Question of the Day, July 30, 2010

[Chamale]

Nonsensical setting. It sometimes fits into "Plot Holes", sometimes doesn't.

 

[Lucane]

That?s exactly my point. They?re trying to write likeable characters for games that don?t need/want them. Who wants to play a likeable character in GTA? Generally when I play (and this applies to everyone I know who plays GTA) I am playing as a full blown psycho who kills everyone he meets. Someone a lot like Catlina. If there?s too much traffic, I?ll drive through the people on the sidewalk. If there?s an enemy in the distance I?ll shoot him and anyone who gets in the way. If the car I want to blow up is stuck in between other cars, I?ll just throw a few grenades at all of them.
That?s why I think Catlina would?ve made more sense as the protagonist: I always see the game being played as someone like that.

I mean it's kind of hard to write a story about a character who never turns off the crazy meter short of them just being a supervillian.

 

[DaxStrife]

Bad dialogue really gets to me, but I think poor characterization is the worst; if I don't care about the characters, why should I give a crap about them and their story?

 

[gl1koz3]

EDIT: Nothing to say? Shut the hell up.

Characters that are made using internet stereotype checklists suck equally.

 

[Shepsauce]

I voted for Awful Dialogue just because it's always the most noticeable of flaws. It gets right up in your face and makes you cringe; the really bad stuff makes your whole body quiver in agony. Not to say that all of those things don't suck, dialogue just skull$@%^s you and then asks you to have a nice day.

 

[Formica Archonis]

All of it, though plot edges into first just barely. But I'm the sort who, if I start getting annoyed by something, will nitpick the whole thing to shreds. If any part of it is bad, it dies; the writing is just the most convenient target. My severe dislike of System Shock II partly comes from that. I cast my jaundiced eye on the plot after some of the gameplay annoyed me, and left it all in a bloody heap because I stopped forgiving the stupid writing.

Probably why I prefer low-plot games. Nothing writing-wise to bug me. If I want good writing I read a book.

 

[Gigano]

Awful dialogue (which I'd consider a subgroup of poor characterization).

Sometimes it just clashes completely with the setting. Nothing kills immersion in a game faster than when your medieval knightly brothers sound positively "gangsta" in accents and choice of wording, or when your Persian Prince sounds decidedly like a white collar New Yorker. And sometimes it goes completely the other way, with dialogue which just tries far too hard to fit the setting to be remotely natural (see Two Worlds, which couldn't have been saved anyway though).

 

[Blue Musician]

Poor characterization by far.

 

[V8 Ninja]

The awful dialogue. I was just playing the Wii remake of Klonoa and this is what I heard;

"Listening in on people is cheating!"

Oh yeah, listening in on other people when you're trying to take over the world is totally cheating. Sometimes, I just have to facepalm at some things. This is one of them. XP

 

[GonzoGamer]

That?s exactly my point. They?re trying to write likeable characters for games that don?t need/want them. Who wants to play a likeable character in GTA? Generally when I play (and this applies to everyone I know who plays GTA) I am playing as a full blown psycho who kills everyone he meets. Someone a lot like Catlina. If there?s too much traffic, I?ll drive through the people on the sidewalk. If there?s an enemy in the distance I?ll shoot him and anyone who gets in the way. If the car I want to blow up is stuck in between other cars, I?ll just throw a few grenades at all of them.
That?s why I think Catlina would?ve made more sense as the protagonist: I always see the game being played as someone like that.

I mean it's kind of hard to write a story about a character who never turns off the crazy meter short of them just being a supervillian.

It might be hard for a book or a stage play but for a video game, that isn't hard at all. I'd imagine it's easier than trying to figure out why a halfway decent person would do all these crazy things.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

Bad writing is bad writing. I hate it all. I would pick one, but why stick to one when themost irksome thing in that list can change from game to game? I won't mind bad dialogue in a non-story centric game, but I'll be damned if I have to sit through twenty minutes of it in an RPG.

 

[occamsnailfile]

I said poor characterization, but that includes awful dialogue in its way. If all the characters sound like the same bland weirdo in dialogue it's really hard to stay interested, and poor characterization tends to rely very hard on boring and conservative cliches.

 

[newfiegirl 110]

I have to go with unnecessary information. Really? Is it necessary for me to know the entire history of the area when I spend only 2 minutes there, and the rest moved on, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the quest? Can think of way better uses of time.

 

[Evilsanta]

Plotholes really gets me for some reason... Cant stand em...

 

[fanklok]

Fuck confusing instructions, there have been so many times I've spent half an hour+ running around because I'm expected to know exactly what a trans-molecular warp gate power subfuser is.

Forget 'confusing' instructions. Try NONEXISTENT instructions. How am I supposed to beat this monster? Oh it's a gimmick that was never used in the game before and never will be again. And now you've gone and wasted all your change keeping yourself alive long enough to figure this out!

I know right, its such BS. Or the puzzles where it tells you to put the orb of opening into the subnet mask neuro face drive and never explain what the fuck that is.

 

[Olenthros]

I voted other ( please specificy ) so here I am specifying, I see all of the above hated equally their all things that I constantly notice in video games and point out.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Confusing instructions is the absolute worst. Currently, I'm playing through Dead Space and often times when I will be receiving instructions when I've got the ripper going and I can't hear what they're trying to say over the sound of a chainsaw blade scraping across metal and through body parts. So I'll just use that laser thing that tells you where to go and then when I get there just guessing what I have to do. I'll often end up doing this even when I can hear what they're saying. They'll say, "Isaac! You need to go to the control room and fix the sabotaged communication unit!" and I don't know where the control room is, what the communication unit looks like, or how I'm supposed to fix it.

I also don't like unnecessary information... There are times in Metal Gear Solid where they spend ten minutes explaining something that could have been said in two. But I'm still a big MGS fan...

 

[Captain Booyah]

All of the above, but the worst offender for me is bad dialogue. It can swing three ways: hilariously cheesy, cringe-in-embarrassment cheesy, or when it's just sad; not in the pathetic sense, but just disappointing, because it can totally ruin what would have otherwise been a great scene.

Following up is dodgy characterization, though. God, that can kill a game quick for me. Can kill anything quick for me.

 

[razbuten363]

I'd have to say all of them, poor dialogue and plot holes are the worst, though.