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Original post by Nytehauq All Games: - Lack of dynamic gameplay. EVERYTHING is scripted. Even things that are unscripted (Half Life 2's physics, for example) revolve around scripted events happening.

I don't think this is a design flaw, but more of a personal preference. Event scripting, if done well, can be quite enjoyable.

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Nytehauq wrote: Sports Games: - Lack of dynamic physics and animations. You can tackle someone in football in only predefined ways; you don't get benefits of fine skill because the system blurs everything to save on investments in things like physics systems.

Again, another personal preference. If done right, dynamic animations can be rendered superfluous to core gameplay.

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Nytehauq wrote: Racing Games: - Static, unforgiving environments. If you make one crash in a race, you're pretty much garunteed to fail. At least Burnout made it fun to crash.

Personal preference. What if the goal of the game is to pressure the player to drive carefully? This can be enjoyable if done right.

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Nytehauq wrote: RPG's: - Turn based combat

Turn based combat is not a flaw. Hey - I like the final fantasy games. :)

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Nytehauq wrote: - Lack of truly dynamic environments. RPG worlds tend to be massive - but only dynamic by illusion. In an RPG, you can affect the world in a variety of ways, but those ways are hard coded into the game.

Personal preference. Dynamic environments are unneccessary.

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Original post by Fournicolas What about the "Might & Magic" system? It allowed for real time combat, but was awful to use, and could be paused to work as a turn based (in fact speed based turn based) system. With whazt some producers have taken out lately, I think it might be possible to improve such a system, and make it worth. "Tales of Symphonia" shows a really promising system, with a real time fighting, but a pause showing each time you press some key to give your characters some instructions. And don't forget the system of all the tom Clancy's franchises, in which you can give directives to your teammates. I know it wasn't a pause, but at least, it allowed you to propose SOMETHING, in the plan...

If a turn based system isn't possible(yes, I'm obsessed), then a pause system where you can still issue orders is just fine. I hate strategy games where you can't do things while paused.

All games, but leaning towards action: (edited for examples)

- Illogical special cases that force certain playstyle, by triggering a hardcoded response that is against what the player has previously learned. For example: enemies in Batman Begins GBA that you must completely avoid, instead of stealth-knocking.

- Obsession of creating a "perfect" first time experience, at the cost of replayability. Usually implemented by invisible trigger lines & scripting. Example: "Follow Freeman" chapter of HL2.

[Edited by - AgentC on August 15, 2005 3:37:02 PM]

All Games:
- Shortage of games which focus on something other than combat.

Story based games:
- Lack of unique, emotionally involving stories
- Lack of deeply characterized NPCs and gameplay simulating social interaction with these NPCs.

I think that abuse of expanding memory sizes in level design is a big one. Too many developers see that PCs and even some consoles (the Xbox) have large memory sizes (or get around it by streaming levels) and make environments that are unnecessarily large. Halo is probably the worst offender, with enormous levels that are just used to pad the length of the game. Half-Life 2 falls into the same trap, Route Canal and Highway 17 (I think those are the episode names anyway... the ones with the vehicles) get downright boring before they end. Nova Prospekt isn't quite as bad, but it's still too long. Doom III's levels are the right size really, they just feel too long since they almost all feel the same.

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Original post by Anonymous Poster Quote: Original post by AgentC - Illogical special cases that force certain playstyle Could you explain?

Usually this has to do with forcing stealth, but I decided to put it more generally. For example, normally it's no problem for you to quickly jump (from hiding) on a single enemy, knock him unconscious or whatever, before he can do anything. But then we get a great idea: what if there's those special case enemies that will instantly call for help instead -> mission failure -> oops, must avoid them altogether...

(original post also edited for more specific examples)

[Edited by - AgentC on August 15, 2005 3:39:15 PM]

One more...

All games:
- Losing sight of what the game does best in an attempt to up the tension at the climax/endgame. Example: Far Cry

Can't think of anything for racing games? How about not calling a game "the ultimate driving simulation" when the cars don't handle realistically.. and crashing your car through turns instead of slowing down to a near-stop has no drawback.

Most FPS AI sucks. Normal Difficulty = 60% Accuracy, Godlike Difficulty = 99% Accuracy. Can we go with something more complex.. unlocking better strategies, adapting differently, etc.

MMORPG, This should only be considered very loosely related to the RPG genre in its current state, right now it is the Grindfest Genre. You shouldn't ever have to say something like, "Finally, level 40!" while playing an RPG.. the usual conversation should be along the lines of:

Person 1: "I just got to the part where you find out EnemyX is your long lost brother!"
Person 2: "What level are you?"
Person 1: "30-something, I think."

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Original post by Anonymous Poster When you win/lose based solely on the equipment you carry, rather than forcing an opponent to make a mistake.

What games actually allow you to force an opponent to do anything? Normally you win (against an equal opponent) by acting more efficiently, e.g. by dealing more damage more quickly than your opponent.

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Original post by ferr MMORPG, This should only be considered very loosely related to the RPG genre in its current state, right now it is the Grindfest Genre. You shouldn't ever have to say something like, "Finally, level 40!" while playing an RPG.. the usual conversation should be along the lines of: Person 1: "I just got to the part where you find out EnemyX is your long lost brother!" Person 2: "What level are you?" Person 1: "30-something, I think."

After a while, once you've explored and played through the game with a character or two, many of the people that stay with an RPG-like/MMO/MMORPG/etc. type game do so for the "extras", like PvP or item finding/crafting. PvPers (and others) tend to try out many different builds in order to find the best mix. Thus, they are forced to grind. Playing the same quest for the 18th time in order to bring up a new PvP style is pure grind and will almost almays get you comments like, "Finally, level 40!". These people don't want to level. They've already leveled time and time again.