I like reload. I like getting better at games, so if I don't think I performed adequately I reload. In the Banner Saga I tried to do as many fights as possible without losing a single character, took a bit to figure out some of the ones after the first one but it was fun. Eventually you always start losing one guy though.
I like reload too. Reloaded everytime I lost a character in the IE games. Combat is just too easy and boring if you let people get killed and then just cast resurrect afterwards. Was just pointing out that in older games, lots of mechanics relied on exercising self restraint, whether it was reloading or resting, or not breaking sequence in such a way that everything else was trivialized. It seems to me that it was simply assumed that players were capable of managing their own fun, whether they wanted to ironman, limit rests, or whatever else they found interesting.
I watched a video of someone else playing LOX on YouTube. It was insane how differently this person handled everything. I used the traditional lockpick skills to open chests. This guy just had a shitload of food, and would use the break lock option all the time, everytime, even though it takes time and therefore consumes food. He always used the minigame to disarm traps, and rest spammed very liberally. And then used crystals to backtrack to town and buy more food. It was a really interesting way of playing because it was very gamey, totally in contrast to how I played. But he had his fun and I had mine. And kudos to the developers for building the game in such a way that different playstyles were supported. However, people were complaining on the LOX thread here about the lockpick minigame, totally ignoring the fact that not only did the game cost resources (lockpicks), but that there were also two other completely supported methods to handle the situation, breaking (which costs time and food), and the lockpick skill (which costs skill points). Codexers had a buffet of systems to choose from, and they were bitching simply about having options available.
I'm not sure how this expectation came up, but now it seems that players are so pathetic and weak willed that they want designers to tell them when to eat and when to shit, there's this expectation that designers must essentially control every aspect of the game experience, rather than building open ended mechanics and systems. And players are so stupid that they don't have the basic common sense to find their own enjoyment in a game, rather they want to be forcefed a specific designer's vision of so-called "fun". I think that's retarded, fuck games like POE with their forced mechanics, I want to enjoy and play on my own terms. If others want JE Sawyer to pilot them with his cock in their ass, then they are welcome to enjoy that travesty of a game.
