227: Procedural generation. It's an interesting little feature that sometimes works well enough, but it never has and never will replace meaningful level design. Indies in particular seem weirdly obsessed with it.

dtgreene: Here is another one: patches that fix exploits. I am one of those who likes playing around with glitches, and I don't like it when developers fix the fun glitches.

227: Has anyone said weapon breakage/degradation yet? It's an annoyance in Witcher 3 and the later Fallout games, and then there are games like The Cursed Crusade where your weapon breaks every couple enemies like everything is made out of porcelain. I've yet to see a game that incorporates weapon degradation or breakage without it just being a tedious thing you need to keep track of.

227: 101% this. Also, when they rebalance fun exploits that aren't technically glitches. For example, I heard awhile back that they removed your ability to get over 100% immunity to fire in Divinity: Original Sin and be healed by lava while enemies immolate themselves trying to get to you. Using a game's systems against it is fun, and removing fun stuff is dumb.

dtgreene: An anti-feature is a "feature" that the game (or other thing) would be better off without.

For purposes of this topic, please only discuss anti-features of the game design itself, and not things like DRM (which is an anti-feature, but it's not the point of the topic).

What anti-features in games are more common than they should be?

Here are two that I can come up with:

1. Punishment for death. Some games penalize characters who die with things like aging or permanent stat penalties. These penalties simple serve the function of encouraging players to reload rather than accepting the death and continuing on. The player already has to repeat a section or play down a party member or spend resources on revival; you don't need to punish her any further.

2. Genre switches. When someone chooses a game, that person chooses a game of a genre that she wants to play (and is able to). When the game switches genre, you end up in a situation where the player must get through a part of the game that she hates to get to the good part of the game. One example is stealth sequences in non-stealth games (like modern Zelda); another is action mini-games like the ones in Final Fantasy games.

In the cast of example 2, some players may not even be able to pass certain points. Putting action in a turn-based game, for example, causes problems for disabled gamers who can't press buttons fast enough to go through action games. Putting a turn-based sequence in an action game (which is far less common) can be an issue for young children who don't know how to read.

Charon121: Dungeons. Huge, sprawling dungeons chock full of enemies you have to wade through, and every room is a giant slog to clear. I realise it's a matter of taste and that many people prefer large dungeons, but to me they're lazy game padding. Miles of corridors that all look the same, rooms peppered with loot containers and predictable traps, enemies stacked into rooms without rhyme or reason. All the time with very little plot advancement. Easy to design, but hard to get through. I like more story in my RPGs, and more varied environments, especially overworld.

Charon121: Dungeons. Huge, sprawling dungeons chock full of enemies you have to wade through, and every room is a giant slog to clear. I realise it's a matter of taste and that many people prefer large dungeons, but to me they're lazy game padding. Miles of corridors that all look the same, rooms peppered with loot containers and predictable traps, enemies stacked into rooms without rhyme or reason. All the time with very little plot advancement. Easy to design, but hard to get through. I like more story in my RPGs, and more varied environments, especially overworld.

dick1982: "realistic" ghost enemies that can pass through walls and attack you while inside a wall. in lands of lore, pokemon mysterious dungeons, and some angbands i think.

in TES:arena, some bugged monsters stuck in walls can also attack you.

dtgreene: In Arena, can't you just hit the enemy with an area spell or use a spell to destroy the wall if that happens?

227: Has anyone said weapon breakage/degradation yet? It's an annoyance in Witcher 3 and the later Fallout games, and then there are games like The Cursed Crusade where your weapon breaks every couple enemies like everything is made out of porcelain. I've yet to see a game that incorporates weapon degradation or breakage without it just being a tedious thing you need to keep track of.