What are some of the biggest examples of bad game design you’ve seen?

[Cpl. Long Dong Silver]

A couple for me:

1. Crafting system that doesn't allow you to melt/convert multiple items at once. See: Cyberpunk 2077. I'm trying to upgrade guns and I have 9000 base components but I have to press a button every time to convert 9 units of that rarity into the next.

2. Not automatically getting into the driver seat of a vehicle. See: PUBG. I get that its realistic but its dumb as fuck when you are trying to ass out of a place and you get into the rear seat of an empty truck.

3. Fary Cry 2 has a ton for me that seem to continue all the way to 5. Particularly the checkpoints. If I'm at max speed and I blow past a checkpoint with a stopped vehicle how is it behind me within 15 seconds? Does the car have a fucking warp engine? Also enemies in that game hitting you at 300 yards with irons while you are crouched in a bush and yet take multiple rounds from you to put down. I'm sorry I didn't know I was fighting fucking African T-800s. And dont' even get me started on the Malaria shit and choices that don't matter.

 

[Grundlejungle]

The music box from Castlevania: lords of shadow.
It turns the game from a fun DMC/ass creed fusion, into a horrible 3d super meat boy experience.
You have to platform, with totally fucked camera angles, completely perfectly, otherwise you go back to the fucking beginning of the section.
You can't even cheese the traps via hitstun, if you get hit, even at full health, you go back.
It took me close to 2 fucking hours, with a guide, to clear that shit.

 

[Lonely Grave]

We used to call these made up tanks "sketch-tanks" or "napkin tanks", cause quite a lot of those felt like Hitler, Churchill or DeGaul had doodled them on a napkin while eating and going "This! I want this!".

Unsurprisingly, this happens across all of Wargaming.net's titles. Just take a look at this list of in-game ships for World of Warships to see how utterly autistic those slavs are:

Spoiler: big image

 

[Shining Wit]

I may have been editing it at the time. Should be a platformer background - 2D with a girl scream, text on screen at the bottom and a short piano arpeggio.

Here is the link:

Spoiler: Warning: Not Safe For Life - Xvideos.com link

https://www.xvideos.com/video11267051/another_dimension_all_deaths

It's certainly no Crackle Cradle

 

[Cool Spot]

Star Fox Zero is the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to bad game design.

The terrible controls and forced Wii U game pad integration comes to mind first, but there's a lot more issues. The other vehicle segments are terrible as well, especially the Gyrowing which is poorly designed (you can use a grapple to pick up things below you or to hack shit). The areas where your Arwing becomes a walking robot are awful too. The entire final boss fight is just overall bad.

Also, there's no radar in All Range mode, you it's extremely hard to track enemies as well as not knowing what's behind you at all. Overall it should've been a decent game but they decided to incorporate so many questionable design choices in the game that it's the opposite of an enjoyable experience.

 

[Orange Rhymer]

Unsurprisingly, this happens across all of Wargaming.net's titles. Just take a look at this list of in-game ships for World of Warships to see how utterly autistic those slavs are:

Spoiler: big image

View attachment 1856526

Wargaming.net is a plague.
A few years, some autist computed hit % of new vs. old players using standard ammo (WoT). The noob racked up crit after crit, while the vet could barely make minimums.
They have a sneaky formula: Reward the noob to ensnare them as the noob's wins pile up. Later, as losses start flowing, offer premium items. The % corrects, for a little while - rinse and repeat. Not a new formula. But, I won't play anything Wargaming.Net for that reason.

 

[Overcast]

I may have been editing it at the time. Should be a platformer background - 2D with a girl scream, text on screen at the bottom and a short piano arpeggio.

Here is the link:

Spoiler: Warning: Not Safe For Life - Xvideos.com link

https://www.xvideos.com/video11267051/another_dimension_all_deaths

Reached a little over halfway before I had to tap out.

Fuck me, where does a person's life go wrong for them to want to make this shit?

 

[Corn Flakes]

Wargaming.net is a plague.
A few years, some autist computed hit % of new vs. old players using standard ammo (WoT). The noob racked up crit after crit, while the vet could barely make minimums.
They have a sneaky formula: Reward the noob to ensnare them as the noob's wins pile up. Later, as losses start flowing, offer premium items. The % corrects, for a little while - rinse and repeat. Not a new formula. But, I won't play anything Wargaming.Net for that reason.

Well, that's juicy. Do you have a link to that data anywhere?

Reached a little over halfway before I had to tap out.

Fuck me, where does a person's life go wrong for them to want to make this shit?

Easy: autistic, frustrated and pent-up people without healthy outlets do that kind of shit.

I'd tell you to go take a look at what furries come up with. Just a quick scroll down FurAffinity's frontpage, but honestly I wouldn't want to inflict that upon anyone.

 

[Orange Rhymer]

Well, that's juicy. Do you have a link to that data anywhere?


Easy: autistic, frustrated and pent-up people without healthy outlets do that kind of shit.

I'd tell you to go take a look at what furries come up with. Just a quick scroll down FurAffinity's frontpage, but honestly I wouldn't want to inflict that upon anyone.

...everyone needs sauce...

First article:

http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2012/04/proof-that-world-of-tanks-is-rigged.html

Followup:

http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/p/dont-play-world-of-tanks.html

There was a better article (diff author) that computed data from 100+ games. It was a blog, and that was the one that Wargaming.Net DMCA'ed. Very rare that a non-monetized blog gets DMCA'ed.
TL;DR - it's rigged. So are all of Wargaming.net games.

 

[Marissa Moira]

>chop down tree to make wood
>have a bow as a weapon
>can't convert wood into arrows
>arrows can only be purchased from merchants or dropped by enemies

And fuck the games that have arrows also be used as puzzle components but only provide a small finite amount.

 

[Kane Lives]

...everyone needs sauce...

First article:

http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2012/04/proof-that-world-of-tanks-is-rigged.html

Followup:

http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/p/dont-play-world-of-tanks.html

There was a better article (diff author) that computed data from 100+ games. It was a Blogger post, and that was the one that Wargaming.Net DMCA'ed. Very rare that a non-monetized blog gets DMCA'ed.
TL;DR - it's rigged. So are all of Wargaming.net games.

While juicy, I'm not sure sample sizes involving tier 3-5 match is really indicative of WOT. I really hate to be defending WarGaming here, but low tier games in WOT is 100% more luck than anything. There's basically no tactics involved, sniping as this guy did here barely works because your view range is so low and armour is non-existent anyway that it doesn't matter what you do; whether you lose or win come entirely down to whether or not your team has more mouth-breathers than the other.

It's at tier 5-6 that tactics actually come into play, as tanks gain armour, viewrange and camo, and start being differentiated.

Don't get me wrong, WarGaming is scum, and """"balance"""" in WOT is laughable, with pay-to-win vehicles readily and easily available. But I don't think they rig the MM.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

...everyone needs sauce...

First article:

http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2012/04/proof-that-world-of-tanks-is-rigged.html

Followup:

http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/p/dont-play-world-of-tanks.html

There was a better article (diff author) that computed data from 100+ games. It was a Blogger post, and that was the one that Wargaming.Net DMCA'ed. Very rare that a non-monetized blog gets DMCA'ed.
TL;DR - it's rigged. So are all of Wargaming.net games.

Gevlon is a fucking madman but really fucking smart. I was part of Space monkeys when he was still bankrolling Mordus Angels, and it was a decently fun rivalry. I'm still saddened by his "retirement" because he's got a very unique way of approaching games and he always had very informative posts.

 

[Fuck Y'all]

There's basically no tactics involved, sniping as this guy did here barely works because your view range is so low and armour is non-existent anyway that it doesn't matter what you do; whether you lose or win come entirely down to whether or not your team has more mouth-breathers than the other.

>implying that higher tiers aren't full of mouthbreathers

 

[Belvedere]

Red Ninja: End of Honor, a PS2/Xbox era Ninja game that had so many questionable design decisions when it came to its controls scheme that it messed up everything that could be messed up when designing controls for a third person action platformer in the most unintuitive way possible. It completely ruined a game that in principle had interesting concepts and mechanics.

Just of the top of my head:

- The analog stick assigned to movement made your character sneak slowly or go full run in a loose and out of control way while doing so, there was no in between.
- Head/Body/Legs targeting system that allowed you to use a wire to attack the enemy, too bad you had to use the same analog stick used for movement and leave it Up/Neutral/Down position to target body parts respectively AFTER throwing the wire and had to be done right before it connected to the enemy.
- Wall running mechanic that turned the controls sideways when while doing so. To run forward you either had to hold the analog stick right or left depending on the position of the wall and some challenges asked for you to jump repeatedly to and from parallel walls with obstacles over a pit and there was a delay as the controls flipped from one wall run to the other.
-Circle strafing didn't work like any other game where you lock-on (z-target) an enemy and you either had to press left or right to circle in said direction, not in this game. If you did so the character would run spiraling TOWARDS the enemy, so if you wanted to effectively circle strafe you had to press either left/back or right/back to maintain a constant distance to the enemy you had targeted.
- And finally the absolute cherry on top, the same button that was assigned to jump made you release from ledges you grabbed after jumping.

There is the possibility that whoever thought of these controls was utterly incompetent or a sadist.

 

[TFT-A9]

...everyone needs sauce...

First article:

http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2012/04/proof-that-world-of-tanks-is-rigged.html

Followup:

http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/p/dont-play-world-of-tanks.html

There was a better article (diff author) that computed data from 100+ games. It was a blog, and that was the one that Wargaming.Net DMCA'ed. Very rare that a non-monetized blog gets DMCA'ed.
TL;DR - it's rigged. So are all of Wargaming.net games.

...And now I am wondering if PGI cribbed some notes from Wargaming for things in MechWarrior Online because I'm starting to notice some fucking WEIRD patterns.

 

[Furret]

On the topic of controls, Mario 64 DS was almost ruined by them. Mario 64 wasn't meant to be played with a D-pad, and it makes the movement extremely clunky and frustrating. It's a little better on 3DS because that actually has an analog stick, but the game still treats the stick like a D-pad, so it can still be annoying to use. It's particularly frustrating because Mario 64 DS is an improvement on the original in almost every way, but it's held back by the terrible controls.

 

[Squandog Bunglepuss]

On the topic of controls, Mario 64 DS was almost ruined by them. Mario 64 wasn't meant to be played with a D-pad, and it makes the movement extremely clunky and frustrating. It's a little better on 3DS because that actually has an analog stick, but the game still treats the stick like a D-pad, so it can still be annoying to use. It's particularly frustrating because Mario 64 DS is an improvement on the original in almost every way, but it's held back by the terrible controls.

For Mario 64 DS, it really feels like Nintendo just ported/remade the game to flex the DS's hardware. It was essentially the perfect choice for a system-selling launch title (based on a massively acclaimed classic, Mario brand name, showed off 3D capabilities, etc.) but if anything it only proved that the DS should have had an analog stick of some kind.

 

[Furret]

For Mario 64 DS, it really feels like Nintendo just ported/remade the game to flex the DS's hardware. It was essentially the perfect choice for a system-selling launch title (based on a massively acclaimed classic, Mario brand name, showed off 3D capabilities, etc.) but if anything it only proved that the DS should have had an analog stick of some kind.

What's weird is that it seems like they also wanted to enhance Mario 64. They could've used it to show off the DS's hardware without adding new characters and stages, but they added that shit anyway. If they wanted it to be more than a hardware flex, why not put it on something with analog controls so people have a better time playing it?

 

[Fields Of Rye]

Jesus, I hope the voice actors got paid hefty sums of money for that.

According to the anons on the thread, the game ceased development after the VA moved away

So yes. It appears she was payed enough to get the fuck out of dodge. I can't imagine what its like to be in a soundproof room as a guy explains that in this take, your being boiled alive for getting a math problem wrong.

 

[Furret]

According to the anons on the thread, the game ceased development after the VA moved away

So yes. It appears she was payed enough to get the fuck out of dodge. I can't imagine what its like to be in a soundproof room as a guy explains that in this take, your being boiled alive for getting a math problem wrong.

"Alright, in this scene you're getting violently raped by a machine."

I can see why she left.