Without getting too political, we're living in historical times around the world, and that seeps into the world of tech and gaming as well. AI and shifting 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 in some ways, positive change, too. The indie scene, for example, is getting more love year after year, as players are increasingly disappointed in triple-A offerings.
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While gaming is overall a positive hobby and we have so many great titles to enjoy, due to industry trends and several unpopular design choices, there's also a lot to be annoyed about. They range from big things like monetization to very small, nitpicky details like a cutscene that can't be skipped. Let's have a look at what we're all collectively tired of seeing in our video games and the industry in general.
Bullet Sponge Enemies At High Difficulty
Artificial Difficulty Is Uninspiring
It's a tale as old as time. A game feels too easy for you, so you crank up the difficulty mid-game or start a high-difficulty playthrough, only to realize that enemies aren't necessarily smarter; they're just tanky. The switch in settings simply adds a chunk to their HP bar, which turns the whole combat experience into a long, tedious ordeal where you need to simply do more damage and use more consumables to stay alive. There's no strategy involved.
I personally don't usually play at high difficulty due to skill issues, but when I do, I appreciate that the enemy AI is coded differently and that they take advantage of the full range of their arsenal. I think Baldur's Gate 3 does this decently well, having played it on Honour 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 cutthroat behavior in combat are very much seen and felt throughout the whole experience.
Slow-walking Next To NPCs
The Awkwardness Of Having To Match Their Pace
This might be a major nitpick gameplay-wise, but everyone's probably experienced this moment once or twice when gaming. An NPC wants you to follow them during a quest, but their walking or running is significantly slower than yours, so you keep having to stop or slow yourself down. Worse yet are the games that nerf your speed on purpose so you can't inch past whoever you're keeping up with.
Usually, when these sections happen, I either wish it would just get turned into a cutscene (provided there's no important gameplay I need to participate in) or that the NPC would suddenly speedrun to keep up with me instead. Think of it this way: a lot of games make companions speed up to stay with you, so why can't the same be done with quest NPCs? I'm not a game developer, of course, so take that with a grain of salt. I'm sure there are caveats.
Long Development Times
A Double-Edged Sword
In the last ten or fifteen years, it's become clear that a lot of big, hyped games are taking incredibly long to release, or their existence has been the subject of debate for a while. The Elder Scrolls 6, Fallout 5, Half-Life 3, GTA 6... I could go on with examples. While I 100% believe it's important not to launch a game ahead of it being ready (ahem, Cyberpunk 2077), it's also baffling how long these development times are nowadays.
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Despite how great these games are overall, their online connectivity can be somewhat of an annoyance for players.
It can take years before players see any real gameplay, a proper trailer, or get any real, tangible information. Plus, with fans growing old, graduating from school, and starting families, it's absurd to think about what stage of life they'll be in once their favorite franchise finally makes a return. While there are games that are guaranteed to bring back even veterans who have long left the hobby of gaming behind, there's also a risk that taking too long will kill a series' momentum. I doubt this will happen with some of the most anticipated titles, and I do have to underline again: I think it's good that the developers are cooking and cooking long, to deliver something complete while also managing player expectations through social media or interviews prior to release.
Too Many Launchers
Why Do We Need This Many, Again?
A monopoly is never a good thing, but with the abundance of game launchers available nowadays, one has to wonder what the ultimate goal of it is. It's incredibly annoying to have to download a set launcher to gain access to a specific game. Some of the biggest offenders are Blizzard's titles, The Sims games, and Fortnite.
It's exhausting having all this additional software bloating your system, especially if you're only playing one or two games that require these launchers. I doubt this trend is going to end any time soon, particularly with multiplayer titles, but one can hope we'll all just be able to enjoy every single game on one or three centralized launchers.
Large, Empty Worlds
The Biggest Open-World Environments Are Not Always The Best
Following the open world boom, a lot of games focused on featuring massive worlds. This isn't really a problem, so long as these big worlds actually have substance to them. And lately, they don't. There are simply too many titles that try to market the fact that they feature a large map, but a lot of times, the size has absolutely no importance to players whatsoever. In fact, the trend might be shifting back towards more linear experiences and limited, hub worlds.
So long as the story and gameplay are good, it's been shown that players are just fine walking through worlds that are a bit more confined and feature truly unique, handcrafted locations. Massive, infinite worlds really only seem to work in sandbox crafting games like Minecraft, and the case of Starfield is one of the greatest examples of how procedural generation is fundamentally at odds with the concept of an RPG.
Repeatable, Samey Quests
They Feel Like A Chore, Not An Experience
Almost every big game has them: fetch quests, collectibles, repeatable radiant quests, and so on. It's the definition of busywork, something you might do on the side if you feel like it or if you need to grind more resources or materials for whatever it is you need. While they can certainly be fun a couple of times, as long as you know what to expect, they get pretty tiring when they're simply the same thing in a different location, over and over again.
Radiant quests from Skyrim come to mind as the biggest example of repeatable quests that you can just grind infinitely. Even Cyberpunk's NCPD alerts, though action-packed and kind of fun, get samey really fast. Of course, nothing forces you to interact with these quests (usually), but I do wish we saw a bit more innovation or just something fresh in this department.
Games Releasing In An Unfinished State
Maybe We Do Need Long Development Times After All
Speaking as a PC player, one of my biggest frustrations in the last decade has been the number of triple-A games releasing in near-unplayable states for PC. The performance is almost always subpar, and optimization needs 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 that can take months to solve dire problems. It's got to the point where if there's a new release I want to play, I have to accept I won't be able to run it on my PC until over six months after its release, sometimes multiple years. Now, I just buy the big, new releases on PS5, but even that isn't always a guarantee of quality.
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Even in great games like Destiny 2 and Fallout, many players ruin their own gaming experience with these bad habits, often without realizing it.
This trend is pretty worrying, and with the accessibility to affordable PC parts plummeting now with RAM prices skyrocketing, I suspect more people will be relying on consoles to experience their most hyped upcoming games. That, and pre-orders and day one launches will be far quieter due to the general mistrust that players have towards new games on PC, not to mention the predatory pricing, but we'll get to that in a bit.
Long, Unskippable, And Unpausable Cutscenes
Suddenly, We're At The Movies
Look, I love a good cutscene, and I wouldn't dream of skipping them in my first playthrough of any game, but there needs to be an option to pause. This is especially true if the game features a very long cutscene, perhaps an ending or an important reveal that players wouldn't want to miss. It's more disheartening to have to look for that cutscene later online to view it fully if you got distracted.
Worse yet are the cutscenes that repeat themselves and are unskippable. For example, walking into a boss encounter (looking at you, Yunalesca) and having to watch the intro cutscene over and over again after you die multiple times is pretty infuriating. These are little details that can deter players from jumping into a second playthrough or even NG+ if they know they'll have to sit through X cutscene again.
Rising Video Game Prices
New Releases Are A Luxury
One of the most discussed issues in gaming in recent years is the general rise in prices. This has been especially felt in triple-A games and new releases, and has turned people off from pre-orders on top of the performance issues and unreliable optimization, at least on PC. It also doesn't help that we live in an era of shrinkflation, where prices remain the same or even higher than before, but we get less bang for our buck.
Some releases nowadays, without naming and shaming, can go up to $90. That's not far off from $100, and this is where we start asking ourselves whether 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's bringing more attention to indie games that are much cheaper, sales are increasingly popular, and Game Pass is a legitimate option to get your hands on new games, regardless of what your opinion on subscriptions is.
Limited-Time Events And Manufactured FOMO
You Had To Be There
We've seen this in live service games all the time: limited-time events. Be there, or miss out on this cool cosmetic, weapon, skin, emblem, or whatever other exclusive item. On one hand, it almost feels like a necessity when it comes to live service games that have to keep up the hype going throughout seasons to avoid slumps and slow moments.
On the other hand, it's incredibly frustrating for players strapped for time. Not everyone can show up to play a game every single day, and to capitalize on that with manufactured FOMO understandably leaves players feeling like their time and money aren't being respected. Sometimes, it really can feel like a game owns your life if you feel pressured enough to keep up with all the events and challenges to unlock everything.