Border Down on 1UP's Game Breakers list

[ahnslaught]

And let's not forget Geometry Wars and all the other live arcade games. I think it's quite clear the genre was stagnating, at least in the US, for lack of coverage.

[DEL]

I think I've been fair to him this time....
Here's the copy/paste to my reply;

Quote; "In my humble opinion, being conditioned to follow a set path like a lab rat in a Skinner maze is not entertainment. To put it succinctly, no freedom equals no fun."

-->The above comment would be relevant to the highly constrictive 'chaining system' of the Donpachis. Hell, even a masochistic shoot'em up player like myself doesn't like being THAT constrained! (apologies to the CaveMen).

BUT

That's about as close to agreeing with you as I get.

Border Down gives you a fair bit of freedom, yet it does force a lot of old school memorization on the player.

Perhaps you choose to lose track of what made people rush to the arcades in the first place-->Skill, competition, the buzz of actually achieving something!

If you wish to switch your brain off and be passively 'entertained', then join Mr & Mrs Smith & family on the 1 credit for 4 minutes games found in today's Western arcades.

If a player is not challenged, he/she gets rapidly bored with the game. ie. No replay value, no sense of accomplishment.

Quote; "I personally think the Border Down system is a terrible way to punish the player for a mistake"

^This is where you misunderstand this deep game. Bordering Down instantly reduces the rank (difficulty). Yes, even when you Border Down to the Red Border!

Border Down is far from a 'pick up and blast' shooter & I understand that you don't like it because you do not wish to memorize etc. - That's FINE, no problem, but you shouldn't arbitrarily dismiss it because you seek passive entertainment.
Other readers of your articles may indeed 'wish' to be challenged.

Regs, DEL

[Limbrooke]

I think I've been fair to him this time....
Here's the copy/paste to my reply;

Quote; "In my humble opinion, being conditioned to follow a set path like a lab rat in a Skinner maze is not entertainment. To put it succinctly, no freedom equals no fun."

-->The above comment would be relevant to the highly constrictive 'chaining system' of the Donpachis. Hell, even a masochistic shoot'em up player like myself doesn't like being THAT constrained! (apologies to the CaveMen).

BUT

That's about as close to agreeing with you as I get.

Border Down gives you a fair bit of freedom, yet it does force a lot of old school memorization on the player.

Perhaps you choose to lose track of what made people rush to the arcades in the first place-->Skill, competition, the buzz of actually achieving something!

If you wish to switch your brain off and be passively 'entertained', then join Mr & Mrs Smith & family on the 1 credit for 4 minutes games found in today's Western arcades.

If a player is not challenged, he/she gets rapidly bored with the game. ie. No replay value, no sense of accomplishment.

Quote; "I personally think the Border Down system is a terrible way to punish the player for a mistake"

^This is where you misunderstand this deep game. Bordering Down instantly reduces the rank (difficulty). Yes, even when you Border Down to the Red Border!

Border Down is far from a 'pick up and blast' shooter & I understand that you don't like it because you do not wish to memorize etc. - That's FINE, no problem, but you shouldn't arbitrarily dismiss it because you seek passive entertainment.
Other readers of your articles may indeed 'wish' to be challenged.

Regs, DEL

Well put DEL, although considering the previous replies by the man it looks a bit grim as to somehow enlighten.
Not to gripe, but would he even know what 'rank' is?

[DEL]

Limbrooke wrote;

Not to gripe, but would he even know what 'rank' is?

^Don't worry, I thought of that . You'll notice that I put "(difficulty)" after the word rank .

[Pirate1019]

Lovely, now we branch the arguement out to other sections of his article.

I like how he has absolutely no other comments on his blog regarding the article other then us countering him.

Wouldn't it be great if in the end he edited the article to fix all of the flaws that have been found?

[Rob]

Finishing some thoughts.

Maybe you think that jumping through the endless flaming hoops set before you by a sadistic programmer is fun, but me, I like a little more freedom than that.

Like the freedom of a linear path.

I don't play by patterns, I don't play by memorization.

I just want to react to the bullets.