Copy pasta from BF3 forums
Here's a little something I ran across in another game forum. Enjoy
Extract from a blog about an old 1980's game,
If there's a lesson in Elite for modern developers, it's this--don't baby the player. A babied player doesn't grow up. A "challenge" fails to interest him; it becomes just an annoyance to be bypassed by a cheat-code. Make the player work to overcome a challenge from the get-go, and it's an investment. Make the player realize, "Uh oh, this isn't going to be easy." Of course, and I know, there are players who will immediately stop playing at that point. I say, have the integrity to let them go. Catering to this type of person will only ruin your game, and, in all sincerity, reduce the value your original game had to offer.
As a professor teaching 18-19 year olds, it depresses me to see how many of them have been conditioned by the baby-stepping games of the last five years. I only wish that more of them could be challenged as thoroughly and rewarded as graciously as I was, weaned on games like Elite and Pool of Radiance. Those games taught the lesson--great rewards for great efforts. Modern games are all too willing to offer even greater rewards, but for little to no effort. The idea is that they'll offer so many rewards and incentives that the player will be reduced to a sort of sensation-seeking monkey, pushing a button that briefly flares some pleasure region of his spinal cortex. Bah. Leave such games to the plebs.
Fully agreed :D
Sauce: Forum.ea.com
