Top Ten Game Cliches

1up.com has a piece examining game cliches that are just done. Really. From the article: "2.) Pushing crates. Note to evil masterminds everywhere: We understand that you're trying to run a business, which involves receiving equipment and food somehow. But leaving those giant crates just lying around your warehouse for any one-man army to use for supplies and climbing? It's no wonder most startup criminal organizations fail within the first five years. Even seen in: God of War (PS2) 4.) Ridiculous portrayals of females. Women have breasts. Get over it. Even seen in: Soul Calibur II (PS2/XB/GC)"

Comments

Top Ten Gaming Website Cliches

[Aix]

And the winner is... "Making Top Ten Lists of Game Cliches"!

Why women only?

[Linus Torvaalds]

Ridiculous portrayals of females. Women have breasts. Get over it.

Yeah, because game portrayals of male characters are so lifelike. It's not like their biceps are bigger than all of me curled up in a ball, with veins as thick as my fingers.

Game characters are caricatures. It's not sexist because it's applied to both sexes.

Re:Why women only?

[interiot]

Best technical description of clothes features, evar.

Re:Exploding barrels is my fav

[iocat]

Formula for a cliche, but fun, game circa Genesis/SNES era: Grassy world, Ice world, Jungle World, Desert World, Mine Cart Level. Repeat.

Uh...

[Surye]

#5 Unnecessary stealth

If you want to make a stealth game, then make a stealth game. Don't give us guns and bombs and swords and fast cars and explosions and then tell us to be quiet, just for a bit! If we want to sneak around, then we'll play a game that's designed for doing just that. In your game, we shall blow stuff up.

I call BS. First, this kind of narrowminded view of game making is why the industry is so piss poor right now. Variety in gameplay is good thing. Second, even if this was a bad idea, it's a recent trend, not a cliche. Exploding barrels, that's a cliche, or predictible boss fights. I liked a lot of those points, but #5 just didn't check out.

Re:Uh...

[skadus]

I was about to say the same thing when I saw your comment.

Really, the best of both worlds is to offer a way to pick the best option that works for you, and offer rewards or challenges based on which scenario you pick. I think Fallout does this a lot. Want to try your hand at stealth? Great, you get 200 more rupees at the end. Feel more hack and slashy? Okay, but you have to fight an extra-hard guy at the end.

I'm all for adding 'variety' to games, but when you throw a major genre-curveball, it's nicest to make the scene optional, like the fetch quests in Zelda that require split-second timing just to wind up with the best sword in the game or an extra heart container. It's fun when you finally accomplish the goals in these through determination. It's frustrating as hell when it's required and doesn't seem to do anything gameplay or plot-wise besides show that the developer is a sadistic bastard.

I suck at stealth, I hate having to use stealth, and I especially hate it when the mission resets because somebody saw me out of the corner of their eye. When the guy is alerted, let me go on my murderous rampage and move on, m'kay?

Clcihes can be good

[Shadow Wrought]

The biggest cliche, and the one not mentioned, is that health, ammo, and everything else you need are all strewn about waiting for you to pick them up. I can't think of a FPS, or RPG I've played where that has not been the case. So long as a part of gaming requires you to obtain food, then crates will be there to ensure that you have to actually go to the trouble of opening them to get the goodies. Would they be happier with boxes?

As for the exploding fuel cans, 55 gallon drums which splode are just too cool knock;-)

Re:Clcihes can be good

[snorklewacker]

Related to equipment, they missed my favorite cliche: "The Free Market". The world faces dire peril, you're the hero that vanquishes evil and dispatches minions by the score. The last hope for the world rests on your shoulders... yet that won't even score you a discount at the equipment retailers.

There have been better-done lists of cliches, with color commentary that was actually, well, interesting. Might have been on OldManMurray. And yes, he covered crates.

What about ...

[Hanji]

Jumping Puzzles.

Now, I'll admit that the last console I owned was the N64, so I'm behind the times, but back when I played video games regularly, there was little that pissed me off more than extended jumping puzzles, where you had to leap between 10 platforms in a row flawlessly, restarting if you failed.

Have they wised up yet, or did these guys just miss it?

Prince of Persia: WW

[th0mas.sixbit.org]

I think it was pretty unfair to use this game as an example of unneccessary bullet time usage. The game is about time travel. Plus, the creators were very inventive with the concept - you have sand tanks that, when broken, reverse time temporarily. Considering much of the game consists of hard combinations of "run on wall, jump to pole, swing off pole, duck under spikes, roll to edge, jump to cloth, leap across doorway", it was a needed feature to not have every misstep result in "game over" and start and the beginning of the level again.

Cliche #11

[LoverOfJoy]

Disappearing platforms. You have to jump quick or it'll disappear or drop. Wait a few seconds and it reappears. Somewhere in SuperMario Heaven SuperMario God is chuckling.

Items.

[MrCopilot]

In development of a game now. Strategy FPS sort of. We specifically outlawed these Game Cliches:

#1 Weapons are not just hovering about. Easy fix, poulate the world with places that would ordinarily have guns & ammo.

#2 Coins/Health. All items have to be in context. Dead Enemies exploding into coins & health is bullshit we all know it. Sure, dead guy might have a few bucks, but they don't just fall out of his pocket.

#3 Why can't I see my feet, Damn it. Still working this one out. I do know some of the reasons now.

#4 Killing everything is not the way to win. Single player against 2000 enemies is fine, but as an objective, kill all 2000 sucks. Objectives need to be difficult without shooting anything. Enemies should impede your progress not be your progress.

#5 Realism. Why go through all the trouble to make it all look so real and then break the realism with bullshit short cuts.

Ship Date. When its done. I'll be sure to let you know. Linux & Windows.

Now I've made a list. Look Ma I'm a journalist too.

Re:What a terrible article.

[Nasarius]

And the "hero's town gets destroyed" isn't a game cliche, it's just a frequently-used plot device.

Er, that's the definition of a cliche. It's overused.

Boss fights

[Have Blue]

Bosses with obvious weak points and patterns are not avoidable in a practical game- they are essential to keeping the game fun (for most people). A boss with no obvious weak points or any way for the player to anticipate its actions- and figure out how to defeat it- is just frustrating.

How about "Encumbrance doesn't matter"

[wowbagger]

How about the cliche of "encumbrance doesn't matter" a.k.a. "the walking armory".

Listen, in real life just carrying an AR-15, a shotgun, and a single box of 20 5.56 rounds gets to be difficult - you sling the rifle, you sling the shotgun, take a step, and one or both slings will slide off your shoulders. You crouch and either the but of the weapon hits the ground or the barrel is way in the air.

And ammunition is *heavy* in real life.

Yet here you are, carrying a rifle w/ scope, a selective fire carbine, a rocket launcher, a minigun, three pistols, several alien lifeforms, several rockets, several clips, several HUNDRED rounds of ammunition of different types.

Yes. right.

Gaming Sense

[aNonniMouse]

All these things are only clich(where's that stupid fancy e-thing... ah)é because most of us have spent years playing video games. I don't know how often I've had this happen, but I'll be watching my girlfriend or sister play a game and she'll get completely lost and frustrated because she doesn't know what to do while I'm struggling to keep my mouth shut because it's completely obvious to me. There's always some kind of crate to move or person to sneak by or objects to collect. It's just become part of the rules of video games. This is not to say that there isn't room for revolution. There are always more and more clever ways to disguise or warp these elements to make them less repetitive. I, for one, enjoy going through a game and once in awhile having to complete one of these stapes of gaming. They're like dribbling a basketball or touching all the bases before heading home. Bad analogy, I know, but you get the meaning.

Re:Genesis/SNES era?

[servognome]

And the Star Wars Movies!