Disliked Elements, Mechanics, and Tropes

I mean like, fair. But I’m not actually condemning IF alone or suggesting other platforms don’t have it worse. I just singled IF in this instance because this is an IF forum, and presumably people would be more familiar with IF trends.

Still, hard agree on the matter of RPGs :pensive:

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This probably has more to do with the idea that romance is primarily written by women and for (heterosexual) women.

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They do, and that honestly makes it even more frustrating to me that we’re FORCED to find them sexy. “Isn’t it so disappointing your crush turned out to be garbage?” well, they weren’t my crush in the first place, so

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I feel a little bad saying this because it’s been explained to me why it is, but I still dislike not being able to save a game state at the end unless a sequel is imminent. The odds of me still having a save I want to use by the time a follow-up hits are slim, and while I enjoy replaying games I don’t necessarily want to have to recreate a prior experience.

And while I’m here harrumphing about things, to piggyback on something I wrote yesterday, I especially hate content warnings that happen in the middle of the story. The only thing I hate more is the reason that drives that, at least in part, as @Sargent was kind enough to illuminate for me yesterday: front-loading that stuff would cause a number of key marketplaces to mark it as “adult”, throttling the game’s storefront visibility and accessibility. I wonder if an end around to that, for those authors who want it, would be one version as a standalone download and another that runs through the CoG/HG/HC apps. The latter shouldn’t need to be constructed that way since it is run through the app. Just casting about for a reasonable solution to an unreasonable problem.

For games itself, I’m not fond of mechanics where certain choices lessen stats while raising others like volume sliders. I don’t mind certain stats being affected by certain actions (like a health meter going down when getting hit or dexterity stat going down because I broke fingers in my hand), but I’m not fond when it’s a constant tug of war/balancing act. I don’t mind it as much as part of a binary personality mechanic (stoic/emotional, etc.), just not with other things.

I’m sure there are others that bug me but it’s very rare that I play one of these games that I outright don’t like. Generally, I enjoy each of the games, and the mechanics don’t usually get in the way even if there are bits of them that bother me.

Just need to be able to save, though. :wink:

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But how it is less adult if the warnings are delayed? The content is there anyway (unless the marketplace considers the warnings themselves as adult content, which… fair, I could see that happening). That sounds weird.

(I will love each and every game that will allow me to be both stoic and emotional.)

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What are tropes you hate or that annoy you in stories? Both in Interactive Fiction and in other literature

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I hate it when they over analyze things using references to ideas and elements that are used frequently in popular narrative fiction. That grinds my gears.

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Purely because I am practically a rotting skeleton age-wise, I’m not a huge fan of the whole ‘coming of age while saving the world’ thing, which isn’t nearly as common as it used to be thankfully.

By that I mean when you have a young adult hero (usually 16-20) whose leaving home and becoming their own person coincides with or is forced by world changing events which they become a key figure in.

In general I could do with less early 20s and younger protagonists, but that’s not really a trope.

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… Yeah, I mean you’d think that some highly trained and influential Warriors/Wizards/War Heroes with several years of experience would be able to lend a hand when it came to saving the world… But somehow that tasks always seems to fall on the shoulders of plucky teenagers… Who can barely concentrate on the world-saving battle they’re preparing for, because they’re caught in the middle of an oh-so-important love triangle! :yum:

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Old people today just don’t understand what it’s like to be a world-saving teenager these days, [scoff]

Love Triangles in general are pretty badly written. There are a few that are a m a z i n g, but generally…they’re pretty bad.

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I’ve had a think for a few minutes, but I’m really struggling to think of any. I think this is because the thing I hate most in stories is badly written characters and/or characters I can’t relate to or if I don’t like the plot, genre etc. I also hate it when characters get screwed over in a way that makes no sense…don’t think any of those are tropes though? Oh but I guess “the one” trope is often linked with the last one, so I guess I hate that if done badly.

Probably gonna piss off…well everyone xd but I hated how it was done in the Rocky films. I mean in Rocky three Rocky beat Mr.T…Mr freakin T! And it’s not like when Rocky starts seriously training Mr.T isn’t. And then in Rocky 4 he beats the monster of a man Ivan Drago…Yeah fun story IRL the actor who played him punched Stallone just once properly when Stallone asked him to in the chest so hard he nearly killed him, I shit you not. And this story just shows how stupid the plot is. If the plot was even slightly realistic the fight would last just seconds, utter nonsense. But Rocky had to win because this film was of course filmed during the cold war and also was intended(I assume?) to be properganda. Sorry for rambling but I’m not joking, I genuinely hate this about the movies to the point I usually stop watching Rocky three after the real ending, A.K.A when Balboa loses easily to Mr.T and just roll my eyes during the last part of Rocky 4 as there’s no good place that acts as a real ending.

Oh I also hate in romance films, or films with a romance element the fact(and trope?) that often(in my experience anyhoo) the film ends with the couple in the perfect relationship and they are depicted/shown having sex in the film, which usually takes place over a shortish period of time. The perfect relationship thing is nonsense and hard to believe, at least how it’s done…or maybe it’s that I struggle to relate to most characters. And if a couple really loves each other why can’t they wait to have sex? And of course it’s not called sex, but making love or something because of course it is *rolls eyes. But aside from those two as I said other factors play a much bigger role as to whether I like the story or not.

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I’m really not fond of the trope where everyone ends up in a relationship at the end of the book/movie/game/media (bonus points if they barely look at each other before the climactic scene). It always seems like a cheap way to get everyone attached without showing any sign of romantic interest between the pairs.

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I’ll throw another one out there, the smug genius trope: House, Walter White, certain versions of Sherlock Holmes, etc.

Just not a character archetype I dig.

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When the guy gets the sole girl of the group simply because apparently writers think thats the default end game state of any hetero relationship. :confused: Because male female friendships dont exist yall. /s

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Have a love/hate (leaning towards hate) relationship with dense characters, specifically in romance cases. Like it’s okay for slight gag purposes, if executed well, you can get a few decent laughs out of the joke. But then there’s the point where it goes overkill, making the MC so oblivious to the fact that people like them. It becomes a lazy cop-out if used too much, like seriously, a character just confessed with no chance of misunderstanding and the writer still makes the MC oblivious and dense to the fact that it happened. No one can be this dumb!

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When a bunch of characters are in love with you for no reason like in most dating sims or some interactive fiction games. The characters romance and attitudes can feel forced if a game doesn’t have that much thought put into it. Usually these games/stories seem as predictable and probable as a Hallmark movie.

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hummm

let see…

Getting married in the end . I personally don’t care for marriage in general . And I find it insulting , that ‘marriage’ is like…the last big reward . That it need to happen…cose MEGA HAPPINESS Boost cose of it lol Nah , sorry . I believe you can love each others , without being married .

The Princess , helpless…timide…naive…shy…suttering . Just Urgh…someone kill her already , so Prince charming can go Gay lol

Humm…also…the ‘break the ice with a corny joke’ . I can get behind that . But nowdays , it’s done in a way that , some characters crack a joke at the worst of times . Like the mood is there for you to get your kleenex…and this idiot is cracking jokes . really ? It just…not funny .

The Agressive , butthurt…broody…annoying …idiot LOVE ROMANCE CHOICE . I’m sorry , but I just can’t wrap my brain around ABUSE is sexy . Any idiot who yell at me…will get punched in the face . There is no alternative worlds that exist…where I get swoony over that .

Oh and romance is NOT SEX . When a character claim to like to be ‘romantic ’ and ’ lifted off her feets’ , it doesn’t mean 2min of lame boring poetry…then get naked .

I also hate , when a vilain is overpowered without any logic explanation . Then to top it…there is a cop out how to deal with it . GOD"…just own up to the mess you made !

Crappy unhappy ending that get shoved down your troath . Then someone dare to say you are not intelligent enough to get it . Yeah right…

Oh here is one ! When peoples talk about puzzle…and you end up doing calculus instead XD Seriously…??? Thats a PUZZLE !!! :sweat_smile:

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Ah that remind me of something . You can hear the trope ‘You are just like one of the guys!’ . Now ever heard it’s opposite ? 'You are just like one of the womenz ’ ? Lol

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Meh the number of films where gender, gender roles, sexuality etc is handled badly is too vast for my mind to even comprehend.

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I mean…
Bob and Jake born 3 years apart. Today, Bob the younger bro is 19. Three years later, how old is Jake?

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