Annoying genre mechanics

[Saskwach]

So in whatever genre/s you can think of, is there any very common mechanic you loathe?
For me it's the base-building trope in RTSes. I cannot stand any game that has it. This is mainly because I hate having to get through the boring base building to get to the interesting fighting. This doesn't mean I can't stand any economics in my RTSes- I just prefer when they're kept separate as in Total War or X-Com.

 

[ThaBenMan]

random encounters in (j)rpg's

 

[x434343]

Quick-Time events, before someone shows up. Or, dare I say it, Yahtzee? It'll save his work.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

RPG's:
-Extreme level grinding.
-10,000 people to talk to, all with useless information.
-Drudging through sewers.
-Random encounters in low level areas (Yet another reason Earthbound was awesome)

I actually can't really think of anything in genres that are common in the genre, just problems with particular games.

 

[stompy]

Actually, I don't know if this is common in FPSs, but I utterly loathe respawning enemies (no Infinity Ward, it's not a good idea). That, and the random encounters in JRPGs.

Edit: I also want to add increased 'difficulty', where the differences aren't to do with enemy intelligence, but increased health, telescopic vision & remembering player actions for enemies, and decreased health and damage output for you.

- A procrastinator

 

[Dalisclock]

In FPS's, A lot of games like to strip you of all the weapons you've aquired thus far at some arbitrary point about midway to 3/4 of the way through the game. Some games do it several times(I'm looking at you, CoC: Dark Corners of the Earth). I loath this mechanic, as it's a cheap way of increasing challenge, and am glad FPS's are starting to move away from it.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

random encounters in (j)rpg's

Oh that's a good one! I hate them so much!

Also in some FPS where they throw in respawning enemies in certain sections when the game previously didn't respawn enemies. You waste all your ammo expecting them to eventually stop coming.

 

[LainiWeiz]

I hate those "Press a switch then go back to the previous room to see what changed" puzzles in JRPGs.
Was amazed when one showed up in Eternal Sonata.
Oh and deeply saddened >_<

 

[Pzest]

Quick-Time events, before someone shows up. Or, dare I say it, Yahtzee? It'll save his work.

I'm sick of saying this. QTE's can be a good thing when they're done right (see Shenmue and especially Shenmue II). It's not the mechanic's fault that developers have been abusing it.

I really hate counterintuitive puzzles (I'm looking at you Final Fantasy X) and tutorials--especially the long, unnecessary, unskippable kind.

 

[Talux]

Exploding barrels and crates. After all these years games still come out with groups of enemies around a shiny red barrel. And games often seem to exist in an alternate universe where large wooden shipping crates just happen to be around every corner, no matter the location.

 

[Same River New Water]

The old cluster of enemies around an explosive barrel gag will never get old for me.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Mines, in any kind of shooter. Or player-placeable turrets. The latter not as nessescarily annoying, but sometimes people can be douches putting them inside walls or glitches. (See 'Team Fortress 2 Greif' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPoKaoJu0m4]. I know it was in fun, but I still don't like it.)

 

[Flunk]

Fed-ex missions. Anytime you have to take some stupid thing from one place to another to fill time. Timed ones are worse.

On another note, I don't really mind quicktime events. But then again I liked Shenmue, which was almost entirely quicktime events and chatting with NPCs forever.

 

[renard]

Timers in general. +1 if the number of minutes displayed is lower than 2 minutes and +2 if you have to fight against enemies.
Imagine you are in a base that is about to self-destruct and you have to escape gunning down over-armored soldiers armed with miniguns... It's exasperating to die over and over again trying to reach the exit.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Death is a commonly occurring annoyance.

 

[Tacroy]

Furthermore, enemies attacking you during the countdown doesn't make sense. If the base is about to explode, why are the soldiers wasting time attacking you and not running for their lives like rational people (e.g. you) would do?

 

[whatabout_paul]

QTE?s are ok when you know they are coming or that they play a big part of the game play experience. Shenmue got this perfectly right as you could sense than a choreographed fight was about to kick off or that a chase was about to commence. It didn?t punish you too much when you screwed up either, just setting you back to the start of the scene.

QTE?s aren?t ok when they pop up out of nowhere in the middle of an overly long cut scene with no prior warning. Most recently No More Heroes wanted me to press the ?z? button at the end of a boss fight. I couldn?t even tell you where said button was without looking at a controller. Because I failed it put me right back to the start of the boss fight. That?s just unfair.

Personally I want QTE's banned.

 

[WhiskeyOscar]

Whew, where to begin on annoying mechanics...

Red barrels are definitely somewhere on the side of tasteless these days. As are 90 degree handbrake turns and scoring points (Kudos) for skids, and not the kind in your pants.

RTS are my biggest irk however, base-building is fine, it gives you some weakness and at the same time a defensive perimiter that you can fortify and use as some kind of personal objective. What really gets me however is resource management and population caps. Oh the amount of times in DoWC I've suicide rushed with Necron Warriors only to have them all die so I can just build more than resurrect the existing corpses (broken bits?) for an army that far outstrips the piffling population cap. Bring back the days of Cossacks and ludicrous amounts of troops!