Topic: Best and Worst Inventions in Gaming

[KaZudra]

there are a TON of things to mention, so, Lets hear them, 1 best and 1 worst per post.

Best - Shoulder Buttons
this changed gaming so much that anything without shoulder buttons seems primitive and Caveman-like

Worst- Micro-transactions
This is a sure way to get a bad review in my book, this is a Cancerous practice because the publisher is too greedy for a real expansion or DLC.

[Ratty]

I'll bite.

Best: The dpad (which I think was introduced with the Famicom/NES?) and later analog sticks. There's no comparison with the arcade-style joysticks that came before, for most games a dpad/analog stick is just much more comfortable and easy to use. Especially if you're left-handed like me. Keyboard and mouse is better for FPS/RTS/point'n click of course, but most other genres tend to work best with a dpad/analog stick controller in my experience. I have my doubts that motion, vocal and touch screen controls will reach the same level of ease and reliability in the near future, and when they do I suspect they'll still feel far more immersion-breaking.

Worst: Quick time events. There's nothing interesting, exciting, innovative or fun about reducing your gameplay into finger aching versions of electronic simon says. As Yahtzee Crowshaw once quipped it's not a challenge, it's just "punishing old people".

[Dark Nemesis]

Worst: Quick time events. There's nothing interesting, exciting, innovative or fun about reducing your gameplay into finger aching versions of electronic simon says. As Yahtzee Crowshaw once quipped it's not a challenge, it's just "punishing old people".

You know, while i hate quick time events, the ones on FFXIII-2, who are some kind of cinematic combo finish, they are really cool. If quick time events were that  way, i wouldn't have a problem with them.

[Neobelmont]

debatable

that Rez vibrator take that for what you will 

[X]

Best: Modern Controller Layouts. I feel that the best controller layout started with the Genesis game pad and was further improved with the SNES game pad. For the SNES aside from the aforementioned D-pad you also have the four buttons that are layed out according to the angle of your right thumb. This made playing games much, much more comfortable. Later controller designs tried to improve by innovating but I feel they weren't successful (N64 and Gamecube pads to name a couple). To this day on almost every system the cross-button layout is used; the XBOX pad, the PS 1, 2, 3 and 4 pads, handheld pads, etc. It just works well and is comfortable and that's all anyone really ever needs.

Worst: The Internet. Keep in mind I'm not dissing the internet in general, but the fact that gaming quality has become lazy due to its existence. The best word I can come up with for this laziness is (drum roll): DLC. Yes, Downloadable content has become the bane of modern gaming. Game producing scedules are becoming more and more tight as well as the budget that's offered to make them. Nowadays developers are looking to the internet to make their jobs easier in a very cheap way. If a game isn't complete? No problem! The internet will save the day! Ugh!! How many games have been release with bugs galore, incomplete stages, half-assed/unfinished story telling...the list goes on and on. It's just stupid. It's so lazy it's stupid. Back in the day companies worked hard to produce the best quality games anyone could buy or want to buy. If a game had leftover ideas that didn't make it into the final cut? That's what sequels were for. I just can't stress enough that virtually all gaming companies out there are relying on DLC to finish their products when they SHOULD have been finished BEFORE they left the development studio. Once more it's all about money and using cheap ways to save money 

Worst: Quick time events. There's nothing interesting, exciting, innovative or fun about reducing your gameplay into finger aching versions of electronic simon says. As Yahtzee Crowshaw once quipped it's not a challenge, it's just "punishing old people".

I would have mentioned this but you beat me to it 

[Ratty]

I agree about the diamond button layout.

Worst: The Internet. Keep in mind I'm not dissing the internet in general, but the fact that gaming quality has become lazy due to its existence. The best word I can come up with for this laziness is (drum roll): DLC. Yes, Downloadable content has become the bane of modern gaming. Game producing scedules are becoming more and more tight as well as the budget that's offered to make them. Nowadays developers are looking to the internet to make their jobs easier in a very cheap way. If a game isn't complete? No problem! The internet will save the day! Ugh!! How many games have been release with bugs galore, incomplete stages, half-assed/unfinished story telling...the list goes on and on. It's just stupid. It's so lazy it's stupid. Back in the day companies worked hard to produce the best quality games anyone could buy or want to buy. If a game had leftover ideas that didn't make it into the final cut? That's what sequels were for. I just can't stress enough that virtually all gaming companies out there are relying on DLC to finish their products when they SHOULD have been finished BEFORE they left the development studio. Once more it's all about money and using cheap ways to save money 

You're right that games being released much more buggy and incomplete than they would have in the past is really bad, that's one of the major benefits console games used to have over PC games that just vanished last gen. You're also right that nickle and dimeing DLC and holding major parts of the game story hostage behind a paywall is disgusting. For example my immediate reactions upon finishing Lair of the Shadow Broker for ME2 were "That was good" immediately followed by "Frell you EA that could have and should have been part of the main game and you know it."

On the other haaaaaannnddd... Indie games and digital distribution. Today's beautiful (if sometimes a bit too pretentious or repetitive) Indie market couldn't exist without digital distribution. Now it's possible for 1 guy to make the small game they want to make and actually turn a profit on it. Speaking of which, check this out http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93304134&searchtext=super+panda+adventures http://www.desura.com/games/super-panda-adventures

[X]

On the other haaaaaannnddd... Indie games and digital distribution. Today's beautiful (if sometimes a bit too pretentious or repetitive) Indie market couldn't exist without digital distribution. Now it's possible for 1 guy to make the small game they want to make and actually turn a profit on it.

I never mentioned this because I also agree with it. The internet has given small companies that do not have the finances, the ability to publish games without being forced to make a hard copy to sell at retail. And we also have fan projects that are brought about online so this is also a bonus for everyone with this kind of interest. But the really big corporations have no excuse not to do a good job and do it right the first time. We don't expect much out of an indie company but we do have high expectations from any one of the bigger companies that have the money to spend.

[crisis]

best: wireless controls, portable consoles

worst: wii vitality sensor, virtual boy (although excellent in theory, i believe the technology was just too ahead of it's time, wait till the next generation of consoles after ps4 wii-u etc. and we might see some truly amazing virtual-reality-esque technology), paying for on-disc content, the general "me too!" approach with many game franchises nowadays

hit or miss: 3D

[Belmont legacy]

Best: joystick
Worst: gotta go with quick time events

I actually used to not mind these until I played RE6 for an hour and a half then quit. AWFUL.

[Munchy]

I'll bite.

Best: The dpad (which I think was introduced with the Famicom/NES?) and later analog sticks. There's no comparison with the arcade-style joysticks that came before, for most games a dpad/analog stick is just much more comfortable and easy to use. Especially if you're left-handed like me. Keyboard and mouse is better for FPS/RTS/point'n click of course, but most other genres tend to work best with a dpad/analog stick controller in my experience. I have my doubts that motion, vocal and touch screen controls will reach the same level of ease and reliability in the near future, and when they do I suspect they'll still feel far more immersion-breaking.

Worst: Quick time events. There's nothing interesting, exciting, innovative or fun about reducing your gameplay into finger aching versions of electronic simon says. As Yahtzee Crowshaw once quipped it's not a challenge, it's just "punishing old people".

Hm... QTEs are annoying, but there are games where I enjoy them. God Hand is one example, because the prompts are always the same, and failure is not guaranteed death unless your health is too low. Also hammering the buttons ups the damage and the animations speed up which is really funny. I don't think they're a terrible idea, as much as the execution is often lacking and they're added mostly as a "me too" kind of thing because a more popular brand did it first.

Best thing - Piledrivers. I know games didn't invent these, but in literally any game that has them, the piledriver is one of the most satisfying actions to perform ever. Its endorphin-producing magic is timeless. It is why I still play Final Fight religiously, even though there are arguably many better beat-em-ups out there.

Worst thing - Crowd chasing. By which I mean the act of a company changing an existing game in some way purely to siphon the audience of another game (pretty much always Call of Duty) who will in all likelihood ignore its existence, because guess fucking what, they've already got Call of Duty. Again, this is by no means a "game" invention (how many copycat flicks came out after 300?) but it's a poison to the spirit of creativity when suits chase the Call of Duty dollar. (No offense to CoD fans, I'm sure they're fine games.)

[kraidstar]

the best: the d-pad (the version we know it today was invented by gunpei yokoi for the game and watch handhelds)
indie games - some great stuff out there, have been playing binding of isaac+DLC, just great, it's like some evil doppleganger of the SNES zelda dungeons.
digital distribution
game genie
emulators (how else could people play certain obscure titles)
homebrew/mods
the mouse

worst inventions: call of duty
the term "epic" when describing games
rob the robot
consumer-hostile DRM, like securom and games for windows live (which is thankfully being shut down soon)
microtransactions/lame DLC
call of duty
virtual boy (a few cool games but the tech just wasn't there yet)
aimbots
sega cd/32x
call of duty

[X]

worst inventions: call of duty
the term "epic" when describing games
rob the robot
consumer-hostile DRM, like securom and games for windows live (which is thankfully being shut down soon)
microtransactions/lame DLC
call of duty
virtual boy (a few cool games but the tech just wasn't there yet)
aimbots
sega cd/32x
call of duty

LOL! Couldn't stress enough about call of duty, eh?