Last week during our lovefest we had an important question: What games do game developers love? We got some great answers, but that was only half the equation. We also wanted to know what game devs hate most about games. What hang-ups or inconsistencies bother them most about gaming? We got some surprising responses from the people behind Kinect, Splosion Man, Minecraft, Journey and more. Take a look...
American McGee, Spicy Horse
Honestly, Im just tired of meat and mechanical input systems. Keyboard (invented 1801!) and mouse are for typing and pointing. Its about time someone invented a new way for us to interface with our games. The Wiimote was a good start. PlaystationMove and Natal are interesting experiments. But what we really need is that skull-jack Neo was sporting in the The Matrix. So this is a gripe that applies to ALL games and their clunky input systems. I want to get jacked-in!!
Ben Kane, Going Loud Studios
I'm a completionist at heart. Maybe hoarder is a better word, but I like to explore every nook and cranny, seeking out all the hidden items in the world. Years of playing games has given me a pretty good sense of where I'm "supposed" to go. That big entrance way to the arena? No thanks, I'm going to check out the supply closet first. But every now and then, I'll get it wrong. The level designers dupe me and I end up triggering some irreversible boss fight or cutscene by going down the wrong corridor. Then the regret sets in. What did I miss? Is it worth reloading my save? And why is the boss fight in the supply closet anyway?
Dan Vader, Capybara Games
I have a love/hate relationship with open-world sanbox games. Whether it be Liberty City or Tamriel, I love to point my thumbsticks at the horizon and just start walking--come what may. What I hate is that this freedom always unlocks within me the deplorable urge to murderize every single thing that crosses my path. Sometimes I turn off Skyrim and I feel dirty. I didnt have to spend 45 minutes shooting hundreds of arrows at a herd of wooly mammoths! They were just minding their own wooly business!
Jenova Chen, thatgamecompany (A two-parter)
God of War 2 - Wild Architects. I enjoyed God of War series. But there's one thing that bothers me across the series. I got the idea that you have to go to different temples and shrines built for the gods and kill them. But if these are residence for the gods, I just think the architect who designed these temples are total idiots. Who would design an elevator where you have to push a heavy wooden stick around every time you need to go to the living room? Why is there doors that doesn't turn but you have to lift with your own strength? What are these building built for? Come on...
Kudo Tsunoda, Microsoft
Lots of times, one or two of us will join in the game after somebody else had started. It will be a game we all want to play together. But it often requires each of us starting up a new save game and playing through the entire tutorial a few times to get a basic understanding of the controls. Or sometimes all of us have to start the game from the beginning, forcing the person who had already played to replay a chunk of the game.
It is a shame that games today are so complicated from a controls standpoint that people cannot just jump in and have fun without reading a large amount of instructions. It prevents people who have already played a game from being able to enjoy playing with people who have not played before. It really makes gaming as a whole a lot less social. The joy of gaming comes from the mastery of the game learning how to build upon basic controls in more sophisticated and skill based ways.
Jim Shea, Twisted Pixel
Probably when a character's talking to me and eventually they ask, "Do you want me to repeat that?" The answer is always no. Bonus points if the default is set to "yes" so that when you're pressing a button to skip through it as fast as possible, you accidentally agree to listen again. I'm looking at you, Legend of Zelda's owl dude!
Dan Teasdale, Twisted Pixel - I hate Hate. I hate that a Week of Hate even exists. There's a classic Kurt Vonnegut quote that equates reviewers raging over a book to wearing a suit of armour in order to eat a banana split. It's true for games as well. If you don't like something, vote with your wallet and time instead of internet indignation.
And if you've still got some room in your hate hopper, check out 5 reasons to hate Metal Gear Solid and 5 reasons to hate Mass Effect.
