tl;dr post commence!
Are you a (budding/wannabe/actual) game designer? All your arguments hinge around game design, yet you completely ignore the fact that there are actual gamers that enjoy having the ability to save whenever they want. So what? How does that ability "cheapen" the experience for anyone playing the game?
It kills the suspense? It's more challenging to have to replay 30 minutes than 10 if you fail?
Don't use it.
And no, it's not a freakin' BFG because you have to play the game. It's not a WIN button.
Your assertion is that games should be a challenge in your argument against, thereby implying that saving/loading at will removes all challenge from the game. Not true! IF you choose to button mash the save key then all you're doing is reducing the penalty for making the wrong decision.
Is that a fun way to play? I dunno.. sounds kind of tedious to me. But if someone gets their jollies off of doing that, who am I to argue? It's fun for them, obviously.
Choice is what I'm arguing for and you clearly said ALL games should move to something like checkpoints. I simply disagree. Give me the ability to decide when I am done. I'm a proponent of saving at will and I don't "save through boss fights" or whatever offends you. I stop when I want. And it doesn't bother me in the least that some other guy is playing it his way.
First, Of course I'd want to design games, wouldn't you? If you can't relate to the BFG example of why it cheapens the experience, read below the next two quoted posts for an explanation.
And stop saying "don't use it." You can say the same with the BFG example. That is why I was making that example. Why not have the BFG crap in the games? You can just not use it right?
Second, the BFG isn't a win button either, skill level is relative. There are easier ways to make the game easier than either saves or the BFG, and that would be difficulty levels like easy, med, hard, ect.
Third, are you implying that there shouldn't be a penalty for dying? Why not just have god mode then?
Last, I've already explained that you can stop when you want in any system, so that point doesn't matter one bit.
I was simply trying to counter the argument that the mere presence of a save button somehow ruins the experience for everyone.
It ruins the experience for some people like me who are competitive and want to use every game mechanic to their advantage so are sort of forced to even use cheap ones. Doing that would obviously take away from the experience. It would be fine if they offered a different difficulty that said, "no saving, only checkpoints."
I think I've actually seen a game that has done that recently, so that is awesome. Also Dead Space 2 had a hard mode that you can only save 3 times the whole game, but that is a bit different. That would actually be similar to your "player has to balance it themselves" trade off argument. It should also illustrate why that game mode would not be good at all for normal play.
And how does a person's personal play style in a single player game directly affect you? I don't understand why some people are so distressed when a person saves a whole bunch. It's a personal preference about entertainment consumption.
What other people do doesn't bother me, they can just use console cheats or other built in cheats if they want, or downloadable hacks.
What bothers me is that it's a main mechanic that's meant to be used, so as a competitive player, I will use all game mechanics to my advantage. Yet using it makes everything feel extremely cheap. Still, I am forced to use it because of my competitive nature and because it's designed as a main game mechanic.
If people can relate to the BFG example I gave, then they would understand exactly where I'm coming from. I can't think of any better ways to portray my feelings. If you think the BFGs would be fine and
it wouldn't bother you in the back of your mind while ignoring them, well then I'm out of luck for trying to convey my feelings.
And can someone freakin explain to me why it keeps taking me to the index instead of login screen when I try to do some things like make a post or quote. FFFUUUUU