NetHack

Raised as a usability problem by 9 people on Hacker News over 14 years (2011–2024), in 8 threads.

People raised many different problems with NetHack, but no single problem has yet been raised by 3 people in 3 different months and threads.

Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.

The newest 10 complaints

Progress requires hidden knowledge; puzzles and mechanics are impossible to infer from playing2024-03-13
Not accessible to blind players; no spoken descriptions of items, menus, or surroundings2022-04-13
Commander had no idea how to accomplish anything through the opaque interface2019-05-13
Commenter finds NetHack's interface unfriendly compared with modern roguelikes like DCSS2019-05-13
Important mechanics like cursed items are hard to figure out without spoilers2019-05-13
Hidden mechanics force trial-and-error or spoilers, making the game hard to learn2018-04-29
Many required chores take no skill, feeling like paperwork rather than play2016-06-07
Commenter finds the interface and targeting system off-putting and hard to get into2016-04-19
Bottom UI half off screen, and window close button doesn't work2016-03-21
Standard navigation keys are too confusing with a Dvorak keyboard layout2011-10-22