Making Annoying But Never Stupid Games as a Challenge

[kyonides]

Making Uncomfortable but Never Stupid Games as a Challenge

EDIT

I have received a pm telling me that on this thread's title I could perfectly replace the term annoying with punishing. Let's say that's another way to see things that might be worth mentioning here.

END OF EDIT

Well, I have been told awful stories about how some moronic user kept uploading true sh** on boards like rmn. I am against such a stupidity, but it gave me an idea. What if we make a few uncomfortable games while still keeping in mind a few rules? Yeah, we need to keep it save for an audience after all. 

How would I define the term uncomfortable? 

It would not want to break the rules nor make you think it wants you to puke every 2 minutes. Yeah, I practically ruled out gore here. It should not try to justify stuff that is illegal and immoral like discriminating black people or asking to hurt Jews, et al. 

What it should include would be things like sporting too many puzzles in row or scenes you cannot walk through the first ten times because it requires you to push several buttons and bring specific items or heroes along, and killing either mobs, sub bosses or a even few bosses. I know I could just name a few things here. 

My point is that the player should feel awkward whenever he or she thinks they can just keep grinding in order to reach a level where the player would no longer worry about survival. It is like adding up the life is harsh concept in your game mechanics. 

After thinking about it for I realized there is a lot of work to be done. Would all that hard work and nuisance stuff be worth the huge effort? Or would it be a recipe for a certain failure?

[MetalRenard]

Not sure I understood. Are you proposing a competition for who can make the most annoying game?

[DerVVulfman]

ROFL. It was Alfred Hitchcock that said "Always make the audience suffer as much as possible." I wouldn't go THAT far as to make a game that is solely designed to antagonize the player. Well... if a minigame takes forever to complete, challenging could turn into agonizing.

On the other hand, one could put in some annoyance per-say. I trust my colleague who penned the article would note how the game "Drakengard" wished to put the player through hell so he/she could experience Caim's descent into madness.

And he's playing Devil's Advocate as usual.

[Steel Beast 6Beets]

On the other hand, one could put in some annoyance per-say.  I trust my colleague who penned the article would note how the game "Drakengard" wished to put the player through hell so he/she could experience Caim's descent into madness.

Drakengard is indeed a pretty hellish experience, mostly because the game is a poor's man Dynasty Warriors/mediocre Panzer Dragoon knockoff with all their flaws but none of their strengths.

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What about sidequests that are an intentionally obtuse and pointless but necessary to archive the true ending?

Nier, coincidentally from the same mind as Drakengard mentioned by VVulman, has the most demeaning, debasing sidequests I've ever seen in a game. The one that I always remember is "the Runaway Son" that requires you to travel all over the world on foot, no teleport in this game, pursuing a guy.

Content Hidden

You eventually return to the client's house only to find it empty. A nearby guard tells you that that family were con artists that borrowed money from everyone and then skipped town. And that his son wanted to escape from that life of crime until "some idiot" i.e you brought him back.

Also

Content Hidden

You don't get anything in return. Congratulations on wasting your time.

[DerVVulfman]

URP. Well, I guess he wanted to point out that some things severely SUCKS.

[Steel Beast 6Beets]

Your partner pretty much says that they should "tally this up as an expensive life lesson and move on", which is the wisest thing that can be done in such situation.

An unique aspect to Nier is that NPcs actually react to you doing sidequests. At some point, a woman identifies you as that guy who does chores no matter how demeaning or humiliating they are and then tells you to fetch something posthaste.

A pretty accurate assessment, as Nier would gladly shovel shit for the rest of his days as long as it ensures that his ill daughter Jonah will have anything she needs.

Also, there's this nifty flowchart to doing sidequests in Nier games:


The joke is that every sidequest is a pain in the ass, regardless of the need to farm something or not.

[kyonides]

Well, I don't recall any interesting side quest in Nier back when I had a PS3 game. It really seemed to be a nuisance and it was weird it included a text based interface for a (side) quest...

[Steel Beast 6Beets]

Perhaps that was the point, to make obnoxious and boring sidequests to demonstrate what a waste of time sidequests generally are? I mean, supposedly the original Drakengard is a slog to play because violence should not be rewarded. That and because the creator of the game thinks that being graded on how enemies you kill is utter lunacy.

As for the text adventure, the game does feature gameplay changes regularly, like the haunted manor being a big Resident Evil homage, completed with fixed cinematic angles, the underground laboratory having an isometric view a la Diablo and many bosses having bullet hell styled attacks.