@Tornam I’ve seen people comment on this a lot, but I’m not sure I fully understand. So, if you don’t mind me asking… what do you mean? Games that rely heavily on stats and mechanics? Or ones that don’t have a set character voice and personality?
I’m always curious about where that line is for other people.
Heavy handed stats can be part of the problem, but they can also be handled well.
My main concern really, is as you said, when the character doesn’t feel like they have a voice. When they are too easily melded to the character the reader wants them to be. It makes extremely difficult to explore deep topics narratively. It is theoretically possible to balance both, but in practical reality most authors have to choose one.
Ah, okay. I totally get that. I also prefer stronger narratives and character voices. I’ve seen one or two games that manage to make a blank slate carry a personality through dialogue options, but not many. If not written well, blank characters can end up making the story feel flat.
I’m not sure if it’s the most hated thing, but games that ask me how I feel about characters or whether I’m interested in romancing them right after they’re introduced have been increasingly getting on my nerves lately. It’s not even a recent trend, so I’m not sure why it increasingly bothers me…
I suppose it works well for people who enjoy playing really flirty MCs, though.
Don’t think I’ve seen this one yet. Something that bothers me is when character customization allows for curly hair but has a scene in which the MC is brushing or finger-combing their dry hair. Please don’t brush curly hair when it’s dry. Every time I see a scene like that I can only think about the frizzy mess that my MC has for hair
My guess would be that it’s like:
-Okay this is happening, I don’t like it but, let’s get through it then move on to the next.
-Again? Okay, It’ll be over…
-Seriously? How many games have this?
-…My patience starts to wear off.
-Okay that’s it. I’m seriously annoyed.
Anyway, I get you. I don’t believe in “love at first sight” either. I mean what do you see first? Someones appearance and maybe their apperoach to strangers, but even if they are the most attractive person on Earth they could still be a total a*hole. So I’d prefer to wait until I see more of their personality.
Does a loading screen that takes forever for every thing under the sun count as a hated thing…glares at Skyrim and fallout
It’s been stated a million times already probably, but I hate when a game decides for me, from a single choice, how my character reacts to X and Y. Like, you pick an option for an immediate action, and then a great big wall of text appears deciding like, the next four actions. For example (being hypothetical here), my character risked herself saving someone she thought was a friend (barely, they were pretty cold and standoffish), only for that friend to rat her out to the authorities to save themselves. Okay, that’s fine. Some people are like that. Fast forward several weeks where I’m on the run, but I found information that’ll help the city solve, idk, a murder case. So naturally, the first person I run into is Turn Coat. They moved up in society while I was gone, apparently. Now, here’s where the real problem is. I cut to the chase and choose the option to tell them the info I found. You’d think my next option would be to respond to whatever they say next, right?
Nope. I have to sit and read a good two pages worth of wall text of my character going “I thought we were friends” to Turn Coat and “I know I could trust them” to herself. Except I knew we were over between us the minute they turned me in, so I would never say that. And Turn Coat takes the time to mouth off to me about how nothing’s changed just because I found a little piece of evidence, and how they basically never liked me. Now’s my chance to respond, right? No. My character gives up and lets the argument drop because there was “no point in continuing”. All from a single choice I made.
And of course there’s the “illusion” of choice. Straight after that, we run into the murderer’s accomplice, who kills me after I tried three separate times to talk and convince her to back down, even though the narrative states she “clearly doesn’t want to fight” and she “looks like she needs help”. That’s it. Game over.
Sorry for the rant, I payed for this game and I honestly have never felt so dissatisfied. It takes a lot to convince me to buy a game, and all the others I’ve played I’ve had no problems with, so unfortunately it’s made me wary of purchasing another. On an unrelated note, I know a lot of people don’t like too many stats, but I actually enjoy them. I play a lot of rpgs so I don’t have to worry about it taking away from the story.
I found i really hate when stats determine if I “fail” a choice i want to make, I’m fine if a choice is blocked off from earlier choices i made that effected my stats to not have that choice open to me, but i don’t like when i go to make a choice and the game/story comes to a halt just like “yeah no” you actually do this instead because this stat isn’t right.
This has already been discussed in topic, but I can’t stand it when character changes his manners for no reason. And forcing to romance with anyone else.
I’m sure it’s been mentioned before but like. high school/college orientated games. i know a lot of young writers are in hs/college but i’d love to see…less of that, as someone who has not been in school for 4 years & has no desire to go back 
I personally hate the “true-false” choice where all other choice except the “true” one will lead to characters death. Especially, if there’s no stat-check
I completely feel this way… and then I ended up writing a high school setting for my game
in my defense tho, it’s supposed to be two installments with the first being set up for ten years later. but yea lol not sure how that happened
Argument rejected, too much time between 
I personally don’t have any problem with it, but can definitely see it being overused.
I like the school age settings mostly because theres always something to do with them and i dont see them as too overused mostly because i come across fantasy settings way more than school ones 
Maybe I just like older characters lol 
lately i’ll click into a wip thread and it starts off with “at ____ academy” and i immediately click out of it
I like Harry Potter universe, the wizardry word but not Harry himself. However, for many teens and that’s a big chunk of casual market if you start with a character old The probability they like it is beyond zero.
They want all be young and all be relatable to their day to day in a way High School, exams, first love…
This is quite frankly the only real gripe I have with most of these games. I get the whole idea behind not having a back button but it’s simply not fun when you need to restart and mindlessly click through all of your choices again just because you made one mistake. It’s why I generally prefer the stories that implements a save feature.
one thing that’s getting old for me…would be the amount of stories with ‘‘and this is your best friend’’ . ‘‘You love your best friend, you and your best friends do everything together, you must care for your best friend, stand there and listen to your best friend yap on and on, you cannot murder your best friends, your best friend must tag along everywhere, you must save your best friend, listen as your choices include your best friend, what do you think of your best friend that you met after a few lines? Don’t you love your best friend? You and your best friend gonna go on an adventure…’’
Sure, some do it very well . But it’s kinda getting old…or maybe I’m getting old 
get off mah lawn and all that lol
That entire world is a world-building mess
Harry Potter was good…before J.K Rowling got her Twitter account.
Seriously, it’s still good if someone wants to take a dip into nostalgia. But other than that…nope.
Same here, I hate my best friend and I’m not afraid letting him know that 
And I’m pretty sure he feels the same.