Disliked Elements, Mechanics, and Tropes

whats E3 ? :sweat_smile:

joking! but…I don’t watch those E3 things , thats why I find about games laaaaaaaaaaaaate…

I am personally heterosexual cis girl but end up most time playing romantic choices out of that (I don’t care I am for the story) because all male options are same.
Muscular guy who want force me into this medieval times relationship were he is macho I am poor beta and anything equality looking mean he breaks me calling me names.

So well I choose whatever except that or anything. So most early Bioware i ended bisexual or alone.

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There’s also the Valentine’s day DLC with Ellie and her friend

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Yes and she ended up as fertilizer. Its the age old bury your gays trope. Because the gays cant ever have a happy ending. /s

Hope the girl in the trailer doesnt die to be angst fuel again. Oh who am I kidding?

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99% she dies and ellie goes to revenge her. And i hope don’t end with a guy who cured her of homosexual because if tht happens is necessary boycott naughty dog . We are in 2018 let a homosexual partner marry lol

Yeah…some of the very first romance for female characters in BioWare were pretty awful…or all the same.
There is a reason Garrus is so popular.

I don’t mind relationship ending in marriage with characters for whom make sense (example: I can’t see someone like Isabela or Zevran being into it, but Cullen or Josephine definitely yes).

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I love Cullen romance so much ,because he trust in you and talking you his problems he shows he is vulnerable and there is trust and confidence between both. However same game Bull romance is terrible in my opinion, You are forced to be sadomasochist submissive to be with him. I would love a chance to say I like you but Will be submissive your mother.

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Yeah…I quite like Bull (not my favourite, but the character have some cute moments) but at least the option to be the dom one, or the implication that the roles aren’t fixed but is just kinky game, would have been better.

Cullen is a cute and fun romance: I admit I don’t love that much his character, but is not bad.

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Faux Action Trope, It shows a lack of evidence of an ability written to be part of the character, and is either played as a bad joke, or come from the ineptitude of the writer.

For Example: The Baldur’s gate Novel’s version of Jaherai. Despite being described(and in game) as an adept fighter, she always get beaten and Damsel’ed.

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Ohhh… the ‘heroic sacrifice’ trope when… utterly avoidable. Look. Just because a character dies ‘saving’ everyone doesn’t make it heroic or tragic or anything. Especially not if they only die for drama and instant redemption. Looking at you Open Season. Take a cue from cch on how to do it right.

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Nothing gets me out of a story faster than abusive description (especially with redundant statements and badly cut text). Whether it’s about the setting or the actual characters, I will instantly question a medium that starts out by describing a particular element of it on three pages straight without actually telling me anything past the first sentence.

A silent forest with frolicking rabbits, is still a silent forest. A noisy forest with a crater in the middle of it and people on fire, is another matter entirely. One tells me it’s a silent forest. One tells me that there’s more going on and I should probably bail out of here.

Let’s say there’s a NPC called Zoe who shows up for the first time. I’m supposed to take an interest in the new arrival, which is generally a thing when you come across a new face.

Thus the author has to give me an idea of what the character look like, and maybe give me a hint about the character’s mood or something clearly out of place.

A good author will give me a couple of physical traits and maybe something concerning a particular posture or detail that could be relevant later (Anything that can give a better idea of what to expect from Zoe could also be welcome). And then be done. BAM, straight to character interaction.

I get it, most writers spend time crafting their characters and they want the readers to love them as well. Just don’t drop the entire list of how they look (especially with terms such as handsome or beautiful) and the whole background into the first conversation so the audience is completely drown into a cascade of details that they will have forgotten in a matter of seconds. You can progressively reveal more of Zoe as the story goes. Maybe even save some for a specific path, like a romance (you don’t need to know that Zoe has a spear scar on her left buttcheek from a previous fight with a minotaure, unless you intend to undress her).

Meeting a stranger, you will not pay attention, let alone remember all the details of their face or body (or how their hair bounced with the wind, itself howling under the canopy of emerald trees), especially if it’s the first encounter. Heck, you would most likely even describe people you know very well through a couple of physical and personality traits.

This is what I expect when I read a story as well.

Exposition is an efficient tool but, it can either enhance your medium or completely ruin it. There are times when it is actually needed but, in order to stay on the safe side, maybe don’t overdo it.

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Agreed. The original release of Fallout 3 has this issue (although a later patch fixed it).

To get the good guy ending you had to sacrifice yourself to purify he water by going into an irradiated chamber. However, one of your potential followers is a Super Mutant who is immune to radiation. Come on!

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You monster! Sacrificing your radiation immune companion to be doused in radiation?! Evil Karma for you!

I honestly get more annoyed it describes someone you should’ve known for a while (and they don’t look particularly different on the occasion) I mean, I’d probably think about someone who I just met’s appearance more than someone I’ve known forever. It’s kind of like getting an exposition dump when the character is suppose to be familiar with everything.

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Since I feel like complaining (lol), another trope are the Mary and Gary Stus, these types really bother me. Like, I can understand and even appreciate those types sometimes when they’re done well, but when they’re just thrown into a story and used to push the plot forward that crap really bothers me, especially when the author(s) don’t even TRY to hide it. I like using One Punch Man and Goku/Superman for these types. Saitama (OPM) worked hard beyond normal human levels to get where he is, being the strong character alive, but at least he lacks in other areas (videogames if you read the manga).

Goku goes beyond normal Saiyan levels for no apparent reason and STILL becomes stronger just because :person_shrugging:, hell, at least in Naruto they gave a reason being that Naruto and Sasuke are basically gods incarnate on Earth or some crap; don’t get me wrong I love Dragon Ball, its entertaining to watch but its like one of those things where if you sit down and think about/have a discussion about it you’ll see how shallow it is, ya know?

Now, Superman, the alien that becomes stronger depending on which air he breathes and what sun he’s around, and he’s super smart. Basically, this guy is what almost everyone wishes they could be, physically and mentally, but what’s his one true weakness? Emotions. Besides his emotion problem, dude has no weaknesses, he can handle green kryptonite and he’s well aware of the others, as well as which suns are beneficial and which ones aren’t; he was birthed and transported into power, you could count magic as being his weakness but he’s no more weaker to it than a normal human and he’s had years of experience handling that kinda stuff. I honestly forgot where I was going with this Superman part… :joy::joy:. [[Edit: now that I think about, I guess you could count magic as a weakness, since compared to his immeasurable power this is a tiny crack in his armor that can be exposed so…never mind, he has that on his weakness chart, but like I said, he’s dealt with magic before so he knows wassup. I haven’t really followed up on the new comics but from the information I do know, the updated Supes is still experienced.]]

Anyways! I hate Mary and Gary Stu’s. Oh, and sidenote, I dislike Ray and almost every Skywalker, I get the midichlorian things, but that’s literally just an excuse to make powerful heroes and villains. [[Edit AGAIN: There is one Skywalker I do like, and I forgot his name, but he errs on the side of Greg Jedi most of the time, until around the end of his story where he’s still like a grey jedi, but does more good than bad, I like him because, while he is still powerful, his character flaws makes up for it.]] [[Edit X3: I’m leaving “Greg Jedi” there cuz I find it funny lol…just imagine, a bunch of Jedis who call themselves Greg…hehe.]]

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I can’t stand the Bratty Teenage Daughter Trope (and whatever the male equivalent is). There are few times when I feel that it’s done well as most of the time she’s an annoying character with little to no growth/character development. Or sometimes when there is “character development”, it’s done in such a cheesy way and she almost immediately sees her all faults and becomes a nicer person with no struggle.

Same.

The False Choice trope gets me in interactive fiction like crazy.

For example, in a lot of JRPGs, you are asked at the start of the game if you, as the hero, want to help someone or come along for the ride or something. The obvious answer is yes, but for some reason the devs include a no option which, if you want to press, just gives you an extra line or two of dialogue then cycles back around until you say yes.

Another example is the choice that leads to immediate death/game over (this appears more in visual novels and CYOA book games like CoG). It’s the option/path that looks like it’s giving you a choice so you try it out on this play through then BAM, game over! To clarify, I don’t mean:

  • A difficult path that you could have passed if you had the right stats or made the right choices beforehand
  • A choice that literally tells you that you will die or at least very obviously paints a clear picture of your death before you choose it
  • An actual story ending, not just the midpoint or, even worse, the beginning
  • Other such appropriate excuses for the player’s death/game over

I do mean a sudden abrupt end that has nothing to do with your stats or previous choices. Choosing this path, with no explicit forewarning that it is an auto game over, will end the game.

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UUUUGH! Don’t even get me started on choices that don’t even matter, its like, what the hell is the point in putting them there if you’re just gonna kill me off or give me the run around and drop me off at the same point. I hate those.

I think that’s why I don’t play visual novels because, most of the time, they seem to only want you to play one way and only that way; if you stray from that path then you’ll likely lose out on all the romance and be hated by every RO and maybe lose the game.

ALSO, I don’t know if this is a trope but I really hate catering to characters, I guess this relates back to my two dimensional character post, but still I absolutely hate pandering to the side characters, like, my MC has to be Good Guy Jimbo all the time OR I have to go along with everyone else’s beliefs just so I don’t screw myself over in the end.
Great example: Mass Effect 2’s characters and the ending, to get a perfect story ending your have to cater to your crew and manage their affinity points (whatever), do their character missions, then BOOM ending comes and everyone lives.

I think the biggest offenders are japanese games that throw an affinity system in there just cuz. I forget the specific name for it, but its like your character is just there, he/she isn’t really involved but they’re just…there…

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… Oh, that is most definitely a thing. Every true anime girl requires a tasty breakfast of hastily eaten toast, consumed hands free whilst running to school, as part of a healthy, balanced diet. :yum:

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Great. Now this is going to show up in my YouTube history. It’s going to start recommending me more toast running vids.

Also, someone needs to introduce these people to Pop Tarts already.

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I actually feel the opposite about this one. I love depressing endings, and since the majority of choice games have happy endings, it’s only fair that us masochists get something to enjoy. :yum:

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That’s why I think there should be both. A range of different endings, for those who like the depressing stuff, and those like me that have enought bad stuff in RL to have it forced on a hobby too.

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