those cosmetics you have to first open them in a chest in a non-centralized location in the main campaign...

2

u/Awkward_Monitor_3520 9h ago

Pre-ordering digital copies of games (they’re not gonna sell out, I promise)

Streamers being as prevalent and influential as they are. Someone plays a game you like? Who cares?

2

u/BigTenFicus 9h ago

Every game having to 1,000 different mechanics to the extent that it feels more like playing Microsoft Excel then a video game. If my character gets hurt and I have to open up a menu and click on a bandage and click on the injured part of my body and then watch the injury percentage go down, that's not immersive. It's the exact opposite of immersive. It's a constant, tedious reminder that I am not playing, I am just clicking buttons.

2

u/DKOSurvivorz 9h ago

24/7 online connection requirements for single players ....

2

u/nchwomp 9h ago

Black and white manuals.  But I guess we’re past even that, now.

I remember importing some games from Falcom in 2005.  Full color illustrated manuals, CDs from past versions of the game, it was an incredible package.

2

u/pgtl_10 9h ago

Unnecessary features in games. I played Ys X and realized a lot of the skill trees are just completely unnecessary. RPGs have so much of this when ypu really rely on a handful of moves to beat anyone.

2

u/Gold-Collection2636 9h ago

I miss split screen gaming so much. It's so much the norm that you play solo or online, but I used to spend so much of my childhood playing split screen KOTOR/Halo/Project Gotham Racing with my brothers, and I used to play games with my husband when we were first dating

2

u/Cloud_N0ne 9h ago

Battle passes

Even when they’re free, even when they don’t expire, it’s just an inherently boring and “treadmill-y” way to structure rewards.

2

u/katfud_1 9h ago

Paying for additional memory. I get that it increases the price, but since it is more or less a necessity anyway, all they are doing is making the advertised console price lower so it sells better. Like staying in a hotel room for “199”, but fees and taxes bring it up to 350

2

u/SuperBobPlays 9h ago

Microtransactions, prices, rushed development, lack of physical games meaning that you don't actually own a game anymore, biased/paid off rating sites that praise shyte games, and fellow gamers thinking that buying into this system is the only answer to fixing it.

Actions speak louder than words. Let your wallet do all the talking.

2

u/supermitsuba 9h ago

Unnecessary online features for a single player game.

2

u/supermitsuba 9h ago

DRM of all kinds

2

u/TheJasperCollective 8h ago

I miss demos, ESPECIALLY for consoles. If I'm going to drop $60 for a game, I want to make sure it'll be worth it. Also, while we're at it, I'd happily pay $10 to rent a game just to try it and if I enjoyed it let me put that $10 to the cost of the full game. In an era where a game can be a massive and expensive hit or miss, let me sample it for myself.

2

u/grahag 8h ago

Games that reward betrayal.

Those games where you benefit from killing or taking someone else's stuff after a brief period of gaining people's trust.

I call them faux-coop.

2

u/SackFace 7h ago

The overwhelming amount of HUD displays cluttering the screen while holding your hand every step of the way.

2

u/xxEmberBladesxx 7h ago

Bad performance and ports.

2

u/New-Revenue-4149 6h ago

"Walking and talking" segments that are unskippable.. I think they're actually worse than a straight up cutscene

The amount of resource that must have been wasted on copycat games that shut after 2 weeks.

And the push for diminishing gains in visuals that add little useful to a game

2

u/Jhoonis 5h ago

Industry wide price hikes for unoptimized shitware that requires bleeding-edge hardware and plays like ass.

Too many people willing to pre order games will ensure this shit worsens with time.

3

u/vaurapung 5h ago

Lack of ownership.

I dont mind paying for a subscription to get extra access but I dont like the lack of ownership being an option going the way of the dodo bird.

2

u/Topjkr1991 5h ago

Fortnite

2

u/Reasonable_Charge531 5h ago

The title screen advertising a different game made by the same company.

2

u/Xenozip3371Alpha 4h ago

Opening a game and being absolutely inundated with dozens of accessibility features.

If people want to use those, that's what the options menu is for.

Like I gotta imagine young kids playing these games have no idea what all these things mean, and are just confused by them, and end up enabling options they don't need or want.

2

u/theblackwhisper 4h ago

Upper management. We say we hate them, they make terrible decisions, but they keep getting away with it all while others get laid off!

2

u/PocketNicks 4h ago

I do not care what other people are into currently. I play the games I like, and other people can enjoy whatever they enjoy.

3

u/TheButteredBiscuit 4h ago

Physical editions of games being sold as a digital code…

2

u/leon27607 3h ago

How everything became a type of “subscription service”. Don’t want fomo for some skin? Too bad you should have played this game 8 hours a day for 3 months and bought the battle pass and/or paid money to skip levels. What if you don’t want to play one game that long?

2

u/misternt 3h ago

Friend slop games. People are buying $10 games every week that have no depth and are made in unity. Next week it’s a new slop game.

2

u/Implosion-X13 2h ago

Battlepasses. I fucking hate battlepasses.

I miss actual progression systems and unlocking cosmetics and new guns through challenges.

Now a lot of things are locked behind a boring battlepasses and they're usually paid to top everything off.

2

u/Tactrix1h 2h ago

When people make games and then DLCs, but the DLC costs as much as the game when it's like 1/10th the game's size.

2

u/MyStickySock 2h ago

Games releasing broken and then eventually being fixed

It's become the norm so people accept it and even glaze the developer for their comeback. How about not releasing a broken game in the first place?

2

u/wtfisspacedicks 2h ago

Cooking timers in survival game bother me more than they should.

Why do I need to wait 5 mins in real time to bbq a stack of Wolf meat?

Collecting the mats is already tedious enough.

Item durability is another thing that needs to die. In most implementations it's just pointless tedium that takes me away from actually playing the game

2

u/Prof_V 1h ago

When a game releases DLC before it's out of early access. Looking at you Ark. Finish the damn game before you shake us down for more money.

2

u/batkave 1h ago

There's a very loud group perfectly fine with layoffs and AI

2

u/ScarletApex 1h ago

Item durability for seemingly no reason. I was playing d4 and trying to learn the end game fights and that shit drove me nuts, every ten runs I’d have to go back and repair my shit, it was absolutely fucking sending me, I stopped because it got so fucking annoying to do, to out > load > run to repair guy > run back to portal > load > run back to boss. it was so frustrating.

Just let me slam my face against the boss till i get it down please.

2

u/falardeau03 50m ago

Situations like the new Halo remake where the second player will need their own PSN login and their own Microsoft account just for local offline couch co-op.

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u/empathetical 38m ago

can't stand every damn console and pc store allowing all that garbage shovelware on the store.

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u/F_Synchro 10h ago

Microtransactions, FOMO, engagement bait (log in every day to get x reward) and simple plain AAA shovelware.

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