@billlabowski

It doesn't go far beyond

"We'll make sure that you're on the top of the list of people to call when we start a new project".

An empty promise, pretty much.

The biggest tragedy in all of this was the employees of 38 Studios and BHG.

-basically being asked to relocate from Mass. to RI

- fired via mass email and without 2 weeks notice

- didn't get a week's pay

- and realized that their Mass. homes weren't sold by the company after they had left so they got stuck with a second mortgage.

I think that, in order to pursue perma-death or death punishment in games, developers need to re-evaluate the concept of Difficulty.

In most games past and present, higher difficulty usually only meant = enemies do more damage, you do less damage.

This creates one of the worst illusions of challenge ever because it is essentially handicap. What ends up happening is player frustration as they die, reload the checkpoint, and try again. To implement perma-death or death punishment within this system of difficulty is one easy way of making sure players don't ever want to play your game again.

Games require a fair arena of difficulty so that when players suffer the consequences of dying, it comes from a sense of challenge rather than from cheap tricks. In other words, difficulty becomes more than just a difference of damage values of the enemy, but a re-imagining of a game's design in how players interact with their enemies. This goes far beyond than just improving AI. It also means pacing, environment, and control (and I don't mean it in the sense of 'keyboard+mouse, controller').

What I am trying to get at here, is that the concept of death can only be truly appreciated if other factors, namely difficulty, are re-evaluated so cheap AI and mechanics don't end up biting you in the ass.

The best and worst thing about politics is: everyone has an opinion.

That sheep thing is freaking me out

Don't you mean "any $60 watered-down, uninspired, money-grabbing game is a hard sell?"

Because there is nothing inherent about a horror game that leads to a "campaign rental". If that were true then Resident Evil 2 & 4, Silent Hill 2, FEAR, Dead Space, Condemned, and System Shock 2 weren't prominent.

I remember sitting through almost 1 hour of the IGN preview and was thinking "this game looks like shit compared to the hype surrounding it."

And everyone was like "no man, it's still beta".

Well then.

Watching this game made me feel uneasy for some reason.

@DeltaMike90

Did you even read the article? It's the last sentence...:

"A European court ruled last summer that content creators can't prohibit post-purchase redistribution of work, NO MATTER what end-user license agreement says."

For some reference, here is what some other sports' ads look like:

Basketball = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYwtOn75rc0

Football = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXlBSlyU8xY

Hockey = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSd8CqBEbcY

They follow similar styles. But it only becomes a problem if competitive gaming does it because society feels video games can't be serious and pro gaming can't be "real" jobs.