5 Things That Need To Go In Video Games

• Fees for MMO games; I think they are basically nickel and diming us to death with additional fees to play games online. Our Xbox Live subscription and retail cost of the game should cover the costs. We’re entering a very greedy era in gaming where prices are skyrocketing, but in sneaky ways.

• Save Points; Nothing irks me more than a game that requires you to go to a save point or a save crystal. I’m not picking on Final Fantasy because it’s my all-time favorite series, but this just needs to be a part of the past. I can’t recall the number of times something has come up and I had to leave the house on short notice. When I’m playing one of these games, I’m left with the decision to cut off the system and start over at my last save or leave the power on for who knows how long. This is a particularly annoying thing found commonly in RPG games.

• Promises that aren’t kept; Nothing upsets me like picking up a new game only to find out all the promises the publisher made are nowhere to be found in the game. A perfect example was the original Fable for Xbox. They delayed the release for a very long time and I recall being excited about Peter Molyneux’s promises for the game that simply never happened. Fable was a ground breaking game in many ways, yet we were let down when it came to the depth we were promised.

• Sexist games; I know I’m going to take a hit from many people for this idea. I’m not saying to completely get rid of the sexy characters in games, but games do need to be developed with a woman’s point of view in mind more often. If we want to get rid of some of the negative stereotypes attached to the gaming industry, this is a good topic to start with.

• The downloadable content scams; I am a willing victim myself, but I feel this is another way for publishers and console companies to nickel and dime us to death. Sometimes when the content is a complete expansion to the game, then it’s not a bad deal. Many times, the extra content is simply not worth the cost. A perfect example of this would have to be the horse armor download for Oblivion.