Thou Shal't not

[KwaggaDan]

After having read about the social contract between gamers and developers, and after watching several Zero Punctuation episodes I've come to realise there are several unwritten rules for creating games. Now, which rule according to you is the most important?

Mine is "Thou shal't not create respawning enemies who spawn on exactly the same spot where the player is standing." This is mostly for GTA and RRR where creatures respawn exactly where I'm standing and proceed to kill me. It's most infuriating...

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[KwaggaDan]

Thou shalt stick to the plan*
Thou shalt not startle me.

I hate it when companies release horror games, but all they do is startle!
Condemned and Alan Wake, now those are GOOD horror games.

*[sub]Extremely old Urealms reference, from the days that were pre-escapist[/sub]

Even that is not as bad, to me at least, as just finishing a particularly difficult mini-mission just to be shot and killed, and not have my progress saved...

 

[zHellas]

Thou shalt not create movie-licensed games just to profit on the release of the movie it is based on.

 

[Baron Von Evil Satan]

Thou shalt not sell your game rights to Uwe Boll

 

[Distorted Stu]

Thou shalt not skip cutscenes. It grindes on me when people do so. WHY PLAY THE GAME?!

 

[happy_turtle]

Thou shalt not release a game that's not thouroughly tested

 

[Kapol]

Thou shalt not create movie-licensed games just to profit on the release of the movie it is based on.

You can't consider that a rule of the social contract, even though it should be, because it's something that companies regularly do to make money. You're not talking about the game itself, just what it's based on. Plus, aren't all games just to make money?

I have two favorites. "Thou shalt not make the subtitles and on-screen text unreadable." Dead Rising was HORRIBLE for this. Then there's "Thou Shalt make variation in the game." In other words, it's not all just the same thing at all times.

 

[wolf thing]

thou shalt not replace long lift journy with loading screens that will slowly kill your soul

 

[MetalDooley]

Thou shalt not release a buggy,glitchy mess and market it as a finished product

Shame that no one seems to abide by that rule though

 

[evilengine]

Thou shalt not include infinitly respawning enemies, enemies that hurt you by touching you but always stick to you like glue, in stealth games (ie Hitman Bloodmoney) where enemies see through your disguise despite you not doing anything out of the ordinary, unskipable advertisements which you have to sit through before the main menu...I could go on for hours.

 

[Sephychu]

Thou shalt not insert obstacles into thy game that I could not possibly have seen until they had killed me once already.

Odd that I should say that, as I spend a lot of time playing Bullet Hell games.

 

[Eldarion]

Thou shalt not make thy cut scene unskipable.

Seriously, I don't need to see it more than once.

 

[Redingold]

Thou shalt include hats in thine game.

Yes, I've been playing TF2 a lot recently.

 

[slipknot4]

Thou Shalt not release a game without a proper beta testing period so that the flaws can be removed.

 

[SpecklePattern]

Thou shalt not make thy cut scene unskipable.

Seriously, I don't need to see it more than once.

THAT!

And thou shalt not make rerelease just to make money and by that making another bad game. (crappy Alien vs Predator comes to my mind.)

Thou shalt not make idiot AI to accompany you. Hell and death to the player.

OT (most important):
Thou shalt not make the game to revolve around the player. (Gameworld should work without player induced triggers.)

 

[KwaggaDan]

Thou shalt not skip cutscenes. It grindes on me when people do so. WHY PLAY THE GAME?!

But this needs the addendum of having a cutscene be skippable after the first time it's watched. I can think of so many good games that were ruined because I had to sit through the same cutscene 10 times or more...

 

[NiceGurl_14]

Thou shalt not sell your game rights to Uwe Boll

Pretty much this for me.

 

[MajorKris]

Thou shalt not make the right control stick have any other job than controlling the camera.

Also: Thou shalt not include a character with no personality as the protagonist.

I enjoy deep characters.

 

[KwaggaDan]

Thou Shalt not release a game without a proper beta testing period so that the flaws can be removed.

Especially when you insist that the game is complete and rubbish complaints. See Bioshock 2 as an example.