Game designers being plain unfair

[Sol_HSA]

Hmm, another good example would be the times in games where you're absolutely kicking the proverbial crap out of the enemy, the sort of ass-kicking there is no recovery from.

And then a scripted event goes and forces you to lose/die/etc.

That goes in the same category as having a game with ressurrection where someone dies in a cutscene and can't be healed, or you're a tank who can kill massive amounts of enemies but get captured in a cutscene..

..but they're still not what I'm looking for =)

[Saice]

Hmm, another good example would be the times in games where you're absolutely kicking the proverbial crap out of the enemy, the sort of ass-kicking there is no recovery from.

And then a scripted event goes and forces you to lose/die/etc.

Or when you are 100 times cooler in cut scenes then you are in the game. Why not let me do the epic cool stuff... NOPE cut scene! Made worse when you have ablities in cut scenes that you don't have in play.

[Kadaeux]

Hmm, another good example would be the times in games where you're absolutely kicking the proverbial crap out of the enemy, the sort of ass-kicking there is no recovery from.

And then a scripted event goes and forces you to lose/die/etc.

That goes in the same category as having a game with ressurrection where someone dies in a cutscene and can't be healed, or you're a tank who can kill massive amounts of enemies but get captured in a cutscene..

..but they're still not what I'm looking for =)

Well I could sarcastically say.

"Mass Effect 3's Ending."

[Crashbanito]

Zork had that problem. There's a puzzle where you need to press a specific colored button to advance the game. If you press the wrong one, the room starts flooding over time. If you wait too long, the room will be impenetrable and you won't be able to advance.

[Sol_HSA]

Neither of the examples I gave kill you or make the game unwinnable, they're there apparently just to piss you off =)

[Goffmog]

I'm struggling to think of a good example at the moment. But what the OP is talking about is the kind of event where a game rewards you with something that would have been extremely helpful in the last section of the game, but will be useless going forwards. Or where the game gives you something all-powerful and then takes it away just when you really need it.

[seebs]

The Rift devs have a running game going of taunting players with a lack of snake tears. The game has a collection you can get of critter tears from the various non-combat animals (cats, foxes, etcetera). Every critter but snakes drops tears moderately often, and never drops anything else. Snakes pretty much ALWAYS drop a worthless "rough scale", and VERY rarely drop a "snake tear". So EVERY snake you kill has lootable sparkles... and is not useful.

So elsewhere, whenever they get an excuse, they put in crying snakes. Their mobile app has crying snake graphics, for instance.

[mk.2]

I don't know if this would fit the kind of unfairness you guys have been talking about.

Introducing an (supposedly) awesome character way too late in the game and that character is so underleveled at that point in the game. In order to make him/her useable, you would have to spend many hours/days level the character up, then you wouldn't have much opportunity to use that character in story line because it is already close to endgame. (Final Fantasy Tactics)

[Saice]

Neither of the examples I gave kill you or make the game unwinnable, they're there apparently just to piss you off =)

In my book pissing off the guy that just gave you money is a bit unfair trade paritics. Seeing as you can rarely return a game for full value it is unfair to suggest someone would like your product then kick them in the nuts and tell them to gtfo.

But if you want stright up unfair as in makes the game unwinable honestly there are few such things in tripple AAA games. The last I can think of would be...

Fable III you are given the idea you have a set amount of time to save up money and the such before the big evil atakcs. But while time passes at more or less a set pace as you go through the game with out any real good warning at one point it leaps months down the road right to end game. So if your plan was to slowly make cash then go to end game you can get blind sided by this twist forcing you to get a bad ending.

[t0tem]

Granting STR bonuses to fire mages?