What are your "red flags" in gaming?

[patch.macho.2007]

Something that when you see it, it makes you skeptical of a game's success or quality.

Of course they're not 100% accurate, but when you follow the industry for a while, you notice some tells and patterns like these.

Like, for me when the devs try to force a hip label like "The Dark Souls of FPS" or "The -popular game- Killer". That's a red flag.

When the DLC costs more than the base game and there is a ridiculous amount of it.

Early access survival.

[Sir Seanicus, Esq.]

All games are red flags.

[Phirestar]

Originally posted by Ganger:

I see alot of people here dislike day one DLC, micro transactions, F2P, online only, loot boxes and so on but will still continue to buy said games that contain these elements. Clearly there is a fine line between not liking something and speaking up against it e.g loot boxes and hypocrisy by turning a blind eye to your favour games.

I never saw a single person rally against the release of Borderlands 3 for its microtransactions. There was the backlash that came when it was reported that Randy Pitchford wrongfully claimed the game wouldn't have microtransactions, under the guise of trying to rebrand the definition of "microtransactions" as exclusively lootbox- and pay-to-win-related purchases. But besides that? Not a word about it ever again, at least as far as I saw.

The only thing people were outraged over when Borderlands 3 actually came out was the Epic Games Store exclusivity on PC. Proving that they were ready and willing to pay for the game regardless.

[🔥Astral Rage🔥]

Trailers which show very little gameplay
Like Cyberpunk 2077
Ages of Empire IV ( yes this game will be bad during launch )

[Ganger]

Originally posted by Phirestar:

The only thing people were outraged over when Borderlands 3 actually came out was the Epic Games Store exclusivity on PC. Proving that they were ready and willing to pay for the game regardless.

Boycotting games isn't like boycotting your local corner shop or your local supermarket. Players have needs, these needs are like a drug addiction. But some of the reasons given by players to boycott a game, a developer or a publisher are sound and valid and most I would agree too.

But problems arise from when a person boycotts developer(A) for e.g (micro transactons) while at the same time will continue to spend money with developer(B) who does exactly the same anti-customer practice as developer (A) does.

But will make excuses as too why it's different (if you can understand what im getting at).
Another one is people saying 'they will never give epic a penny' but then buy a game on steam that use the unreal engine. People need to think on the choice of words before saying something they can't keep.

[AustrAlien2010]

When they make reference to an earlier game, such as: "from the creators of...", or, "from the mind behind...", as if the title is not good enough on its own. As if it needs to make reference to that earlier thing, to signify its relevance. Its probably more of a trope, than its a red flag, though.

[Enterprofilenamehere]

Originally posted by AustrAlien2010:

When they make reference to an earlier game, such as: "from the creators of...", or, "from the mind behind...", as if the title is not good enough on its own. As if it needs to make reference to that earlier thing, to signify its relevance. Its probably more of a trope, than its a red flag, though.

This applies to many other things as well such as movies, TV shows etc. In my mind it is basically an admission that the new product is inferior.

[patch.macho.2007]

Originally posted by Enterprofilenamehere:

Originally posted by AustrAlien2010:

When they make reference to an earlier game, such as: "from the creators of...", or, "from the mind behind...", as if the title is not good enough on its own. As if it needs to make reference to that earlier thing, to signify its relevance. Its probably more of a trope, than its a red flag, though.

This applies to many other things as well such as movies, TV shows etc. In my mind it is basically an admission that the new product is inferior.

yeah the trailers for dead rising 4 when they came out i knew the game was gonna be a bad

[Enterprofilenamehere]

A somewhat obvious red flag is a negative review score, but it hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread.
A lack of communication from the developers is also a red flag, especially with independent developers and games that allow you to pre-order them.

[Cockroach]

excessive backtracking and balance

[Vinh]

Accusing someone of hacking