[Fantasysci5]

That's okay-everyone is entitled to their opinion. I myself like the much-hated slider puzzles.

[kate me]

Hmm...
1. I don't like keyboard control (like the w,s,a,d) too annoying!
2. I don't like too much horror elements! ( or to dark!)
3. Irational puzzles!
4. Many of those riddle puzzles ( like some in keepsake and the door puzzle in Journey to the center of the earth)

[Fantasysci5]

Oh God, riddles. I don't mind them too much, but sometimes they can be downright mean!

And I agree, I don't like WASD, and when I can change the keyboard keys, I just do the arrow ones instead of WASD. Although the mouse is my favorite.

[mrLOL]

1. If I'm not enjoying it after 5 minutes....
I don't care if ppl say it will become the greatest game ever if I invest 30 minutes to it, in Hollywood they take full responsibility to get the audiance hooked immidiately so I demand that game-devs take that same responsibility.

Unfortunately almost every single adventure-game has this problem, in fact the beginning puzzles/story are usually WORSE than the rest of the puzzles/story as they consider it being "warming up the player".

I don't agree with the complaints about action/timed-sequences IF done right.

[mgeorge]

Puzzles that have absolutely nothing to do with the story other than merely padding the amount of gameplay hours.

Puzzles that make no sense. Sticking a piece of dynamite onto a rat to open a door????!!! Baking a cake to solve a murder mystery???!! I mean I could go on and on as examples, but these are the first two that come to mind.

Storys with a non-conclusive ending. Lets see, I just spent 10 to 20 hours on this game, am done with it, and still have no idea what happened at the end.

These are the kind of things that still go on in many AG's, and the reason I don't play many of them anymore.

[colpet]

1. Must have mouse controls (no Keyboard)
2. Nothing that requires dexterity - timed/stealth/combat
3. dialogue and inventory based puzzles bore me.

[Stuart]

Stupid copy protection!

After trying everything to get Moment of Silence working, I'm close to abandoning the idea.

How is it pirates are rewarded for downloading cracked versions while those of us with legal versions have to fight tooth and nail just to get it working!

[skeeter_93]

After reading this thread I agree with more and more comments -

Bad Endings or unresolved things
Keyboard controls - although i am getting used to them
Too much action - I don't mind a bit of action, but scenes that require very good reflexes are no good for me.

Originally Posted by Stuart

Stupid copy protection!

After trying everything to get Moment of Silence working, I'm close to abandoning the idea.

How is it pirates are rewarded for downloading cracked versions while those of us with legal versions have to fight tooth and nail just to get it working!

Oh, I had a lovely experience with this over the weekend. I had no internet for 4 days (phone line got pulled down) so I tried to load Creature of Kapu Cave to play. This is a game on a dvd disc that I bought from a shop years ago. It would not install properly or play without the internet. It was trying to verify online. Why on earth was it doing that? I didn't download it, so why did it need verifying? I've never encountered that with a disc game before, and i was seriously unhappy...

[Gledster]

Hmm...like many I've quite forgiving with games however, something that does REALLY bug me (although I've not stopped playing a game because of it, yet) is:

Unskippable intros/cut-scenes/dialogue.

I like to play with the subtitles on and I've quite a quick reader, so I've often finished reading a line of text before the character has finished speaking and will click past the test of the line to get to the next. If a game does not let me do this, it bugs me a little throughout the game.

Same for unskippable cut-scenes. Yeah, great the first time but if ever you have to go back for any reason and have to sit through the same cut-scene again (and possibly again) it's REALLY annoying.

Now I'm typing I've thought of another one, lack of interactivity. I almost stopped playing Sherlock Holmes The Awakened because I couldn't examine everything I wanted to. I like clicking around and hearing what a character's got to say about things, it interests me. If I can't examine everything, it's annoying.

[Inwards]

1. Timed logic puzzles (as opposed to timed events). I'm looking at you Broken Sword 4.
2. Dead ends. Particularly those that force a restart.
3. Unskippable dialogue. I'll never...finish the...lost...crown.

[aimless]

Originally Posted by Inwards

Unskippable dialogue. I'll never...finish the...lost...crown.

Lol! Not only does Boakes take his time about getting anything out of his mouth, but you'd never know that he wrote the dialogue. It sounds as if he's reading a language he doesn't understand, with very odd pauses in all the wrong places. I'm...with...you.

[Fantasysci5]

Stupid timed sequences or action sequences. I remember I couldn't get past Marcus in "Dreamfall", and I really wanted to finish the game, but I just couldn't win against Marcus. And timed sequences like in "Indigo Prophecy" were okay, I just felt like I was having a heart attack. I agree, though, when done right, it can add to the experience, but I hate if it's timed without a really good "reason".

[Lee in Limbo]

Funny Version:
1) High... Anxiety!
2) Work.
3) DINNERS!

Unfunny Version:
1) Horrendous Voice Acting (or no voice acting at all)
2) Gawdawful Artwork
3) Terrible (or buggy) Gameplay

tl:dr Version:
Essentially, the thing that makes me stop playing a game I've started is simply that feeling I get (all too often) that what I'm doing at the moment to resolve a problem is so totally ludicrous that no one in their right minds would resort to such shenanigans to resolve the problem. In a cartoonish, Monkey Island type game, I can tolerate and even enjoy ludicrous situations and silly solutions. I used to be an aspiring animator, and I also enjoy drawing comic strips for holiday/birthday cards, so silliness isn't the problem.

It's Suspension of Disbelief. This basic human psychological tool is like the lifeblood of my existence, and without it, I am rudderless. So long as I am In The Moment, I can usually figure out what needs to be done. But when you throw too many ludicrous, hackneyed problems and their attendant solutions at me, I start to lose my grip on the plot, and before long, I can't decide to do something as simple as open an unlocked door, because I start wondering if I shouldn't be making a banana ladder or something to crawl through the ceiling space instead.

If you think I'm joking, PM me and I'll give you a list of the games I've started but not finished in the last half decade since getting back into AGs.

The thing is, I don't ever start a game intending not to finish it. I don't go in saying 'if this game has crappy animation or lousy voice sync, I'm out'. Frankly, I just expect those things. They're like beloved features, the way some people love text parsers or verb lists. I actually can and often do play games with dodgy art, music, sound or voicework, so long as they make it swing.

But when the very puzzlesque (not a real word; I make a lot of words up, but I trust you get what I'm saying with this limp portmanteau) nature of the adventure overwhelms my sense of credulity, I actually panic and can't bring myself to try anything or even go look for the walkthrough. It's gotten that bad.

So really, all of those things I listed at the top are just symptoms of the greater problem of whether I can keep from losing my head because the adventure I'm on turns into a fiddly little game thing with no consistency or awareness of its own integrity (or lack thereof). *shrug*

As for most of the lists I've read in this thread, frankly, very few of these problems are deal breakers for me. I understand, and in some instances I agree that they can be frustrating--particularly when done poorly--but I've enjoyed examples of many of them. WASD, 3D, slider puzzles, mazes, riddles, the works.

But break my suspension of disbelief, and I start trying to remember the command to open the main menu and quit the game.

[marvio]

Exactly what laffer said.

Which by the way..
Di we share the same brain!!?

I made comments much like your about real time 3D in adventures over at the other thread

[marvio]

Originally Posted by mrLOL

1. If I'm not enjoying it after 5 minutes....
I don't care if ppl say it will become the greatest game ever if I invest 30 minutes to it, in Hollywood they take full responsibility to get the audiance hooked immidiately so I demand that game-devs take that same responsibility.

Unfortunately almost every single adventure-game has this problem, in fact the beginning puzzles/story are usually WORSE than the rest of the puzzles/story as they consider it being "warming up the player".

I don't agree with the complaints about action/timed-sequences IF done right.

Wow, Mrlol

It sounds like you don't like AG's at all.
I think everybody here would agree they would much rather be "eased" into the story, have tons of exploration whcih reveals characters/story little by little, then to have everything handed to them in the first 5 minutes; I mean, what would you do after that? AG's ARE ABOUT finding out the story after all

@Staurt

You can always download the cracked .EXE's man, nothing wrong with that...

@everybody

I never really understood the aversion to ANY action sequences in AG's? OF course, like with anyting else, it has to be well done, and I'll grant you guys that most AG's engines don;t even allow for good action, but the idea itself is fine with me, what's up with that? Why so much hatred for it?

My perfect AG would really be a solid mix of a FPS style game, with heavy, and I mean HEAVY foucus on exploration/story/characters. Actually the FPS'es I like the best are the ones which at least make an attempt to tell a story. HL is a good example...

Hummm

Maybe an FPS was pushing it a little, now that I'm thinking of it, but I still nothing wrong with the idea of action in AG's; For example, timed sequences can add a layer of tension that could benefit a lot of AG's, just sprinkled here and there, you know? Like little highlights in a painting, or the ocassional "money note" in an opera

[Ascovel]

Originally Posted by marvio

I think everybody here would agree they would much rather be "eased" into the story, have tons of exploration whcih reveals characters/story little by little, then to have everything handed to them in the first 5 minutes; I mean, what would you do after that? AG's ARE ABOUT finding out the story after all

I entirely agree with that approach being more attuned to adventure games, however I wanted to point out a problem related to completely ignoring engaging the player in the first minutes. Namely, there are huge numbers of players who will stop playing a game permanently after 5-15 minutes if it has failed to engage them, and it's not because of their whimsical nature or lack of fondness for adventuring.

It's the fate of games that the particular player acquired for free or very cheaply - something that is very common in this day and age (I mean, some of the best classics are given away entirely for free!). And when you are thrown dozens of interesting looking games at you (and games usually take a lot of time to beat) and you didn't have to invest that much money or effort into getting them, you don't put much time or attention into getting to know each either.

[aimless]

"You can always download the cracked .EXE's man, nothing wrong with that..."

Oh, yes, there is. He paid for it, he shouldn't have to jump through hoops to play it.

"I never really understood the aversion to ANY action sequences in AG's? ...I'll grant you guys that most AG's engines don't even allow for good action, but the idea itself is fine with me, what's up with that? Why so much hatred for it?"

Maybe you have the reflexes of a twenty year old or your hands haven't stiffened up yet. Playing an adventure game and getting to a place where you cannot progress because you just can't deal with action sequences, which are totally unnecessary in an AG anyway, is the pits. The game is over for you at that point and the money you spent on it wasted. I've been stung once or twice but no more. I make darned sure a game isn't a hybrid before I buy it.

[marvio]

@ascovel

Then I would argue AG's are not for those people

@aimless

I meant legally If you;re having that much trouble, you already bought he game, just dowanload the cracked EXE. I do it for any game which still insists on having the original CD's on the drive, screw that, I'll have my craked EXE, please

Also,

Well, I am a guitarrist after all
But seriously, it sounds like you're talking about badly designed acton sequences, rather.

You know what I just realized?

Most of peoples gripes about action sequences, and if I may bring the other thread into this one, the "simplified hotspot/multi use cursor", in AG's comes down to god/bad game design, you can make it work, we can have the best of both worlds, ya know?

[aimless]

Well, I didn't mean to get hot, marvio, so I apologize if I came off that way but while I'm not a basket case yet my hands often hurt, especially after a day's work, and trying to bang those keys fast enough, or keep that mouse hopping fast and on target to get through an action sequence is murder.

As far as game design goes, I'm sure some purists wouldn't be happy but if the designers would take older people like me into account...you know, the ones who really like adventure games and spend money on them... and included an option to skip action sequences provided we genuflect three times toward the appropriate developers, I'd be much less inclined to blow off "action/adventures".

[mgeorge]

I know lots of folks don't like any "action" in an AG, and I can understand that. However, for me if there're done well, I usually enjoy them mostly because they breathe a little fresh air into the genre.

My problem with the majority of AG's is that there're supposed to be about exploration and story. How much exploration do you usually see in an AG? Very little IMO. Most of them lead you through the nose from one static place to the next, looking for hotspots to solve inane puzzles that have very little bearing on the story.

I've had my say on the story part, but some are better in this area. I'm playing DF1 right now and enjoying the story quite a bit. I just hope the ending doesn't let me down.