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[EnigmaticHat]

When crouch is bound to "ctrl".  I know I know, easy to fix, but every fricken game seems to do this.  "c" is infinitely better.  Not only is it closer, but you hit "c" with your pointer finger, the only finger that you don't use for the common movement keys.

Oh, and games that have crouch set to hold instead of toggle.

[mastahcheese]

Not to bring up Battlefront 2 again, but I like how crouch was hold, but you could double-tap it and it would toggle.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

I can't stand C being crouch. Although it's a dying art I have no idea how one would crouch jump with C. My thumb is for jumping my pinky is for crouching.

[Mistercheif]

Not only is it closer, but you hit "c" with your pointer finger, the only finger that you don't use for the common movement keys.

but you hit "c" with your pointer finger, the only finger that you don't use for the common movement keys.

pointer finger, don't use for the common movement keys.

wut

I use my pointer, middle, and ring finger for the movement keys.  Tried your way, and it puts my hand at a weird angle.  Ughh.

[jhxmt]

When crouch is bound to "ctrl".  I know I know, easy to fix, but every fricken game seems to do this.  "c" is infinitely better.  Not only is it closer, but you hit "c" with your pointer finger, the only finger that you don't use for the common movement keys.

Oh, and games that have crouch set to hold instead of toggle.

I actually prefer crouch being left-ctrl (I use my left little finger for it), and I prefer it to be hold rather than toggle (purely from habit, I suspect).

However, that does nicely set up for my pet peeve - non-rebindable keyboard controls.  Or, worse, poorly-ported console-mapped controls that can't be rebound.  I'm looking at you, PC port of Metal Gear Solid 2.

[EagleV]

I use my pointer, middle, and ring finger for the movement keys.  Tried your way, and it puts my hand at a weird angle.  Ughh.

Same here, always thought it makes sense, using the three strongest/most dexterous fingers for the buttons you'll use most...

Something that worked on my nerves recently:
Friendlies are worse than bad guys.
Especially on higher difficulties, some games seem to ramp up the challenge by making your allies worse, or by only improving enemies. Examples include SW Battlefront 2, where your friends make no effort of getting checkpoints or objectives while your opponents posses a hive mind, absolute tactical mastership and x-ray vision. Also Mount and Blade - in a recent battle between a handful of low-level archers and my company of battle-hardened veterans, a lucky arrow knocked me off my horse. The five or so remaining enemies proceeded to wipe the floor with the rest of my army.

(In many games, the opposite is true, but this has an acceptable explanation way more often. Plus, it doesn't result in me losing hours of progress.)

[Catastrophic lolcats]

My bad, I missed the part where you said you use custom movement keys. I played with esdf  for a short while but I'm grateful that I went back to wasd since so many games lack key binding these days. I can't even imagine how painful it is for left handed gamers out there.

[mastahcheese]

I used to play with my left hand on the arrow keys, just from habit from playing Doom as a 5 year old.
Now I play with Wasd like normal people.

[Ozyton]

Huh, seems weird to not use your pointer finger for D/strafe right, and for F with is usually a secondary action of some sort (I have the 'use' key bound to the fourth mouse button usually). I've actually bound crouch to shift in a few games because it is slightly easier to reach than control and sprint is spacebar. In a game that actually supports crouch-jumping I'll have shift as jump and ctrl as crouch, that way a crouch jump is me rolling my pinky down the keys, as if pushing one button with my whole finger tip-first. Much of it depends on how much jumping is required in the game. In ARMA games sprint is W + S so holding W I can roll my finger back on the S key similar to what I described above to go into a sprint.

Having the option for toggling and pressing various keys would also be nice. For example, in many games I'm not a fan of toggling 'aim down sights' mode as it's faster for me to let go of the button when I'm done than to click it again (and speed is important in FPS games before you say anything). In games like Red orchestra I actually have toggle and hold keys bound for crouch, for when I need it for a second or so, and for when I think I'll be staying in a spot for a minute.

(Comments posted as I was posting. Hadn't thought of left-handed. There where EDSF binding in Tribes 2 which would obviously allow a few more keys to be accessed on the left side of your fingers, but it felt slightly too cramped for me for some reason so I just use WSAD. I do wish that caps lock were swapped with the | key though because it is a bit annoying enabling caps lock if you want to use that button, and if you don't then it's just a button that could be used but isn't.)

Once upon a time (OFP) I used arrow keys for stuff. Yeah...

Okay, I suppose that brings up... not quite a pet peeve, but a sort of wish.
Dear game devs: allows us to have whatever crazy key combinations we want, and as many of them as we want for our controls.

Now for an actual pet peeve: lack of cheat codes
It seems cheat codes have pretty much died out as far as I can tell. They shouldn't be things given to you, you should have to find them yourself whether by an easter egg or searching the internet. Maybe you're told what they are after you beat the game on a certain difficulty setting, but you shouldn't be locked out of you if you know the code because then it's not a cheat code it's an unlockable of some sort.

I don't agree with having cheats in multiplayer games, unless there's some exceptional circumstance and it's some kind of sandbox/fun mode where people dick around. Cheat codes could also disable things like achievements and certain progression systems that would rely on playing fairly. They're just something for you to do for fun. I remember after beating Half-Life 2 I would go around the levels setting up scenarios where AI would fight each other, and that wouldn't have been possible without cheats or console commands. There's also all sorts of fun things you can do with cheat codes, and it's a way for people to squeeze more enjoyment out of a game the way they choose.

[Squill]

When I was younger, I found out about cheat codes and absolutely abused them. It ruined certain games for me.
And my biggest irritation:
Backtracking or sparse checkpoints
Basically, anything that requires doing the same thing over and over again. Even enemies that are fun to fight grow old fast. Specifically, Legend of Zelda, where if you die in a dungeon you are sent back to the entrance. It's just annoying to go through everything, kill the enemies, then reach the boss, die, and do it again. Also, if a game requires you to travel back to the beginning. I can't remember anything off the top of my head, but I hate having to drudge through enemies I've already beat, especially in RPGs where they are often pitifully lower leveled.

Also, as far as magic goes, four elements is just lazy. Once I got bored, and on the spot, I believe I came up with at least 9, although I can't remember many.

[Xantalos]

My personal game peeve is useless magics.

I have the power to bend the forces of nature to my will. WHY IS THE GUY WITH THE POINTY STICK STRONGER!

I should be able to blast everything with magic. It should be easier. The warrior should be the harder class to play as.

Equalizing gameplay, I suppose? Though you'd think that the ability to bend reality to your will would outclass waving a metal stick around.

[nenjin]

Let's be fair. Inventive magic takes a lot of dev effort. It has far reaching implications if you choose to commit to it, kind of how Toady One is stepping away from "gamey" magic. The 4 Elements are a framework for understanding a broad concept, of putting limitations on it so your brain can dial the possibilities, and actually create something coherent and interesting.

That doesn't excuse the worst ways its used today. I'd like to think part of the problem is some games are unwilling to allow into gameplay the kinds of things magic should be able to let you do. Pass wall, stopping or reversing time, screwing with gravity....these are the kinds of things that can play havoc with a nice, solid gameplay framework. Physics engines are making it easier to allow some kinds of semi-magical effects into 3d games...but just making it possible is just the first step. You have to build a game that makes it fun and useful to do as well.

So I can get, at least, why broad fantasy games don't have great magic, there's a lot of other things to consider. What does piss me off, however, are games that claim to be focused on magic but seemingly don't put any effort into making it interesting, because it's another accepted RPG trope that whole games are built off of.

I think the truth is every game designer who makes games like these has to get that out of their system. They have to make the classical experience of their childhood because that's the game they want to play. So you end up a with a lot of games where thinking inside the box is meant to be a feature.

[Flying Dice]

Huh, I always used Q for crouch, mostly because of CounterStrike. You had to have bloody perfect timing for a lot of the crouch jumps, especially on zombierun servers where time is essential and having to redo even a single jump will often get you caught.



Continuing the magic further: I can understand the reasoning to a certain degree, but frankly it should be obvious by now that games which create emergent experiences have a solid base of support. The catch is that it's easier to build a game with CoD-like levels of thought and freedom (or a Bethesda or Bioware RPG with an "open world" and "real decisions") than one which has mechanics that are as deep and involved as a good magic-oriented game would need to be. A part of this is the limitations of the game framework, to be fair; I've seen far more creative uses of magic in RTDs than any vidja game simply because there aren't any constraints beyond those set by the GM and by the players' imaginations.

[alexandertnt]

Unlockable cheats
Thats... not how cheats work.

Interfaces projected into the 3D world (*cough* Dead Space *cough*)
Whereas accessing your inventory was an acceptable break from reality, I now watch my character funble through his 3D grid of objects. It makes no sense from an in-game-world point of view, and now I can't seperate it from the game-world. It ends up just being weird.

Games that tell you everything
(Generally applies to the "Lore" part of games) Not everything has to be explained. I would like to use my imagination on occassion, and come up with my own possibilities as to why things are like they are.

When I was younger, I found out about cheat codes and absolutely abused them. It ruined certain games for me.

I did that too and ruined some games when I was young.

Then I grew up and can now use them to get past those unfun-hard parts or to generally screw with the game, providing me with more entertainment. Now I think all singleplayer games (and non-MMO multiplayer games as an option) should have cheats.

[EnigmaticHat]

Hmm... I guess I hold my left hand like I'm typing when I play games, so as a result I have my pointer finger free to easily press anything around "f", but its awkward to press "ctrl" with my pinky finger, especially if I also want to move left.

I've never even thought to try shifting my hand to the left like that.  I like my way better anyway, same muscle memory for typing as for playing games, and I have more keys easily accessible for the games that need a lot of keybinds.  On the other hand, shift to run is awkward with my setup, but whatever.