Products · Broad category
Video games
Raised as a usability problem by 82 people on Hacker News over 19 years (2008–2026), in 78 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Older games have clunky default controls that need rebindingUnreviewed
20082026- Older games have clunky default controls that are hard to play without rebinding2025-01-01
- Hard-coded controls break muscle memory and ignore player's preferred layout2021-04-23
- Pre-1995 games use clunky left/right click and movement controls that frustrate modern players2017-06-26
Games without separate controller and mouse interfaces have poor UIsUnreviewed
20082026- Games designed for consoles and hastily ported to PC have poor interface usability2021-05-22
- Game UIs are horrible and hard for many people to use without frustration2020-10-28
- Games lacking separate controller and mouse interfaces end up with very bad UIs2016-06-06
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 50 complaints
- Clunky controls and camera that won't cooperate during jumps2026-10-12
- Cursor visibly lags and gameplay stutters, with multi-second load times2026-10-11
- Dark patterns steer players into a series of microtransactions2026-07-25
- Unclear whether the game is paused, since animations keep running in some menus and multiplayer2026-04-19
- Top-right counter numbers are confusing; unclear what the superscript and totals mean2026-01-08
- Forced minutes of pressing A through exposition with no way to skip2025-12-05
- Old JRPGs give no guidance on where to go, so players get lost2025-11-19
- Forced 20+ minute cutscenes before the player can control a character2025-11-08
- The messages mechanic is confusing to understand at first2025-09-28
- Move and jump are mutually exclusive on touch, blocking climbing to rooftops2025-09-28
- Touch controls feel backwards on a small phone screen; expected dragging the world to move2025-09-28
- Hard to find the right thrust balance; no gentle way to reach it and no indicator2025-09-17
- Players had to guess inputs by trial and error and replay sections due to poor saves2025-07-06
- Clicking a color then guessing all categories at once feels counter-intuitive2025-04-23
- Older games have clunky default controls that are hard to play without rebinding2025-01-01
- Can't tell when the exploding star is charged without clicking it2024-12-04
- Can't tell when a move is charged up without trying it2024-12-03
- Launchers make you log in and enter credit card details before playing2024-11-23
- Players must keep a wiki or notepad open to track game information2024-09-12
- Remapping controls is abysmal; tutorials hard-code keys and some modes ignore rebinding2024-08-03
- Both gamepad camera control schemes feel unintuitive to the player2024-04-16
- Couldn't figure out how to press Y to accept Nightmare difficulty2024-02-27
- Controls are hard to reach and adjust; fine adjustments are difficult and the layout forces finger repositioning2024-02-08
- Crappy inventory UI with arbitrary limits makes managing items tedious2024-02-02
- Players accidentally discard cards because holding is the action, not dismissing2023-10-04
- Daily XP limits and random gift boxes push players into continued play2023-09-26
- The font is so hard to read that the reader can't get past the first paragraph2023-08-10
- Lara steers like a car, so turning requires awkward directional input2023-06-03
- Forgets game controls after a break, so harder later sections become frustrating2023-05-05
- Switching rotation direction needs extra clicks; would be less annoying with right-click2022-11-23
- Restarting a level forces a full reload, taking 15-30 seconds for little changed state2022-06-10
- Input lag makes games feel sluggish and unresponsive2022-05-28
- Games show info once or need many clicks, so players must track it themselves in spreadsheets2022-05-10
- Visually loud screen overwhelms; user can't tell what to do and can't find login2022-03-18
- Players must dig through cryptically named settings to make a game run acceptably2022-02-03
- Consoles now have long waits, errors and crashes, getting more janky as complexity grows2021-11-14
- Decorative fonts are hard to read and there is no option to switch to plain fonts2021-10-29
- Game UIs lag, react inconsistently to input, and can't be resized2021-09-07
- Screen is atrocious and flipper buttons respond inconsistently, so the cabinet isn't usable out of the box2021-07-05
- Games designed for consoles and hastily ported to PC have poor interface usability2021-05-22
- Hard-coded controls break muscle memory and ignore player's preferred layout2021-04-23
- Buttons give no feedback, and clicking next turn shows no sign the month is passing2021-04-22
- Game starts without explanation; player can't see own ship and must hold shoot to locate it2021-04-22
- Commenter couldn't figure out where to enter the code, and the hint didn't help2021-03-19
- Typing in bottom box requires constantly scrolling up to see changes; hard to play on mobile2021-03-19
- Loading screens are long and extremely frustrating for players2021-03-01
- Games ignore the active keyboard layout and need restarting to fix it2021-01-25
- Game freezes and becomes unresponsive after the second tree2021-01-13
- Cursor gets captured by the page and moves with slow acceleration compared to outside the window2020-11-30
- Game UIs are horrible and hard for many people to use without frustration2020-10-28