Anything requiring you repeatedly mash a single button super fast

Exponentially growing requirements that out pace rewards. I don’t want to spend 10 hours grinding just to level up.

Stat/EXP loss on death.

Unskippable cut scenes, especially before a boss. I want to play on hard difficulty, which means I WILL die to bosses. Do not force me to watch that shit 5+ times or I’m out like trout.

Lootboxes

The worst game mechanic is artificial difficulty where enemies aren’t challenging. Instead, they are just damage sponges.

Pay to win.

Permanently loosing a treasure that you can only get once because your pocket is full.

Microtransactions - the answer always has been and always will be microtransactions.

Not the worst, but I’m annoyed by invisible walls. Just give me a reason why I can’t be there.

A multiplayer game that pits you against lousy AI bots with human looking names for your first "games’ so you feel like you know how to play and makes the game seem fair and fun.

Then after you’re comfortable, you get pitted against a lobby of 12-year-olds who haven’t seen daylight since birth who annihilate you and curse you out on coms.

2 sets of teeth, the first only lasting 1/9 of your life and the second being 8/9. 2/9, 7/9 would be much better or just 2/9, 4/9, 6/9.

Oh, hair falling out and all your joints hurting for 5/9 of your life kinda blows as well.

INSERT COIN TO CONTINUE

Achievements.

I want to enjoy the game, not artificial milestones for bragging rights.

One of the worst game mechanics ever found in a game was where the enemy got harder as you gained levels. The same enemy. It basically defeated the value of having more levels. I think it was Oblivion Skyrim where I found this, particularly annoying.

Deliberately ableist bullshit. Like no pause or an over reliance on quick time events.