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From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Gamplay "mechanics" you don't like?
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2024 10:39:54 -0500
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On Thu, 19 Dec 2024 08:45:23 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Or is it just game dev decisions?
>
>Mike S. mentioned a few things in another thread, and I thought it would 
>be an interesting topic. Or at least an opportunity to rant a lot.

Here's another:

First-person platforming and jumping. Because it's never fun. At best
developers manage to make it usable, and I think pretty much everyone
will agree that being able to leap over things is a necessary part of
most action games. But it's always a chore. And when jumping and
balancing and other platforming antics become the primary focus of a
level (or game), it makes for a much weaker game. 

Which apparently the market agrees with, because pretty much every FPS
that has focused on that sort of thing --whether "TitanFall" or
"Mirrors Edge" or "Brink"-- haven't sold as well as their competitors.
And even otherwise excellent games are frequently criticized for the
bits where they suddenly switched to maps that relied on platforming
mechanics (hello, "Half Life 1")

Why it doesn't work is difficult to say, although I suspect it's
because 
     a) that sort of jumping requires a proprioception (that is, 
        a knowledge of where all your body parts are in relation 
        to the world around you) that just can't be conveyed in
        first-person view, and
     b) it's just not that fun to look at. Staring down at a
        narrow board while slowly walking across a gap for 
        thirty seconds (or staring at a wall as I haul myself 
        up a ledge) isn't visually exciting, you know?

These sort of things work a lot better in third-person, but in
first-person? No thanks. That's a mechanic I don't need... or at least
should be kept to a minimum.