Agree 100%

And none of these can be said for 90% of modern AAA releases as well, except perhaps "better" graphics.

I understand your position, but I'll take, sigh, "smooth" gameplay and decent story over dysfunctional innovation and overrated graphics any day.

This is HUGE with me. There are a number of always-online games I would liek to play, but absolutely refuse.

Those annoying tutorials on mobile games that seem to have made it into every modern game. You know the ones where they have to point out every single little thing, taking away all your control, and taking up 10-15 minutes just to do it? Yeah, those. What's wrong with letting the player figure out *anything* on their own.

I see some games -- mainly indies -- made by neo-hipsters, but don't seem to see that as a huge trend... but maybe I don't get out much?

Huh, you simply listed the popular types of games you personally don't like. Well, the solution is to play what you like then.

I don't like sports or competitive multiplayer or real time strategy games. But it would be extremely arrogant and selfish of me to wish for them to "fade away".

Release the entire game when it's ready, not in pieces via DLCs or Day 1 patches.

Internet required to play. There's no reason I should have to be logged into an online service just to play single player. If I want to play multiplayer, then I'll login to some server.

The map and pointer to next goal. Just mark it as an option that someone can turn on or off, and include enough info in the dialogue. I need to find the Shard of Destiny, and somehow I'm immediately pointed to which of the 100 chests it's located in, across the continent, and within the secret cave that is only accessible by this ship in a specific city.

Despite it's setting, for which I am quite a fan, Odyssey manages to hit almost all of things from my list.

And even if it didn't have those problems, it would sadly be unplayable to me. Lack of creativity or not, I simply find many retro inspired games (and old games) to have much more enjoyable gameplay than modern AAA titles (there are exceptions of course, such as Pillars of Eternity, which I didn't like).

However, I am afraid I am derailing this thread a little bit too much...

Yeah, that's exactly what I thought too. Every person these days wants every single game made to be ONLY the type they like, that's hardly a fad or trend, that's just human selfishness at work.

Anyway, my pet hate in modern gaming trends are the more psychological ones. The current generations "Emo whinge culture" infesting its way into gaming culture. "all games are trash, everything is trash, everything is too expensive, all genres I don't like are trash, all multiplayer games are trash, the world is trash, I'm trash, consoles are trash, anyone that plays with a controller is trash, I don't need to actually play any games to know they're trash because I watch every Jim Sterling video. Jim Sterling is trash, he was just a kid that got picked on for being fat and is now taking revenge by making you feel like him- trash.

The other trend I hate is "nostalgia for an age that never existed". Otherwise known as rose tinted goggles. The classic example being the old chestnut "all new games are now buggy messes". Which implies that they once weren't. That's just one example. Well, I've been alive through the entire history of commercial video gaming and I can tell you that games have always been buggy. Even Space Invaders had bugs. Some of the best games of all time were buggy messes, people just forget. And yet I can't remember a serious bug in any new game I've played in the past 10 years- The Witcher was the last buggy mess I played (crashed every hour on the hour). Wallowing in the past ensures one thing: that's where your best days will remain.

Then the modern trend that I truly cannot comprehend- the rise of the "gamer" that spends more time on Twitch watching other people play games, instead of just playing a game themselves. That one is a true mystery to me.

cluttered UI's, gained XP being shown, weapons magically sticking on the characters back, no option to turn music off, , forced motion blur, hitscanning, clipping...
I could go on for an hour.

The inability to rush a tutorial along by doing the steps you know beforehand.

I agree with the '18-bit platforms or another spiritual successor to Quake' being worse than just another sequel to an overdone AAA series, because at least the sequel will have a different setting (again, like you said).

I would just argue both are almost completely worthless. I don't think every game has to be a new, revolutionary game developed using endless creativity or something like that, but other succesful games should be used as suggestions, not as templates. Yet, the whole industry (even the indie one, like you mentioned) runs on templates.

It hurts to watch from the outside, and it's a problem that seems to pervade all aspects of modern society, if I may be so overdramatic. All we do is look to the past to make ... The past modern again. Why not just make something yourself, without a template, and just go nuts and see what happens? You'll end up with unplayable trash maybe, but it'll be worth more than another 8 bit Mega Man clone.

Op main character.

A shit ton of crafting. Crafted things that are basically useless. In a similar light, basically anything counted towards an item 'becuz crafting'.

e: also quest markers instead of using the map and information given to you through story.
Obviously this depends on what kind of game you're playing, but that's implied. Hopefully.

Fascinating. Until now I assumed the only way to feel like trash; and I mean like real disgusting human leftover garbage; after watching Sterling is to be an actual higher up/financial tied to in most of the triple AAAaaaAAAAaaa (imagine it in Sterlings annoying AAA voice if you like) industry and all their amoral practices. I personally find him to have a good balance between insightful and hilarious.