Ask Lemmy

Anything that is 100% chance and just wasting time, with no meaningful way for the player to influence the odds. For example, how fishing is implemented in some MMOs like ESO: you can eat a buff food and use the correct bait for the water, but beyond that you're just waiting in agony until the random timer dings. Then you do that 12 times before moving to the next hole, etc. "Waiting" isn't an enjoyable mechanic.

Relationship mechanics. If I give someone a pumpkin twice a week, they’re just going to be confused and pissed.

When you can't dodge because you're charging an attack/doing a combo/whatever. If I'm attacking one enemy, and I see another one about to attack me from behind, I want to be able to get out of the way, not be stuck in an attack animation until I get hit

QTE, including those i have to align those bar that goes left and right, or those tap a button quickly, in any game that isn't point and click adventure game. It's not fun in God of War, and it's not fun in Dying Light.

Also extreme hand-holding tutorial that force you to click button or do certain action else your progression is refused. This happened a lot in mobile game, which i basically refuse to play.

Not really a game mechanic, but as an achievement hunter I freakin' HATE speedrun-achievements. The longer the game, the worse it is

Grinding.

When the game progresses naturally, and as you move through the game, you always find yourself in the right spot to overcome the next obstacle, that's great. But the second I have to stop progressing through the game and go spend 6 hours killing goblins, I'm done.

All the ones gacha games employ: daily stamina, grind to get some currency, power creep the characters, create content that can only be cleared with premium characters etc.

Escort missions

The only good escort missions are the ones where you aren't limited at all by the NPC you need to escort, which no longer makes it an escort mission.

Upgrades that cannot be changed. Don't force me to replay the entire game just to see what a different upgrade does. I'm my opinion, all games should let you rebuild your character pretty much whenever. I think BG3 did a good job of it with Withers. The price is low enough to not feel like a burden but high enough to not encourage you to cheese it. The only small downside of it is that Withers is technically an optional character you could miss. I think mechanics like this should just be baked in.

Stealth challenges on games that don't have stealth as a regular mechanic

Anything that makes you follow an npc that doesn't match speed with the fucking player

The outright scams and marketting dark patterns.

Outside of this, I hate when you have levelled up a character immensely to the point where an errant sneeze could wipe out half a city, and then you flick a boss to defeat their lineage then lose in the cutscene.

I know the reasons why this is done, but I would vastly prefer shorter but more fleshed out game experiences.

A shorter story that is actually repayable naturally where you can do so many things and there are not cutscene losses.

Speaking of which, things like

I don't want to have to read some guide to know that a a piece of content I really value will exist.

Its not fun to me to have notable portions of a game cut out such that you have to be a wiki reader.

These combined would make a game with a more stress free experience where you can truly just experience the world and not be too fussed about if you stuffed up a certain ending tree etc.

Anything pay to play ruins it for me.

Games with inventories where they treat a single gem or a flower petal as occupying the same space in your rucksack as a pair of boots.

Guys, we go back to Ultima 7 with the key ring, the problem was solved along fucking time ago. Stop being lazy and have gem sacks, crafting bags, keyrings, etc for small items.

Probably the Enemy Boxer from Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. Canonically he is a mechanic but they don’t even give him the wrench ability which isn’t even that special of an ability, and then he dies like a wimp with his plastic still-alive head getting chopped off by the plane that he’s supposed to be repairing. An idiot who would punch an anvil three times in a row deserves that sort of graceless demise.

Time gates. Gacha games are rife with them...

Want a piece of equipment for your character? Well spend daily currency to get one that regenerates over a day. Oops rng God hates you and you got +Def for a character that wants +Atk, better luck tomorrow/next week... Oops it's still not your week +Hp this time.

Limited inventory space in an otherwise unrealistic RPG.

You're telling me I can carry six two-handed weapons and 500lbs of gold, but seven is just too much?! Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

Specifically, this especially sucks when the inventory is a grid, like in the Diablo series, or Grim Dawn, or WoW, FFXIV or... many other MMOs.

especially when you can spend real money to alleviate the artificial limitation they fucking designed in to the game.

It's so unnecessary and these days absolutely makes me instantly not care to continue playing. FUCK artificial limitations that don't have clear, valid reasons.

I'm here to play a game, not Inventory Management Simulator 33.45

Ah another one - Forced stealth sections where you can't be detected at all. Especially in a game where stealth is optional or not even a thing you can really do normally.

Time limits / countdowns.

Grinding and no rewards. Feeling underpowered and dying all the time, unable to progress with loot alone.

Looking at you, Path of Exile.

Sports games pretty much stopped progressing entirely when the "ultimate team" cancer spread.

Unchangeable difficulty settings. Worse, games that offer you to lower it and don't warn you that they're going to lock it at the lower setting. Resident Evil Village did that to me. Last time I posted about this someone said it warms you, so I guess they changed it.

Doom3 flashlight. It’s Doom. Not fucking 5 Nights at Freddy’s.

Quick time events.

Carry weight.

Hiding content in New Game Plus. Making me play a game twice just to artificially ass replay "value."

The skulls in MGSV.

"Let's put almost unkillable, magic zombies that chase you into this stealth game. Also, make them unavoidable"

Alien pods getting a free move as soon as you uncover them

Escort missions

I'll mention God of War and its final battle. You spend the entire game building skill with one set of weapons, then the end of the game pushes a brand new set of moves on you. I never did finish the game because of that BS.

Been playing Dark Deity (a Fire Emblem clone) lately and instead of permadeath, it reduces a random stat by 10% permanently. Can't say I'm a fan. Just have a permadeath mode and a regular mode.