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Sports games pretty much stopped progressing entirely when the “ultimate team” cancer spread.
EA is almost entirely responsible for this. I hate EA so much.
Very much not a sports guy. What’s the ultimate team? And what’s the problem with it?
Progression systems that draw attention away from the core gameplay loop
Examples are season passes, archivements, minigames that took longer too complete then the main game
Grinding and no rewards. Feeling underpowered and dying all the time, unable to progress with loot alone.
Looking at you, Path of Exile.
When you can’t dodge because you’re charging an attack/doing a combo/whatever. If I’m attacking one enemy, and I see another one about to attack me from behind, I want to be able to get out of the way, not be stuck in an attack animation until I get hit
Don’t let the Dark Souls fans hear you say that
Loot boxes
I could get into them if they were purely an in-game mechanic, not paid.
Pay to win.
For board games, not having a firm way to end the game. A lot of Steve Jackson games have this problem where the mechanics of the game mean a lot of people will prevent people from winning the game , which usually lengthens the game as people have more power to keep others from winning than winning themselves.
I knew I recognized that name, this was always the issue with playing Munchkin. So much time spent building up levels and gear just to get to lvl 9, fight some monster for the win, have the entire rest of the table throw everything they have at you to stop you from winning, just for the next person in turn to fight a potted plant for the win because everyone played all their cards to keep you from winning.
I don’t know what the solution is, the rest of the table loses no matter if you win or the next person, so they pretty much have to spend all available resources to stop whoever is near winning first, but that just sets up the next person to win with almost no resistance.
At a certain point all strategies go out the window and the only option is for the whole table to send everything stopping one person, which isn’t really fun for anyone.
- Games with designated save points only.
- Skill/Tech trees that really only have one viable path.
- Games that reward stealth until the boss battle.
That’s what I like about New Vegas. Get your sneak high enough along with Silent Running and a stealth field, and not even the strongest, most perceptive bosses can notice you. The legendary enemies, the X-42 giant roboscorpion, Lanius, etc all become unable to spot or attack you unless you use a loud weapon, effectively neutralizing them.
I’m a shill for new Vegas but this is honestly the reason. You have actual mechanical choice, not just dialogue choice. You can kill anyone in the game and the story can still resolve itself. You can play any way and there’s probably a way to progress. Go straight through deathclaw valley. Maybe youll make it. Or don’t, and go the traditional route.
Theres so much more freedom than the other games. I dont understand how anyone things new vegas is inferior other than liking the railroad and having choice taken on their behalf.
Grinding.
When the game progresses naturally, and as you move through the game, you always find yourself in the right spot to overcome the next obstacle, that’s great. But the second I have to stop progressing through the game and go spend 6 hours killing goblins, I’m done.
I think some grinding is fine, such as for crafting resources and such.
But like you said, it’s often excessive.
Permanently loosing a treasure that you can only get once because your pocket is full.
MTX for customisation
Upgrades that cannot be changed. Don’t force me to replay the entire game just to see what a different upgrade does. I’m my opinion, all games should let you rebuild your character pretty much whenever. I think BG3 did a good job of it with Withers. The price is low enough to not feel like a burden but high enough to not encourage you to cheese it. The only small downside of it is that Withers is technically an optional character you could miss. I think mechanics like this should just be baked in.
For me: weapon durability.
I generally hate it, too, but thought it felt pretty fitting and okay in RDR2.
Unchangeable difficulty settings. Worse, games that offer you to lower it and don’t warn you that they’re going to lock it at the lower setting. Resident Evil Village did that to me. Last time I posted about this someone said it warms you, so I guess they changed it.
The outright scams and marketting dark patterns.
Outside of this, I hate when you have levelled up a character immensely to the point where and errant sneeze could wipe out half a city, and then you flick a boss to defeat their lineage then lose in the cutscene.
I know the reasons why this is done, but I would vastly prefer shorter but more fleshed out game experiences.
A shorter story that is actually repayable naturally where you can do so many things and there are not cutscene losses.
Speaking of which, things like >!The Secret Ending!< in Cyberpunk could be so much better if they just didn’t fucking exist.
I don’t want to have to read some guide to know that a a piece of content I really value will exist.
Its not fun to me to have notable portions of a game cut out such that you have to be a wiki reader.
These combined would make a game with a more stress free experience where you can truly just experience the world and not be too fussed about if you stuffed up a certain ending tree etc.
