Frustration and Gaming

[Gethelred]

I have today off, and I've played three different games today and turned off all three because I got frustrated rather than I wasn't enjoying them.

Another Crab's Treasure: I was fighting a new boss, and the game suddenly started having audio and visual glitches, freezing and when it unfroze I was dead. Apparently, the boss had killed me while the game was frozen. ACT has a feature that has you respawn outside the boss arena - good - but upon a kind of jellyfish. with your 'souls' - as it's a soulslike - below you with your shell. However, I used the grappling feature to jump over to the arena only to remember that I hadn't collected my microplastics before. It took me a few tries, but I got them back, saved and shut the game down; I'd beaten a boss, gotten up to the next one, and it was starting to annoy and the bug might need a reset or an update to solve.

I then jumped over to BG3, because I'd heard of some new subclasses. I had a look at the character creator, shrugged, and loaded my rogue-fighter multi in Ch. 2. I won't go terribly deep into where I was and what I was doing, but my character wound up having an opponent use a battlemaster maneover on them causing them to drop their weapons and their strength dropped to 4, meaning they couldn't even pick them up; annoying but okay (not really). But then, the UI decided that between me telling Karlach to attack a foe with 8 health left and her attacking, the cursor had moved over to my main character who got critted and knocked unconsious.

I almost deleted the game.

Hades: Standard run, railgun. Demeter/Dionysis with Aphrodite's gold shield boon. Went into the Hades fight with 2 DD, wound up losing when Hades had less than 5% of his health left in phase 2 to a melee attack that went in the precise opposite direction to where I was standing. I'm not talking about the circular sweeps but the thrust animation.

That attack did 88 damage and killed me, despite me being on the genuine opposite side to its direction.

You get a lot of videos and comments these days about how games are unfun or not as exciting as they used to be. I don't think that's true, but I've closed BG3 more times than I can count due to this kind of bullshit. Hades has done this to me multiple times; so many particle effects on screen that I can't ****ing see what's happening. I've died to the Dancer of the Boreal Valley (Dark souls 3) due to framerate dropping and Ludwig due to bad hitboxes. The hitbox issues in BOTW are fairly well known. The kill cams in Skyrim used to take a melee character I'd built to be block and one handed focused - a fencer build, without armor - that had zero difficulty with the same opponent and make them brutally difficult; and I am more than aware that Skyrim doesn't belong with the other games in this list, as old as it is.

While I can remember getting frustrated with earlier games, I cannot remember games being so consistently frustrating.

What are your thoughts, all?

 

[Quivorir]

I then jumped over to BG3, because I'd heard of some new subclasses.

If this is the ones announced today, they're not out until a patch next year.

 

[dwwaino]

I find I'm more prone to getting frustrated and rage quitting a game when I'm forcing it. Like everyone I go through patches where I just can't find something I want to play and will start playing anything. If it shits me in any way it's amplified where as if I'm zoned in I'll generally tolerate any BS.

 

[BallaratBulldog]

There is a genre of games that intend to do that and punish the smallest mistakes inspired by From Software games. Then you have rouge likes and DND that were always punishing. So that covers those three games.

So those type of games are understandable to be more annoyed and frustrated by as there are more of them and very popular these days.

If I play games like these I break them up with something more casual.

Having said that being annoyed at any game is also quite normal from time to time. Like a Mario Kart 8 Blue Spiny Shell can end friendships.

 

[00Stinger]

I find I'm more prone to getting frustrated and rage quitting a game when I'm forcing it. Like everyone I go through patches where I just can't find something I want to play and will start playing anything. If it shits me in any way it's amplified where as if I'm zoned in I'll generally tolerate any BS.

I reckon gamepass and ps+ have added to people rage quitting

Years ago, I would fight through frustrating bits of games. These days I just get pissed off and start playing a new game

 

[simba_]

There are too many games, many of them are too similar and they come out without proper debugging and finetuning, they are huge commercial products. Many blockbuster games are the same genres and controls with different skins. They found out what worked a long time ago and have squeezed it to death. The reason why people have gravitated to the PS2-PS3 era is because they are the same games we play today but with more ideas and originality and difference. Often they'll just feel and play nicer and tighter. Nowadays it's been stripped back to what franchises worked best and what mechanics adopt easiest across playing styles, simplifying things for accessibilities sake. I just see gaming as the music or film industry these days, there's a formula that works and sometimes they will be fun, but consistently following the latest blockbusters tends to leave you emptier than if you discover things you really identify with. Fortunately there's a lot of good stuff out there to get lost in.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

I tend to play games on Easy (sometimes that's too easy so I gradually bump it up until I find the sweet spot where the adrenaline is flowing without rage, and I always go harder when I can play the game blindfolded, like OG Doom and Quake), avoid online multiplayer (local still awesome) and don't play games notorious for their difficulty (Elden Ring etc). I also avoid games that are too much like work (spreadsheet simulators like Football Manager and games like ****ing Lawnmower Simulator or whatever), games where it's easy to get lost and thus frustrated etc.

I want to have fun in my down time, not feel like I've extended my working hours

 

[AFDogs]

I had a few BS moments with BG 3 that almost made me burn my PS5.

Like when they sent me to jail, stripped my party of all it's gear, put me into a battle without my party (with no gear), then when I retrieve the gear (mid battle), it overencumbers me because I take my whole parties gear, I then need to distribute the gear during the battle, manually, remembering who was carrying what, it takes me about 25 minutes, I then need to win the battle and not die so I don't have to repeat this process all over again.

Despite this horrible game design, I still think BG 3 is probably the best game ever.

 

[Hawk88]

The gaming industry is in a very bad state IMO, similar to the film industry

We use to get 10-15 high quality games every year now we lucky to get 1 or 2

I mostly play Dota 2 not out of love but because there is simply nothing else, all my hopes are one POE 2 and hoping this is what Diablo 4 should of been

 

[UnitedWarrior93]

I reckon gamepass and ps+ have added to people rage quitting

Years ago, I would fight through frustrating bits of games. These days I just get pissed off and start playing a new game

Pretty much the same with movies and Netflix/Stan/Prime/Disney + etc, everyone does it, scroll through so many movies, start watching one, then park it if it doesn’t grab you. Go back 15-20 years ago and we’d watch what was on TV putting up with ads, or pop on a DVD we had at home, or in my case, every Friday night rent a couple of movies and a game from Video Ezy, and you’d watch those films regardless.

 

[Jatz]

The gaming industry is in a very bad state IMO, similar to the film industry

We use to get 10-15 high quality games every year now we lucky to get 1 or 2

I mostly play Dota 2 not out of love but because there is simply nothing else, all my hopes are one POE 2 and hoping this is what Diablo 4 should of been

Really feel this.

Probably a combination of me getting older as well but I used to buy/play so many more games that interested me 10 years ago. I don't ever buy from them but we have an EB store at our local shopping centre and I'll go have a look to see what's out - I very rarely find anything that piques my interest anymore.

My case in point to this - the PS3/360 days, we used to get James Bond/Jason Bourne/Pirates of the Carribean type games - I just don't see any of those anymore and I'm really not sure why.

 

[Hawk88]

Really feel this.

Probably a combination of me getting older as well but I used to buy/play so many more games that interested me 10 years ago. I don't ever buy from them but we have an EB store at our local shopping centre and I'll go have a look to see what's out - I very rarely find anything that piques my interest anymore.

My case in point to this - the PS3/360 days, we used to get James Bond/Jason Bourne/Pirates of the Carribean type games - I just don't see any of those anymore and I'm really not sure why.

Think its simple costs. Games just dont sell like they use to because there is just so much sh** out there i think alot of people just stopped buying unless word of mouth spread

I do think once AI develops more the graphic design costs of games will reduce significantly as AI will be able to process much of this coding and design thus should bring down costs (obviously alot of people will lose their jobs, RIP)

Once this starts i think the developers may start to take more risks on certain things given the risk/costs will be greatly reduced

 

[dexter_]

The majority are just playing the same games over and over again

Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social)

So long as just a handful of long running live service games dominate engagement I don't know how things get fixed. The mass market has to first want to play new games and then has to be convinced to also pay for them. (If you're seeing this you almost certainly don't fit into this audience)...

bsky.app

 

[SnakeMan86]

I reckon gamepass and ps+ have added to people rage quitting

Years ago, I would fight through frustrating bits of games. These days I just get pissed off and start playing a new game

This is a great point.

I think i've jumped off Returnal half a dozen times. kept getting frustrated doing the same run again and again, never able to progress far after the second boss.

Then, finally, after about the 3rd install, defeated the third boss... only to find that when i die, getting back to that spot is a slog, then i'm essentially still under leveled and just gave up. had i spent $70 on it, i'd probably have stuck with it longer.

Mix this in with having a 2yr old and being time poor as it is, I find its easier to just scroll through ps+ deluxe, try a game, and if it doesn't grab me in the first couple of hours, uninstall and try another one.

That frame of mind has me too nervous to purchase something like a BG3, as i'm too worried I wont get into it and have wasted $90. (even though i know ill love it), or that i only have like 2 hours a night to play when the young bloke is asleep.

 

[dav3]

The gaming industry is in a very bad state IMO, similar to the film industry

We use to get 10-15 high quality games every year now we lucky to get 1 or 2

I mostly play Dota 2 not out of love but because there is simply nothing else, all my hopes are one POE 2 and hoping this is what Diablo 4 should of been

I'm not sure I'd say it's in a bad state, but it could certainly be better, and is probably on par with the state of the gaming "community" in general.

We still get quite a few high quality games, they're just not always the over-hyped ones everyone wants them to be, and they typically don't meet the ridiculous expectations gamers put on them.

The typical AAA game life cycle goes: rumour --> a bit of hype --> announcement --> content creator hype --> a bunch of gamers dreaming up insane demands --> content creator drama to fuel gamers --> --> dev interview where comment gets blown out of proportion and morphs into "promises" --> echo chambers turning dreams into must haves --> game release --> "WAAAHH this is shit because all the stuff we dreamed up wasn't included and they broke their promises" --> toys get thrown from collective cots

 

[Gethelred]

There is a genre of games that intend to do that and punish the smallest mistakes inspired by From Software games. Then you have rouge likes and DND that were always punishing. So that covers those three games.

So those type of games are understandable to be more annoyed and frustrated by as there are more of them and very popular these days.

If I play games like these I break them up with something more casual.

Having said that being annoyed at any game is also quite normal from time to time. Like a Mario Kart 8 Blue Spiny Shell can end friendships.

I would once upon a time have had pokemon as a palate cleanser, but pokemon is infinitely more frustrating than it used to be. Pokemon has always featured plot related conversations, but the tutorials have become... beyond obnoxious. If you're trapping me in a linear corridor between cutscenes in which there's genuinely nothing I can do but walk between them, I'm getting rather unhappy.

Why does Pokemon even have tutorials anymore? The format is - by now - more than twenty years old; people young and old know how it works.

Honestly, a Bayonetta adjacent game would be ****ing grouse at the moment. Something with good game feel that doesn't take itself too seriously.

 

[SnakeMan86]

I'm not sure I'd say it's in a bad state, but it could certainly be better, and is probably on par with the state of the gaming "community" in general.

We still get quite a few high quality games, they're just not always the over-hyped ones everyone wants them to be, and they typically don't meet the ridiculous expectations gamers put on them.

The typical AAA game life cycle goes: rumour --> a bit of hype --> announcement --> content creator hype --> a bunch of gamers dreaming up insane demands --> content creator drama to fuel gamers --> --> dev interview where comment gets blown out of proportion and morphs into "promises" --> echo chambers turning dreams into must haves --> game release --> "WAAAHH this is shit because all the stuff we dreamed up wasn't included and they broke their promises" --> toys get thrown from collective cots

Except you forgot -
Game release ----> buggy for the first week -----> Patch comes out, fixes some bugs----- >creates more bugs -----> second patch comes out that fixes more bugs

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

When I was a kid I'd get maybe one or two games a year, one for my birthday and one for Christmas, and I'd play them non-stop all year. Now I can buy whatever game I want, I get free games every week from the Epic Store, and I have no time to play any of them.

Such is life.

 

[dav3]

Except you forgot -
Game release ----> buggy for the first week -----> Patch comes out, fixes some bugs----- >creates more bugs -----> second patch comes out that fixes more bugs

That happens when games get more and more complex, plus devs have the pressure of deadlines and the "community" having a meltdown if anything gets delayed.

 

[SnakeMan86]

That happens when games get more and more complex, plus devs have the pressure of deadlines and the "community" having a meltdown if anything gets delayed.

Thats true that games get more and more complex, but its not fair to blame the community for pressuring early releases.

Gamers would happily wait for a game if its promised to be released complete. In fact, when a publisher announces a game will be delayed while they iron out bugs, it's most often met with good grace.

It's more like publishers rushing devs to release a game on time/early before it's finished and properly play tested so that they can start recouping losses.

Gamers would happily wait a couple of months, as opposed to paying $100 for a broken game on release.

 

[BallaratBulldog]

I would once upon a time have had pokemon as a palate cleanser, but pokemon is infinitely more frustrating than it used to be. Pokemon has always featured plot related conversations, but the tutorials have become... beyond obnoxious. If you're trapping me in a linear corridor between cutscenes in which there's genuinely nothing I can do but walk between them, I'm getting rather unhappy.

Why does Pokemon even have tutorials anymore? The format is - by now - more than twenty years old; people young and old know how it works.

Honestly, a Bayonetta adjacent game would be ****ing grouse at the moment. Something with good game feel that doesn't take itself too seriously.

I moved on from Pokemon because of it being stupidly easy, handholding and buggy. It’s pretty low effort. Yet sells more than ever.

 

[Gethelred]

I moved on from Pokemon because of it being stupidly easy, handholding and buggy. It’s pretty low effort. Yet sells more than ever.

I bought sun and moon and despised them until the game actually started (a good two-three hours in). I was able to complete them - had a really cool healing team, in which I could use u turn and volt switch to pivot and drain punch, giga drain, leech life etc to outlast opp. teams - but when Scarlet came out I tried it and just put the thing down. Obnoxious, one note and - as you point out - lazy characterisation, irritating shit with the story interrupting things every few steps, handholding, framerate issues. Couldn't EV train as simply as you could in earlier versions, despite literally everyone preferring that system.

I bought a switch for those games and BOTW, and couldn't get into BOTW. It didn't feel... adventurous to me, not in the way OOT was; new lands to see and explore. It felt gamified, if that makes sense; the edges smoothed down except where they weren't deliberately (lionels). Wound up selling it to my sister.

Stupid thing is, I've played Pokemon Yellow pretty recently - used to carry a rom around on my phone - and gen 1 is still enjoyable. Could be nostalgia, but.

 

[dav3]

Thats true that games get more and more complex, but its not fair to blame the community for pressuring early releases.

Gamers would happily wait for a game if its promised to be released complete. In fact, when a publisher announces a game will be delayed while they iron out bugs, it's most often met with good grace.

It's more like publishers rushing devs to release a game on time/early before it's finished and properly play tested so that they can start recouping losses.

Gamers would happily wait a couple of months, as opposed to paying $100 for a broken game on release.

I think the pressures the community are definitely part of the problem, we've all seen how quickly and easily something can get cancelled via social media when a few morons crack the shits and make a heap of noise.

"Complete" is relative......... for the dev/publisher that means their plan was complete, to your standard gamer that tends to mean whatever they imagined, or whatever rumour/wishlist crap they heard on Youtube or read in some echo chamber.

Publishers certainly push for deadlines, especially when there's a massive amount of marketing behind a release, that's always been the case.

I think history has shown that anything other than a very short delay rustles the jimmies of gamers and gets them on the back foot, and then anything other than a perfect experience gets largely ridiculed. Gamers are for the most part fickle morons, hell they still haven't learnt not to preorder games, which would temporarily eliminate most of the gripes.

 

[Nicho50]

I just don't get the time I used to. I really over the last year have stuck to GTA Online, NBA 2K , Cricket 24, and WWE2K24. The simple reason is I can chuck the game on and play for 10-30 mins and be done with it. I did get COD Black Ops 6 purely because its on game pass. I had 1 day at home without the wife and kids when I was crook and I was able to sink a good few hours into the campaign which was good but now I again I have only had small windows to play which makes playing a campaign or story driven game frustrating to play.

If I was to jump back in tonight to play it I have almost forgot 80% of the story I have been told so far so I am at the point on giving up on that to. NBA/WWE and Cricket all feel like the same game over and over so I am bored to death of them to at this stage. I find myself turning on one of them playing 2 mins and then going nup...

Really contemplating buying a switch because I feel like Mario Kart and the other mario games you could just chuck on and play without feeling the need for more time to play. Plus my son will be at the age next year or so where he can start playing to.

 

[Hawk88]

Except you forgot -
Game release ----> buggy for the first week -----> Patch comes out, fixes some bugs----- >creates more bugs -----> second patch comes out that fixes more bugs

This is bang on

A few comments on why this is the case in this thread but the simple answer is they need money in the door to continue to work on the project

So they release a partially unfinished game, get pre orders and purchases to continue to update the game which then pisses off the community given the state of the game

Issue is once these initial purchases slow up and if the dev has made their money, why do they need to continue to reinvest?

Move onto the next project and rinse and repeat