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[Mephisto]

Mafia 2 is definitely like that. There's even a speed limiter you can turn on that automatically keeps you within the speed limit.

[Graknorke]

Patriotic Advertisement Games

Did somebody Call of Duty 6 and onwards?

[Mephisto]

Quick Time Combat

At least Assassin's Creed has an excuse. It's always like that and all combat is basically a big QTE.

Far Cry 3 has no excuse. No spoilers, but all of the boss fights are QTEs.

[Iceblaster]

Personally, if I can say anything more I'm going to talk about Dishonored!

Why does your handyman, who sells things on the black market for ya, not sell excess food and ammo?

I mean, it's the black market, why would you not try to use those for money?

[EagleV]

Irrelevant Side Quests

In which side quests, especially side quests that use mechanics not found in the rest of the game, have no impact on the rest of the game whatsoever. This especially applies to side quests which give you no ingame benefits except benefits towards completing the rest of the irrelevant side quests.

I don't completely agree with you on this. There are some sidequests completely irrelevant to the main storyline, that give no advantage in the rest of the game, that I loved. Fallout and the Elder Scrolls series contain numerous examples, granted those do give you some xp. In every game that has side quests, I finish those first, not for the reward, but for the challenge, or the story, or just for fun.

[GreatJustice]

Irrelevant Side Quests

In which side quests, especially side quests that use mechanics not found in the rest of the game, have no impact on the rest of the game whatsoever. This especially applies to side quests which give you no ingame benefits except benefits towards completing the rest of the irrelevant side quests.

I don't completely agree with you on this. There are some sidequests completely irrelevant to the main storyline, that give no advantage in the rest of the game, that I loved. Fallout and the Elder Scrolls series contain numerous examples, granted those do give you some xp. In every game that has side quests, I finish those first, not for the reward, but for the challenge, or the story, or just for fun.

Yeah, but money and xp still help you in the "main quests". I'm referring more specifically to those games where the reward has no use whatsoever outside the sidequest line. For example, the sidequests in Assassin's Creed III, where making money from your homestead/ship missions gives you money, the only real use of which is to put back into your homestead to make more money to put back in your homestead etc etc etc

In retrospect, "Irrelevant money" might have been a better title actually.

[alexandertnt]

Yay, my favourite thread is back from the dead!

Guilt by association
Particularly common in fantasy games, where some goblins (or other intelligent non-human thing) will cause some havoc to a village (even sometimes as minor as stealing livestock or vandalism) and you will be tasked with exterminating large quantities of them while being framed as the good guy. Because apparently all goblins are guilty of this, and apparently the punishment is death. I suspect this has something to do with...

Human Exceptionalism
Humans kick-ass and are special, and all other intelligent creatures are inferior. They go out and either exterminate their enemies to make the world better for them, or end up being the only species that can save the world with their awsomeness and specialness. Bonus points of humans-being-special is reinforced by some god/gods/religion/destiny. It reminds me too much of American Exceptionalism (Related to GreatJustice's Patriotic Games). This applies to everything and not just fantasy.


Damn, so much fantasy is just plain dumb. (Disclaimer: I love fantasy. I just with it was less often so one-dimensional).

[Glloyd]

Eh, I honestly prefer to play as humans. If there's an option to play as a human, I will pick that 100% of the time over some alien/other race (see: Starbound). I'm a huge sci fi and fantasy nerd, but when playing games, I find I can relate more to a human protaganist than some anthropomorphized other race.

[alexandertnt]

Eh, I honestly prefer to play as humans. If there's an option to play as a human, I will pick that 100% of the time over some alien/other race (see: Starbound). I'm a huge sci fi and fantasy nerd, but when playing games, I find I can relate more to a human protaganist than some anthropomorphized other race.

Pffft, how boring are you . Personally, I find I can relate more to the non-humans than the humans, mostly because to me the humans are boring. But its (obviously) perfectly understandable that most humans are going to be more interested in human characters.

But these peeves actually tend to be in games where you can only be a human moreso than games with non-human playable characters. Infact, games with playable non-humans generally just seem to have Average Humans. Likewise, you dont have to be a goblin/whatever to question why the author/developer thought it was a good idea to go exterminating them due to a few individual's (and if the piece of media in question is characterising them as sentient, then they are individuals) actions.

[ChairmanPoo]

Yay, my favourite thread is back from the dead!
Human Exceptionalism
Humans kick-ass and are special, and all other intelligent creatures are inferior. They go out and either exterminate their enemies to make the world better for them, or end up being the only species that can save the world with their awsomeness and specialness. Bonus points of humans-being-special is reinforced by some god/gods/religion/destiny. It reminds me too much of American Exceptionalism (Related to GreatJustice's Patriotic Games). This applies to everything and not just fantasy.

Agree wholeheartedly. In fact, I regard it as a somewhat stealthy mannifestation of buried racist instincts, and only "acceptable" in the eyes of the general public because there are in fact no elves or aliens to discriminate against.

[scrdest]

Yay, my favourite thread is back from the dead!
Human Exceptionalism
Humans kick-ass and are special, and all other intelligent creatures are inferior. They go out and either exterminate their enemies to make the world better for them, or end up being the only species that can save the world with their awsomeness and specialness. Bonus points of humans-being-special is reinforced by some god/gods/religion/destiny. It reminds me too much of American Exceptionalism (Related to GreatJustice's Patriotic Games). This applies to everything and not just fantasy.

Agree wholeheartedly. In fact, I regard it as a somewhat stealthy mannifestation of buried racist instincts, and only "acceptable" in the eyes of the general public because there are in fact no elves or aliens to discriminate against.

It's not racist instincts, it's what creates racism in the first place. Ingroup-outgroup dichotomy. An easiest way to create cohesion in a group is it give them an external, real or imagined common enemy to unite against. Read up on Robber's Cave experiment for a nice example.

[alexandertnt]

I was going to write a whole paragraph about how it seemed to be caused by a similar mechanism that causes racism, the whole "us" and "them" style of thought. I'm glad I'm not the only one to see it like that.

It can also seem as some sort of insecurity thing. Imagine a sci-fi where all the alien races are stronger and smarter and basically superior to humans. This makes us feel small. But we end up saving the day somehow to make us feel better about our position in the universe. (I would say Mass Effect is an example of this, but I have not finished it so I can't say for certain that that is how it goes).

Sometimes, negative traits of "us" are reprojected as positive ones. For example the relationship between Humans and Vulcans in Star Trek, where human irrationality ends up saving the day all too many times.


Now that I think about it, you could extract alot of interesting information on how humans think and behave from fiction.

[Fniff]

There has been cases where species are actually better then us in every way. The problem is that you have to work really really hard as a writer to make sure they don't become Mary Sues. Really, it isn't racism, it's just easier for people to write.

[itisnotlogical]

Unless it's a weird artsy videogame, games are around to make the player feel powerful, so if the player character is human, then humans (or Americans, or ninjas, or whatever group) is going to be the dominant force in the setting. Who would want to play a Pokemon game if Pokemon were just regular animals that looked funny?

[Fniff]

Well, people who'd like a dogfighting simulator, thinking about it.