[General Discussion] Overused Gaming Conventions

I've gotten pretty tired of the way none of the female characters in RPGs wear proper armor. I mean sure, I like the female form and a bit of cleavage never hurt, but it's just so incredibly DEPRESSING that even after decades, designers still can't get over themselves and devise some proper protective gear for characters who are supposed to be engaged in combat for 90% of the game. Why make chestplates shaped like breasts? Battle armor can be attractive looking without a massive hole for cleavage or a two inch long skirt. WHY WOULD THEY EVEN WEAR A SKIRT IN FUCKING COMBAT? It's more offputting and insulting of gamer intelligence to see it constantly used in the wrong context.

But then this applies to every unconventional "combat gear" in any game, movie or anime.

I've also gotten tired of flimsy doors which prevent superpowered and heavily armed characters from advancing. It is a ridiculously crude device on its own, but if you really have to use it, at least bother making it a steel door, or one made of titanium with the most powerful lock the hero has ever seen or something similar.
Just once it would be nice to be able to kick in flimsier locked doors in games that aren't first-person shooters.. Or maybe a game where none of the doors are locked.

A third incredibly outdated, abused and embarrassing structure design is the arbitrary witholding of information or necessary inventory that is mostly present in RPGs, but has also leaked into most other genres as well.

A typical situation is that you arrive to a town and you are told to go talk to some person as you need some piece of information or perhaps some device to continue your journey. This person only agrees to give this necessary information or device once you have done something for them, which usually involves a long treck to another location where you will probably need to do more favors for more people before you are able to return.

If the character extorting you is a greedy, influential, sly crimeboss who has a habit of putting his own interests before others', the idea is somewhat more plausible than when a character who is supposed to help you save the world asks you travel to a distant cave to bring back a ring he left there and seems too lazy to go get it on his own.

The problem is not the witholding itself, it's the way most games present themselves. Designers need to consider whether the character, within the context of their personality and their standing in the game's narrative, would stand for such ordering (and how much this would piss the player off), and whether the character giving the orders actually have any kind of proper motivation to do so, other than just to slow proceeding down.
Military based games support the order following very well if the character is supposed to be a trained soldier, but in more relaxed environments it's just not that plausible.

If a person is said to be the only person in the world who can save the universe from destruction, you'd think people would try to help him as best as they can by providing equipment, useful advice etc, instead of asking favors and preventing him from reaching his goal.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by shadowlink56

Ever heard of Samus Aran? Still I agree, but you know damn well that covered up girls don't sell games to teenage boys.

Alas, for every Samus Aran, Jade and Claire, there's a dozen Time Bitches, Red Lotuses and dodgy Lara Croft copies.

They could make a compromise. Put the women in bikini on the cover, but keep them.. you know, not embarrasingly undressed in fights. But no, I'd probably not like that either. Marketing and target audience and such -_-

Quote:

This is hilarious. I've noticed this in several games as well. Jak II had quite a bit of this running around. A lot of other games use it to introduce chances for mini-games. It's a pain when you practically forget the story of the game because you're busy running your tail off for some nut job for no specific reason.

Yeah, especially the races are practically absurd.

"You came in second, you need to try again before I tell you where you need to go!"
"Why the hell are you so adamant that I win some stupid race? =/"

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Sword Familiar

Mm, while it's certainly not that functional, it's at least tasteful (not to mention happens to look good as well), as you said. And that's a hell of a lot better than most Japanese character/armor designs.

Similarly, while many of the characters in something like Final Fantasy Tactics don't exactly wear entirely functional attire for close combat battle, the outfits themselves are entirely tasteful and fitting and the knights actually wear proper armor.



This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Terminus

Q: You remind me of Wyna from Thousand Arms whose armor was just.. er. Her armor was just a two-piece bikini. What?

Well, you only need to look at any random few recent console RPGs to see how ridiculous it still is.







I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by www.sega.co.jp

What bothers me is the fact that in most games, you don't start out with a good looking badass skill. But when you get later in the game they are plentiful to come by and in fact the best looking skill isn't the strongest.
Also why in RPGs is there a damage/HP limit? You'd expect your strength to be able to break the boundaries of 9999 damage, but no only enimies can do that. It's also funny that while you have max HP much lower than most enimies (especially later in the game), you do a hell of a lot more damage than they do. If they did anywhere as near as much damage as you did, you'd die on the first boss battle.

That's a pretty typical compromise for player enjoyment, it seems. Like in first person shooters, you can down most enemies with a single head shot, but most of the time you can withstand quite a few bullets before you go down (unless it's Operation Flashpoint or one of the tactical FPS games in the style of Rainbox Six). Very rarely are there games where the player is just as vulnerable as the enemies (unless you count 2D shmups)

I was speaking idiomatically.