Question of the Day, July 30, 2010

coldfrog

Can you feel around inside?
Dec 22, 2008
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You know, I kind of rushed my vote, because my first instinct was AGHH BAD DIALOGUE HURT HEAD but then I realized, of all of these, the only one that can't end in hilarious results is receiving bad instructions. On the other hand, more often than not the dialogue is just bland and uninteresting enough to be lame but not laughable enough to chuckle along with it.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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Deus Ex Machinae - My nemesis.

It's rife in most parts of games, but it's in the bad games that it really shows up.

Why can't I go up there? Why do I run out of these bullets but not those? How come I go into a QTE when I want control?

Generally anytime the rules are reversed just because.

For the rest:
Awful dialogue: "Dogs of the A.M.S." - Great game.
Plotholes in storyline: "So, Phoenix Down doesn't work on Aeris?" - Great game.
Poor characterization: "Reload, Dr. Freeman" - Great game.
Confusing instructions: "Stand still. Do I look like I'm nicking something?" (You don't have to stand still to be healed) - Great game.
Unnecessary information: "Half Elves are now .49999 Elves" - Great game.

I'll also include:
Buggy A.I.: Left 4 Dead - Great Game, but Louis-bot is an idiot.
Crisp-packets of DOOM: Left 4 Dead 2: "I can't charge up stairs?"
The Computer is a Cheating Bastard: Civilization/MarioKart.
Bugged To Hell: Hidden and Dangerous/Vampire: Bloodlines

Also still great games, but snatch control from me for no reason, and you're facing deletion.
 

Kiefer13

Wizzard
Jul 31, 2008
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Out of those, plot holes or poor characterisation. But mostly plot holes, I suppose. Awful dialogue can be funny (see Resident Evil, where the game wouldn't be as good without it.)
 

Assassin Xaero

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Jul 23, 2008
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Other I guess. Mostly when they have huge things of text to read or the conversations go on forever. For example, Dragon Age. I've got to the point where I just skip all the talking and just click a response. Plus I've about given up on the game since I have no clue where I'm supposed to go or what I'm supposed to be doing right now.
 

thethingthatlurks

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Feb 16, 2010
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Rarhnor said:
My opinion:
Fallen-Angel Risen-Demon said:
Bad characterization destroys the immersion for me. I can accept a plot hole but what truly makes a game immersive is it's characters, if they are not believable neither is the plot.
Probably, why I didn't like Half Life.
I originally votes for plot holes, but now that you mention it, I do agree that Half-Life failed miserably on that part. So you play a mute, who is adored by almost everybody in the world for reasons unknown to him...hey, it's like you're playing God/Jeebus.
 

Egitor

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Jan 28, 2010
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I hate it when the story makes no sense with the gameplay mechanics or the other way around, say in CoD:MW2 (poor example but hey... easy prey) where at the end of a mission I die, have to re-try a whole part, only to then die in the cut scene two feet from where I originally died. That just pisses me off.
 

Guthie

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Oct 12, 2009
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I'm playing back through Silent Hill 2 and remembering that, for all its immersive atmosphere, the game still manages to shatter every bit of tension it worked so hard to create every time James opens his idiot mouth. So I went with bad dialogue. It really can be a game-wrecking experience when a climactic scene that should be extremely dramatic is reduced to smirk-worthy nonsense by poorly written dialogue. Actually, that applies to pretty much any other medium as well. ^^;
 

tharglet

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Jul 21, 2010
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Usually bad dialogue - where you can't follow what is going on, or its getting just too silly. In the case of spoken narrative if there's unnatural pauses/emotions in it, that can be pretty destructive to follow what's going on, and break my immersion. Usually end up contemplating the incorrect pause/emotion more than the writing. D'oh.

Confusing instructions in the games I play only seem to really affect the MMOs I've played. I hate it if you get a quest and there's not even a slight clue as to where to go and/or what to do. I don't mind not being given an exact location, but at least give me a clue in which direction to head.
Random wandering in FPSes isn't so bad, as there's usually either limited places to go, or you find something else cool even if you go the wrong way.

I'm terrible with plotholes. Unless they're the size of Russia, then I either tend to not notice or put my own explanation to it.
 

BlueHighwind

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Jan 24, 2010
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What I hate the most about video game storylines is one thing: mind control. It happens so often in RPGs that its embarrassing, and every time it does happen its so incredibly lame. "How can I make a character that is good but fights with the party? I guess I could make a complex and conflicted and interesting character with deep motivations... but that takes too much work. Let's make a witch or something and have them control the character's mind for half the game."

Final Fantasy IV is the most guilty of this. Say what you want about the gameplay and characters, but that game's storyline was shit.
 

Echo136

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Feb 22, 2010
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A full priced game thats only 10 hours long. Pisses me off.

Edit: Sorry, "Writing" in particular. I would say bad voice acting. Most of those choices really.
 

imaloony

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Nov 19, 2009
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Poor characterization. Who is that? Why Should I care? Those are the two main questions I ask when this happens. Another thing that comes up it "Why the hell did you do that you stupid Prince bastard, I just spent the whole game doing that, why the hell are you undoing it for that bloody wench?"
 

Misterian

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Oct 3, 2009
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Plotholes.

But do you know what ticks me off most in VG writing? slapdash story telling.
 

Nazulu

They will not take our Fluids
Jun 5, 2008
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I can get through all of those except for 'awful dialogue', awful dialogue makes me cringe and nearly makes me want to avoid the game altogther. I like awful dialogue that's funny, I'll have a lot of good times with those. I mean crap like in the Starcraft 2 cinematics, they're just painful.
 

Draithx

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Jul 8, 2009
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Tough choice between awful dialogue and bad characterization. I voted awful dialogue, since with bad characterization (in rpg's atleast) there usually still a few good characters even if most aren't. Awful dialogue can be funny in non-rpg's though, like in Resident Evil or Touhou.

Plotholes don't usually bother me that much, unless they are really bad. Confusing information is solved by gamefaqs and unnecessary information can sometimes actually help fleshing out a world.
 

Shoggoth2588

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Aug 31, 2009
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Awful Dialog. I couldn't play Dead to Rights: Retribution because every other word was the fuck word! It annoyed the hell out of me and made me feel really juvenile for playing the game in the first place.
 

NiallXoldham

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May 18, 2010
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Other because of the fact that there are a few things that are not covered by the options. The plot holes are a major, as well as the unclear instructions and horrid dialogue. But its actually the atmosphere that is created. Alot of games are missing the storyline that has the drive behind it to make it actually worth playing, even games like COD:MW2 have a storyline that can be engaging to players who find the time worth to play it (though the story in MW2 is still horribly boring when you cut down to it, but it has some drama ripped from the first one, like three times infact. A good example is that of Final Fantasy VII, where the plot is dark, you can feel the desperation of the characters to do good and to save the people, but like I said it was dark, if everything had appeared as sunshines and rainbows and they were doing it because they wanted to sell cookies to Rufus Shinra you would just end up turning the game off or giving it to your child because you would just find it boring and uninteresting.

On a final note if the storyline has you do some stupid events such as you have to get like 12 flashing lights sequenced in order to progress through the story further and they flash quickly, thats just a dick move.
 

Hexador

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Dec 28, 2007
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Kapol said:
For me, it's games like FF13, where your expected to read so much outside of gameplay for it to make any sense. Oblivion did this too, and I never even bothered getting past the mission where you had to read the books and figure out where the place was. Mass Effect was slightly better in that you don't NEED that information, and you can learn most things from conversations anyways.
The quest you are talking about in oblivion was VERY little reading. Occasionally you would have to read a quest to find out where you needed to go, not really a big deal IMO.

Bad dialogue is definitely most games' problem.