Anyone here play games which include features which don't really enhance the gameplay itself but rather come to be an annoyance? For instance, my gripe is with Tribes 2. Namely the voice commands available. Every two seconds I hear "Shazbot!" or "I aaaammm the greatest!" and it bugs the heck out of me. The problem is not so much that this feature exists, but rather that 10 year olds go on the game and abuse it... severely. I honestly do not see why they do this, or think it's amusing. Anyone else feel this way about some other (possible other online) games? Edited for spelling. James Simmons MindEngine Development http://www.mindgamez.com/me/ [edited by - neurokaotix on March 27, 2003 8:00:58 PM]

It''s not the feature but it''s use that''s annoying. In games like tribes, unreal, and other MMFPS, talking smack is one of the best parts for many. Sure, it''s one thing to be extremely good at a game, but it''s another thing to piss off people by rubbing in the fact that you are the greatest.

Based on that, why not do a bragging rights limit. Like giving people a small time slot after a kill during which they can use these effects. Then the shouts come to mean something and cannot be used to talk smack.

Go on a rampage or a killing spree? Earn more time or even better smack talk. Make it a benefit instead of a rogue feature and it adds a lot in the game.

Make it open and you get 10 year olds who join a game, hide in a corner and proceed to press the smack talk button as fast as they can. Though I have heard some creative smack mixing in my day

"Here''s my 10 cents, my 2 cents is free"
Webby

When I played Tribes, I found that feature rather useful. In fact, I looked into extending it to have my own lines and other such useful things. I don''t see that as a useless or annoying feature.

I agree that the voice taunts are pretty lame when abused. Rather than let anybody say it anytime, I think having a window after a kill is a good idea. Maybe also tie it to your rank on the server, so if you are the best player on you get a really long window and if your on the bottom you have to press the key pretty much when you get the kill for it to go off. Or maybe only transmit it to other people in the window, but let the player pressing the key hear it anytime so they can think they are being annoying without actually being annoying =-)

I think trying to fix ballance in strange new ways is one of the most annoying ''features'' I''ve seen. My only real example is Counter-Strike. Some people were constantly jumping and many people felt that it detracted from the game, so they added a feature that makes it so immediately after jumping, you move at less than walk speed. You can still jump however many times you want, you just won''t get anywhere while doing it. Its very awkward and it makes jumping in general suck. On some levels you have to jump a few times to get to some places, and now it takes 15 seconds to get up there instead of the previous <1. Several other mods for Half-Life had a stamina bar feature to prevent constant jumping, and in all of them it worked well (imo of course). Why couldn''t they have used tested technology for something so simple.

Another ''feature'' I''ve been seeing crop up a lot recently is companies trying to make games as ''n00b friendly'' as possible, so even new players can compete with skill players and sometimes even win. In FPS its usually done by giving guns a lot of randomness in the direction they shoot so aim doesn''t matter nearly as much as if they all shot exactly where the crosshairs are (sure a little randomness is realistic, but in some games its WAY overdone).

The vocals in CS don''t annoy me as i just mute them which should be in every game that allows it.

Games on consoles that crash is terrible. I don''t think console games should crash but they do. I don''t know if its the developers fault or sony/nintendo/etc.

I didn''t find the radio commands in counter-strike very annoying at all, but I can''t recall any big instance where people were trying to abuse it (I know it must have happened at some point obviously).

James Simmons
MindEngine Development
http://www.mindgamez.com/me/

quote: Original post by neurokaotix
I didn't find the radio commands in counter-strike very annoying at all, but I can't recall any big instance where people were trying to abuse it (I know it must have happened at some point obviously).[...]

The radio commands in CS couldn't be abused in the way they are talking about because they aren't insults, taunts, etc. If you've every listened to the voice chat in CS though, it gets bad. Everybody I know turned it off the day it was added because everybody was just 'cussing eachother out' and it doesn't add anything at all to the game. Even if people didn't abuse it like that, it still wouldn't be helpfull because nobody listens to anybody unless they are clan members, in which case they are probably using a different voice chat like 'Roger Wilco' that is a lot more functional anyways.

[edited by - Extrarius on March 31, 2003 6:39:43 PM]

Actually, on CS, I keep finding that the voice chat is sensible, coherent and enhances gameplay greatly - except I don''t speak German. How do I know it''s all those things then? I''ve seen the effects on the other players with German names, and picked up context as well.

Features are put on their to attempt to enhance things. I don''t think the developers of Tribes WANTED that stuff but it gets abused anyways. No matter what you do tho their always will be ragers(people that do things to make others angry). Ragers ALWAYS abuse stuff like that to annoy. It''s easy to start up a vote or leave, some people have to be assholes when they get on games because they''re attention mongerers. They WANT you to be pissed at them because they''re mommies didn''t pay attention to them. The creators of games that add features prolly didn''t intend on things being abused but everything normally is. I still remember in CS when ppl abused the jump to bunny hop or get a jump on the opponent, using map glitches, and many other things. Socom is taken advantage of, ppl sit there with claymores and camp for the whole rounds without a care that anyone else wants to play or they would wall glitch and walk thru walls. Tribes AA, ppl would whore monger the bombers and contantly destroy stations and spawn camp. Day of Defeats notorious spawn camping and TFC''s Door camping.

Warlords III. They added a buffer for mouse clicks so they could catch a double-click. There was only one situation in which you could double-click: to select an entire group. You could also press spacebar. The reason this was so annoying is because, when you click once, the screen centers, so when you click again, if you aren''t fast enough, your unit moves to wherever you clicked. And undo was not available in multiplayer. I don''t even want to remember how many times this pissed me off.