Remove a Game Mechanic from Existence

[Raykuza]

Infinitely respawning enemies (in linear games) - How are we supposed to know when/how to progress if the enemies just keep on coming? I have wasted so much time wondering if I'm supposed to go.

QTEs - These are boring and outdated. When I heard Need for Speed would have foot chasing sequences I got pretty excited... And then I saw one. Such disappointment.

Water levels - These are the worst. Water is just the biggest, most awful hazard in all of gaming, made especially terrible by the fact that you can't swing a sword at it and kill it. If you can go under the water, the physics change, you can't stay under for lack of air, and sometimes visibility is decreased. If you can't go under the water, thats just large chunks of the level that are restricted, usually under the threat of instant death. Fuck water.

 

[Kurokasumi]

I would remove regenerating health in a heartbeat. Make gaming challenging again.
Remove aim assist in FPS's. Iron sights are already all the assistance you need.
And finally, get rid of that shit in fighters now where you have "simple controls" AKA: Auto combo-ing. Defeats the purpose of fighting games.

 

[Woodsey]

Not so much a mechanic as a feature: don't wrestle control from me to show me something. Learn how to design levels so that I am inevitably drawn to it. I do not need a fucking "look" button.

 

[Ninjat_126]

Minimal checkpoints. We shouldn't have to fight the same easy battle 500 times in a row because there's no checkpoint between it and the hard-as-all-fuck boss that comes next.

Difficulty levels distinguished by increased enemy health/damage or increased prices on upgrades/gear. Hardcore mode should have smarter enemies with better accuracy, or introduce tougher enemy types rather than make everything just hit you harder and have more health. Same with just decreasing your health.

I wouldn't play Demon's Souls anytime soon if I were you lol.

I'm going to buy it anyway. I need something nonimportant to rage over.

 

[Zenhurak]

Just for funsies I think it would be interesting to see if Plot Armour never existed.

 

[Wintermoot]

the two weapon system it,s bullshit and makes the gama less fun.
inb4 QTE,s
they work in Shenmue

 

[teebeeohh]

2 weapons system, and i would like my health bar back. I don't mind regenerating health as much as i miss a health bar. Smearing jam on the screen or graying out the screen is not the same as having a nice little bar that tells me i am 75% dead.

 

[KaizokuouHasu]

Regenerating health. Of all the game mechanics the one I have the most problem with is the one that encourages me to hide until all my injuries are somehow magically auto-healed. ¬_¬

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Friendly AI who have an IQ of -1000 like they do in basically every game ever made that has a team of you and 3 other guys.

 

[Vykrel]

i would remove quick-time events (aside from the occasional "Tap A" scenario). other than that, they are simply a nuisance, and depending on how unforgiving they are, they can be downright infuriating.


but to everyone complaining about regenerating health, you guys would be complaining even more if started dying 10 times as often. also, i think a game like CoD 4 would be completely impossible to beat on Veteran if the player didnt have regenerating health. just saying

 

[Nanaki316]

WATER FUCKING LEVELS

A thousand times this. For some reason, I get scared doing anything underwater. It completely puts me off a game and freaks me out.

 

[CRRPGMykael]

funny how James Bond 007:Blood Stone managed to put all of the stuff you complained about and made it into a game:
Regenerating health(although if you're playing on max difficulty it will hardly matter as 1 shot has a 90% chance to kill you)
Forced stealth parts(but this IS 007,and the stealth is more important,so you could call it a stealth game with forced action parts)
Vehicle sections(again,done pretty well)
QTE(not totally sure it has any,but as i recall,there are a bunch)
Cover-based shooting(also executed pretty well)
Two-weapon system(yes,yet again I've never felt like complaining about it,so that means it's OK)
A Turret section(Fuck,THIS ONE I HATE)
Assisted Aiming(but this feature is only avaible ala Splinter Cell:Conviction style,meaning you have to do a bunch of melee kills before you get to enjoy it)
And more stuff that would usually annoy you,but I can't recall anymore right now...


And you know what the best part is?That game was great...just sayin'...


Staying on topic:TURRET SECTIONS.THEY ARE HORRIBLE.EVERYBODY HATES THEM.THEY'RE LIKE THIS THING THAT...uh,long story short:Fuck turret sections.

 

[SpaceBat]

Either QTE's or underwater levels.
QTE's because the mechanic basically consists of pressing a button on time and watching stuff happen on screen. I can live with the Heavy Rain kind of QTE, but I absolutely despise the Bayonetta kind of QTE's. You know, the ones that come out of nowhere and send you to the game over screen just because you didn't pay a lot of attention to the shitty cutscenes. Underwater levels because they simply don't work very well. I honestly can't think of a single 3-D free-roam underwater level that worked perfectly. It's usually the worst part of a game.

Escort missions as well, I suppose. Mainly because these guys usually can't defend themselves, but this isn't as bad as the above two.

 

[Richardplex]

None. I like them all. It's just sometimes, hell, a lot of the time, they are misused and overused. The one that I've not seen done well at all is the moral choice system. For example, in InFamous

Spoiler

I don't want to be told that saving trisha was bad karma

the universe doesn't say Rule Utilitarianism is the only correct ethical theory of right and wrong and Karma of the universe follows it, no video games industry, you have not solved ethics, what is right and wrong is still in debate, if you cared so much about about telling me what right and wrong fundamentally is, why does killing thousands and thousands of people I disagree with have no ramifications on my karma? aaaaaargh.

...okay, maybe I don't like them all. I'd say Mass Effect almost did it right with paragon and renegade instead of good and bad, but it limits my conversation if I don't go full one way or the other. Just because I'm nice to some parties and hateful to other parties does not mean I'm less nice and less hateful to the respective groups. If it was implemented as reputation-per-group based instead of overall flowers or bile to everyone, maybe my first two sentences would be closer to the truth.

 

[Domehammer]

I would remove mechanic for invisible walls that lock you into a area and face is pressed against window by a crazy person going hey look at that stuff we did. Don't mind any positive thing you liked about it might be ruined because were forcing you to see it.

 

[bliebblob]

Didn't read all posts yet so I hope I'm first on this.

Chance of failure when enchanting/crafting in mmorpg's.

This is one of the many things WoW got right: if you got the ingredients you get the cake. No nasty surprises. (maybe other mmo's already did this before WoW idunno)
It's sooo frustrating when you get all 26 thingamajigs needed to make your offhand dagger a little stronger and than the game goes "woops it phailed and all 26 of em are gone. Off you go to find 26 more trololololo."
Koreans made this even worse: the items you need to upgrade gear cost real $. And if the enchant fails you not only lose the item you paid for but there is a chance your sword (or whatever) actually becomes weaker or disappears alltogether (including any other enchantments you already put on it). Stories of people who shelled out 30 bucks and got absolutely nothing to show for it are not rare. Obvious cash grabbing much?

Captcha: revenged ntecurtm. Do I have a dirty mind or does that last part kinda sound like... I mean all the letters are there...

 

[mcattack92]

Any weapon that is required to be reloaded. I remember the good old days of Doom in which you held down the fire button until you are out of ammo altogether and change guns in which you would do the same thing. Now days, you shoot for a few seconds until you use the 30 bullets in the mag then wait until the 30 bullets are reloaded back into the gun to be able to shoot again.

 

[default]

Bad checkpoint/save spacing.

Ruins many a gaming experience for me. It's also a BASIC PRIORITY OF LEVEL DESIGN.

 

[Joshica Huracane]

Online achievements. The amount of people online makes them hard, the hackers and glitters make them impossible.

If that doesn't count, Rubber-banding. I want my competitors to take off realistically (according to the game), and if I have a car that is ridiculously faster, I want it to show.

I entirely agree with both of these things. Racing games often annoy the hell out of me when a competitor catches me after having crashed into oncoming traffic, for example. And I'd have all the trophies in multiple games if it wasn't for online achievements/trophies.

OT: As well as those, I'd say the 2 weapon limit. I don't mind it in Call of Duty, but games like Duke Nukem Forever and Resistance 2 would have been so much better with a weapon wheel or something. As it stands, one was absolute shite, and the other was just really quite good..

 

[Tim Mazzola]

I know this thread was basically made to bash regenerating health (which is something that has become as annoying and widespread as the trend of regenerating health itself) but I'll still oblige to a point.

Here's a new one. How about cutscenes? Just get rid of cutscenes entirely. Tell the story through gameplay and the mechanics without relying on trying to make your game look like something that it isn't.