Things That Annoy You in the Video Game Industry

[Interslicery]

Like the title says, what annoys you about the industry? The focus on certain genres, how a company sees its customers, business practices, tutorials, etc.

My biggest peeve would probably be how they'll advertise a game 2 years before it comes out. Its a small thing since it can easily be ignored, but it gets to me. Why bother showing me it?
I'll get excited, then instantly get apathetic about it. 2 years is a long fucking time and following it until it comes out isn't going to get me any more hype about it than if the first thing I heard about it was 2 months before release. Cause I like to PLAY games, not try to feel like I'm a part of the development or something. I'm not. I'm the customer.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Sexism.

 

[Blade]

---How Japan gets everything first. Patches, games, movies, you name it.

---How Japan gets stuff that doesn't need Copyrights, but we still have to go through that crap.

---How come Novels, Drama CDs, Ultimania, Mooks, Guides, etc. are never published or translated/re-dubbed outside of fan-translations?

---How come Japanese Anime only shows up on Toonami once a week and only at 11:00 pm CST-5:00 am? Especially given all the game-to-anime adaptations that happen?

---Why are Devkits so frigging expensive? And even if you buy one why do you have to go through liscencing to get a game published?

---The ESRB ratings system and it's uptight regulations on rating games on Drinking/Smoking/etc.

---The lack of Vertical Shootemup Arcade games on consoles (it's all horizontal, bleh).

 

[jazzflower92]

People assuming that girls are not a major part of the fan base so they don't try even targeting them.

 

[Tetsujin]

Game journalism.

Mostly just doing PR work for publishers and making articles out of dev tweets. No thank you, I can follow them on twitter myself.

 

[Farron]

Game journalism.

Yes this so much

Most of the time these days they just get pay to give out a good score

like

10/10

it was okay

IGN

 

[Cthulhu]

Formula games. Think MMO's (kill ten rats), every single mobile / tablet game out there evar, Minecraft clones, etc.

Free to play games. Simple, repetitive and, to a certain audience, addictive games that are engineered by psychologists to slowly goad people into leeching small amounts of money out of them. I've played some, none of them are particularly challenging (at first, but that's part of the game they play; slowly, the game becomes too difficult or too tedious to play without paying a microtransaction), original (usually a new installment of a known franchise), low on quality (intentional; it's not about building a good game, it's about value-for-money: low development spending, high return on investment. Better to build ten shitty but profitable games a year than one good one), etc.

Crowdsourcing. People that built a game that was awesome two or three generations of games ago come up with a reboot of the game they built and appeal to people that get nostalgic and now have expendable income they will gladly donate to the creators of their childhood dreams. Outside of Minecraft, I haven't heard of any successful or even finished game funded like that. Star Citizen (from the creator of the awesome Wing Commander series) takes the crown; they've gathered almost 20 million so far in both a Kickstarter campaign and mostly their own website, combining two of my pet peeves simultaneously: crowdsourcing and in-game purchases. Why Star Citizen takes the crown though is that their in-game purchases are $15 spaceships (plus the rest) that can be used in a game that doesn't even exist yet. And I just know the guy will just go 'lol no we're bankrupt sorry' in a while after whisking the money he's received away.

I may be a bit bitter / cynical,

 

[Lex]

Game journalism is the absolute worst thing about the video games industry.

In particular, IGN an Kotaku. A lot of people seem to like Kotaku and that's fine - we even source some of our news from there every so often. But genuinely like, the practices of general review sites are terrible. Someone said it right some time ago - from the perspective of an IGN journalist:

"ohai there gamers... i didn't see you there behind my wall of money and 9.5 reviews for every game ever"

^And that was from a video about Mass Effect 3's ending. Colin Moriarty is the biggest douchebag in the history of gaming journalism.

These are sites that blame the gamers for reacting to the mistakes of a company, and for pretty much every single misstep in the video game industry. They're overly monetized and poorly set up. Down with all of them.

 

[Dawnbreaker]

Pay-to-Win is no fun. The microtransactions that Yop mentioned is my current pet peeve. I can't even go into PVP because if I do I'm wiped in a few minutes (verus PVE where I kick ass). I'm going to be sorely annoyed if either FFXIV or TEOS end up as both pay-to-play AND pay-to-win. There's no fucking need for both.

Sexism.

Can I add racism in here? I can't even recall one game that doesn't have a white (usually male) protagonist. I'm sure there is one, but I don't remember it. People of other races are usually represented in the most odd and insulting fashions, in fact.

 

[Farron]

Can I add racism in here? I can't even recall one game that doesn't have a white (usually male) protagonist. I'm sure there is one, but I don't remember it. People of other races are usually represented in the most odd and insulting fashions, in fact.

There's Shantae a game that you can download on your DS/ 3 DS but you are right 97 % of the time the main character is white-skinned and male.

offtopic/ Shantae is a awesome game that you must play.

 

[Cthulhu]

To be honest, I'm not even sure if you can claim a white anime-stylized scantly-clad woman with purple hair that seems to be going for the cute, cheeky, sexy kinda protagonist appeal in a downloadable DS game is doing much good for the distribution of demographics in video games, really. I can't think of any game that had a black protagonist either. Or asian. Or even female non-white. If they do occur in video games, they're side-characters.

I'm also not fond of the percentage of eldritch monstrosities as main characters in video games either.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

Black protagonist, only one comes to mind is Carl Johnson... who really isn't a great example seeing as he's a street thug who transitions into big time crime boss and shit

 

[jazzflower92]

Black protagonist, only one comes to mind is Carl Johnson... who really isn't a great example seeing as he's a street thug who transitions into big time crime boss and shit

I am kind of going into a mini Afrocentric phase. By Afrocentric I mean making my own West African based High Fantasy story. The more I have explored West African culture the more I see a lot of great material to use for a RPG game or story. I think Africa in general is probably one of the least focused on places for Fantasy. As I have been reading West African ancient and medieval history it shows that there were many great cities and civilizations that existed. Like the Mali and Ghana Empire.

 

[ForceStealer]

Can I add racism in here? I can't even recall one game that doesn't have a white (usually male) protagonist. I'm sure there is one, but I don't remember it. People of other races are usually represented in the most odd and insulting fashions, in fact.

I can't think of any game that had a black protagonist either. Or asian. Or even female non-white. If they do occur in video games, they're side-characters.

Spoiler

Not disputing. Just answering the question.

 

[jazzflower92]

Oh, my history button is tingling. If I remember correctly pirates had black members apart of their crew because the slave trade was happening during the Golden Age of Pirating.

Not to mention how there were a number of Black, Native American, and Mexican cow boys back in the old west.

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

Oh, my history button is tingling. If I remember correctly pirates had black members apart of their crew because the slave trade was happening during the Golden Age of Pirating.

Hell, pirates even had women on their crews because they just didn't give a fuck. It's kinda sad that pirates were more progressive than the sailors of the time.

 

[jazzflower92]

Hell, pirates even had women on their crews because they just didn't give a fuck. It's kinda sad that pirates were more progressive than the sailors of the time.

Anne Boney and Mary Read certainly come to mind when you can name famous woman pirates.

Another thing that gaming should do is carefully research the setting, era, etc. they are basing their work on. Because often times the get a lot of facts wrong and it makes history buffs cringe.

 

[Hisako]

I can't think of any game that had a black protagonist either.

Dude

DUDE

This is
how

There's also lolCoach from L4D2 and that dude from Crysis etc., bro-shooters often have black protags aplenty

but uh OT: hmm. I feel that a lot of what's wrong with the videogame industry is a two-way street. Audiences have lots of expectations and make lots of assumptions on what games should be like, and the 99.9% follow where the buck goes, since wherever they don't people generally give them shit for it, calling a game poorly made or calling a review "paid", etc.

No doubt those exist, but we're in an age where the more vocal are becoming more extreme and/or cynical in their views, and creators are getting conflicting messages on what they should be producing for their audience.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

One thing I notice about most fan feedback, especially in the video game industry is that the majority of it is about what people didn't like, not what they like. As people are for sure going to complain, it cheapens what they are complaining about. And when the designers do change things people were complaining about, players find something else to complain about. So as long a video games make money, the designers really don't have a good reason to change formulas that work. So they tend to make more of the same. And as a result, it's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" industry.

 

[ForceStealer]

^And on that, making a minority and/or female protagonist opens you up to a whole bunch of new criticism rather than just being generic. Then you're opening yourself to being called racist and sexist for any time your heroine shows too much weakness (or too much strength), or for if your black protagonist speaks in ebonics (or sounds whitewashed). There are those graphics out there about "overthinking" female characters and minority ones and that all you have to do is write a human character. And that's totally true - but people are STILL gonna find something because EVERY character takes elements from some kind of stereotype.

Now the rewards for taking such a risk and pulling it off are pretty great. I just feel like a lot of developers would rather wash their hands of the whole thing.

 

[Arianna]

I am annoyed and saddened that women are objectified and shown in a unrealistic sexual light. Not all games, not all female characters, but it seems like most.

Now I have to catch up on the subject at the moment...

 

[jazzflower92]

I think over used clichés can become a pet peeve to people especially if they are horrid ones. Having an idiot hero can sometimes be annoying rather than amusing. Excited hero can be acceptable but don't dumb down his intelligence.

 

[Splintered]

>>The noxious environment gamers have set as a precedent in gaming as a whole. Really, when I come across the bullshit antagonism directed at people, I mostly ignore it because it feels normal. And sometimes I remember that it's this crap that gives gamers a bad stigma.

And what is worse that more and more, it's directed inwardly at other gamers. Death threats to writers. Raids on people who review games a way they don't agree with. Anyone who begins the argument about potential sexism/racism/ism gets raged on- I mean I think some of the arguments I've seen are terrible but nothing deserves some of that crap. I mostly ignore all multiplayer unless I'm playing with people I know so I can avoid assholes. Everything about this.

The Final Fantasy fandom is just as bad to themselves. We can't get into one "Which Final Fantasy do you like more" without devolving to an embarrassing mess. We had people go into the FFXIII thread genuinely grateful they could go into a place for discussion without a million UR SO STUPID!!11 and UR RUINING GAMING 4 LIKING THING. I make fun of people from time to time, but it's always friendly joking and I feel like this place is one of the few exceptions.

I'm not asking for the world, just too lessen the whole "I'll hurt people with other opinions thing"

>>
The dwindling of studios. I feel like indie is springing to life, but a lot of good companies and publishers are dying. Maybe it's just market not being able to support them more, or people spending too much money on projects- but I feel like this is headed towards a gaming crash of the Triple A titles. Some might say "good" but honestly? I don't think so.


>>
Tacked on multiplayer or other elements that are poorly designed and obviously just there because they were mandated

>>
How embarrassingly immature gaming seems to think we are. Our VGAs are a joke. Some of the commercials like the Dead Space "ur MoooM will hate it!1" Dante's Inferno marking iirc was especially stupid.

^And on that, making a minority and/or female protagonist opens you up to a whole bunch of new criticism rather than just being generic.

How gaming has lost its balls.

Free to play games. Simple, repetitive and, to a certain audience, addictive games that are engineered by psychologists to slowly goad people into leeching small amounts of money out of them. I

This, there have been entire papers about how manipulative the techniques are, where they pressure gamers to pay for certain things that make the game bearable. Worse are the games with these things, but you still have to pay for the game as well. What a bunch of shit.

>>
Gaming journalism

The sad thing is, I've seen this interview, and I've seen him at e3 and it genuinely looks like he knows this is going to screw him over and he's miserable.

 

[Farron]

To be honest, I'm not even sure if you can claim a white anime-stylized scantly-clad woman with purple hair that seems to be going for the cute, cheeky, sexy kinda protagonist appeal in a downloadable DS game is doing much good for the distribution of demographics in video games, really.

err first things first it's meant to be a Arabian/ Genie style game. If you think that she's scantly-clad and a sexy protagonist then you're wrong because that's the style.

OH MY GOD WHAT WHORES. How Shameful. How Shameful.

And you Genie. Fucking damn, the biggest whore of them all. Basically naked. For shame.

And it's only anime styled. It's not going to fucking kill anybody.

Fuck man.

Sorry for liking Arabian styled media.

She's tanned, she's a strong main lead girl and she reminds me of my childhood with I Dream of Jeannie and Disney's Aladdin. imo I don't really give a fuck if she's " sexy " or " anime " or not. Just focused on the good things about her character and yes she's a main lead girl and she's tanned so yes, she does help.

I like Ivy Valentine from Soul Calibur, she's basically sex appeal but I still enjoy her character for her personality and what she is. Not what she's dressed like or her fanservice.

Also anime designed does not make it any lower just because it's anime designed. Same with it not being a mainstream game. Cave Story anybody ?

 

[Hisako]

well that escalated quickly

Also Ivy is a great character but that costume design was stupid and fetishistic as fuck
Her secondary outfits are much cooler imo