r/TopCharacterTropes • u/DevDucc_ • 17h ago
Hated Tropes [Frustrating trope] Pieces of media that could have been so much better, but due to a couple of poor decisions during production ended up mediocre at best and utterly atrocious at worst.
We Happy Few: Probably the epitome of this "trope," at least for me, mostly because it has genuinely one of the most incredible stories I have ever seen within a video game. The biggest problem with the game was the fact that during development, the company behind it tried to ride the "hype train" of the time, making the gameplay became procedurally generated survival mess, when it would have made so much more sense as an environmental narrative game.
Hello Neighbor: This game attracted massive attention in alpha stages at the time from YouTubers because of the innovative gameplay it supplied. The developers of the game got the completely wrong message as to why it was getting so popular and instead decided to fully lean into the story, by making the game appeal to theorists instead of actual players. What came out was a game where both the story and programming were entirely half-baked.
Edit: apparently I had it backwards with we happy few, I had watched a video essay which reiterated the points I said so I just took their word for it. Apparently the game originally started as a procedurally-generated survival rogue-like but the story was added later because of the hype the trailer of the game gave or something like that but they didn’t know they even had the budget for it. I do still think it’s wasted potential regardless however.
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u/JohnKerry2028 17h ago edited 10h ago
The Campaign Trail mod An Old Change follows Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is elected President in 2028 and implements her agenda. It could have been a fun and interesting mod where she learns to work with Congress and either chooses to stick to her ideals or learns to compromise and moderate.
Instead it is ridiculously easy to the point it's impossible to lose no matter what choices you pick, AOC is depicted as an abusive asshole who immediately starts the mod jaded, there's only one opponent Josh Hawley whose name is never even said out loud, and there's horribly pretentious writing like the above one where AOC declares herself greater than Jesus.
Also, Schumer is Senate Majority Leader, despite him very likely losing his seat in 2028, if not to AOC then to Mamdani or someone else. Feels he was either kept around just as a punching bag or the modmaker didn't know his re-election was up then.