Topic: What's your least favorite thing about modern gaming?

I also hate how slowly but surely celebrity culture is trying to crowbar it's way in to the hobby.

The incredibly toxic communities. Anonymity makes a lot of people act horrible.

@Dogorilla Same reason I hate teases. Some leaks I don't mind because they actually make the story a lot more interesting. A good example was Mario Rabbids, the mockup was mocked and ridiculed and then the game surpassed the haters and was a fantastic game.

But it more cases than not, its one of the worst things. Like I should be really excited for Crash Bandicoot on Switch right? Its the original trilogy on a Nintendo console! But I'm not, because we knew it was coming for months. Do I really have to log off for a week before E3 just to keep myself surprised?

The constant barrage of massive downloads and updates seemingly every time I turn on one of my consoles - that's very annoying. Some weeks I'll only get a little time to play something on the weekend for instance; I'll be looking forward to playing a game and then upon switching on the console I'm hit with a 10GB update or something daft like that.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the need for them and appreciate that developers improve/fix their games, but it doesn't make it any less irritating. I should get in the habit of just switching my consoles on more, when I have no intention of playing anything, but alas, I know I probably won't.

Gone are the days of just whacking in a cartridge and getting on with the game!

Agreed but I personally feel this isn't a symptom of modern gaming. It is a symptom of more accessible and visible forums for people to spew all over.

For me aside from the above (as again that isn't a gaming problem per se in my opinion) it is the slow death of local multiplayer.... but if I had to pick something out of it...achievements. E-bragging rights are so trite. I wouldn't care if they weren't intrusive as I can ignore most braggarts. However gamer scores and trophy counts pique my annoyance (plus the popups about them) and I'm so glad for now that nintendo is the last hold out.

I agree with KirbyTheVampire expecially about the single player thing, but imho this problem existed at least to some extent even in the past unfortunately.

@Peek-a-boo I also used to lurk neo-gaf and then was lurking resetera, too. Never joined them, though. Took a break from resetera because a little while ago almost got a trojan from there (Avast blocked it) and then less than a week ago same thing happened. Be careful with that forums. That community has some haters (from outside their community) and those trolls will try to give visitors viruses.

@KirbyTheVampire That is another way gamers can be toxic. Hating on other gamers for their tastes in gaming or their gaming preferences.

Stories. I can't stand it personally, I just want action arcade type experiences. I get enough stories in tv shows and movies, and that's not why I play video games. I play games for the rush of adrenaline, and if a game isn't going to give me that, I'd rather do something else with my time.

Many modern game have done away with the need to memorize levels. I remember games like Contra or Castlevania or Jackal or Streets of Rage or pick any early game that required the player to play the same level over and over again until they memorized it and moved on to the next. But I really knew the levels like the back of hand. These games are burned into my brain. And I believe is why I remember so many of them fondly.

Nowadays, similar games are either procedurally generated so you never see the same level, or the game comes with a 100's of levels and once you pass a stage, no matter how easy or hard, you never need to play it again.

That's part of the problem, you're not. It's a cheap substitute for actual content.

Loot boxes, DLC, always-online, Multiplayer-focused, event-focused, service-focused, open-world busywork, and this constant thinking that "pushing the envelope" just means doing more of the exact same thing that was done before...

Also, @everyone complaining about toxic gaming communities...did you just completely blank out grade school or something? Tech changes, but people never really change. There were always people ragging about what entertainment people enjoy, whether it's games, sports, or even what people are wearing. I'm just saying, what you're really complaining about is the accessibility of the cruelty, which can be as easily solved as just...not going to online communities where you encounter such behavior. And if its just a few individuals, maybe you could just be the better person and report & move on, instead of allowing them to continue to be such a detriment to your experience.

It's what made me lose interest in playing Smash Bros. 4.

The online and multiplayer aspect. I’m quite happy to sit on my own and play games by myself.

I hate the download only games (which then after a year anounce the physical)
Also games that are not complete when released, only then to release a patch a month later. Just finish creating the game before releasing it, it will stop the awful reviews which put people off buying the game.

@CanisWolfred This attitude of "report and move on" does nothing to attack the root of the problem and strikes me as extremely out of touch every time I stumble upon it, if I'm being honest. Moderation is a thing, and toxic behavior can be purged from a platform if enough people demand it to be done.

People wouldn't allow this kind of behavior in other public spaces like restaurants or malls. An online space shouldn't be any different just because it's digital, and adopting the attitude of "people are toxic by nature" is naive at best and complicit at worst.

I really hate the death of split screen and couch co-op in general. Would have had a lot more fun with Destiny if I could have a buddy play it with me in the same room without having to have two consoles and TVs.

I also really hate this graphics over everything mindset that seems to have taken over the industry. There is a fine balance in games between gameplay, story, sound, art direction, graphics, etc.. All of them are important but to act like a game is unplayable because it isn’t 1080p or 4K or what not is just crazy. Honestly I prefer hd visuals but there isn’t much difference in my enjoyment of a good game if it’s 4k vs 720p. I think frame rate matters more, but even take gets blown out of proportion. In a multiplayer game, especially an online one yes frame rate matters a lot, but if I am playing a singleplayer, story driven experience then a stable frame is all that is really needed.

To start, my first answer is always going to be sexism or other exclusionary mindsets in game writing and communities. But, since that's a broader societal thing, here's my specific pet peeve:

I hate games that feel cheap and insubstantial. This is not directly proportional to length, but going from the Gamecube to now the industry has become more front-facing (trailers, marketing, stupid fan freak hysteria about DLC). The number of games have gone up, the size of AAA teams have gone up, and the amount of money spent on games has gone up proportional to inflation, but most games don't seem to have improved overall. Now I'm not someone who demands constant progress: the problem is that many series have been not just stagnant but actively regressing in important aspects like level design, mission structure, etc.

This isn't applied evenly across all styles of games and developers, but it has certainly hit Nintendo to the point where they can't even produce AAA Zelda titles anymore (and really, take your pick of the series they've been doing on the cheap). So yeah, I wish developers would or could ignore external input during development so they aren't responding to shifting goal posts and often rushing to finish unsatisfying experiences that beg to be redone in greater justice.

And then just when we're conditioned to read "Press START" but understand that pressing A will produce the same effect, the bloody developers switch it up and we actually do have to press START!

The gaming community is just fine. You're confusing it with the internet. All internet-based communities have some pretty nasty behaviour in certain parts.
You need to compare it to the real-world events to see if it's really that specific community or if it's just the internet. It's nearly always the internet.
I'd also suggest that there is no such thing as "the gaming community". It's a cluster of many different communities. They change quite a lot. The FPS people are very different from the JRPG people. None of the JRPG people tell me my mum's gay.

Another thing I hate are all those stupid, useless and bothering mini consoles that are just a stupid way to waste space and hdmi ports since it would be a lot more convenient to sell those games on digital delivery services for the various existing consoles and Steam.
Probably Nintendo had to do something to remind people how everybody loved them back then and their mini consoles probably reached people that didn't want to give new Nintendo consoles a chance, but the damage they are doing is really too big.