Fedup with BAD game design

The problem with gaming having become profitable is there is now a huge troop of companies funding gaming with zero care for good games.

It was good for a while whilst Notch owned Minecraft, but he sold out and now Minecraft is another game where the creators aren't creating any more for making a fun game but 100% for making a profit. Which of course is much easier to make by coercing the players into a situation where they will have a crappy time unless they pay continually. Everyone needs to work and earn money, the problem is not that it's paid, the problem is what's being paid for is a type of randsom.

Though, this is a general blog about bad game design, so lets talk about what makes a game bad.

The following is a shortlist of thing which really destroy a 3D first person game:

• Invisible Walls (plot elements aside)
• Purely Linear Progression
• Removal of player control (e.g. beaming/teleporting/transporting or otherwise removing the players control, excepting some situation where that removal is a temporary and overcomeable plot element)
• Pointless repeating patterns (e.g. Grinding)
• Money = Power (this warrants a quick explain)

When I say Money = Power, I'm refering to the stupid mistake made in so many games where the collecting of monies (marks, tokens or whatever) is a goal to buy better equipment. This really removes the game aspect. The game is played whilst the money is earned then once the money is earned it just increases the strength of the equipment so more money may be earned. This always leads to a dull, repeatitive and boring game. What needs to be happening, is the progression of equipment ect. needs to be part of the play. Have subgames to improve armor etc. instead.

I'm facing a particuarly irritating situation in Champions Online right now, I started a mission called Bunker Site Bravo and now I want to end it and I am unable to leave to return to the main map.