_xeno_'s Journal: The Problem with Video Games

This is just a rant about what's wrong with video games these days. Sorta. Actually, it's a rant about problems I see repeated in various video games that just piss me off in an otherwise good game.

First of all, there's the Inconsistant Application of Rules problem. A game is just a set of rules - that's all it is. Inconsistant Application of Rules comes when the rules change for inconsistant reasons - as an example, the spikes always kill you, except for one place where they don't and are instead the only safe place to stand.

Other examples of iconsistant application of rules are when the same rules do not apply to the computer players for no apparent reason. For example, in a RTS game where characters must scout out the terrain to find the enemy, if the computer can just magically know where the enemies are "to make the AI easier", that is an inconsistant application of rules. If the rules apply to the human players and the computer is playing an "equal opponent" than the rules should apply in exactly the same way to the computer.

The next annoying thing I've seen games do is Require Precognisance - require that you've already played (and presumably, failed) in order to successfully complete a task. I've got two examples off the top of my head: MagiMaster at the top of the Tower of Magic in Final Fantasy VI, and the Land-Speeder sequences in the MegaMan X series.

In Final Fantasy, after defeating MagiMaster, he would instantly cast a spell that would instantly kill all of your characters without chance to block or miss. At the levels when your characters could successfully reach him and defeat him, your characters would not stand a chance against his deadly final attack. Your only hope was to already know that his final attack would instantly kill you and use a magically ability that would instantly raise your character from the dead after being slain. Basically, you'd waste a half-hour reaching the boss only to be instantly slain by an attack you couldn't possibly know was coming because you defeated him.

The Land-Speeder, or Speeder-Bike, or whatever they call them in MegaMan X, are side-scrolling levels where the main character is traveling on a fast-moving bike, and is limited in control to jumping, boosting (speeding up greatly) and shooting. And you could move left and right on the screen, which is sort of like a slight deceleration and acceleration, although the speed of the bike would remain the same and you couldn't move off the edge of the screen.

Anyway, there are several places where you must jump or boost before the area where you need to land is scrolled onto the screen. The only way to know how to properly traverse the level is to have already played through it and be aware that if you boost through the obstacles, you won't be able to jump off the pit that's immediately right of them but cannot be seen while initializing the boost. There are also occassionally times where the player must jump onto platforms that haven't yet scrolled onto the screen. Lot's of fun, if by fun you mean wishing you could tear out the guts of whoever developed the bike.

My final axe to grind today is the Computer Advantage, where the AI players are given an obvious and annoying advantage that for the most part is being used in place of actually developing an intelligent AI.

One example of this can be the suggested Campaign map construction in StarCraft - give the computers tons of resources at the start. (To be fair, though, melee computer players did not have this advantage and could play without being given advantages.) Other more obvious examples of this are when computer players get to ignore certain rules. (In fighting games, this is often shown by the fact that the computer players can execute the "hold back two seconds and then press forward and punch" move instantly, or instantly switch from one move to the "grapple and throw you into the spikes " move even though if the player were executing the previous move they would be disallowed to change.)

Ah... that's better. I've got other rants on ways that game developers manage to spoil perfectly good games. Although I don't have a solution to the biggest problem, letting losers play them online. (TKers, crash bug people, etc.)