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General discussion (archive)Irritating misconceptions about the real world in games(225 posts)(225 posts)
(225 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted December 16, 2014
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HiPhish:
Well effectiveness depends on skill, but more like in Fallout 1&2 where your skill influenced your accuracy.
Posted December 17, 2014
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lukaszthegreat: what?

The lack of proper maps and how important they are is irritating me. Wolf is not the only one which fucked up maps when it should not have done so.
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AnimalMother117: That's about the only way I can express the blank look on my face and the sheer baffling nature of the problem you mentioned.

Did it have South Sudan?
Not sure. It did have Poland with modern borders.

It is just incredibly silly in my opinion to not get it right. it's like saying Minsk is in Russsia (extremely jarring part in one of old Friends episodes)

with wikipedia, the whole internet at ones disposal making mistake like that is simply unacceptable.
Posted December 17, 2014
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Crispy78: Can you not just make the assumption that there are acres of cabbages somewhere, just the adventurers tend not to hang around in them? ;)
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Klumpen0815: This would make a nice game concept:
"Adventures in totally ignored farmlands" :D
Quest for Cabbages, featuring the evil Round-up trying to kill the Honest Honeybee you'll have to save by finding the Prong of Permaculture in the Hills of Tilted Fields.
Posted December 19, 2014
Another misconception – how easy it is to acquire new skills, abilities and languages. In most cases the screen just fades to black for a few seconds, and the in-game clock may advance for a few hours for "extra realism", and the characters already know the skill when you assume control of them again. In Planescape: Torment, the Nameless One learns a long-forgotten language in this way. In TES games physical conditioning when trainers are involved is pretty much instant as well. Some games opt for the practical approach:

Trainer: "I will teach you my famous combat technique. Here – attack that training dummy!"
*Character obliterates the training dummy*
Character: "Great! I now know all the secrets of this particular style, including all primary, secondary and evasive moves"

Sometimes you become a martial artist in a particular style by reading scrolls, as is the case in Jade Empire. Those ancient scroll writers must have been very illustrative and to the point if readers can replicate every move with ease in combat five minutes later. If anything, this cheapens martial arts and ancient knowledge, reducing them to gimmicks that can supposedly be learned faster than reading a Wikipedia article.
Posted December 19, 2014
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Charon121: Another misconception – how easy it is to acquire new skills, abilities and languages. In most cases the screen just fades to black for a few seconds, and the in-game clock may advance for a few hours for "extra realism", and the characters already know the skill when you assume control of them again. In Planescape: Torment, the Nameless One learns a long-forgotten language in this way. In TES games physical conditioning when trainers are involved is pretty much instant as well. Some games opt for the practical approach:

Trainer: "I will teach you my famous combat technique. Here – attack that training dummy!"
*Character obliterates the training dummy*
Character: "Great! I now know all the secrets of this particular style, including all primary, secondary and evasive moves"

Sometimes you become a martial artist in a particular style by reading scrolls, as is the case in Jade Empire. Those ancient scroll writers must have been very illustrative and to the point if readers can replicate every move with ease in combat five minutes later. If anything, this cheapens martial arts and ancient knowledge, reducing them to gimmicks that can supposedly be learned faster than reading a Wikipedia article.
Reminds me of a total wimp who was a pen&paper role player and tried learning real sword fencing in my ex martial arts group. He was really shocked, that he had to do gymnastics for it, had aching muscles after even the smallest conditioning and was so scared of everything, that he became totally stiff at evasive training and was always hit, no matter how slow you did it.

Then there are are those guys with misconceptions who are completely butch and have too much muscle mass in the upper body from excessive training at a gym. Those are incredibly slow, not agile at all and are thrown off balance in the wrestling techniques so easily that practically everyone could tip them over. Those usually think, you have to be a hulk for sword fights.

It's very specific work with lots of conditioning and you need a lot of time and patience for all this, not "Strength = 100" or "find and read scroll x for 5 seconds".
Post edited December 19, 2014 by Klumpen0815
Posted December 19, 2014
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Charon121: Another misconception – how easy it is to acquire new skills, abilities and languages. In most cases the screen just fades to black for a few seconds, and the in-game clock may advance for a few hours for "extra realism", and the characters already know the skill when you assume control of them again. In Planescape: Torment, the Nameless One learns a long-forgotten language in this way. In TES games physical conditioning when trainers are involved is pretty much instant as well. Some games opt for the practical approach:

Trainer: "I will teach you my famous combat technique. Here – attack that training dummy!"
*Character obliterates the training dummy*
Character: "Great! I now know all the secrets of this particular style, including all primary, secondary and evasive moves"

Sometimes you become a martial artist in a particular style by reading scrolls, as is the case in Jade Empire. Those ancient scroll writers must have been very illustrative and to the point if readers can replicate every move with ease in combat five minutes later. If anything, this cheapens martial arts and ancient knowledge, reducing them to gimmicks that can supposedly be learned faster than reading a Wikipedia article.
The ease with which characters acquire skills in games never really bothered me. It's ridiculous, of course, to learn any new skill by reading a scroll or attacking a dummy (or even worse, learning a new skill simply by using the skills that you already possess on x number of enemies). That being said, it would be really boring to play a game that involved punching a dummy for hours and trying real combat at a martial arts studio for months to learn a new skill. :-) I accept punching the dummy as a limitation of in-game storytelling/ shorthand for the character really working on that skill for months, but the game refusing to bore you by showing it all. Really glaring factual errors are far worse game sins if you ask me.
Posted December 20, 2014
I have big problems with most of RPGs. They all start where you are some kid in late teens that never held a sword in his life.

In 18 years of your life you were not able to collect enough experience to reach level 2 yet in next couple of weeks you will save the world couple of times and reach level cap before you even finish the main quest line.
Posted December 20, 2014
Speaking of skills and learning, one thing that bothers me with fiction in general is when you have an ancient vampire or some other immortal creature who doesn't really have that much more knowledge than an above-average person. If I was immortal I would learn pretty much anything I can come across, just to kill the time. I would just pack my stuff and go on a journey across the world, just because I could. With mortal people it makes sense that we can only focus on a few things because we age, but an immortal has no limit.
Post edited December 20, 2014 by HiPhish
Posted December 20, 2014
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HiPhish: Speaking of skills and learning, one thing that bothers me with fiction in general is when you have an ancient vampire or some other immortal creature who doesn't really have that much more knowledge than an above-average person. If I was immortal I would learn pretty much anything I can come across, just to kill the time. I would just pack my stuff and go on a journey across the world, just because I could. With mortal people it makes sense that we can only focus on a few things because we age, but an immortal has no limit.
The classic vampire usually are fatigued by daylight and it's even fatal, they need to hide their existance and they're consumed by bloodlust that they can't control so roaming around trying to learn may be far limited than one would hope, it's just not time that is the larger factor (although I reckon money and motivation are larger obstacles than time to travel around the world and learn as much as you can as ordinary humans) but I do agree with you. One of my favourite tropes in fiction are really, really old people.

Too little focus on ancient or old people of how they could act, but something like that requires research and patience to create.
Posted December 20, 2014
Didn't read all five pages, so my apologies if this has already been said.

My number one irritating misconception is with FPS's and using the keyboard/mouse combo. Everyone who is "competitive" wants to use the keyboard mouse instead of a controller not because it's easier (which controllers most definitely are) but because of the competitive advantage one gets due to how precise mouse movement is. You swirl around and can easily place your mouse directly on your target instantly.

This is completely unrealistic. In fact, the controller actually mimics reality very, very closely with how you have to wiggle it to get the target exactly right. I've been hunting for over 40 years, was in the Army and shot all kinds of weapons, and I don't care what kind of scope you have, even a laser one, no human can just turn and have his/her aim pointed perfectly.

And because of that unrealistic competitive advantage, many FPS's appear to be made to encourage such an irritating misconception. As in, if you don't play with that unrealistic advantage, you can't succeed at the game.
Post edited December 20, 2014 by OldFatGuy
Posted December 20, 2014
playing a game with swords or bows and arrows,and around the next corner is a teleport or portal.Who put that there Martians??
Posted December 20, 2014
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gunsynd: playing a game with swords or bows and arrows,and around the next corner is a teleport or portal.Who put that there Martians??
you played dungeon siege i see ;p

infinite arrows on top of that (also dungeon siege)
Posted December 20, 2014
@snowkatt
Yes Dungeon Seige,and many many more.Only play RPG..
Posted December 20, 2014
He-he, Somebody said "Bioware"? Okay, lemme find my old notes, where they are? Ah, here!
Normandy SR1 hull width from the outside is just 8 metres. From the inside, it's at least 28 metres (plus those escape pods seen in ME2 intro).
Ranking system makes no sense. Ah, sorry, I forgot - SPESS MEHRENS!
ME2/3 universal thermal clips aren't universal - you can't shuffle them between guns (somewhat similar to Deus Ex 2), and amount of clips you carry depends on your guns, not your equipment (in real life, if my webbing allows me to carry 12 mags, I can't carry more - there is no space; in ME amount of clips differs more than 2 times, IIRC). Similar problem exists also in Far Cry (3, for example).
Thermal clips being present at Jacob's father location - despite the fact he was there for long time.
Shepard is aware of thermal clips, despite being dead upon their introduction.
Projectiles' velocity in ME2/3 is 50/100 metres per second, very far from declared "lightspeed". Not an issue in ME1, where projectiles were exemplary "instahit". Not exactly real world reference, but still.
Space faring era guns that are less accurate tham modern days AK-74 (which is not known for being exemple of precision).
Financial inconsistensies between the series.
In ME2/3 all people have height of ~130 cm.
According to Widow weight, in ME3 Shepard can carry 150 kg of armament alone. Okay, he is cyborg, how fragile Liara (or Tali) could pull him up with all that load?
Shepard waving 39 kg Widow like it's made of... I don't know, paper?
Despite weapons weight reduction and damage increase, their recoil decreases. Oh, sorry, I forgot - mass effect fields.
Turret on Mars that has limited traverse, a lot of dead zones, that unable to penetrate the glass (why we need Crucible, gran the glass!) or destroy any solid objects, those objects' placement, that allowed safe passage to turret's dead zone.
Total ignorance of orders, lack of skills, and strange technical decisions by Cerberus personnel. Examples: they can't hit Liara crawling in front of them in ventilation duct (or Shepard, Jacob and shuttle), Cerberus Guardians' shields having open slot, despite Atlas' windshield, made of same material, being totally trensparent. Canadian police doesn't have ballistic shields with bulletproof visor and spotlights I don't recommend looking at? Total and repeatitive ignorance of orders not to send goddamn tram, despite placing a mine on rail.
Inability to recognize one of yours on radio chatter.
Bringing knives to a gunfight.
Unless Earth changed poles in 2186 or canadians moved their Canada Place, what the heck Sun is doing at northern hemisphere in Vancouver?
By the way, Canadians, how difficult it is to get a decent flashlight in Canada? Are Surefires banned? Streamline? Energizer? Ledwave? Why do I ask? Because games set in future have no flashlight, night vision devices, or any thermal images. Those things on Javelin aren't. There are no night vision goggles, and there are no flashlight. Okay, ME3 had flashlight, but it is a) scripted, b) garbage. Show them Alan Wake, I don't know. Don't tell them about Halo, that had all that like a decade earlier. Or Star wars Republic commando that had some sort of night vision 6 years earlier.
Entire Vancouver mission is dorky, starting with that trial that is not trial, and up to Normandy's departure, Kojima style - Reapers, who hunted same Normandy, unable to see it, and allow Shepard and Anderson to talk.
Virmire survivor subplot and mistrust.
"We need quarians' fleet". No, we don't - Alliance military alone comprised from 330 mln of people, quarian ships can hault only 17 millions of them, that's around 20 ferries with full fleet, and I doubt Reapers would allow that. Surely, entire Alliance doesn't need to be ferried, but there are krogans and turians. And you can't just pack them in folded state, they aren't geth.
Whoever planned final mission in London was an idiot - Shepard's shuttle has no Cain, yet downed shuttle had 2.
Reapers are way too stupid (let's say both sides worth each other). All of them: left Citadel unattended, left gates unattended, allowing free passage, Reaper on Rannoch never read memoirs of German tankers who served on Tiger - if turret is slow, rotate the hull, you maggot! Reaper that was guarding that Teleport beam never fired at missile launcher.
Harbringer is lazy.All talks, no walks. Shame on him.
Only bad guys had plan. No matter how stupid, at least they had one.
Having up to 24 grenades, Shepard running towards lift (elevator;p) empty-handed. In case you forgot - there is Kai Leng and Phantoms.
Cerberus attack on Citadel, given numbers of C-Sec alone, that leaves question about attackers' numbers open. Cerberus got a lot of people and ships from that small, just 450 men strong organisation. Ships were leased from Alliance, I wonder?
Assault belt bra, tight suit, no helmets in space or hostile atmosphere.
CSI: Miami-style removing/putting helmet back on. YEEEEEAAAAAH!
NO LEFTIES!!!111oneoneone. Okay, some, in cutscenes only.
NPCs look like mannequins, haven't breathed, or even blinked. And that after Gothic 1, where people had conversation, performed job-related activities (cook used laddle, some folk tried to fix their hut, smith working in smithy, etc) and had daily schedule, or Witcher, where people ran away from rain. And they looked better there than in ME3, that is what, 5 years older? And I don't even mean Witcher 2 - that's totally different league.
Animations. ME3 mostly.
Sound that doesn't reflects the surroundings.
Okay, first page is over, should I go to second one?

But yeah, sure, I disliked ME3 not because of all that, but only "because Shepard died". Geralt died, but I'll never say Saga was bad. Even in worst parts.
Posted December 21, 2014
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priamus90: Age of Empires is full of misconceptions.
Like that a civilisation that starts out with 3 male villagers can still reproduce.
Or that walls break down after a few strikes of a ram, but the stomach of a villager can take a lot more of those.
Or that you can ram crops and put them on fire.

There are a lot.....
Haha, I never thought about it like that before, but you're right! Maybe the crops are always on the verge of bursting into flames, and the ramming just sent them over the edge!
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)Irritating misconceptions about the real world in games(225 posts)(225 posts)
(225 posts)