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We're testing the waters with the new influx of people to see if this is valuable or not. We are also actively seeking moderators and people who enjoy discussion (and understand that being wrong is an important part of being a better person)! Send me a message if you'd like to help out.
This weekly thread will focus on games (board or video) that are fantastic, but have one extremely annoying aspect that doesn't fit, doesn't make sense, or makes the game worse.
No starters this time as there's tons of examples. Let me know yours and maybe what you did as a workaround or house rule (if applicable)!
Inventory management systems are absolutely shit and tacked onto pretty much every game they can be. In the best games inventory management is an interesting way of rewarding planning and the actual focus of the game... when it isn't the focus it steals focus. I have a particular memory of having fun in Diablo 2 and getting a rare drop of a potentially useful item while merrily killing my way across act 5.
I stopped killing and mopped up the area, tped back to town as I realized I had no identify scrolls, came back, dropped a shield I'd found earlier, picked up the armor, identified it, dropped it, picked up the shield and logged out.
This may be especially pressing for ADHD people but being forced into inventory management when I want to be playing the game kills my enjoyment - I'll always mod away inventory limits if I can (i.e. factorio stack sizes, skyrim carry weight etc...) and I usually just don't play games to which it's unremoveable.
Now, if the entire game is inventory management I'm actually cool with that - games like Balatro or Dominon where tactical choices around your deck can be insanely fun and the who game is those choices and so the designers have made them fun and interesting... but forcing players to interrupt their game for a less interesting game is fucking dumb and game designers should know better. It's a mechanic that most people just bitch about and there are much better alternatives.
I totally get what you mean with this, but I don't quite think I find it as annoying as you do. I also optimize past it where I can, but I found it to be a minor inconvenience in Diablo 4.
Thanks for the reply!
Most people? Not a chance, inventory management is a big part of many games and they'd feel much worse without it