Hallmarks of bad modern game design

[maidenhaver]

Tracks feeling like skating rinks in racing games, for every car, in all weather.

[WhiteShark]

There is beauty in imperfection, we know this but we seldom admit it.

I wouldn't call it imperfection but otherworldliness. The problem with current graphics is that they're stuck in the valley between the otherworldly, stylized look of old, and the fullness of reality. If graphics could look literally 100% realistic, that would probably be alright for some games, but they haven't reached that point and probably never will.

[KnightoftheWind]

There is beauty in imperfection, we know this but we seldom admit it.

I wouldn't call it imperfection but otherworldliness. The problem with current graphics is that they're stuck in the valley between the otherworldly, stylized look of old, and the fullness of reality. If graphics could look literally 100% realistic, that would probably be alright for some games, but they haven't reached that point and probably never will.

We must ask the question though, why is realism the end-goal?. I watch footage of "Unrecord" and I recoil in fear and disgust. Zoomers are already trapped in a digital matrix of social media and screen usage, to the point where they can't tell what is real and what isn't, now our goal is to provide them a 1:1 digital facsimile of reality?. It's unethical more than anything else, and is a slippery slope to a myriad of other problems.

I believe games should look like games, they should not strive to recreate reality. A classical painting will never be mistaken for a photograph, yet it is beautiful and timeless nonetheless.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Trivial healing out of combat. I'm thinking retail WoW where you can buy vendor food for pennies and regen health to full within 20 seconds, or later JRPGs like Pokemon Sun & Moon or Trails of Cold Steel 3 where your party gets healed to full very often by story events or at the end of a sidequest, and there are regen pedestals everywhere. This in turn renders other aspects of the game irrelevant, such as raising your cooking skill and stockpiling food, holdovers from an earlier time when you couldn't buy max level vendor food for dirt cheap and instead had to craft your own food that would heal you fast when out in the field. Ammunition being removed from ranged weapons like arrows for bows or bolts for crossbows or balls and powder for guns count too. Small touches like these added up and made the game more immersive, and also added to the challenge to the game in trying to manage your resources.

[Emphyrio]

Trivial healing out of combat. I'm thinking retail WoW where you can buy vendor food for pennies and regen health to full within 20 seconds, or later JRPGs like Pokemon Sun & Moon or Trails of Cold Steel 3 where your party gets healed to full very often by story events or at the end of a sidequest, and there are regen pedestals everywhere. This in turn renders other aspects of the game irrelevant, such as raising your cooking skill and stockpiling food, holdovers from an earlier time when you couldn't buy max level vendor food for dirt cheap and instead had to craft your own food that would heal you fast when out in the field. Ammunition being removed from ranged weapons like arrows for bows or bolts for crossbows or balls and powder for guns count too. Small touches like these added up and made the game more immersive, and also added to the challenge to the game in trying to manage your resources.

When healing isn't trivial it encourages devs to fill levels with boring trash combats to attrite players down. When players heal to full between combats as a rule it encourages devs to design difficult encounters that force players to go all out.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

When healing isn't trivial it encourages devs to fill levels with boring trash combats to attrite players down. When players heal to full between combats as a rule it encourages devs to design difficult encounters that force players to go all out.

I do agree that trash fights are often boring. I am currently playing the new Trails game and I am avoiding trash fights as much as possible and going straight for the bosses and fighting them while underleveled. But it feels like there is no threat when I keep getting healed to full after killing a boss deep in these dungeons and I can just run straight to the next boss without having to eat food or even use a healing art. There isn't really a sense of danger in dungeon delving like there was in older JRPGs.

[WhiteShark]

Trivial healing out of combat. I'm thinking retail WoW where you can buy vendor food for pennies and regen health to full within 20 seconds, or later JRPGs like Pokemon Sun & Moon or Trails of Cold Steel 3 where your party gets healed to full very often by story events or at the end of a sidequest, and there are regen pedestals everywhere. This in turn renders other aspects of the game irrelevant, such as raising your cooking skill and stockpiling food, holdovers from an earlier time when you couldn't buy max level vendor food for dirt cheap and instead had to craft your own food that would heal you fast when out in the field. Ammunition being removed from ranged weapons like arrows for bows or bolts for crossbows or balls and powder for guns count too. Small touches like these added up and made the game more immersive, and also added to the challenge to the game in trying to manage your resources.

When healing isn't trivial it encourages devs to fill levels with boring trash combats to attrite players down. When players heal to full between combats as a rule it encourages devs to design difficult encounters that force players to go all out.

Another problem that roguelikes have solved. Combat is fast but you have to be careful even with trash because if you accidentally pull more of the floor, even trash can put you in a precarious position.

[General Reign]

Collectible worthless percentage ending unlocks that you can just watch on youtube.

[J1M]

30 minutes of tedious profile creation, tutorial screens, and cringe cutscenes before you are allowed to try and have fun only to find the challenge level starts at journalist.