But the evidence of a good or great game is one that SCALES.
Hate to harp, but the ratio in Oblivion in difficulties went from -1000 to normal to +1000. That's a 1:1 million ratio difference that they allowed for. Are you even at 2:1?
Hell, if you count the fact that they gave you direct console access complete with built-in help so you could mod your character anyway you want -- can you even begin to say that you tried?
While the graphic detail is better here, the quests and lack of a guide book make a complete walkthrough and/or wiki essential. Some of us really don't get off on 20 question type games, or "guess what the writer was thinking" type games. I gave up on Adventure type games years ago. Myst absolutely sucked for me. didn't get anywhere. I like story, progression, sensuality & relationships (maybe sexuality), and fighting (lots on that).
But the worst is when progression stops and nothing is happening -- that's what happens when people get hung up. As a story teller, as any entertainer -- you've lost most the audience at that point. You can't hang people up -- not for any length of time -- there need to be hints and progression, not senseless beating of the head against the wall.
These are all OLD tenants of game play that each new studio/developer, seems to have to learn from scratch, because none of this stuff is taught or handed down. It may be in books -- but they are in ones that just don't get read.
By the time people learn the basics, they are out of the industry or too old to be employable -- especially in the game companies that expect 60 hour weeks (60 is average in the US). Those companies don't understand that creativity doesn't come out of exhaustion. If they had had 1.8x as many programmers @ 80% of the benefits that only worked 32 hour weeks (8 hours for self-project time), and allowed 20% more in the schedule, they'd get much better results, not burn out employees, and thus get more experienced staff over the long run.
Of course, it can't happen in the US, where next quarter's results are paramount, but the US's model of business seems to be doomed without business corporations running/owning government -- oh wait, that's what's happening in the US...er....
nevermind...on that...who knows what will happen there.
