Gaming

Do this to get that to get this to get that One example is the Minecraft tech tree. Abosultely no choice whatsoever. I don't ever need to make a choice. Obviously Minecraft is now begining to take steps to sort this out. But it's been over 10 years and the system is ingrained into people's minds

Disclaimer: not always

Character stats, commonly called "RPG elements".

In games with low enough detail that I have to use my imagination, it makes sense to have a character constitution 10 increase to 15 and take 50% less damage from blunt weapons. It works perfectly in Rimworld, ADOM, Terraria and the like because you can't completely see what's happening, so when your character does low damage your imagination has room for him to hit badly or be partially blocked.

But in games with modern graphics and animations, it feels... off. An attack animation that shows someone swinging a sharp steel battleaxe perfectly and connecting with bare flesh at momentum, deals... no damage because the wielder has low strength and axe skill, while the target has a high armor value.

crafting dear god I hate crafting if I ever find the person that introduced crafting into the triple a formula...

Fast travel that is just a game mechanic with no story ties in open world games.

Disclaimer: My main experience with games so far has been some Nintendo stuff, Fallout, and The Elder Scrolls.

Of what I've played I like Morrowind's fast travel system the most. You don't just open your map and click a button, you talk to people or use a spell/item. And NPCs mention these travel systems and story wise would use them.

I like Oblivion's (and to a lesser extent, Skyrim and the 3D Fallout's) the least. Time passes like your character walked to where you fast traveled but not much is timed so that has little effect on immersion. Too much of the journey has to have gaps filled in by the player's imagination because walking on the road normally has a lot of encounters and wandering off to check out random buildings and people. It encourages less exploration and taking some time with the game.

Obviously I want a balance, I don't want to be walking the same road with 2 wolf encounters a thousand times because it's between two areas I need to frequent. And I don't want 90% of my playtime to be traveling. But I also don't want to keep instantly fast traveling to all places and feel "lazy" and like I'm missing experiences and encounters. And I want more immersion. More character interaction instead of UI interaction.

Repeateable procedural quests. I feel like this explains it all.

Any puzzly or exploring games that suddenly introduce a twitch response element. Having to successfully jump onto a sequence of 14 wildly gyrating levitating rocks to get to my next “thoughtfully re-arrange some tiles” challenge has caused me to leave so many games unfinished. Basically if I can’t deal with it by mashing every button at random, it ain’t gonna happen.

Open worlds with markers. It takes every feel of exploration from me and changes the open world part of the game to really long and boring interactive loading screen through which I must pass between (very often) very linear missions.

QTE by far

Those hints to success "difficult parts". Some games think their players are braindead. If you have some trouble or spend a bit too much time doing a quest or killing a boss, NPCs or game interface constantly yells at us hints to skip those "difficult" parts. Games are more and more aimed for dumb casuals. I'd rather have the satisfaction completing a challenge by myself. Lets not forgot that today's games are increasingly easier and shorter (and pricier) than before...

Controversial opinion but I mostly hate crafting. I feel like it's a huge time sink just to make you waste time in the game. It's not content at all just mindless farming for no real reason.

There are games where the whole game revolves around it so you couldn't really remove it from those games. Minecraft is an example.

But I feel like every single game now has some kind of crafting mechanics. Mainly the F2P to get some kind of weird limitation that will either take you half a lifetime to accomplish or $5...

When you enter a level and the camera pans over every important thing in the level before you can move. I'm not an idiot. I can discover the level on my own. Stop holding my hand.

The game over mechanic in platformers. Fine with it in RPGs, but after playing Rayman Legends and Mario Odyssey game overs seem more intrusive in platformers rather than something beneficial to the overall enjoyment of the game.