Can’t recall if I said this one: hate it when some villain in a minor side quest says some shit like “I’ll give you a hundred dollars if you betray these people to me” and you can’t just like, kill them and take the money or whatever they offer. How to they give you money on the spot if they don’t have it?
Or like, failing that, they often pay you BEFORE you actually do anything. Why can’t I just take the money then just not do what they ask? What’re they gonna do, fight me like they would anyway?
There IS one bit where it’s funny though in Deus Ex: Human Revolution where you can refuse to pay for information and they joke that “it’s not like they’ll just conveniently have it on them”, and they don’t because it’s, you know, information. They just know it. You fail the quest.
You think that’s bad? I’m gonna repeat this one since it has pissed me off for ages now…and will never stop.
Imagine the game! Kotor 1. Big Side Quest: Help X character with something. You say yes, and you leave. Then ‘Psst! Psst! hey come over here…’
You go, and ask ‘Whats up?’ and weirdo say ‘How about this man, I give you XYZ if you screw the guy who gave you the Quest huh? Come on, its a good deal! He is totally nuts!’'…you won’t even waste words on him and go on heroically…and do what you promised to do.
Dun Dun Dun…the Quest end…with the weirdo at the front of the line enjoying your hard work…
Oh, he is…really? Why can’t you tell the other guy about it? Nah. That is too much work. Forget it. Just take your XP and some bucks…and tell yourself you did great!
But I wanna Shoot him in the face!!
Nope, sorry. He is very…well, not Important. But he look good at the front you know?
You know who did this right? in Jade Empire.
You can help stranded Pirate get out of the Town, and everyone want them gone because they are stuck and has become restless and drunk and fighting.
So the guy who has been making a killing supplying them with Wine at outrageous Price…doesn’t want you to help them.
If you say ‘Scew you!’…well, he’ll come collecting.
Now that’s how you do it. The guy doesn’t retire and go sailing with the Pirates! Nope…he get fed to the worms!
It is Imperative that its Implemented sooner than Later. Earth roll around because of the Bacchus system y’know? Without it, that’s it. Kaput. We drop from Orbit.
Quiet here lately, so I’m going to tell you about thing that annoys me a lot. Author says “hey you can customize your MC’s appearance” then we get limited options ._.
I’m not talking about situation when author forgot to add some eye color or hair length but about intentional exclusion of certain features. For example, in skin color choice (which can be quite sensitive issue). I saw games where it was unavailable to have MC with light / fair / pale skin tone… it didn’t actually cause much of a protest (I’m pretty sure it would be different if author allowed to have only white MCs). But whatever. Thing is - if you allow customization, don’t exclude certain group of people by forcing them to choose options they wouldn’t normally choose.
If MC’s appearance, for some reason, is important for the plot, maybe it’s better to give MC set appearance? Or one, set feature? “MC has olive skin, because [something] but you can customize everything else”.
Question, what exactly about that bothers you? Is it when certain elements are allowed to be chosen (such as hair color and eye color) but others are automatically assumed to be a “default” (like in your example where the MC was assumed to be of a particular skin tone)? Or would it also annoy you if superficial elements were customizable but others were assumed neutral (like in the example you gave, if the MC’s skin tone was never referenced but their hair/eye color was)?
Kinda just wondering if the problem is emphasis placed on features that are of lesser importance or when the author mixes and matches some elements as customizable and some as set?
I think the problem with the example given is that the skin tone wasn’t set, or given a plot reason for the character to not have a particular type of skin tone. Tones used for white people were simply not there.
An example where it would work would be a story set in particular part of the world with an MC that is ethnically a part of that group. So a story set in Africa with an African MC, or a story set in china with a Chinese MC.
But a story set in small town USA with a US citizen as the MC wouldn’t really have a plot reason for to exclude one race or another. The author merely decided that they wanted to
I think my biggest delight would be in if more choices were remembered by characters later. I am sad that it is not done more often, but I feel like having those small things reintegrated adds a lot. It makes it feel like they are people with memories and individuality, who also can pay attention to what you say.
Response to @Anna_B :
Yeah if the story is the one I am thinking about, it is set in a fantasy inspired version of a region where everyone would have a variety of medium to dark skin tones.
I chose not to constrict skin tones because there are a variety of tones in various parts of the continent, the period of time I used for inspiration for my story (Tang dynasty) had a lot of foreigners and influx of people from other areas. But if I were to have set my story in a more insular nation or period (like feudal Japan), the idea of playing as anything other than a Japanese person in that setting would be weird to me. Like, if you were a white guy or a black woman walking around there they would definitely see you strangely, and having that not pointed out as the only non-Japanese person in the entire story would feel bizarre to me at least. (Also, skin tone doesn’t equal ethnicity or race anyway, stuff is complex I guess.)
Also, I think that you can always pointedly state that there is a difference between the exclusion of POC and white MCs, there is plenty of stories out there you can read with a heavy European influence where being white is the default. In stories where an author deliberately chooses to set it somewhere else and keep it loyal to that setting I don’t think it’s really that big of an issue. Not to mention how a story focused on a POC perspective, making the MC capable of being white might feel disingenuous to the type of story they are trying to tell. Though that is just my opinion, I guess.
My WIP is set in modern Japan, and the MC, as well as all the other characters are ethnically Japanese. That means, white skin, and (usually) black hair. I did decide to not include an option to choose your skin tone, or even mention it in the first place. Because that would allow the MC to be Japanese, while also being more inclusive for readers.
That being said, I was thinking of having an option to be non-Japanese, without stating your skin tone, because Japan has a “slight issue” with foreigners, to put it mildly. But then I realised that this would A), be difficult to code, B), it would also make much of the story invalid as it relies on the MC being Japanese, otherwise it would be a much different story. I mean, I had written one of the backstory options in a childhood home and a high school, that wouldn’t really work for a non-Japanese MC.
Going back to the main topic, I think it is acceptable to restrict skin tones depending on the nature of the story. As other’s said, games set in specific locations like Japan or the middle east, where you don’t get much diversity would work well to follow this formula if the author is aiming to stay true to the culture they are writing about. But in other situations where you get to customise your appearance, it is always better to give as wide a range as possible for the audience.
Personally I’m always for more option as long as the author can handle them. When you have so many options that the only way you can find to make it work is to avoid mentioning it as much as possible (like some mecha games with their many weapon options), you probably went too far and need to dial it back down for the sake of the game’s quality.
When writers are obviously writing a story that has mature or adult characters, but those characters tend to act and speak like teenagers. I don’t think it’s a trope, but it is something I dislike.
Well, that’s generally going to be a problem if the writer lacks personal insight due to their own age or inexperience. The reverse can be true, too – when adult writers try to portray teenagers, but it comes across like “How do you do, fellow kids”.
Hope no one on tumblr sees this or ill be stabbed to death probably lol
Ive played/tested a lot of IF games over the years
I think what I dislike the most is when people try asshole characters or want to make like their version of say Morrgan from dragon age or something but they get to edgy with it
Like everyone loves a good asshole but they have to be good (as in written well) i feel like some times people forget to actually make them likeable to people and just think “well this character is an asshole anyway” as justification for anything they do
so sometimes you run into characters that just come off like they’re trying to be some edgelord highschool bullys instead of a well written sarcastic or mean character
but about intentional exclusion of certain features. For example, in skin color choice (which can be quite sensitive issue). I saw games where it was unavailable to have MC with light / fair / pale skin tone… it didn’t actually cause much of a protest (I’m pretty sure it would be different if author allowed to have only white MCs). But whatever. Thing is - if you allow customization, don’t exclude certain group of people by forcing them to choose options they wouldn’t normally choose.