Without getting too political, we're living in historic times around the world, and that spills over into the world of technology and gaming. Artificial intelligence and changing economies directly affect the behavior of development studios, publishers, and most importantly, us consumers. The industry is going through a lot of growing pains, but also positive changes in some ways. For example, the indie scene is getting more and more enamored every year as players become increasingly disenchanted with triple-A offerings.
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While gaming is an overall positive hobby and we have so many great titles to enjoy, there's also a lot to be upset about thanks to industry trends and a few unpopular design choices. They range from big things like monetization to very small, silly details like an unskippable cutscene. Let's take a look at what we're all collectively tired of seeing in our video games and the industry in general.
Bullet Mushroom Enemies On High Difficulty
The artificial difficulty is uninspiring
It's a story as old as time. You find the game too easy, so you increase the difficulty halfway through the game, or you start the game on high difficulty, only to realize that the enemies aren't necessarily smarter; they are just tanky. A switch in the settings simply adds a chunk to their HP bar, turning the entire combat experience into a long, tedious ordeal where you simply have to deal more damage and use more consumables to stay alive. There is no strategy involved.
I personally don't usually play on high difficulty because of skill issues, but when I do, I appreciate that the enemy AI is coded differently and that they use the full range of their arsenal. i think Baldur's Gate 3 it does this decently because you played it in Honor mode, where enemies will use any means necessary to outwit you. Sure, they also get a health buff, but the additional legendary actions on bosses and more ruthless behavior in combat are very much seen and felt throughout the experience.
Walking slowly next to an NPC
The awkwardness of having to match their pace
This can be a major nitpick in terms of gameplay, but everyone has probably experienced this moment once or twice while playing. The NPC wants you to follow them during the quest, but their walk or run is significantly slower than yours, so you have to constantly stop or slow down. Even worse are games that purposely don't match your speed so you can't get past anyone you're keeping up with.
Usually when these sections happen I'm either wishing it would be a cutscene (assuming I don't have an important game to attend to) or an NPC would suddenly run to keep up with me instead. Think of it this way: many games make companions speed up to keep up with you, so why can't the same be done with quest NPCs? I'm obviously not a game developer, so take this with a grain of salt. I'm sure there are caveats.
Long development time
A double-edged sword
In the last ten or fifteen years, it has become clear that a lot of big, hyped games take an incredibly long time to release, or their existence has been the subject of debate for some time. The Elder Scrolls 6, Fallout 5, Half-Life 3, GTA 6… I could go on with examples. Although I 100% believe it's important not to launch the game before it's ready (ahem Cyberpunk 2077), it is also confusing how long these development times are today.
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It could be years before players see any actual gameplay, a proper trailer, or get any real, tangible information. Plus, as fans age, graduate, and start families, it's absurd to wonder what stage of life they'll be in when their favorite franchise finally returns. While there are games that are guaranteed to bring back even veterans who have long since abandoned the gaming hobby, there is also the risk that too long will kill the momentum of the series. I doubt this will happen with some of the most anticipated titles, and I have to stress it again: I think it's good that the developers cook and cook for a long time to deliver something complete and at the same time manage the expectations of the players through social networks or pre-release interviews.
Too many triggers
Why do we need so many of them again?
Monopoly is never a good thing, but with the amount of game launchers out there these days, one has to wonder what its ultimate goal is. It's incredibly annoying when you have to download a suite launcher to access a specific game. Some of the biggest offenders are Blizzard titles, The Sims games and Fortnite.
It's exhausting to have all this additional software cluttering up your system, especially if you only play one or two games that require these launchers. I doubt this trend will end anytime soon, especially for multiplayer titles, but hopefully we'll all be able to enjoy every single game on one or three centralized launchers.
Big, empty worlds
The biggest open world environments aren't always the best
After the open world boom, many games focused on presenting massive worlds. This is not really a problem if these large worlds actually have substance. And lately not anymore. There are simply too many titles that try to promote the fact that they have a large map, but often the size has no meaning at all for the player. In fact, the trend may be shifting back to more linear experiences and limited mushroom worlds.
As long as the story and gameplay are good, it turns out that players are fine with traversing worlds that are a little more limited and contain truly unique, hand-crafted locations. Massive, endless worlds only really seem to work in sandbox crafting games like this Minecraftand the case Star field is one of the biggest examples of how procedural generation is fundamentally at odds with the RPG concept.
Repeatable, Samey Quests
It feels like a chore, not an experience
Almost every big game has them: fetch quests, collectibles, repeatable glowing quests, and so on. It's the definition of busy work, something you can do on the side if you feel up to it, or if you need to shuffle more resources or materials for whatever you need. While they can be fun a few times if you know what to expect, they get pretty tiring when it's just the same thing in a different place, over and over again.
Radiant quests by Skyrim they come to mind as the biggest example of repeatable quests that you can just grind endlessly. Even Cyberpunk NCPD Alerts, while action packed and kind of fun, are very quick. Of course, there's nothing forcing you to interact with these tasks (usually), but I wish we'd seen a little more innovation or just something new in that department.
Releasing games in an unfinished state
Maybe we need long development times after all
Speaking as a PC gamer, one of my biggest frustrations over the past decade has been the amount of triple-A games released in an almost unplayable state for PC. Performance is almost always below average and optimization has to be done by modders and fan patches for the first few weeks. In some cases, the only option is to wait for hotfixes and patches, which can take months to fix dire problems. It's gotten to the point where if there's a new release I want to play, I have to accept that I won't be able to run it on my PC for six months after release, sometimes years. Now I buy the big new releases on the PS5, but even that isn't always a guarantee of quality.
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This trend is quite worrying, and with the availability of affordable PC parts now plummeting and RAM prices skyrocketing, I suspect more people will be relying on consoles to experience their most hyped upcoming games. That, and the pre-orders and initial launch will be much quieter due to the general distrust gamers have of new PC games, not to mention the predatory pricing, but we'll get to that in a moment.
Long, unskippable and unstoppable cutscenes
Suddenly we are at the cinema
Look, I love a good cutscene and wouldn't dream of skipping it the first time you play any game, but there has to be a pause option. This is especially true if the game contains a very long cutscene, perhaps an ending or an important reveal that players would not want to miss. It's more frustrating when you have to search for that cutscene later online to watch it in full if someone interrupts you.
Even worse are the cutscenes, which are repetitive and unskippable. For example, going into a boss encounter (looking at you, Yunalesco) and having to watch the opening cutscene over and over again after dying a few times is pretty infuriating. These are small details that can deter players from jumping into a second playthrough or even NG+ if they know they'll have to go through the X cutscene again.
Rising prices of video games
New news is a luxury
One of the most talked about issues in gaming in recent years is the general rise in prices. This was particularly evident in triple-A games and new releases, and in addition to performance issues and unreliable optimization, it discouraged people from pre-ordering, at least on PC. It doesn't help that we live in an era of shrinking, where prices stay the same or even higher than before, but we get less bang for our buck.
Some releases these days can go as high as $90 without being named and shamed. That's not far from $100 and here we start asking ourselves if we'd rather afford our weekly groceries or play the new game that just came out. Times are tough and these price hikes are leaving a seriously bad taste in people's mouths. On the other hand, it brings more attention to indie games, which are much cheaper, sales are increasingly popular, and Game Pass is a legitimate way to get new games, regardless of how you feel about subscriptions.
Limited time events and manufactured FOMO
You had to be there
We've seen it all the time in live games: timed events. Be there or miss out on this cool cosmetic, weapon, skin, emblem, or any other exclusive item. On the one hand, it almost seems like a necessity when it comes to live-service games that need to maintain hype throughout the seasons to avoid slumps and slow moments.
On the other hand, it's incredibly frustrating for time-strapped players. Not everyone can show up to play a game every day, and cashing in on it with manufactured FOMO understandably leaves players feeling like their time and money isn't being respected. Sometimes it really can feel like the game owns your life if you feel pressured enough to keep up with all the events and challenges to unlock everything.
