Thanks for the reasoned response, Raze - I admit my reply was a bit acerbic. I have a great fondness for Larian, recently doing a
'netbook gamer' article on DivDiv.I regret the use of the word 'abusive' as it takes away from my 'user hostile design' idea. Remember in Divine Divinity how dialogs wouldn't close when
is pressed? That is an example of 'user hostile design'. Things that do not work as they should based on standards, or that display a function that doesn't work, fall under that category.
Does anyone remember Dungeon Lords? The demo was not good, but despite protestations on the forums, was a perfect indication of what to expect. The developers often have a single chance to make their case to gamers, and creating a bad buzz in a demo is a great way to poison a market.
I have not played the demo, as I have it pre-ordered, and may be reviewing it for a game site. However, I have heard from console friends that the console version isn't very good, and the PC version has no saves and a game-breaking freeze bug that has existed for months but not been addressed. These things send a message to gamers - and even hardcore fans are given pause by this turn of events.
