Anything requiring you repeatedly mash a single button super fast

Exponentially growing requirements that out pace rewards. I don’t want to spend 10 hours grinding just to level up.

Stat/EXP loss on death.

Unskippable cut scenes, especially before a boss. I want to play on hard difficulty, which means I WILL die to bosses. Do not force me to watch that shit 5+ times or I’m out like trout.

The worst game mechanic is artificial difficulty where enemies aren’t challenging. Instead, they are just damage sponges.

Lootboxes

INSERT COIN TO CONTINUE

Not the worst, but I’m annoyed by invisible walls. Just give me a reason why I can’t be there.

Relationship mechanics. If I give someone a pumpkin twice a week, they’re just going to be confused and pissed.

A multiplayer game that pits you against lousy AI bots with human looking names for your first "games’ so you feel like you know how to play and makes the game seem fair and fun.

Then after you’re comfortable, you get pitted against a lobby of 12-year-olds who haven’t seen daylight since birth who annihilate you and curse you out on coms.

Achievements.

I want to enjoy the game, not artificial milestones for bragging rights.

Escort missions

The only good escort missions are the ones where you aren’t limited at all by the NPC you need to escort, which no longer makes it an escort mission.

Limited inventory space in an otherwise unrealistic RPG.

You’re telling me I can carry six two-handed weapons and 500lbs of gold, but seven is just too much?! Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

Specifically, this especially sucks when the inventory is a grid, like in the Diablo series, or Grim Dawn, or WoW, FFXIV or… many other MMOs.

especially when you can spend real money to alleviate the artificial limitation they fucking designed in to the game.

It’s so unnecessary and these days absolutely makes me instantly not care to continue playing. FUCK artificial limitations that don’t have clear, valid reasons.

I’m here to play a game, not Inventory Management Simulator 33.45

One of the worst game mechanics ever found in a game was where the enemy got harder as you gained levels. The same enemy. It basically defeated the value of having more levels. I think it was Oblivion Skyrim where I found this, particularly annoying.

Games with inventories where they treat a single gem or a flower petal as occupying the same space in your rucksack as a pair of boots.

Guys, we go back to Ultima 7 with the key ring, the problem was solved along fucking time ago. Stop being lazy and have gem sacks, crafting bags, keyrings, etc for small items.

Deliberately ableist bullshit. Like no pause or an over reliance on quick time events.