KodiaX987's List of Videogame DON'Ts

[KodiaX987]

You'd think the video game industry would have gotten a clue from trial and error in the history of game development. Yet, I see mistakes that used to be done 20 years ago... and happen now, right now in 2006.

Ubisoft, ZOO, Blizzard, Codemasters, everybody, make a checklist for Christ's sake. Don't let people publish games when they don't meet minimum criterias. And by minimum criterias, I mean the stuff that differentiates between a game well done and a game that could've been well done but because of stupidity, went from the gold CD straight to the trash can.

READ, LEARN AND APPLY:

-DON'T limit the number of save games! The 20-maximum era is over! Why does Psi Ops, a recent game, limit me to less saved games than King's Quest VI did?!

-DON'T make up a story if you can't make up a good story! Seriously, what were you trying to do when you wrote the one for Dead or Alive? Hell, some people have even tried to come up with a story for a game that shouldn't have any story. Do I really give a shit about the super-epic background behind Arkanoid? Come on, leave the stories to RPGs and adventure games!

-DON'T make it so that things move when the mouse doesn't, and things don't move when the mouse does! I'm looking at you, Pandora Tomorrow, for making my view spin wildly in circles totally at random.

-DON'T use magic catchup AI! If I'm leading a race, I want to STAY in the lead! Not get inexplicably smoked by another car who somehow happens to suddenly have a much higher top speed than I do!

-DON'T use StarForce! Do I really need to explain that one?

-DON'T use voice acting if you can't find voice actors that do the job! Really, look at yourself, Maken X. The volume isn't even consistent from one line to another. And what about Alone in The Dark 4? That old hag sounded more like a schoolgirl than anything else!

-DON'T boasts about a physics engine when you can't even do collision detection right! Hi, Psi Ops! Watch as I use telekinesis to throw a metal crate at people thanks to your ub3r l33t Havok engine. And now watch as the hero jumps and manages to grab a ledge only one quarter of the time!

[Blue-Hawk]

Actually, when used right, the Havok engine can be a great one. Painkiller anyone?

[Firocket1690]

Ya know. The first final fantasy didn't have a storyline. Then they fucked it up. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

[Skorpius]

Number 1 rule of Videogame Player DONT'S is:

- DON'T complain about video games, and how they're made, unless you have created a successful mainstream video game yourself.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Skorpius on 2006-05-21 14:14 ]</font>

[Jive18]

People are entitled to complain about whatever they want; it's one of those special rights you get for being human http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif.

Sure, you may not like it, but players are going to complain about their videogames regardless, and certainly not many of them have developed a game themselves.

[Scejntjynahl]

Now this is a rant.

Oh I think I may add one to your list Shuri:

Dont: Do sequels that suck much worse than the original.
Dont: Do prequels that screw up the whole story line of the original game.

Im sure there are others. My favorite is games that completely base themselves on graphics alone and lost the heart of the game. Oh an example? Contra. 8bit > all others. And that is preety sad.

[Balthor]

On 2006-05-21 14:14, Skorpius wrote:
Number 1 rule of Videogame Player DONT'S is:

- DON'T complain about video games, and how they're made, unless you have created a successful mainstream video game yourself.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Skorpius on 2006-05-21 14:14 ]</font>


No one has to be a professional chef to say the food somewhere sucks. Or be a writer to say a book is written poorly.

Your logic fails.

[Shadowpawn]

On 2006-05-21 16:27, Balthor wrote:


On 2006-05-21 14:14, Skorpius wrote:
Number 1 rule of Videogame Player DONT'S is:

- DON'T complain about video games, and how they're made, unless you have created a successful mainstream video game yourself.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Skorpius on 2006-05-21 14:14 ]</font>


No one has to be a professional chef to say the food somewhere sucks. Or be a writer to say a book is written poorly.

Your logic fails.




What Skorp is saying that it's better if you have some sort of credentials to critic . As you said, anyone can criticize anything however what you failed to realize is it wouldn't hold as much weight as someone who has experience in that field.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Shadowpawn on 2006-05-22 04:16 ]</font>

[Skorpius]

On 2006-05-21 16:27, Balthor wrote:
No one has to be a professional chef to say the food somewhere sucks. Or be a writer to say a book is written poorly.

You're right. But saying that to published professionals, without proper credentials, just makes you a whiney douchebag.

[Deathscythealpha]

On 2006-05-21 18:02, Skorpius wrote:


On 2006-05-21 16:27, Balthor wrote:
No one has to be a professional chef to say the food somewhere sucks. Or be a writer to say a book is written poorly.

You're right. But saying that to published professionals, without proper credentials, just makes you a whiney douchebag.



Not really, it means you can see flaws in their work. Videogames are meant to be a form of entertainment and thus entertain a player. However, if the game has flaws that spoil the game for the player, lowering its entertainment value they have the right to stand up and say "Hey, I dont think this kinda works right here".

By listening to your audience you can greatly improve on what you are producing or working on and shape your product into something that everyone could like. If you blank out all negative comments because 'They Dont Have the Right Credentials' you can come across as arrogant or as if you have a superiority complex. Audience/Player Feedback is a very important part of any design process.

[Blitzkommando]

On 2006-05-21 18:02, Skorpius wrote:


On 2006-05-21 16:27, Balthor wrote:
No one has to be a professional chef to say the food somewhere sucks. Or be a writer to say a book is written poorly.

You're right. But saying that to published professionals, without proper credentials, just makes you a whiney douchebag.


Some people don't even need to do anything to show they are 'shower bags'.

Another thing to add to the list:
DON'T forget to make sure all the menu options work. Nothing is more annoying than having awesome options in the menu that don't work. Music with having an on/off option that doesn't work is extremely annoying.

[Skorpius]

"If you think you can do better, then go do it.
If not, shut up."

That pretty much sums up my point.

It's easy to sit there, in your little chair, with your puchased entertainment, and criticize someone's work. It doesn't mean that you know what you're talking about. There are countless variables as to why a game turns out the way it did, and if you don't like it, don't play it! Wasted your money? That's your fault. You made the decision, took the risk, and it flopped. Welcome to life.

Ubisoft, ZOO, Blizzard, Codemasters, everybody, make a checklist for Christ's sake.

Shuri speaks as if he knows more than big-name companies. Hey, who is paying who to play whose games now?

Don't get me wrong, I see stupid decisions made by game companies all the time. I get over it, though, because I'm definately not a programmer. Telling game companies to learn from mistakes? I think the consumer is the one who should be doing that. If you don't like how a company made their game, boycott them. Pick games that you KNOW you'll like. Rent/try before you buy. Easy steps that smart shoppers take so they don't screw themselves over.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Skorpius on 2006-05-21 18:35 ]</font>

[Jive18]

Skorpius, it's a rant, don't look too much into it.

I understand what you're talking about, but arguing against what Shuri feels won't change his mind a bit.

[Skorpius]

And my replies are just replies, don't look too much into them.

[Scejntjynahl]

You just love to argue dont you?

[Dangerous55]

If we got games for free we couldnt complain, but we fucking pay for them. They couldnt make the games if we didnt buy them.

[Deathscythealpha]

On 2006-05-21 18:31, Skorpius wrote:
"If you think you can do better, then go do it.
If not, shut up."

That pretty much sums up my point.

It's easy to sit there, in your little chair, with your puchased entertainment, and criticize someone's work. It doesn't mean that you know what you're talking about. There are countless variables as to why a game turns out the way it did, and if you don't like it, don't play it! Wasted your money? That's your fault. You made the decision, took the risk, and it flopped. Welcome to life.

Ubisoft, ZOO, Blizzard, Codemasters, everybody, make a checklist for Christ's sake.

Shuri speaks as if he knows more than big-name companies. Hey, who is paying who to play whose games now?

Don't get me wrong, I see stupid decisions made by game companies all the time. I get over it, though, because I'm definately not a programmer. Telling game companies to learn from mistakes? I think the consumer is the one who should be doing that. If you don't like how a company made their game, boycott them. Pick games that you KNOW you'll like. Rent/try before you buy. Easy steps that smart shoppers take so they don't screw themselves over.



Done and done. I am currently trying to get into Games Design and have learnt that Audience Feedback is incredibly important. For the last year Ive been working in a small team to produce a playable action game and getting feedback on what was wrong with the game helped us improve it. We had created a section where a corridor had been barricaded and the player was suposed to jump out of the window and walk around to the other side. However, when we were testing the game we found out that about 50% of those who played through this level got stuck at that point, not realising that they could jump through the window. That was a gameplay flaw and we noted that some indication to the player that they could jump through the window was needed. Hell, we could have ignored those people, as the other half got the idea straight away, but it still left a serious hole in the gameplay for some and could have spoilt the game for them.

Game companies are actually paying attention to gamers minor quibbles with games and are trying to improve these points. Quanticdream is a good example of this. They took note of the complaints that were leveled against Fahrenheit and they are working to improve these on their next game.

Anyway, this thread seems to be getting quite derailed. KodiaX disliked some of the crappier parts of videgames and pitched out his complaints, something he is allowed to do in ye olde Rants forum. He made some good points (I hate sucky voice acting in games, you really have to wonder if they listned to what they were recording at times) and thats about it.

[Charmander02]

On 2006-05-20 19:01, KodiaX987 wrote:

-DON'T use magic catchup AI! If I'm leading a race, I want to STAY in the lead! Not get inexplicably smoked by another car who somehow happens to suddenly have a much higher top speed than I do!



I agree.

[Blitzkommando]

On 2006-05-21 18:31, Skorpius wrote:

Gee, then we shouldn't complain about ANY consumer products, right? See a loophole in the OS? You can't make one but you see the problem but the creators shouldn't listen to you because you 'aren't qualified enough' to make complaints?

How about cars. Your car has poorly adhered roofing material so it comes off within the first couple months of driving. But, oh, you didn't make cars so you can't complain to the company about the poor quality of the manufacturer's work.

How about a movie. You see blatant errors in the movie, such as a microphone coming in front of the camera or an area that was improperly greenscreened. Oh wait, you can't complain about that in a review or to the movie company because, well, you've never made a movie before and aren't qualified to complain.

Using that logic on everything is simply imbecilic. What the hell is the difference between a game (a product) and any other product? A game is bought under good faith that it is properly completed, that as many of the errors are removed as possible, and that it provides entertainment. If the game is also an online service, that is paid for, then the consumers have the right, no the duty, to point out errors and problems within the online system to help the company to correct the issues either on the servers themselves or through patches on the client side, or both. Companies that ignore the feedback of their customers simply can't stay competitive in the real world.

A videogame is no different than any other product and the online subscription service is no different than any other service. Consumers have the right to complain about poor service or quality and should complain in order to get the problem(s) corrected or at the least implemented into future releases.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Norvekh on 2006-05-22 08:22 ]</font>

[Shadowpawn]

I don't think there was a need to go off on a tagent, Norveh. What Skorp is saying that should bitch about every single little flaw as most critics are objective in nature. A perfect example would be the PSO rant that was recently up, it displayed the paradigm what you should NOT critic.

[Blitzkommando]

On 2006-05-22 11:46, Shadowpawn wrote:
I don't think there was a need to go off on a tagent, Norveh. What Skorp is saying that should bitch about every single little flaw as most critics are objective in nature. A perfect example would be the PSO rant that was recently up, it displayed the paradigm what you should NOT critic.




Sorry but, "If you think you can do better, then go do it.
If not, shut up." is an imbecilic mentality. Case closed.

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

I'm not gonna get caught up in the main argument going on here but since I've seen Shuri's collection of JUST DC games, I can safely say he's also far away removed from the mudslinging and is playing something with better gameplay after he ranted about these games having some nasty flaws.

[Allos]

Catch up AI is one that I wholeheartedly agree with. I stopped playing Madden 20whatever because I'd go from 28 nothing in the 4th quarter with 3 minutes left to a total loss. Suddenly my defense couldn't stop anything, my offense couldn't do a damn thing because they'd either fumble or get it intercepted, and the AI seemed to run miraculous 20+ plays consecutively.....

[darthsaber9x9]

The only credentials anyone needs to judge a game is to be a gamer. Simple as.

[Skorpius]

On 2006-05-21 22:13, Scejntjynahl wrote:
You just love to argue dont you?

As much as everyone else likes to bitch and whine.

[Link00seven]

Okay...this thread is going nowhere.

I'm locking this one. Next time, let's not turn it into a big agrument. The guy just had a rant, there is no reason it had to go like this. Skorpius, i'm giving you another warning. I'm sick of you starting arguments all the time. If you don't want to read peoples rants, then get out of the rant forum.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Link00seven on 2006-05-22 15:15 ]</font>