gaming Outdated game mechanics.

[CastletonSnob 3,025]

What game mechanics do you consider outdated?

[Sparklefan1234 161,660]

Timer-based missions! 

[PoisonClaw 8,153]

Limited live counters/continues.

[Light Blade 8,658]

@Sparklefan1234 'shivers remembering Jet Set Radio with its compulsory timers'

[Sparklefan1234 161,660]

14 minutes ago, PoisonClaw said:

Limited live counters/continues.

 

I know having a set number of lives is used to give you a challenge but it is very annoying.

I also am not a fan of randomly placed health packs and I prefer health that regenerates as you stand still or are moving freely. 

[Light Blade 8,658]

Not being able to move while aiming (looking at you, RE4 )

[Twilight Luna 30,917]

Quick Time Events (QTE).  

[Fritzy 1,690]

Timed missions. Needing a certain character to beat a mission. Just let me be a certain character for the mission.  if escort missions count those too. 

[Sparklefan1234 161,660]

Repeating the same puzzles over and over again! This is why I didn't finish Lego DC Supervillains. 

[Misty Shadow 7,067]

Tailing missions.  If you're going to pad the game out, do with it fun filler, not by just having me follow some tool around. 

[Quinch 1,119]

Bosses with a trillion hit points. Or any sort of situation where difficulty is scaled by how long it takes you to whittle something down.

[Megas 27,052]

Lives/continues. Those existed in times where arcades, short-yet-difficult games were the norm. But nowadays they aren't necessary anymore, even games that still use them trivialize them by giving you so many lives in a single level to the point where you might as well not have them(SM3DW anyone). Even a stubborn as fuck company like Nintendo is starting to phase them out with Super Mario Odyssey

[Steve Piranha 28,752]

Random encounters. Thank goodness JRPGs have begun to implement an option to manually reduce, if not outright remove them . Seriously, I no longer have patience to deal with random encounters wasting my time these days 

[Cash In 21,493]

Yeah, lives and continues don't need to be a thing anymore. I can understand it back when games could be beaten in an hour, but now it's just not necessary. I'm glad games are starting to get rid of them.

[Pentium100 2,056]

1. Only being able to save at "checkpoints". I have left my game PC with the game paused for hours on more than one occasion because of this.
2. Limited number of "lives" or "continues". Yes, it was useful in arcades. Now just let me save or just let me retry it as many times as I need.
3. Limited number of save "slots". I'm pretty sure my PC has enough storage space for thousands of saves and limiting the number just makes me back up the older saves.
4. Fixed controls - this is not the NES, let me remap the keys and especially let me invert the Y axis, if I have to pull out my "inverted" mouse, it means I'm solving a software problem with hardware.
5. QTEs. I don't know if they were ever needed at all. 

[CastletonSnob 3,025]

What makes lives outdated?

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

Mandatory timed missions. Gah, these are just a pain and add unnecessary stress, especially if they require a high level of precision. 

[Pentium100 2,056]

5 hours ago, CastletonSnob said:

What makes lives outdated?

The mechanic of limited number of lives was useful in arcades to limit how long you can play for one payment (without just straight up limiting play time). It also extends the play time of a game by forcing the player to replay the beginning over and over. 

Playing at home removes the first reason completely (there's nobody in line behind you waiting for you to mess up x times so he can play) and, well, games should just be longer, we have the storage capacity now.

[CastletonSnob 3,025]

10 minutes ago, Pentium100 said:

The mechanic of limited number of lives was useful in arcades to limit how long you can play for one payment (without just straight up limiting play time). It also extends the play time of a game by forcing the player to replay the beginning over and over. 

Playing at home removes the first reason completely (there's nobody in line behind you waiting for you to mess up x times so he can play) and, well, games should just be longer, we have the storage capacity now.

Lives stopped being necessary in the N64/PS1 era, when games were MUCH longer than they were in the 8-bit and 16-bit era. A lot of NES and SNES games can be beaten in under an hour.

Edited September 29, 2021 by CastletonSnob

[CastletonSnob 3,025]

One bad thing about lives in games is that when you get low, you either have to go to a previous, easier level to get more (Donkey Kong Country) or stay in one spot and keep killing enemies and hope one of them drops an extra life (Mega Man).

Both are big wastes of time that could be spent getting farther in the game.

[Pentium100 2,056]

6 minutes ago, CastletonSnob said:

Both are big wastes of time that could be spent getting farther in the game.

Yeah and this was one of reasons for doing it - waste time to extend the playtime of a short game. Got to the boss and failed to kill it a couple of times? Now replay the game from the beginning.

[CastletonSnob 3,025]

28 minutes ago, Pentium100 said:

Yeah and this was one of reasons for doing it - waste time to extend the playtime of a short game. Got to the boss and failed to kill it a couple of times? Now replay the game from the beginning.

Both are EASILY my least favorite things about Donkey Kong Country and Mega Man.

"Running low on lives? Well, shit, guess I have to go all the way back to Jungle Hijinx and get some more!".

[Envy 5,998]

Limiting the ability to save to only designated areas/objects on a map. Seriously, this is a horrible mechanic and needs to go away.

[Sparklefan1234 161,660]

 

21 hours ago, Envy said:

Limiting the ability to save to only designated areas/objects on a map. Seriously, this is a horrible mechanic and needs to go away.

 

Yes. I felt this the most when I was trying my best to play the Kingdom Hearts games. 

I just remembered what I was going to post before I got distracted, cutscenes you cannot skip after your first failed attempt at a challenge, boss etc! 

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

Stamina. It doesn’t make a whole lot of since because it’s only regenerated by waiting, not by food or anything practical