PC game commandments

[10zack986]

As for DRM, it's hilarious looking at Metacritic reviews of Ubisoft games. The regular reviews are good, the user reviews are ALWAYS in the red.

 

[KaosuHamoni]

Thou shalt not try to pawn off DLC on people for £10 a piece, when the content should have been in the game in the first place

 

[Jaded Scribe]

1. Thou shalt alt-tab gracefully

Many "modern" PC games fail horribly at this.

2. Thou shalt create an interface that is designed for 18 inches and a keyboard and mouse, rather than copy your 10 foot, gamepad based console interface.

Fallout 3, Borderlands, Mass Effect 2. The keyboard has 110 ish buttons, the mouse has at least 3. Let players assign different buttons to open, pick up, jump, run, slide, duck etc.

Let me switch weapons with a single button without opening up a scroll menu, and ffs let me carry more than 2 weapons, the HALO stupidity needs to die except maybe in games trying for realism.

3. (general gaming, not pc specific) Thou shalt allow saving and pausing at any time, save points are a relic of a bygone era.

4. (general gaming, not pc specific) All "intro" screens shall be skippable with a single button, and ideally automatically skippable with a configuration file setting.

I don't care if the game was designed for Nvidia or who made your 3D engine. I don't need 30 second animated advertisements for the developer, and the publisher, and the distributor every time I start up the game. I want to go to the menu to play the damn game. Borderlands is particularly bad about this one.

I'm sure others can think of other commandments to add to this list.

I disagree with #3.

Anymore, savepoints aren't about making the programming easier, or trying to save space. They are a tool the game designers use to control the player's flow through the game. If they felt the game flowed best with allowing saving at-will, they would have put it in. If they felt the flow was best served by making the player play through a certain chapter of the game all at once, they program it that way.

It is a very conscious design choice, not just an arbitrary decision.

 

[bawkbawkboo1]

Thou Shalt not have unreasonable storage requirements. There is no sane reason why The Force Unleashed should take twenty-five (25) fucking gigabytes in Steam local files. Look, I understand why, say, Microsoft Flight Simulator X takes a lot of space (realistic terrain textures), but for a game that doesn't take that much time that doesn't even take that long to play through (like TFU)it's just inexcusable.

 

[Jaythulhu]

Thou shalt not try to pawn off DLC on people for £10 a piece, when the content should have been in the game in the first place

Quoted for truth. That kind of stuff used to be given to us free as part of a bug-fixing patch as if to say "sorry our game was broken, here's what we did to make up for it", if it wasn't already included in the game.

 

[loc978]

Thou shalt include peer-to-peer LAN support with thine multiplayer game.

 

[willsham45]

Though shall not include anti piracy software that hinders the user from playing his or her game.

Though shall not be punished for having bad internet connection.
Though shall not be punished for having multiple disk drives
Though shall not be punished for having particular software that can be used for piracy (some people need to use it for other things).

Though shall allow copies of games to be installed on many computers at 1 time for local multi-player.

 

[MrDarkling]

Thou Shalt Not Use Games For Windows Live under any conditions, as it is an abomination unto all that is Holy.

EDIT: Google Autocomplete knows it's true:

This one is pretty important.
When I start up a game and see that "Games for Windows live" tab appear; I die a little inside :I

 

[dawdarsd]

Thou shalt make your game easily moddable.

thou shalt make a game where mods are installed easily

 

[monkey_man]

thou shalt not swear at others, whilst thou areth losing

 

[TheScottishFella]

Thou shalt continue to release games compatible for older OS's such as XP.

I disagree with that one. Microsoft is such an ass for taking money, why should people who stayed in the safe not get games compatible for their systems.

 

[Jodah]

Thou shalt fix most bugs before thou releaseth thy game not wait until the first patch. (I say most because its nearly impossible to find them all.)

 

[Vrach]

Thou shalt release a map editor with a multiplayer FPS.

Thou shalt not withhold content to put it on the DLC. (Mafia 2 I'm looking at you)

Thou shalt not make a sandbox game with a mission that ends it. (F3)

Thou shalt equip your sandbox with a free roam option. (M2)

Thou shalt provide (good) dedicated servers with thine online multiplayer and a LAN for those who praise thine game with their neighbours and in churches (cyber cafes).

Thou shalt stuff thine DRM up thine rear end and let it rest with its ilk (other shit that came out of thee).

 

[Gudrests]

why can we not we save or pause? what if i need to pee

What? MMO gamers don't pee?

Anyway.

666. Thou shalt not steal thine game ideas from others.

(Yes Blizzard, I'm looking at you.)

lol....you see there new "peaceblooms vs. ghouls" minigame ORIGINAL to the EXTREME

RULE #1 Thou shall not make normal...hard as hell and normal monsters shouldnt be able to pwn you because of rng..commmon now

 

[Vrach]

RULE #1 Thou shall not make normal...hard as hell and normal monsters shouldnt be able to pwn you because of rng..commmon now

Oh dear Lord, yes, I forgot about this one.

Thou shalt not mistake extreme use of RNG for a challenge.

 

[bawkbawkboo1]

Thou shalt not make a sandbox game with a mission that ends it. (F3)

Yes, this. FarCry 2 had this same goddamn problem.

 

[HotFezz8]

1. Thou shalt alt-tab gracefully

2. Thou shalt create an interface that is designed for 18 inches and a keyboard and mouse, rather than copy your 10 foot, gamepad based console interface.

Fallout 3, Borderlands, Mass Effect 2. The keyboard has 110 ish buttons, the mouse has at least 3. Let players assign different buttons to open, pick up, jump, run, slide, duck etc.

Let me switch weapons with a single button without opening up a scroll menu, and ffs let me carry more than 2 weapons, the HALO stupidity needs to die except maybe in games trying for realism.

3. (general gaming, not pc specific) Thou shalt allow saving and pausing at any time, save points are a relic of a bygone era.

4. (general gaming, not pc specific) All "intro" screens shall be skippable with a single button, and ideally automatically skippable with a configuration file setting.

I don't care if the game was designed for Nvidia or who made your 3D engine. I don't need 30 second animated advertisements for the developer, and the publisher, and the distributor every time I start up the game. I want to go to the menu to play the damn game. Borderlands is particularly bad about this one.

I'm sure others can think of other commandments to add to this list.

OH MY GOD YES!!

this author is a genius. end of.

 

[deathbydeath]

thou shalt not dumb down sequels or successors for console ports
thou shalt not rip off warhammer 40k unless you are making a 40k game

 

[oktalist]

Thou shalt not steal thine game ideas from others.

I disagree. The creative arts have always been about drawing inspiration from one's contemporaries. If noone could use anyone else's ideas, we'd be completely screwed.

Thou shalt continue to release games compatible for older OS's such as XP.

The problem there is that they'd have to continue to support DX9. (Or use GL like good members of the community.)

OT: Thou shalt release Linux and Mac ports of games in cases where it is trivial to do so (i.e. games that use Unreal engine, Source engine or any of the Quake engines).

 

[[BDS]Omega]

1. Thou shalt not make the AI ignore the rules and/or cheat in any way. A challenge is fun, playing a cheater causes homicide.

2. Thou shall hire actual writers for your story so that it does not become another generic Terrorist/Sci-Fi/ plot.

3. Thou shalt not advertise a patch as DLC.

4. Thou shalt not use DRM. Pirates find a way around it, legitimate gamers are punished by it.