Seven Things That Annoy Me About Modern CRPGs... Sometimes
So yesterday I tackled some old-school computer / console role-playing game features (I won't call them conventions... some were merely experiments that were seldom repeated) that bug me, but suggested games and situations where these otherwise annoying elements could actually be fun and interesting.

Sascha challenged me to do the same for modern "features" or trends in top-shelf RPGs that annoy me as well. This is a little bit more of a challenge, because modern RPGs typically have had the worst of the rough edges polished off. For me, the problem is more that they have some of the coolest, most innovative features polished off as well, so we end up with a product which, for me, is very nice and mildly enjoyable throughout, but really fails to inspire me.

A perfect case-in-point for me was Final Fantasy XII. The game was brilliantly executed in almost every category. With the exception of the confusing and extremely long intro / tutorial, I found very little to dislike about the game. But... I didn't find anything to like, either. I gave up about nine hours in out of sheer boredom. Like many modern RPGs, the game played it too safe, and thus became unremarkable.

In spite of this, I've come up with some modern trends / features / problems in certain styles of modern RPGs that definitely make me want to smack some designers around with a controller. Oh, I mean keyboard. Because I'm playing this game with a keyboard and mouse, when it was obviously written with a console game controller in mind... (but that's another rant...)

1. Leading me by the nose.
I hate getting lost and confused in games. And it's easy to do in these big 3D games. But is making me feel like I'm playing connect-the-dots on my ever-present automap really the answer? RPGs (even the eastern 'jRPGs') used to be more about exploration and... yeah, searching. But now we get more linear plotlines (but with well-defined scripted branches that can be completed in any order!) and step-by-step instructions.

Solutions / Exceptions: Yeah, sometimes I find myself getting frustrated looking for somebody in THE WRONG TOWN because I had a massive brain-fart. There are times like these that I really would like some explicit instructions to make up for my cerebral malfunction. But let me work it out a little on my own before solving the puzzle for me, please!

2. Stupid Choices
Ooh, hey, a dialog option or moral quandary! I have three choices: The goody two-shoes decision that is asking to be taken advantage of, the despicable jerkwad response, or the I-can't-be-bothered-to-give-a-crap option. All three suck. For bonus annoyance points, have the game judge me based on my initial response, not how I eventually resolve the problem.

Solutions / Exceptions: The idea here is a good one. But heavily scripted decision points or dialog options are only part of the answer. First of all Let's get away from the whole "good / neutral / evil" idea and look at some really new, experimental, and avant garde ideas like... I dunno... like stuff Lord British was doing TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO? And instead of relying almost exclusively on scripted, carefully contrived decisions, let the player "choose by doing" in a more dynamic, interactive world. Let them choose their own balance of self-interest, charity, and honor by their actions.

3. The Magical Mind-Controlling Monologue: Getting Suckered Into Boss Fights
Okay, I know I'm walking into a big boss fight. I used stealth to peek through the door, dang it. So I prepare my party. I buff up. I position my party carefully in formation. And then... I get a big ol' cut scene that I can't skip through fast enough, and by the time it's done my buffs have almost worn off. Oh, and to top it off, my entire party has now walked into the CENTER of the big bad boss's lair, allowing themselves to be flanked and surrounded. Apparently the villain's monologue had mind-controlling powers that made my whole party turn stupid.

Solutions / Exceptions: Okay, high drama and storytelling aren't well-served when the protagonists do the SMART thing and nuke the villain's lair from orbit (it's the only way to be sure...). But games should try to avoid nullifying all of the player's preparations for the sake of drama. Or at the very least, provide a rational explanation for why the player character allowed herself to be pulled from an excellent sniper position to the center of the evil overlord's throne room, surrounded by guards.

4. Butt-view and Retardo-Cam
So I guess at one point, designers decided that first-person shooters on the consoles sucked because players couldn't figure out where "their guy" was, so they invented the "third-person shooter." Probably inspired by Laura Croft. So you get this great view from behind your character's head by default, so that you can see the beautiful animation of your character's backside. Cool, except when you can see your own butt, but not an attacking enemy!

The awful camera controls make this problem even worse. The "smart" camera tries very hard to keep as much of your own character's anatomy in the picture as it slowly thinks about wheeling around to look at something that you might consider interesting, like the narrow bridge you want to walk across or that guy who has shot you three while you tried to convince the camera to look at him.

And somehow, this seemed like a good idea for RPGs, as well.

Solutions / Exceptions: Okay. I don't hate this viewpoint. And on a game controller, with an entire thumbstick devoted entirely to panning the camera around, it almost works. Kinda. Sometimes. Good thing nobody plays games on the PC anymore, or they'd really be screwed! Anyway - while developers tend to optimize the game for this viewpoint, most games provide options to allow you different camera views that are designed to actually play the game instead of admiring the artists' work on your avatar. So this is ultimately a very minor gripe.

5. Buy the Rest of This Game With DLC!
This one's just starting to rear it's ugly head. I have nothing against capitalism or premium DLC in principle. And I've enjoyed expansions for RPGs for decades, now. The advent of digitally distributed add-on content is certainly an awesome thing for gamers and game-makers. But there have been some suspicious hints of a trend towards cutting back on the core experience and then selling it back to players via premium DLC.

Solutions / Exceptions: Avoid the appearance of evil, publishers! Trust built up over years and many titles can be destroyed with a poor decision, here. Yeah, it's a double-edged sword... making the game feel "complete" without the DLC makes it harder to sell the DLC - but fighting the perception that you are only selling the players two-thirds of a game in hopes of making an extra buck or two on DLC could be far worse.

6. Level Scaling
No matter how much you progress, the bad guys seem to level up right with you. It pretty much invalidates the whole leveling up / character progression mechanic.

Solutions / Exceptions: This is a good idea with often poor implementation. This deserves three or four articles of its own.

7. Kill Ten Rats and Come Back For Your Reward!
Somehow, the awful, creatively bankrupt MMORPG "quest" that were nothing more than structured grinding made their way into single-player RPGs this last decade. And so we get these quests that encourage us to go out and battle randomly spawning monsters in hopes of collecting X trophies for some kind of quest-based reward.

Solutions / Exceptions: Okay, while I'm not personally opposed to a little bit of optional grinding, a game should never encourage the player to engage in a fundamentally repetitive, meaningless, un-fun activity. Now, if you happen to be out killing them anyway and the game offers a reward for the activity anyway - like paying you individually for collected kobold ears that you are acquiring ANYWAY - that's a little different story. It's a fine line.


I have probably missed some big ones here. What are some modern trends in RPGs that annoy you? How can they be fixed?

Labels: Game Design, Roleplaying Games

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