The most worthless game mechanics/features

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I do agree regarding the grenades, as the act of tossing a grenade should involve a moderate degree of planning (compared to melee; you don't have to think too hard to whack the guy in front of you). At the very least, the "animation" when pressing the grenade button should involve shifting your weapon to the side, reaching for a grenade, pulling the pin, arming, then throwing, to create a realistic delay. But I think regenerating health speeds up the pace of fights (which is good in some cases), and melee improves upon the previous system of having to switch to a knife, so to merely simply them off as useless is unfair.

Also, that "more buttons" argument is rather weak, but I don't feel like getting into a fight about it so I'll just let it go

Metal Gear Online played about as fast as shooter can play and it didn't have any regen health (or grenade button or melee button). You had a full CQC mechanic in place that let you do lots of different things like say grabbing an opponent, attaching C4 to them, letting them go, and then detonating it whenever. All that was due to the game not having just a melee button. If you have a weapon/item cycle system instead of a grenade button and melee button, you have at least one more free button (1 button to switch weapons vs 2 buttons for a grenades and melee). Metal Gear Online was a 3rd-person shooter that also had first-person leaning, something not even FPSs are able to fit into their controls anymore. Shooters are devolving instead of evolving.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Not really so much of a feature, but probably about 70% of the moves you could pull off in "Prototype".

I loved the game to death, but I realized pretty quickly that the vast majority of the moves you could do were basically worthless and were just for show, and you really only needed about 6-7 to actually play through the game. Still loved it though.

 

[alphamalet]

In addition to the incessant need of putting regenerating health in everything, I'm going to say leaderboards. To me, having a highscore on a (probably hacked) leaderboard goes into the "Who gives a shit?" category.

 

[dyre]

I do agree regarding the grenades, as the act of tossing a grenade should involve a moderate degree of planning (compared to melee; you don't have to think too hard to whack the guy in front of you). At the very least, the "animation" when pressing the grenade button should involve shifting your weapon to the side, reaching for a grenade, pulling the pin, arming, then throwing, to create a realistic delay. But I think regenerating health speeds up the pace of fights (which is good in some cases), and melee improves upon the previous system of having to switch to a knife, so to merely simply them off as useless is unfair.

Also, that "more buttons" argument is rather weak, but I don't feel like getting into a fight about it so I'll just let it go

Metal Gear Online played about as fast as shooter can play and it didn't have any regen health (or grenade button or melee button). You had a full CQC mechanic in place that let you do lots of different things like say grabbing an opponent, attaching C4 to them, letting them go, and then detonating it whenever. All that was due to the game not having just a melee button. If you have a weapon/item cycle system instead of a grenade button and melee button, you have at least one more free button (1 button to switch weapons vs 2 buttons for a grenades and melee). Metal Gear Online was a 3rd-person shooter that also had first-person leaning, something not even FPSs are able to fit into their controls anymore. Shooters are devolving instead of evolving.

You follow your anecdotal example with a rather grand claim, but I suppose if you're dead set on hating modern developments in the genre, there's nothing I can do

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Weapon jamming. Three words: Far Cry 2.

I'm currently replaying Torchlight 1&2 and they have one of the most pointless features ever:

Identifying. Fucking. Items.

For those who don't know these games, the game arbitrarily "locks" some of the loot, you then have to "unlock" it by using an identify scroll. These scrolls are never in short supply (dungeons are paved in the things and even if you run out their gold cost is negligible ) so it's not like you won't identify everything anyways. It's just unnecessary busy work/clicking and it reminds me of those terrible money grabbing things you usually see in F2P games.

It's probably to simulate Diablo 2's somewhat iconic feature. They're ex-developers of Diablo after all.
I like Diablo 3's approach, you can identify an item without using any scroll, just right click and wait.

 

[ThePurpleStuff]

Equipment durability in any online mmorpg. Especially if every time you repair it the max durability decreases and its hard to get the resources for repairing it in the first place. (*ahem* The late Dream of Mirror Online being the guilty party)
I've had so much good equipment break or just plain disappear because of stupid durability. It hinders my gameplay and just makes things worse. It's not even for immersion or realism to me, it was put in there to piss me off.

Instant death spells in rpgs, I understand status effects, it adds difficulty in battles, but instant death is just the games way of fucking you over without challenging you. If you don't have the luck or the methods to prevent it you're screwed. I hate it also in games where if your party leader dies, but the rest of your party is just fine, 'oh, game over, try again.' So fucking dumb.

 

[Callate]

Most of the NPC "social" features in GTA IV.

This is my hell. Not that I'm a new immigrant to a country that isn't what I've been promised. Not that I'm haunted by memories of what I did back home. Not even that hard men want to kill me.

No. My hell is that I'm the only point of social contact for half a dozen of the most insatiably needy and unrelenting pariahs in Liberty City...

Similarly, all the "nicknames" your character could be called in Fable, all of which fit awkwardly into the pre-recorded townsfolk speech, and all of which made little difference in a game in which your contributions to conversation were limited to things like laughing and farting (not that any of the townsfolk seemed to notice.)

 

[Magix]

I'd have to say mana bar in RPG's. In some cases it's necessary, but I'd rather have to worry about which spells I should be using to defeat the enemies in the most effective way, not whether I have the mana to cast spells.

It's also sort of just another arbitrary restriction. Casting spells is fun, hence, if you add a mana bar, you are restricting my fun. I like my fun, don't restrict it. And then you have to run around looking for potions.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

those research topics that lead to nothing in the first X-COM, things like alien entertaiment or alien food, researching them consumes valuable time and keeps valuable scientists occupied researching a topic that leads to no new weapon, facility, vehicle, armor, technology or new research topic, and theres no way to know which research topics are like this the first time you play, thankfully the new XCOM got rid of that

 

[InfernalPaladin]

Weapon jamming. Three words: Far Cry 2.

In my opinion I felt like this mechanic added to the grittiness and immersion of the game - it gave a sense of balance when comparing the high-tech top-end hardware the expats had, vs the low-tech but rugged gear the militias were equipped with.

But maybe that's because i'm one of the weird few who were disappointed when weapon degradation was omitted from Skyrim, compared to it's inclusion in Oblivion.

Anyway, the most annoying thing I can think of is the "junk items" in MMO's. All they do is take up space in my inventory. I would be ok with them if they had little flavour text snippets in their descriptions, but the vast majority are purely there to make it look like you're getting heaps of loot, when in reality it's all just crap that you pawn off to the nearest merchant for a pittance.

I guess i've been spoilt a bit by EvE Online's loot system, where everything you can get is used in one industry or another, and they almost all have something interesting written (even if it is sometimes a little generic).

I guess it's just the lack of depth in general that is annoying me with gaming nowadays. I enjoy reading flavour-texts, and learning about the game-universes history. More games need to be like Dark Souls in this regard, each item being tied into the lore and not just there as filler material.

 

[Hazy992]

I was gonna say smoking a cigarette in Vanquish, but then I remembered you can actually use it to distract enemies.

I guess taunts in fighting games are kinda useless, but they're fun to do against a human opponent.

Tripping in SSBB?

Can't think of any use for that other than to slightly change the flow of a match.

That's not true, it was also put in to piss everybody off

 

[Whateveralot]

Leer / Growl and other attribute-affecting moves in Pokémon.

I never used any, except for the ones that lower accuracy in case of emergency.

 

[Lockling]

I was gonna say smoking a cigarette in Vanquish, but then I remembered you can actually use it to distract enemies.

HAH!
Bryan Furys taunt disagrees!

OT:
id have to go with iron sight aiming, all it does is obfuscate whatever it is youre trying to shoot at.

And to anyone saying its more "realistic": no, no its not. With an actual gun/rife you can still CLEARLY see what youre aiming at,you dont shove the stock up your nose so that the gun takes up half of your field of vision.

 

[Jeroenr]

I would say offencive Magic in TES series.

Early on you can kill a sceleton or draigt or.... with 3 to 4 sword slashes, arrows take a bit more effort.
But if you fireball them, after about 10 shots the enemy is just somewhat annoyed.
And are way to slow to level.

 

[Alleged_Alec]

From my recent experiences in FF XIV, but also seen in other games:

- Plot NPCs who come in after you've done most of the mobs in, help you clean up the last two or so and then states something along the lines of "Good that I came along when I did, right?". Extra points if the NPC in question is a smug asshole. Extra extra points if it's a badly disguised GMPC.

- Main story lines in which you constantly get outclassed by NPCs, despite there being a clear focus on you. I don't mind being one of the background characters, but do make clear if this is the case. If I'm supposed to be a central character, make me feel like it, god damn it.

- Plot-relevant fights with mobs outside of your level range. Don't set me up against something I cannot damage and expect me to look while an NPC kills the way too high level mob.

- Meant to lose fights. I really don't like these, especially because they are so badly implemented most of the time. If it's a proper fight where I feel I may have a chance, but I get killed by the skin of me teeth, it'd be fine, once in a while. However, all of them go like this: I'm fighting a group of mobs, kill all of them, damage a boss while taking no damage myself, the boss hits a certain amount of hp and a cutscene triggers in which I get beaten. Fuck you and your shitty story.

- Random cutscenes showing the bad guys being evil for no reason. Am I playing a bad children's cartoon? No? Then stop making the villains Dark Kantian, for fuck's sake. Unless it's a parody, you're just embarrassing yourself.

- Cross-realm LFG. Yes, it shortens queues, but it also removes any element of consequence for being an asshole in instances, since there's a good chance you're not in a party with anyone from the same server so it's highly likely you'll never see them again.

 

[Cerebrawl]

Alpha Protocol's hacking system. It made me quit playing, it was that frustratingly bad. That's in the tutorial btw. First game to ever make me quit during the tutorial, from pure frustration.

The level-up stats system in TES games before Skyrim.

 

[Jeroenr]

Moral choices are often pointless.

When the choice only gives you different dialoge options.
Or when al the moral roads lead to the same final choice (Deus Ex: hr), Making them pointless.

Properly done it can expant gameplay, and make you want to play the game again.
Not just load the save game just before the final choice. (Again, Deus Ex: Hr)

 

[bug_of_war]

A. 1 hit kills from NPC's. It is just a cheap mechanic to fake real difficulty. Having to run and hide to get healed adds an "oh shit! OH SHIT!! AUUUGHHHHGGHHH!!!!" feeling that gets stronger as the closer to death you get verses further away from safety you are. Massive relief when you make it and equally massive downer when you don't.

Am I the only person here who actually doesn't mind 1 hit kills in games? Cause it sure feels that way.

-Games with no cutscenes.
I find it really hard to pay attention to a story when I'm given the ability to jump around, shoot my gun, turn and face a wall, crouch, crawl, flip switches and pick up items when I'm suppose to be listening to the characters speak. I'd rather loose control for 5 minutes and have my attention drawn to just the story than to have the freedom to fuck around and not pay attention.

-The Witcher: drinking potions
Why the fuck can he not just drink a potion during or a second before combat?

-Silent protagonists
SPEAK GOD DAMN IT!

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Metal Gear Online played about as fast as shooter can play and it didn't have any regen health (or grenade button or melee button). You had a full CQC mechanic in place that let you do lots of different things like say grabbing an opponent, attaching C4 to them, letting them go, and then detonating it whenever. All that was due to the game not having just a melee button. If you have a weapon/item cycle system instead of a grenade button and melee button, you have at least one more free button (1 button to switch weapons vs 2 buttons for a grenades and melee). Metal Gear Online was a 3rd-person shooter that also had first-person leaning, something not even FPSs are able to fit into their controls anymore. Shooters are devolving instead of evolving.

You follow your anecdotal example with a rather grand claim, but I suppose if you're dead set on hating modern developments in the genre, there's nothing I can do

Grand Claim? Everything I said was true.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Inventory limits, weapon degredation and encumberance stats.

Anything that makes me stop what I'm doing to play inventory tetris or wander off to find a merchant is just artificially lenghtening the game.

As much as I love the Diablo games that,s always been my biggest gripe.

I just wanna clear the dungeon, I don't want to make frequent pit stops to repair and dump my bags.