A Diskussion about "regenerative health" in horror games.

[Froge]

Sorry if this makes me sound Harsh or Nasty, but, if they wanted to focus on the Story, then, why didnt they just make a web comic or Interactive Graphic Novel?

A game without challenge, to me, personally, isn't really a game, its a tutorial, and boring. i'm not getting nasty with frictional, i can see why they wanted to focus on the Story, its a Duesie! great charachters, intelligent, superbly written, great dialoque and brown trousers time scary, but, if they are not going to have challenge, perhaps "gaming" isn't really the correct media platform.

No challenge, No Entertainment, No Entertainment, No game. its the same with call of duty or battlefeild, no challenge, just loads of massive setpeices that make it exiting as heck to watch, but brain numbingly boring to play. they would be absolutely brilliant as movies (Sean Connery (Price), Jason Statham (Gaz) and Micheal Fassbender (Soap) for COD movie?) but as games, ugggh, no no no!.

Everything has a place yes, but very Little has a place as a game now in my opinion, because its all designed to be as easy as possible so as to appeal to "new players", and that is boring, if you are not willing to have challenge, dont make a game, it is as simple as that, make a movie or a virtual novel.

if you have a great and involving storyline, then people will play it too its end no matter how hard the game is, look at the first 2 Max Payne titles, hard as nails, and people still played them because the storylines were epic, making a game easy when people will play it no matter how hard it is, because the story is awesome, is "dumbing down!" and that, to me, is a crime agaisnt gaming!

im with leon kennedy, too many medpacks is as bad as regenerating health, and regenerating health is a game ruiner (in all genres! it is not necessary, its dumbing down) as they remove the challenge, i'm sorry, but, if you dont want a challenge, then go watch a movie, i am sick and tired of having my hobby ruined for the sake of people who can't cope with a bit of difficulty so everything gets turned into call of duty in order to appease them because the industry hasnt got the guts to tell them were to get off because it has become so greedy it cannot see that this continual dumbing down so as to appeal to the widest possible audience has taken us back on the same "rushed out casual game for christmass" path that caused the great games crash of 1983, and will cause another crash!

as far as im concerned, a stand alone tutorial, a cut down "tourist" or "super easy mode" (that only offers half the game) and a quick controll reference sheet on the back of the manual were More than good enough to help the "new players" out before modern warfare got popular in 2006, so its still good enough now, everything else is "dumbing down", wich is the mark of greed!

if its not challenging, its not a game, and should have been made as a virtual novel or webcomic instead. okay, thats just my own personall opinion, and i expect 90% of people will disagree with it rather strongly, but, thats the way i am, a died in the wool old school hardcore gamer, and im beyond changing, so either gaming needs to change (wich it will in the next crash, as all the "mainstream" gamers will loose interest, just look at what happened in the last one) or i am going to need a new hobby, because gaming today, with its interest in new gamers, and its total lack of challenge, is Boring.

Personally, I'm quite disappointed with your perception of games. I'm not going to blindly spit or hate upon your opinion, but I would definitely argue with it.

Games should be treated as art. No more, no less. The only way to truly understand this is to create one yourself. I would argue that every game programmer or designer can understand that the creation of a game is like the painting of an art piece, or the composing of a grand piece of music. There's the rote work behind it - the mathematical knowledge, the ability to script, etc. - but what makes video games art is the creativity behind the making of a game, how such simple things as lines of script and mathematical statements can be welded together, like the threads of a web, to create something that is overall extraordinary. This can range from the aesthetic appeal of the graphics to the storylines, to the challenges offered and the replayability and the wit of each level or boss and especially the settings portrayed by the music. All of this come together to create something special for the player. After all, what is art? Is it entertainment? Is it knowledge? Is it perception, a way of seeing the world from the artist's eyes? No one really knows. But good art always achieves the goal of immersion.

I'm a hardcore gamer. I love challenges, and enjoy playing brain-meltingly difficult NES-era games like Castlevania III or Ghosts n' Ghouls, and also IWBTG. But do I like those games only for their difficulty? Certainly not! There was creativity in the levels of each Castlevania Game, how they seemed to immerse you into the environment of the whole story; there was wit and aesthetic style in the design of each level (especially in SMB 3) which helped create the "Just one more level" mentality; the music makes the whole experience memorable; the whole story offered and challenge of the game can really make you sympathize with the characters you controlled. It's not only about the challenge. The best video games are art because they are so immersive.

I apply the exact same criteria in judging a game of the modern era. Amnesia was immersive. It offered not the challenge of beating the game, but rather the challenge within the mind - the stress of the horror often made me to scared to do anything but hide. The overall presentation - the graphics, the music, the story, the designs of each level - all made the experience of Amnesia wonderful, from the heart-pumping chases to the surprise attacks of each monster (e.g. Morgue = Brute). If one bases games only upon difficulty, then games become much less than art.