From outlawing the L3 and R3 buttons to combat-oriented games with bad platforming sections, our listeners have submitted 12 more possible game design crimes for Room 101…sorry, Room 64 (double copyright infringement!). Our returning guest, actual game designer Jamie Smith, helps us judge the innocent and guilty.
Want to submit a game design crime for a future episode? Head here to the relevant Discord channel, or ping us at backpagegames@gmail.com.
Soma!!
Game Design Crime
The cursor based inventory on console games
Example games
- Destiny
- Assassin’s Creed since Origins
- No Man’s Sky
My case
It feels we didn’t complain with destiny and companies saw that as a cheap way to remove the needs to adapt the menu screens to console playing. Some let you adjust the speed but it’s not the solution. I still remember accessing inventories and having the muscle memory to get where I wanted faster than I could ever using mouse and keyboard.
Verdict
Not Guilty
Jaime
Game Design Crime
Open world games that have stamina bars that deplete outside of combat.
Example games
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
My case
I appreciate that a stamina bar adds a tactical element to movement and attacking during combat, but when I just want to sprint from point A to point B across the map, I don’t want to be sprinting in 10 second bursts and waiting for cool-downs. I’ll concede that using stamina for climbing mechanics in an open world is acceptable as that can be used to gate off certain areas, until a player is levelled up enough to overcome them.
But I should be able to traverse flat terrain at full speed without have to manage my stamina bar.
Verdict
Not Guilty
Sophie Watson
Game Design Crime
NPC solves puzzles for you
Example games
- God of War Ragnarök
- A Plague Tale series
- Naughty Dog games
My case
I have no issue at whatsoever with games having the option for puzzle hints or a bit more handholding if that’s what a player needs or wants, as ultimately in most games I can just ignore these prompts if they are optional. But as a gamer who loves puzzles as much as I love combat, Ragnarok in particular was a game that hugely frustrated me. When you got to any bit that required a bit of puzzle solving, you barely get the chance to figure this out yourself You would have the NPC shouting at you to maybe you should look over in that area.
And then if you took too long it would escalate to looks like you just need to do X to solve the entire puzzle. Not only was it as annoying as shit, it ruins the experience and pleasure of trying to find solutions to puzzles. Like literally, why have puzzles if you’re just gonna tell the player the solution without their consent?
I also get get that it helps to build relationship between the characters, making you feel like they’re helping you in a realistic way. But all I see is the game taking agency from the player. There’s other ways of building that NPC relationship through optional and incidental dialogue, etc. One way is to give commands to NPCs.
The idea of Kratos being a sort of Puzzle project manager is also very amusing. Again, no problem with this being an option, but mandatory, come on lads. It also seems like an easy thing to be optional, just holding back a few lines of dialogue here and there.
Verdict
Guilty
withad
Game Design Crime
Repeating, failable QTEs during dramatic moments
Example games
- Tomb Raider (2013)
- Hi-Fi Rush
- Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
My case
Quick time events aren’t well-loved in general but they truly become a crime when they happen in the middle of a cutscene or other dramatic moment and failure means watching your character fuck up and then having to try again. It’s all the usual weaknesses of QTEs (instant failure, unrelated to normal gameplay, finicky timing) while also completely undercutting the tone of the narrative. Seeing a serious moment again and again, with bloopers in between, makes it either unintentionally funny, incredibly annoying or simply tedious.
Hi-Fi Rush has some annoying QTEs but none are worse than a two-minute-long rhythm matching sequence near the end that’s supposed to be touching but becomes infuriating instead. For all its advanced combat mechanics, any lightsaber duel in Fallen Order can end in Cal Kestis missing a button prompt and getting kicked in the chest like a chump. The final escape sequence (against Vader) is especially bad for it. It looks really cool when you do it perfectly but that’s not going to happen on your first attempt.
However, it’s the Tomb Raider example that’s stuck with me for years. It’s one of the first QTE sequences in the game (so you don’t know what to do and you’re likely to fail multiple times) and the cutscene it’s in has Lara handcuffed, terrified, and being groped by one of the generic creepy henchmen. If you fail, he strangles her to death. Have fun watching that over and over and over as you try to concentrate on a circle shrinking towards the Y button!
Verdict
Not Guilty
Pete
Game Design Crime
Having a standard ending that is unsatisfying and a true ending you can only get with a load of bullshit
Example games
- Hollow Knight
- Blasphemous
- Nier
- Sea of Stars
My case
You’ve played this game to the end, many hours of effort that you could have been doing something else in. You cared enough about the story or mastered the mechanics to get this far. Probably gritted through some duff writing or a sewer level or difficulty spike or collecting 20 spider legs. And then, disappointment at the end lets you down. Maybe it is tragic, maybe there’s loose ends, maybe it’s a limp set up for a sequel. No sense of triumph, of resolution, of achievement, just deflation
And up to there, I’m OK with that. Not everything has to end with parades and rainbows. Sometimes the power of friendship isn’t enough and the real treasure is getting to see another dawn. Or if you chose to sacrifice all your people’s first-born for some gold, a bad ending is justified.
What is absolute bollocks and a total crime is discovering that all of this good stuff was possible, if only you’d collected 1000 spider legs, got 100% relationships, completed some hidden quest line, equipped an item at the right moment, cherry-picked your way though a complex dialogue tree or ground out 99 levels. It isn’t clever or artistic - you can do sad/happy endings without making the player suffer or double check a wiki every 30s.
Verdict
Guilty
Jon
Game Design Crime
Tutorials that don’t understand you’ve played this game (or variants of it) since you were a child
Example games
- Basically every game other than Civilisation
My case
All games should have tiered tutorials which allow you to state you’ve played video games/first person shooters/this game specifically before and so don’t need teaching what a game controller/aiming/a specific game mechanic is all about. Just let me skip all that nonsense and get straight into the game proper.
Civilisation does this wonderfully, with options ranging through “what is a computer?”, “I’ve played a Civ before”, “I’ve played this Civ before, but not the DLC”, to “go away, I’m 800 hours into this combination of DLC”
Verdict
Not Guilty
seanthomas / vamos
Game Design Crime
Any game that thinks it acceptable to use L3 or R3
Example games
- Metal Gear Solid 3 (and possibly 5) where players had to equip a gun (RT), hold down aiming (RB), and then press the left stick (L3) to actually ready the weapon to shoot.
- Many FPSs that ask you to press it to do a melee attack or sprint, which doesn’t come naturally.
My case
The Playstation controllers, until the Dual Sense, always had slightly too small thumb sticks. And to control a character or vehicle accurately, it took a lot of work from me to stop my sweaty thumbs sliding off of those nobbly little bastards. They slide around all over the shop but the one thing they don’t do very well, is press in. So being asked to click them in when pressing them at stupid angles and holding down 2 other buttons is total horseshit
There are enough buttons on controllers already. Ban this filth.
Verdict
Not Guilty
Enrich
Game Design Crime
Visual novels with dialogue trees that don’t allow you to use the right stick for selection.
Example games
- Many VNs on Switch I haven’t made a list of. But you can be assured I’m always mildly irked when it comes up.
My case
Picture the scene: you’re lying on your side with the Switch in tabletop mode, your left hand propping up your head, your right hand holding a joy-con, mashing the A button to enjoy the story. Total relaxation, I’m sure for some people. Eventually you’re asked to choose a dialogue. You press down on the control stick in your hand and… nothing. The device designed for directional input has zero function in this game. Now you have to awkwardly shuffle around from your zen-like position to make a choice with the other half of the controller out of reach, knowing you’ll be distracted like this again and again somewhere down the line.
Is this a game design crime, an accessibility oversight, or simply my own laziness to slightly move? All I know is my pile of unfinished visual novels would be a lot shorter if I could enjoy them one handed, like I can a Kindle.
Verdict
Guilty
SnakeyDave89
Game Design Crime
Prompting to lower difficulty after dying during a platforming section in a combat game
Example games
- God of War (series)
My case
I mean, insult to injury - it won’t even help! But it’s merely a secondary offence on top of the underlying crime…
Verdict
Guilty
SnakyDave89
Game Design Crime
Platforming sections in non-platforming games (3D games, if we’re being specific)
Example games
- God of War (series) but particularly the first one. Everyone hates that climbing that spiky flesh tower.
- Max Payne (the blood maze)
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
My case
Playing Clair Obscur atm and it’s good in that melodramatic, slightly embarassing, JRPG way, but it’s surprising how often the game wants to bring attention to its slidey, unsatisfying character movement.
Verdict
Not Guilty
chrislittle
Game Design Crime
“You are over encumbered” Causing the player to suddenly be unable to run, fast travel and sometimes move at all.
Example games
- The Elder Scrolls series
- Fallout 3 onwards
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 and 2
My case
I get it if a game is super realistic and the character can’t carry much. But the above games allow you to carry a frankly ridiculous amount of tat on your person, before arbitrarily deciding “No, that carrot you just picked up has rendered you immobile”. Infuriating.
Verdict
Guilty
Balladeer
Game Design Crime
Women in sexy outfits for stupid reasons
Example games
- Tales of Berseria (Velvet Crowe)
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (Peko Pekoyama)
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (obvious)
My case
We get it. Sex sells, and it especially sells to the teenage boys and horny dads that still make a lot of the gaming market. But you can’t use that as an in-game reason for your female character’s silly costume, and it’s seemingly beyond a lot of games to have genuinely sexually empowered women. So we get excuses like “aids mobility” (why aren’t all the agile men wearing Speedos? Never relevant funnily enough) or, of course, “she breathes through her skin”. For those of us who don’t game with our genitals, it’s laughable at best and immersion-breaking at worst.
NB I’m not asking for litigation of all women in sexy outfits, or every other JRPG would be under the lens. It’s the daft reasoning I’m putting to Judge Castle here.
Verdict
Guilty
Effie
Game Design Crime
Imperceptible stat bonuses on equipment
Example games
- Enshrouded
- Xenoblade Chronicles 1
- World of Warcraft
- Final Fantasy XIV
- Marvel’s Avengers
My case
Would you like +0.01% Blunt damage, or +3 to Dodge Rating? Choices no-one has enjoyed, ever, and yet which some games present over and over again. These are items that give you no noticeable difference when you swap them around, except for the nagging feeling that you might have gotten it wrong. Sometimes you’ll end up carrying around 6 pairs of trousers, living in vain hope that 3% resistance to poison might come in handy. Put them all in the bin, don’t bother with these kind of stats unless they have a tangible benefit or are straight forward upgrades that don’t require any thought.
Verdict
Guilty