Poll: Has any one comment ever immediately killed your desire to buy a game?

[Dragonlayer]

Multiplayer Only: Even without the hassle of constantly forgetting to renew my Playstation Plus subscription, a multiplayer-only game generally says to me "We Took The Easy Way Out And Made Half A Game". There are exceptions to this naturally, as I quite enjoyed the Red Orchestra games as well as the glorious combat insanity of MAG, but only in moderation and with single-player games to offset the repetitiveness.

Female Protagonist: Hold off your pitchforks and let me explain. This one doesn't "Kill" my interest in a game so much as it just makes me roll my eyes. On the one hand, I fully understand complaints levelled at the sausage-fest nature of mainstream gaming characters and a game attempting to break that formula has every right to proudly tout its alternative-protagonist as a major selling point. Moreover, I completely empathise with people who want a more immersive game that caters to their personal identity: a lack of character-creation and customization is often a huge turn-off for me personally. But as a cynical bastard, I can't help but feel that Indie developers on Steam cunningly use it as a pre-emptive method of escaping criticism, along such advertising tags as "Atmospheric", "Story-driven" and "Great soundtrack" (mmmm, subjective!). Do I want all games that dare challenge the glorious patriarchy cast into oubliettes for their outrageous independence? Not at all. But it's just a warning sign that I probably won't be interested in a title.

Open-World Survival Sandbox (with Zombies): I actually like this kind of game, but sweet merciful Molestia, every other fucking game on Greenlight is one! Talk about bloody over-saturation!

 

[Tanis]

Comments that kill:
MP Only.
Season Pass.
On Disc DLC.
Micro-transactions.
Uplay Required.
Origin Required.
GFWL Required.
Apple/Mac Only.
Yearly - Ubisoft.
Yearly - EA.
Fighter, Capcom.

Yeah, those are all kind of...comment killers.
OR at least, 'wait a year for GOTY Edition'.

 

[-Ezio-]

from this point on. "developed/published by konami" will do it.

P.S. Fuck Konami.

 

[Cati]

"we promised single player offline mode to backers, but we're gonna actually take your money and renege on that" (paraphrase)

And "always online" for single player games.

 

[bliebblob]

Back when the secret world was first revving up its hype engines, I was quite digging the idea. Still am, come to think of it. But then one fated day I decided to take a stroll around its pre-release forums and stumbled upon at least one post enthusiastically detailing knowledge of the "real" illuminati and I realized something. This game, by its very nature, wasn't just going to attract these types of people more than usual was it? No, they might very well make up the majority come release... The thread was after all being discussed eagerly. I backed away slowly and never quite returned.

A bit of an embarrassingly large leap in logic in retrospect, but the game turned out mediocre anyway.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Sooooo many things can do that to a game for me.
I don't know if I've become a snob hanging out on the Escapist (just kidding) or I've managed to acquire some principles/hangups (delete as necessary).

Pre-order, DLC, Season Pass, Micro-transactions, Episodic.
Always Online SP, Steam, GFWL, Origin, Uplay, MP only, Console only.
Walking Simulators, Interactive Movies.
Quicktime events, Console Controls, Console port, "Streamlined", 30 fps lock, Physics tied to framerate.
(Thanks for the reminders, add anything I forgot here)

And then there are some GUI or Cam problems like Elite Dangerous/Star Citizen cockpit only cam and the Witchers over-the-shoulder cam.
Even Assassins creed or Arkhams "press a button to do amazing stuff". Their console controls don't help either.

If it hadn't been for Indies gaming would have been pretty much dead for me since just after '05.

 

[The Purple Grape]

Written by Rhianna Pratchett, never a good sign for the characters or dialogue.

Cinematic: A game that I spend more time watching than playing and if I'm lucky maybe mashing F. Usually with s mediocre story that someone is way too proud of that they shove down my throat every two minutes.

 

[Pseudonym]

Not really. Ussually I form my opinion a little slower than that. There are tons of things I won't buy but hardly any of them for a single reason.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Yes. You guys here. The shitstorm about ME3, which i dodged 99% of the time because i didn't want to get hit by any spoilers, just killed my desire to buy it, which i haven't done to this day.

Keep in mind ME was without a doubt my favourite RPG since Gothic. And in both franchises i finished the first 2 games +10 times.
And as it seems i'll never buy the third installment.

Apart from that, when i browse Steam and i read: Early Access. It doesn't matter how good the game looks at first glance, come back to me when it's done. I'm not gonna be a guinea pig anymore. I want to play video games, not act as a paying beta(or alpha) tester.
Because sometimes these games need years to be finished and by that time i've probably burned through it already and i'll never expirience the full game. So, no thanks.

 

[Ogoid]

Most definitely.

Any variation on the phrase "no offline/singleplayer mode" will do it.

 

[Kameburger]

A veteran designer at Blizzard, when talking about the real money auction house and always on-line DRM requirement that ruined Diablo3 for me, said that if they could have at the time they would have made Diablo 2 the same way. I've never been able to touch the game after that, no matter how many times they upgraded it or shifted it around, and I was once a big time fan. I played Diablo 2 more than almost any other game in my life. Now when I see Diablo3 I get reminded of the Harvey Dent saying "you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see your self become the villain." and then the blizzard logo appears in my mind.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Anytime something is 'muliplayer only'.
Things that are 'dynamic' or 'to appeal to a wider audience'. Also when 'X has gone open-world', which is not to say I don't like open worlds. They're fine as they are. Just when a game series that's not open world suddenly goes open world.

Season passes don't always turn me off. I bought the Bioshock Infinite Season Pass and I loved it. Played the loving shit out of that game, but Day One DLC is a big no-no.

Oh! And any game that 'causes AIDS and butt cancer' I generally stay away from.

 

[Xerosch]

Most definitely.

Any variation on the phrase "no offline/singleplayer mode" will do it.

Jup, I'm in that club as well. I don't mind episodic content (wait for the complete version) or ingame sales (just ignore them), but if there's no single player I'll definately skip the game. I hate playing online, the only kind of multiplayer I'm using would be local co-op with a friend.

 

[K12]

some (really angry) people said Undertale is the premier SJW game, what ever that means

You should steer clear of Jessica Jones too then, I hear it's straight up feminist propaganda.

Not to mention anti-white propaganda!

I've ever heard it called lesbian/ LGBT propaganda... I have literally no idea how you can arrive at that conclusion.

Back on topic whenever loot or crafting or collectibles or other fiddly game-lengthening features are given high billing in a game's marketed features it turns me off completely. All of these features can work but I'm not interesting in adding another time sink to my list of games to get around to at some point.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

When it was announced that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was having that stupid "augment your pre-order" bullshit. I wanted nothing to do with that game when they were super serious about that. Thankfully, someone knocked some sense into them and did away with that, and I'm back to being open to getting it.

Other than that, not really. The only other time it will kill my desire to play a game is when the game doesn't have a single player mode and you have to play online with people It's probably the only reason I have no desire to play Titanfall despite people telling me it's super fun.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Yes. You guys here. The shitstorm about ME3, which i dodged 99% of the time because i didn't want to get hit by any spoilers, just killed my desire to buy it, which i haven't done to this day.

Keep in mind ME was without a doubt my favourite RPG since Gothic. And in both franchises i finished the first 2 games +10 times. And as it seems i'll never buy the third installment.

As someone who hated the ending of 3 as much as anyone on these forums, you really should play it. Get the DLC, especially Citadel, and you'll enjoy yourself. Quite a lot. If you're dead set on avoiding what everyone bitched about, just turn the game off when it jumps the shark (it will be abundantly evident when this happens) and head-canon an ending of your preference.

So, OT...

I don't know that there's too much that can straight up kill my desire for a game, but there's stuff that can dampen my enthusiasm.

EVIDENCE OF OUTSTANDING GREED

I'm not automatically adverse to DLC, microtransactions, season passes, etc, etc, but I have to perceive fair value for money. There's a very tangible line that a lot of games flirt with, but a few just go straight up soaring over. I have to really want those games to get past it, because it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

A VOICELESS PROTAGONIST IN A SEA OF FULLY VOICED NPCS

This is a contentious perspective, because the issues presented by voiced protagonists have been well detailed (they're particularly problematic for imagineers who want completely blank slates to project onto). While I recognize and even share some of those concerns, I really struggle with the gormless personality-void main character these days. The more quality the presentation of the NPCs, the more agonizing a voiceless protagonist becomes. People praised this in DA:O, for instance, and I found it to be by far the game's greatest weakness.

AN OVERLY HIPSTER OR TOXIC FANBASE

The latter can make me shy off multiplayer games even when I enjoy them...it tends to make my break point with DOTA earlier than it would otherwise be (I'll quit when I'm still enjoying the game play because I'm no longer enjoying it ENOUGH to endure the players). The former is tricky. Generally, hype makes me interested in something, but hype I perceive as excessive or unwarranted can make me dig in my heels a bit. This made me wait longer than I otherwise would have for Dark Souls (and I roll my eyes at the superlatives draped on it to this day), and is presently stalling me on Undertale. I know it does some good things guys but come on. It's a phenomenon that is pitching my general apathy towards the kick-started "old school" RPGS rather high...lots of burbling praise for games that really do not merit it at all. I can't recall whom, but someone recently praised one of the Shadowrun games for being "atmospheric". I find that to be an utterly indefensible claim, and as a result I find myself disliking them just a little bit more than I had previously. Something I clearly need to get over.

Oh right, and people praising pixel graphics. You can do some interesting things with pixels but let's be real here, A) there are limits, and B) almost without exception they look like shit.

3 EDGY 4 ME

Stuff like Hatred, Postal, etc. I don't know if there was ever an age where I would've been interested, but if there was, it would've been somewhere around "eleven".

OMG TITTIES!!!!!!!!!!

Excessive titties in either game design or marketing material reaches a point where it becomes annoying. I am not anti-titty, but if the developer assumes that titties is the most direct route to my heart, I'm probably going to give the product a pass. Nonsense like Quiet won't stop me from playing MSGV, for instance, but it makes me ever so mildly more apathetic about it. One check in the "Oh, that's stupid" column.

EARLY ACCESS

I'm not adverse to it as a concept...although it's been woefully abused...but I'm reaching the point where I'll see interesting looking games on Steam, find it to be Early Access, and immediately lose all interest. Something like Clockwork Empires...I'd be all over that, but it's Early Access, so why bother? I'd have to REALLY want it, or have reason to believe it was already in a wildly entertaining state, to go for an Early Access game at this point. I've always had issues playing anything in a "less than fully complete" state. If there's DLC or expansions, I want them. I'm that kinda guy. So knowing I'm playing the Alpha build rankles me.

LACK OF KBM SUPPORT

I've worked past it twice in my memory (once for Dark Souls, once for Valkyria Chronicles) but your game will have precious little opportunity to win me over if I can't use native PC controls with it. In retrospect, my initial storm of problems with Dark Souls was SO overwhelming it's a miracle I played that game as long as I did.

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In terms of a specific incidence in which a single phrase or discovery seriously dimmed my enthusiasm for a game, I do recall quite a few years back, when SWTOR was still in development. One of the developers said something along the lines of "It would cost a billion dollars to compete with WoW...we're not trying to be WoW. There's already a WoW." and I was like FINALLY, a developer gets it. Then, like six months later, the same magazine runs another piece on SWTOR, and is praising them for "Not re-inventing the wheel" and "Borrowing judiciously from WoW". One of the developers is quoted speculating about Jedi using the Force to "make a shield so they can tank". I think I audibly groaned.

I mean, I ended up getting it anyway, but holy hell was that ever disappointing.

 

[Silverbeard]

LACK OF KBM SUPPORT

I've worked past it twice in my memory (once for Dark Souls, once for Valkyria Chronicles) but your game will have precious little opportunity to win me over if I can't use native PC controls with it. In retrospect, my initial storm of problems with Dark Souls was SO overwhelming it's a miracle I played that game as long as I did.

So, are you saying that Valkyria Chronicles had poor KBM support? Because I can honestly declare that the game was one of the best console-to-PC ports I've seen in a very long time. The controls made sense and I never once felt like I had to use a controller to be at my best in that title.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

So, are you saying that Valkyria Chronicles had poor KBM support? Because I can honestly declare that the game was one of the best console-to-PC ports I've seen in a very long time. The controls made sense and I never once felt like I had to use a controller to be at my best in that title.

Yes, I am saying that. Game felt FAR more natural with a controller. And given I play PC almost exclusively and have my entire life, for me to say that is really saying something.

 

[Nobuoa Schniell]

some (really angry) people said Undertale is the premier SJW game, what ever that means

Not sure who those people are. Even KiA loves Undertale.