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[Parsely]

I forgot to mention games where you get a squad, but it's true in some games you even have an army!  Mount & Blade is the main example I think of.  I think Dynasty Warriors is like this too.

And a freeware game which took way too long for me to find, because I was positive it was called Independence War.  It's actually called Liberation Army

M&B is great, I've only played Dynasty Warriors 7 and that's a perfect example of a game where you have bucketloads of allies who never do anything, but I took a look at the older games and they appear as if they did things a lot better in that respect.

[pisskop]

I forgot to mention games where you get a squad, but it's true in some games you even have an army!  Mount & Blade is the main example I think of.  I think Dynasty Warriors is like this too.

And a freeware game which took way too long for me to find, because I was positive it was called Independence War.  It's actually called Liberation Army

M&B is great, I've only played Dynasty Warriors 7 and that's a perfect example of a game where you have bucketloads of allies who never do anything, but I took a look at the older games and they appear as if they did things a lot better in that respect.

Define 'better'.  the games were divided into leaders and bodyguards.  Everyone was either a leader or a bodyguard, even regular mooks.  The bodyguards simply followed (or attempted to) the leader, and all of their abilities were tied to morale.  At max, they could actually stop weak PC attacks (or any notable character's), and they used more combos.  But their aggression was usually lacking, and all scenarios were scripted so if you did nothing your side would lose.

[notquitethere]

Your bodyguards do do things in Dynasty warriors, namely they kill other bodyguards and provide a human shield to soak up some of the blows and arrow strikes against you.

[Neonivek]

Your bodyguards do do things in Dynasty warriors, namely they kill other bodyguards and provide a human shield to soak up some of the blows and arrow strikes against you.

In the second the Bodyguards were pretty impressively strong and it was like having 8 officers with you.

[pisskop]

Aye, and in 3 you could get 8 bowmen and nothing could close on you.

The army formations consisted of 1 leader unit and 2-6 bodyguards.  The leaders went to waypoints and the bodyguards attending them followed.

Id be interested in how the games calculated casualties and such (because some of the bodyguards could die offscreen and wounds were often present on losing units) but I suspect its not as neat as I think it is.

[Parsely]

Define 'better'.

What I mean is I don't think there are any bodyguards in DW7 (I've played through most of the story in Dynasty Warriors 7 and I haven't had any bodyguards, but maybe they're present in multi? I have no idea) and the regular guys walking around the battlefield don't do anything aside from waiting for you to combo them.

[Sergius]

Not sure if this qualifies as a gaming peeve, but.

I hate when people refer to a game mechanic as "it feels too X-ish/X-ey".

For example, some game has a mechanic that feels "too MMO-ish."

"Experience points and levels are too MMO-ish." (this applies to every time a pen and paper roleplayer refers to some newfangled edition of a game as "too MMO-ish". Like, MMO invented that mechanic or something as opposed to, I don't know, DECADES OLD COMPETING PRODUCTS OF THE SAME F'ING CATEGORY.

[Neonivek]

I am glad you qualified what you meant Sergius.

Otherwise I might be confused.

[Quartz_Mace]

Here's to another round!
Powerless Enemies
I don't want to instantly mow down hundreds of weak enemies when I'm cut from steel. I'd like a challenge. I especially hate only fighting a handful of these weaklings at a time. At least make them swarm if they are meant as a challenge.
Having a Main Character who is a Mass-Murder, but Portraying Him/Her as a Hero
They should at least feel bad as they murder everyone. In DF adventure mode, my character will cry as they kill sentient creatures, but other games commonly have main characters who are meant to be heroic, but murder a ton of people with no remorse.
Long, Annoying Tutorial
It is much more interesting and fun to get thrown right into the action and have people try to kill you from the get-go. Tell me how to do stuff as I desperately struggle to survive in the first 5 minutes. It's !!FUN!!
White Male Protagonist
Make more diverse main characters, please. Most protagonists in mainstream gaming are both white and male. I don't care if they're Asian, Hispanic, Indian, female, or anything else as long as they're a well-written character. They can be a completely terrible person, as long as they're well written.

Okay, I'll lay off on game developers for a bit. Now, I move on to pet peeves in gaming communities:

Insulting New Players
Everyone starts as a new player. Harassing and insulting new players makes them enjoy the game less and hate you back. You were a new player once too.
Complaining About Graphics
The only thing that matters in a game's graphics is that you can understand what the graphics mean. To bash a game because it has "bad graphics" is very stupid if you can understand what you see. It is especially annoying when people say graphics make a game because they really don't.
Insulting a Gaming Community Because They Don't Like What You Like/You Don't Like What They Like
Just accept people's different tastes.

Fortunately we don't have too many problems here at Bay 12, but I just felt like a bit of a rant.

[Virtz]

White Male Protagonist
Make more diverse main characters, please. Most protagonists in mainstream gaming are both white and male. I don't care if they're Asian, Hispanic, Indian, female, or anything else as long as they're a well-written character. They can be a completely terrible person, as long as they're well written.

Diversity does not a well-written character make, and most mainstream protagonists are not well-written to begin with. Don't think it'd provide an interesting back-story either. Prey had a native american protagonist. What do you remember of that gem's story? Assassin's Creed 1 had a middle easterner for a protagonist and was one of the more boring entries in the series despite starting it. Sleeping Dogs had a mostly Asian cast of characters, including the protagonist. The story was meh and felt really haphazard in the way it was told (I still really liked the game, though).

Complaining About Graphics
The only thing that matters in a game's graphics is that you can understand what the graphics mean. To bash a game because it has "bad graphics" is very stupid if you can understand what you see. It is especially annoying when people say graphics make a game because they really don't.

Insulting a Gaming Community Because They Don't Like What You Like/You Don't Like What They Like
Just accept people's different tastes.

...uh-huh.

Also, while I wouldn't complain about graphics quality unless it'd be hurting my eyes like Dontrel the Dolphin, I can totally object to graphical style for being inconsistent, lazy or just a kind I dislike.

I mostly agree with your other points, though.

[Quartz_Mace]

Yeah, what I meant was if a game has decent graphics that can be understood and don't hurt eyes, many people will still complain that it doesn't look good enough or judge games solely on graphics. Sometimes it is justified, but a lot of people weigh it too heavily, in my opinion.

As far as character diversity, it's just an annoying trend I've noticed. In general, I'd like better character writing, including diversity. Just making characters diverse doesn't inherently improve a game, but I feel that main character's are always white and male. Occasionally, you'll see a female or black character, but not often. I just feel a bit more variety would be nice. That said, if the character is done differently and worse because of their ethnicity or sex, yeah stick to white males.

NOTE: That last statement means that they should avoid doing those characters if they will be alienating, stereotyping, or discriminating against minorities. If they do a bad white male character, less people take it personally.

[Neonivek]

Complaining About Graphics
The only thing that matters in a game's graphics is that you can understand what the graphics mean. To bash a game because it has "bad graphics" is very stupid if you can understand what you see. It is especially annoying when people say graphics make a game because they really don't.

In all fairness the graphical power of the game is one thing. But I think it is fair to criticize a game on its aesthetics.

[SHAD0Wdump]

 Complaining that a game has poor graphics in this day and age is definitely a peeve of mine too... It flat out pisses me off sometimes.
 You don't have to have next or even current gen graphics to wow a person. I have what I consider 'graphics' and 'spectacle'. Graphics is just generic fine detail in terms of geometry and textures. Spectacle is the thing that makes stuff like say.. Journey work. Sure that game had pretty decent graphics in my book, but it wowed you with the world it was depicting.

[Neonivek]

We also have Okami which was a stunning beautiful game but graphically was rather weak but aesthetically was strong.

But I don't know why people reference "bad graphics" as to mean "not enough processor power".

I love my Valkyrie Profiles.

[Rolan7]

I wrote and discarded a weird rambling post about how I've come to appreciate high quality models and textures in certain FPSes, basically Farcry and Skyrim.  Yet, I don't have trouble getting immersed in Source engine games.  Even Half Life 2.  (Half Life 1 isn't immersive for me, mostly due to gamey mechanics but also technical limitations).

I guess I agree that it's not the texture quality that matters, it's how they use it.  Certain old FPSes managed to be very evocative...  And the development of better graphics technology didn't somehow undo that.

And I think certain SNES games will emulated and ported for as long as we have the technology to do so.