Gaming

I hate RNG-heavy progression that discourages playing the actual game.

Path of Exile had terrible loot droprates and gamble crafting when I last played in Ritual League. Starting a league = poring YouTube for safe league starter builds to follow step by step. Gearing up = only picking up currency and buying items from other players on a website. Making $$$ = flipping items (buy low sell high) in hideout (personal town).

Path of Champions (PvE gamemode in Legends of Runeterra) drops shards and fragments to unlock new champions and relics that add a passive effect. Drops are random and not duplicate protected. Champions need 2 star upgrades totalling their unlock cost to feel playable. Optimal progression = speedrunning dailies/weeklies, 2-starring meta champs, and logging out.

I think forced stealth mechanics in games not designed for them are my pet peeve. Looking at you Witcher 2.

I've never been a fan of character weapon skill being tied to the bullet not hitting where the player is aiming in first person RPGs and immersive sims. Think something like Fallout 3, where a shot with a sniper rifle can be perfectly lined up, but the bullet might veer off randomly.

I do understand and appreciate character weapon skills being tied to certain weapons encrouages distinct playstyles, but there are many other ways to implement it that don't feel as arbitrary. Tying character skill to greater reticle sway, longer time to aim down sights, longer reload times, more likely to jam or jams taking longer to clear. It accomplishes the same goal of rewarding putting points into the skill and making players feel like they are progressing, but without creating the instant frustration of missing a clearly lined up shot.

On that note, actively degrading weapons are not something I think has ever been a good idea. It's neither fun, nor is the rate of degradation ever realistic. If the goal is to make player cautious, then limiting ammunition and the availability of good weapons is a much better idea. I have no problem with weapons in different conditions existing in a game, for example: Pristine rifle, good rifle, rusty rifle, etc. That's fine, but a good rifle should never degrade into a rusty rifle in the hands of the player.

Areas of open worlds dynamically level scaling to match players is another gripe I have. Once a player notices it, it takes away the feeling of progress from leveling up. In some cases, smarter players in games have found certain areas easier to beat with low level characters. It creates a bad kind of meta-game. I much prefer worlds where every area is built with a certain player level in mind. Honestly, overleveling in RPGs and going to wreck starting bandit camps is a joy that shouldn't be taken away.

Story, specifically cutscenes, especially if they're unskippable. Everything I need to know should simply be presented in the HUD or in the menu/options/inventory/etc. It's fine that there /is/ a story but at least give me the option of skipping it entirely and playing the actual game.

Stamina, why can't i just keep running forever!! Eben worst in open world games.

I honestly do not like the RPG mechanic of levelling up/buying skills, especially in FPS games. I'd rather have a Half Life experience over levelling.

I'm also not a fan of side quests. I find it breaks the immersion when you're character is on some crazy, world saving overall quest but sure, I can spend time to find that random thing for you.

crafting dear god I hate crafting if I ever find the person that introduced crafting into the triple a formula...

Perhaps forced online with no way to self host.

Currently?
Having cool abilities tied to NPC companions.

And I'm pretty sure (nearly?) everyone knows why and what I'm talking about.

Crafting. I don't want to have to remember the recipe to stuff, then find out where it is, then keep going back to make it again

1. Slow, boring climbing sections that add nothing to the game and just pad out playtime. I'm looking at you, God of War (2018).

2. Lives systems. Luckily modern games never use it anymore, but every now and then I play an older game and wow, losing 30+ minutes of progress just because you died a few times SUCKS.

I really don't like random bullet spread. Especially when it becomes more random if your character is moving.

The bit in a certain DOS game where a demon respawns lower level demons... If you know, you know.

QuickTime events. I started replaying RE4 original. Did not miss them.

I know it's a popular mechanic that lots of people love, but I really don't like games where you die a lot, or where death has significant impact. I generally play games to chill out and just have fun and I often feel like games are punishing me when that happens and I find myself doing sort of "risk management" and becoming a hermit in the game.

3D 3rd person platforming. Any flavour of it. It consistently either sucks (souls games) or is just plain boring (the uncharted series). I'm sure there are some games where it's done reasonably well (probably some sonic or mario game), but I've never seen that.

Escort missions and weapons breaking without a reasonably easy way to get/make more (glaring at you, Dead Island...)

The bane of my existence in any pvp game is crowd control mechanics.

In general, I hate every player skill in pvp games which take away the opponent's ability to play.

Repeateable procedural quests. I feel like this explains it all.

Someone already sort of mentioned this, but I don't usually like crafting and building stuff. So games like minecraft and animal crossing new horizons are out. For the latter, greatly prefer new leaf.