RTS if it includes building your own base and troops from scratch.
MMORPGs. They never end and too often the missions are simple fetch quests. Dull.
Hidden object games. I hate pixel hunting.
Tower defense games, they're usually too frantic for my tastes.

MMO. For games which are supposed to be persistent world, it feels too much like nothing happen, your actions have no consequences in the big scheme of thing, because the dude which will come 6 months later will need to do same quest to kill the same npc in the same scripted war. Also, I'm not into the whole virtual social thing.

Strategy which have more tactics than actual strategy, like the AOE, ... Use to like them back then, but I just can't get into it anymore. I can't do proper multi-tasking if I can't see & give order to all my armies at the same time. I love action tactical though.

Serious sport game. I don't want a pixel referee telling me it's wrong to hurt its fellow pixels.

The point, for me anyway, is to get a feel of stuff I can't do in real life.

Of course it would. I even said I don't know how to improve it (doesn't mean it's perfect, though).

The story is presented like that. You are not told anything about the character, apart from that he wakes up in what looks like the morgue. You can assign stats in whichever way you like. "My memories are lost to me" (when talking to Deionarra) is [Truth]. You have the whole spectrum of D&D alignment options presented each time you make a decision, and the alignment is floating (compare and contrast: you choose alignment at the start and if it's "Good", you don't ever get "MURDER" on the list, and if it's Evil, you don't get "help that kitten off a tree"). There's a bunch of factions you can join, only one of which actually puts seeking death front and center (and they are ever-so-slightly antagonistic).

When [REDACTED] flat out refuses to take an vitally important item from the middle of the goddamn wasteland just because a disembodied voice told him not to, that's his personality at work. Each selection TNO gets reaffirms your full control over his personality. Practical and Paranoid are both survivors, too.

Immortality is awesome. So it's a bad premise which makes for a toxic story despite the delicious, delicious words.

There are a lot of RPGs where "play your own character" does not work, because they aren't trying. And that's why they can't serve as examples that "play your own character" does not work on first principles. Which is why the best example is a game that is widely acknowledged to try the most and still (IMAO) fail.

That's what I call "compact". By starting or joining a game, I make a conscious effort to create and play a character as compatible with the assumed plot as possible. To play Dragonlance, I create a happy-go-lucky zealot. To play Shadowrun, I create someone who thinks climbing the corporate ladder is for squares. Planescape: Torment isn't "an immortal wants to die" from the start, it smuggles it in later: "want more of that delicious writing? decide to die today!" and has a bunch of characters trying to guilt-trip you. And if you decide that any of them appears to make a reasonable point, then you've swallowed the plot hook (and line and sinker). But I will never buy it. There are many things that can change the nature of a man, and if I was able to talk some sense into a godlike demoness, an angel, and an UNRELENTING AVATAR OF JUSTICE, there's no reason why I should cave in to the laments of a crazy ghost woman.

Anyway, that's not really all that important. What *is* important is that you have, as of this posting, 23 days to wrap up your current gaming. GET TO IT, DUDE.

This.

I think your problem with PST is that you expected it to be something it never wanted to be. Planescape Torment gives you predefined goals and a very predefined story. It gives you different ways to reach these goals yes but what your goal is is always predefined. PST never claimed that it is one of these your decision matter games. The Devs even stated that the game was inspired by FF VII.

If I'd take every aspect about games I dislike and throw it in a pot to cook up my #1 hate game, the outcome would be a turn based, space themed multiplayer management simulation. Just the thought makes me fall asleep.

That's your own subjective premise and an opinion that I personally would not share unconditionally.


*SPOILERS AHEAD* I thought PS:T was very convincing in showing the drawbacks of being the only amnesiac rotting corpse around, forever doomed to lose your memories and your loved ones. Even if, as you claim, it was not evident right from the start that immortality is tormenting TNO, I think the average player should be able to grasp pretty quickly that it's not as awesome for him as you might think. I still don't concur that the story deludes you into thinking that *anything* is possible and that there will be a very happy ending. *SPOILER END*


Sure, you're free to disagree with the premise and the "moral" of the story, but the fact that you yourself don't know how to change the story in order to *repair* it, IMO proves that that what you criticize is an inherent part of it and quite consistently executed.


You realize that you set a pretty high standard for judging Primordia, when you consider even PS:T a failed experiment? What if it's the best adventure ever and still doesn't manage to convince me in one regard, because I expected something different? :P

But, yeah, I got it, less posting, more playing. :D

My least favourite game genres? Before I say anything, I'd like to point out that I'm open to playing a game from any genre as long as the game itself is fun, unique and creative.

That being said, my least favourite (and least played) genres would most definitely be realistic sports and racing games. I don't appear to be in the minority here when it comes to my dislike of those two genres. I've never been a big fan of sports (which is why I chose to stay indoors reading and playing video games throughout childhood). I don't understand the specific rules and tactics inherent to each sport to be able to play a realistic sports game (or simulation) to a satisfying degree - also, I just simply find most sports to be mind-numbingly boring.
Racing games present a similar problem. While I love "arcadey" racing games (like Mario Kart, Ridge Racer etc.), realistic racing simulations are beyond me. I don't even drive a car in real-life, that's how little interest auto-motives hold for me.

I'm likewise not a huge fan of RTS games (they are too stressful) or serious simulations with the rare exception.

The answer to the question, "how to make these genres fun for me?" has already been answered by the industry. I like sports and racing games that are over-the-top, "arcadey" and humorous. Anything creative, fantastical and colourful will draw my attention. If the game doesn't take itself too seriously, then I'm often open to giving it a try. I like playing racing and sports games with my friends and family. Something like the Wii is perfect for this purpose, and in that way, I'm a very casual sports/racing gamer. That's the way I prefer it.

My favourite genres are often the ones that focus on slow-paced exploration, story, puzzles and tactical thinking. I believe that these aspects are almost completely missing from the genres that I dislike (with the exception of tactical thinking). Therefore I tend to stick to RPGs, turn-based strategy, adventure games and story-driven action/adventure/RPG hybrids.

It would be interesting to play a sports or racing game that has a heavy emphasis on story, exploration, character development and perhaps some RPG mechanics. Add arcade style action and a setting that is not too serious or realistic, and I think I might get hooked.

B-b-b-but *I* am TNO! Immortality isn't tormenting *me*! I'm not losing memory anymore! There are no drawbacks! I'm gaining quadratic power faster than anyone in the D&Dverse! And I couldn't care less if my corpse rots or shambles around for all eternity if I end up dead anyway - *that* statement is actually supported in plaintext (see Angyar sidequest).

If I see a broken oil-free vacuum pump, I won't know how to go about fixing it, too. Doesn't mean it's not broken.

1. Yes. I even made a handy comparison chart for Mark Yohalem (the writer), which I'm not goint to post because spoilers.

2. Disclaimer: While I'm fallible and it only takes a guilt-trip to make me stop bashing something, the price tag on active praise is $600k (projected total life earnings: if anyone pays for my life, I'll go through it praising just about anything). I'm pretty sure there's a countably infinite number of better ways to spend money. So when I say Primordia is really awesome, I really think that way. [Miranda Gauvin voice on] Trust me. [Miranda Gauvin voice off]

3. Just because adventures do not have what I consider the structural failing of RPGs, doesn't mean they are immune from badness and especially dislike.

For example, there's one adventure (that I ragequit) that has the hero discover a stash of highly important documents, one of which is personal. This triggers a cutscene; the hero leaves the place, and the only thing they end up having taken is that one personal document. So they happen to be the sort of person who, upon being shocked, will run away in blind panic and forget crucially important matters. In another scene, a foreigner hero manages to pretend to be a local official. Apparently, the locals are that gullible. To me, that's unacceptable, especially in a realistic game about an investigation.

Other people complain about Resonance (which I love) not having a sunshine-lollipops-and-rainbows ending. Maybe they expected to make the terrorist attacks (not a spoiler, because they're in the trailer and the first seconds of the game) unhappen because they made an effort when playing the game and wanted to get something better than any of the 2.5 "real" endings for that effort. That's something I respect: people have different thresholds and tolerances for "bad" endings; I for one preemptively hate any save-the-world RPG that doesn't end in sparkles and fanfare (although it'd be somewhat late to ragequit it by then).

So there are a lot of reasons to dislike adventure games. But "it won't let me roleplay my character" is not on the list, because it's an adventure game and the character is only mine to the extent it's hardcoded into the game.

Genres I hate:

Real-time strategy: kind of a misnomer, since many of them are based on skill, not strategy. The Blizzard games are the worst offender. Real-time strategy games can be great if they are actually strategic, decision-making, cerebral games instead of tests of speed, skill and other physical attributes.

First-person shooter, mostly due to motion sickness, but modern FPS seem kind of boring anyways. Old-school FPS are pretty fun as long as it doesn't make me feel sick.

Wrestling, because wrestling is gay.

Any good recommendations when it comes to real real-time strategy games? Those that require strategy and not speed. :P

FPSs, this gen killed that genre for me.

Hm... I think best example of a real real-time strategy game that I've played is Kohan.

Games like the Total Annihilation series, Dark Reign, Age of Empires II were great because they had good unit AI, good interface, that made them less physically cumbersome, but Kohan went even further because the core design of the game eliminated micromanagement altogether.

If you like strategy but dislike the usual RTS (as I do), it might be worth to try out Kohan, especially if you like wargames, since it borrows elements from that genre.

Sports, RTS, and Multiplayer focused FPS games...

The worst for me are point and click adventures. The telltale promo right now is probably a prime set of examples. I bought Tales of Monkey Island some time ago (when it first came to GOG) and in spite of loving the beautiful graphics I found the gameplay truly agonizing, Sort of an expensive lesson but I steer clear of those games now. Not being able to rotate the camera view was like nails on a chalkboard for me.

I also have a distaste for unimaginative FPS or games involving too many explosions or other cheap Hollywood stock formulas to encourage "excitement." I do however like many games that would fall into that category for their other qualities. Riddick has a cold nocturnal atmosphere to it, reminds me a bit of playing Bloodlines as a stealthy vamp. Started the third Thief game a while back just through the tutorial and it didn't quite have the same vibe for me so far.