What expected QOL features do you expect from modern games in their respective genres? How much leniency would you give to indies compared to AAA gamedevs? And conversely, would love the opinion of others who prefer older games and/or hate modern QOL features in newer games today.

Not doing it for research for any organization or myself - just curious.

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For RTS, I got hooked on Shadow Tactics first and then learned about Desperados 3. So I went back to play the Desperados series in preparation. But after playing the first two levels of Desperados 1, I couldn't get into it because the game pacing ran like molasses and I had difficulty adjusting to a non-Starcraft UI unlike Shadow Tactics that had a default RTS controls setting. I even have difficulties going back to Brood War after Starcraft 2. The latter has had so many QOL improvements I can't go without anymore: controlling multiple buildings, controlling > 12 units simultaneously, better pathing, multiple action queues, auto-mining AI, resource saturation capacities, etc. If I play a modern RTS, I expect the keybinding to allow me to exactly reproduce Starcraft's controls.

In JRPGs, I expect voices from reputable RPG gamedevs because they can convey a layer of emotion that helps enhance storytelling, especially if it's important to the game. Children of Zodiarcs (Canadian SRPG) is a good example of where voices would've conveyed more emotion and elevated its status as a must-play. I also installed a Japanese voice mod pack recently for Trails in the Sky series and it adds an extra-needed layer of complexity compared to when I played voiceless in FC. Because of this, I now expect voices from modern games with 3D graphics, though I will give leniency to titles produced in the 1990s 2D style for indie gamedevs.

I actually prefer *not* to have voices in games.

For one thing, it comes at the cost of being able to customize things like names. For another, it makes the game much more expensive to make, and it also increases the size of the game. Also, it make it harder to localize the game.

I prefer no voices in CRPGs like Pillars of Eternity that have so much written dialog on screen. I read way faster than the voices, and it's not presented in a cinematic way at all anyway. Turning off voices removes important combat sounds though, so it's annoying either way.

Anyway... I play a lot of old RPGs but my cutoff is ones with no map function, which I cannot tolerate for various reasons.

For overhead view games that aren't too mazelike, I don't think a map is necessary.

Even Dragon Quest 2's infamous Cave to Rhone doesn't need a map; the only QoL feature that dungeon needs (which is present in the remakes) is to have pits you fall down remain visible when you go back to the floor you fell from.

Agreed.

And sensible file size. (No double-digit gigabyte games, please.)

To start with basics: Mouse+keyboard controls (as in not just keyboard as some old games are, but also not mouse only, and definitely not requiring or even preferring other input devices), saving anywhere and without limited slots (or with a high limit), information displayed about saves (date/time, location, thumbnail, maybe more), unless really not applicable automap and also minimap that can be toggled on and off, very preferably tooltips and in-game help that can be toggled on and off, preferably playtime timer displayed at least on saves if not also in some statistics that can be accessed in game.
One modern trend I can't stand is dialogues not displaying the full text of what the character will actually say if an option is selected.

I'm lucky that its less of an issue for me than it used to be but I still agree entirely. Its all about accessibility.

*Cracks knuckles.*

Just to name a few:

Jump to X: Some of you might think of this as a codified feature of many genres, but the simple fact is, there are a lot of games which lack the ability to quickly select a unit.

Let me flee: Mostly a RPG problem. Sometimes I have no desire to deal with set or random encounters, to just get back to town to get items or find a nice "stopping point". So being able to turn off encounters would be great.

Deign me not this cryptic nonsense: It shouldn't be a puzzle to figure out if what I have equipped is better or worse than what I am considering. As such, an obvious quality of life feature is not only direct comparison, but outright highlighting differences, with both colorblind friendly symbols and numbers.

Respec my choices: Sometimes, you make a build, and it turns out the game designer was secretly hoping you'd play as a necromancer. Or the game gets updated and suddenly your almighty buff is now a piddly +2. Being able to choose again shouldn't be a matter of sighing and rolling anew, but a simple matter of picking again.

STOP TALKING: Sometimes you've played a game more than once. And all you want to do is play, not suffer the abuse of the eyerolling self-referential smug jokes they make. And as such, I'd like to be able to hit a button or combination thereof that's like the "Skip all" option in many visual novels.

Addendum! KEEP MY HEAD STILL: We aren't bobbleheads. Headbobbing is a menace which should have never been added into games in to the game in the first place.

LET ME READ: Mostly a problem in JRPGs, I shouldn't have to leaf though text two lines at a time like the pixel resolution of the screen is 160 x 144. Allow me to smoothly scroll though dialogue and expand it to be as many lines as I damn well please. Or more often, lying about the actual tone/phrasing of said selection.

Honestly, I'd rather have the game support keyboard only, so I can play it comfortably on my laptop. Also, I don't like having to use two input devices for the same game. I actually would prefer *not* to have this, and for the game to not track time played at all. Corollary: The game should not turn into an action game when the player is trying to avoid encounters. This issue is found in the SaGa games (starting in Romancing SaGa 1), and later in other JRPGs, including even later Dragon Quest games (starting with DQ9), and I really wish games wouldn't do this.

(SaGa Frontier 1, as nice as that game is, does have an issue here; enemies move in real time out of battle (so the game turns into an action game when you're trying to avoid encounters), and there's no way to run from encounters; the fact that enemies scale based off the number of battles fought doesn't help.) Or, design the game so that you can easily have old characters learn new tricks. Make it so that an experienced fighter with noly novice spellcasting ability can improve their spellcasting ability as easily as a new novice spellcaster could. (That's one of the reasons I like the SaGa approach so much, though I'll admit that the games aren't without their flaws.)

In particular, the common skill point system, where you improve skills by spending points only gained through level up, is a bad system. (Level ups are harder to get at higher levels, and there's usually a level cap, at which point you can't level up anymore.)

Cutscene skil should be mandatory in all games that have non-interactive cutscenes, with the possible exception of FMV games like Dragon's Lair.

Then again, a "Skip all" option in a visual novel is a lot like a cutscene skil in an FMV game, so if one makes sense, so does the other.

(Serment: Contract With a Devil, which has some visual novel elements (particularly the intro), allows you to skip the intro entirely if you so choose.)

With SP games, I don't care what the budget is but I prefer games with save state. If it has save room or check point system, I usually ignore it or only play them if it's free and I like all the other aspects a good deal.

For Local MP games, I expect hot swap for gamepads and fightsticks. When hitting LANs or having friends and family over for gaming, hot swap games are best since everyone seems to have their favorite control pad or fight stick. I've noticed that high end games don't have this feature as much while indie games do.

For online MP, I expect to be able to self host or only play with ppl in my friends list. If the game does not provide, I don't play it.

You do know stuff like that was a design choice? Also, you aren't into QOL, you just like the game being made easier.

In all games I expect the possibility to remap all actions. (I mean all, everything.)

It's nice that games nowdays (specially for PC) have multiple options for changing controls.
But it's annoying when you can change many things, except that action you want to change, but welp, you can't, because of reasons.

Example: Attack is done with MB1. I want to change it to Num 3, game wont let you change Mouse commands.
(This example is common in topdown RPGs where ALT and CTRL are used for pause or menus, etc.)

If it's a FPS: FOV and multiple kinds of sensibility options

If it's a RPG: Stackable items, a way to move through menus faster (With a well organized UI) and a way to sell everything/collect everything without the need to hold a command/press it many times.

If it's a RTS: Hotkeys, please, give me more hotkeys and organized UI with buttons close to each other without the need to move the mouse all the way to the other side of the screen.

All genres: Let me play the game without menu, cutscenes or "help/tutorial" interruptions every second. As, depending on these interruptions, it's really annoying.

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Talking about voice acting:

Depending on the game, it is really important for immersion in the story. If the studio have resources to record well and hire good voice actors, it's really a plus, if not, better stick with texts or other form of visual, environmental and musical story telling.

I recently started playing Dragon Age: Origins and Im impressed by the voice acting.
Even if the game is old and facial expressions aren't so realistic anymore, the voices of each NPC is so amazingly done that you can feel what the character is expressing while talking.

This is a great plus for immersion, indeed.

--- Almost infinite - IF - the Indie Studio show to their public that they're honest about their game and resources to keep working in it.
If they keep their promises, work on listening to community requests, try to optmize the final product as much as possible and don't advertise things they actually can't do, yes, almost infinite.

Specially because Indie developers tend to be more creative about their games, make mistakes and try again, while AAA companies try to stick with what is "Safe" for the business, which I understand, all things considered.

That's why Indie Devs should be encouraged to listen to their community, that sometimes may be small, but "the client is always right". They can pin point QOL issues and assist devs (literally for free and love for the project) in things that they wouldn't have seen otherwise.

--- Warning: Maybe it's my old self talking here.

I hate when games hold your hand.

I'm not saying games shouldn't have basic tutorials, but some genres are mostly played by mid to pro level players already, that understand that "Press X for Jump" and "Press Mouse Button 1 to attack" and "Press Mouse Button 1, three times to make a combo" and "Press X for Jump and then Mouse Button 1 to make an Air Attack!" now "Press Mouse Button 1 three times after Pressing X Button to make an Air Combo Attack!" (Are ye not entertained?!)

[If you got annoyed by reading this, yes.]

It's really cool when the game just teaches you the basics and let you discover other mechanics by yourself. This feeling of discovery and exploration is really good for progression.

While many old games give you this true sense of progression (discovery), many others just give you a fake sense of progression through numbers of levels nowdays.

The true progression isn't when you level up a number, but when you understand and apply a principle that you learned by yourself, to overcome a challenge presented.

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Also, sorry for the long post, got a little inspired by the topic.

TL;DR: The more you take control out of the player, the worse. The more you give the player control to play the game and speed up easy actions, the better.

And then you've got Game Freak with a bizarre inversion, where there are scenes where they imply things like singing and stadium announcements but can't be arsed to even go "LA LA LA" or make some kind of gibberish sound; something even the SNES or (help us all) the NES could manage to do.

If you're wondering what series: This is Pokemon; the biggest franchise Nintendo has in terms of raw cash dolla'.