What things in gaming truly frustrate you? Not major systemic issues like corporate greed or what seems to be endless firings from beloved studios…no, the minor, niggly things. The things that make you unnecessarily angry for no good reasons, except that they persist in games, and have done for years!!!

I was inspired to chat to the Gamer Social Club community about this after my recent experience with Deathbound. I noted in my preview that my save data got wiped and I had to start again, costing me four precious hours of my life. Now I know people have lost worse, but it got me wondering about what else gets on people’s nerves.

Here’s what the Gamer Social Club crew had to say…

Save Corruption

When your game gets deleted and you lose all your progress…

This is an all time frustration of mine. In this stage of the gaming world, I really think that devs should have nailed saving and ensuring your saves don’t get deleted by some horrendous glitch. It puts me off playing a game. I lost a whole load of progress in Two Point Hospital after it launched and it stopped me playing it for years. I still haven’t caught up with myself from before

– Addy

Single-Player Nerfs

Goffey is not impressed when developers “nerf the hell out of weapons or items that don’t break the game” in single player games.

If people are having fun with an OP build or item in a game, let them have fun with it if it’s single player. In most cases players will just find another way to make the game easier for them and in some cases stop playing the game entirely.

– Goffey

Seriously guys, let us be a God in a game, it’s fiiiiiiiiine.

Bullet Sponges

Goffey has a bit to say on this subject it would seem. He hates enemies that are too bullet or damage spongey.

I’m in a fantasy world, I want to feel like a badass!

– Goffey

I always think of The Division 2 or Destiny when it comes to les éponges à balles, just tedious.

No NG+

Lady V and Steve were united on this one: when a game doesn’t have a New Game Plus. The thinking here is when a game has collectibles or multiple endings and it’d be fun to fly through the game with all your gear and feel like a god!

OneHotDragon also hates this, especially when an area locks itself off after an arbitrary point of no return and you can’t backtrack.

I played through Ghost of Tsushima and wanted the armor for beating act 2, not knowing you can’t backtrack. Completely ruined my experience with the game because I wanted the good armor.

Lady V and Steve were united on this one: when a game doesn’t have a New Game Plus. The thinking here is…..HAH! Gotcha!!! If only some paragraphs had New Paragraph + (NP+)….

Co-op Partners Who Don’t Co-op

We’ve all been there. When you’re playing a co-op game and you stop playing for the night and your mate with more free time than you powers through the game solo and zooms pass and “railroads the playthrough.

It can be hard enough to get people together for a session of jolly co-operation, so let’s not waste these precious moments with the ol’ douchebaggery eh?!

Addy and Keegan agree on this one. They also suggest that people who just beeline to the objective and don’t spend any time exploring or enjoying the mission is irksome.

Oh, we’ve done the mission, but you ran straight there?! Thanks, I guess.

– Addy

Goffey has something to say on this one too:

“To add to that, playing a co-op loot game and the person constantly stops to check loot after…every…thing…they…pick…up!!!”

Loot Goblins

Loot whores who are so focused on the loot that they don’t help you out in matters of life and death. Who cares about that rare drop right now, there’s a horde of zombies eating my soft fleshy bits, if you don’t mind!! Oh great, now I’m dead….

I’ve been called “The Vaccum”, “Mr Hoover”, and “Loot Goblin” because I magnet to loot in games like Warzone and PUBG!

– Hurrikane 2200

Dude, we’re getting murdered by a four-headed dragon, “naw it’s cool I was just picking up this snozzberry!!!”

– Addy

Apparently Keegan is bad at that too, by his own admission!!!

Steve pointed the finger at those selfish reprobates who selfishly pick up more than one loot when there’s meant to be one each, he gave Risk of Rain as an example.

Microtransactions

Justin99000 went for the gullet with their thoughts on microtransactions.

Microtransactions and people’s attitude towards them is what grinds my gears. We used to get mad when a map pack was 7 bucks instead of free. Now we have 30 dollar skins as the entry fee, collabs hitting over $80 there is such a focus on stuff like this that games get shipped incomplete or with heavy bugs just so they can sell us a battlepass preseason before the game is even fully finished.

Basically the culture of money first, passion second has really affected the industry especially triple A more and more in the last few years

I feel like even a great game can be brought down by that and it always lessens my experience seeing it advertised or shoved down players throats right away.

Non-Skippables

Justfilthy and Jefftroidvania both took issue with unskippables in games. Both tutorials and cutscenes, particularly those before a boss, so you have to keep watching it over and over again.

I’ve been playing Pokemon since it came out. I know how to catch one let me skip it. There’s other games too. Especially when playing through it again

– Justfilthy

Fighting Games Inconsistencies

LetalisVenator is not a fan of below the belt fighting in their fighting games. They pointed out that some games let characters do whatever they want when they have low HP.

Hurrikane2200 also added that poor tutorials in fighting games are frustrating:

Mortal Kombat 11 has an excellent one that helped you with learning like how many frames each movement takes up. And then they come back to MK1 and the tutorial is garbage. Doesn’t help you except to learn movesets.

Slow Cursors

SnipedByAGir1 hates slow cursors.

I just played a triple stack of a game and the cursor moving at a snails pace to select things drove me bonkers!!

The Illusion of Choice

Keegan is not a fan of choice games that only give you the illusion of choice, where regardless of the dialogue option you chose, the outcome is the same.

Late Game Mechanics

Frase hates the introduction of a new mechanic right at the end of a game.

Like I have never had to do that throughout this whole process why am I doing it now. E.g. having to use the rifle during a boss fight in flintlock.

Crafting

Addy and Lady V certainly are not fans of some of the crafting scenarios in games. Lady V isn’t a fan of trend chasing:

Randomly shoehorning in mechanics just because they were in other popular titles. Not everything needs crafting, stop asking me to do crafting.

Addy hates looking at the backs of people’s heads (while crafting):

I know there’s a dev reason for it, but I hate the ‘back of the head, “look at me I’m crafting” but you can’t see it” when in reality, 20 rolls of duct tape ain’t making you that new rifle.

Achievements and Trophies

Lady V and Frase both agree that non-stacking difficulty achievements and multiplayer only achievements can “get in the bin!”

Of course, there are the ever-present glitched achievements / trophies that plague all achievement and trophy hunters too.

Also, can Xbox do something with the achievements system to refresh it, pllllleeeeeeeaaaassssseeeeeee!

No autosaves

No autosaves at key parts in a game. After a cut scene, after a boss, after locating a new area etc.

It’s 2024, autosaves have been around forever. We’ve relied on them so much that when I don’t manually save, only to find out my dumbass lost over an hour of play time, it’s incredibly deflating.

– Goffey

Huge thank you to the Gamer Social Club community who took part in this conversation. Stay tuned for more community voice pieces, and by all means, tell us your biggest gaming pet peeves below!!!!