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[Darkmere]

My enthusiasm for permadeath is inversely proportional to the length of a "game." Binding of Isaac or FTL, where the game's over in 20 minutes? Bring it on. ToME, which takes a few hours... yeah, okay, sure. Diablo franchise, where you've played  quite a bit into double-digits just to make your character competitive? Nope. Pass.

[Kaje]

For me, it's definitely those dreaded three letters...DLC.

Back when it was a new thing, it was exciting. "Ohhh! New things for a game I love!" but now it's "Why couldn't you release this all in the original game for one price?"...

[lijacote]

Pixely and/or cutesy graphics. Think Realm of the Mad God or anything like that. Ugh, why. Used to be cool, now I feel oversaturated.

[Sergarr]

Pixely and/or cutesy graphics. Think Realm of the Mad God or anything like that. Ugh, why. Used to be cool, now I feel oversaturated.

This happens with every single art-style which was in a popular game (ex. Minecraft for pixely graphics). It's cool and new for some time but then people repeat and repeat and repeat until you're vomiting. And then, after years of suffering under the waves of blandness, finally somebody gains enough guts to try something new. And then the cycle repeat again.

[Neonivek]

Pixely and/or cutesy graphics. Think Realm of the Mad God or anything like that. Ugh, why. Used to be cool, now I feel oversaturated.

This happens with every single art-style which was in a popular game (ex. Minecraft for pixely graphics). It's cool and new for some time but then people repeat and repeat and repeat until you're vomiting. And then, after years of suffering under the waves of blandness, finally somebody gains enough guts to try something new. And then the cycle repeat again.

My issue with pixil graphics is most of the time, they aren't very well made.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I look at old games like Final Fantasy, Romancing Saga, Valkyria Profile and heck Lands of Lore... Look at Super Mario, Kirby's dreamland, Bahamut Lagoon, Princess Maker... and then I look at most faux retro games and well... The Faux Retro game graphics STINK! No old game worth its salt looks as bad as "Realm of the Mad God"

The only reason I don't add it to my list is because I was never fooled by this. I fell inlove with retro graphics because they looked great when done right... not because of some false sense of nostalgia.

The problem is... people still haven't caught onto this yet. If I seen one more bad looking game go "Classical graphics! OOoOoOO" and people going "Wow, it is like I am a kid again playing the Super Nintendo" I will puke.

[nenjin]

Permadeath only works for me in games like BoI where what you get/what you do is so random it makes a restart almost appealing.

That describes few games with permadeath. I think DCSS is the only roguelike I can tolerate permadeath in. But ultimately, any game with permadeath is one I eventually want to see the end of, and nothing makes that more annoying than permadeath. I've never thought the sense of pride, or the elevated sense of importance impending death yields to everything, make up for the frustration.

[Neonivek]

The problem with pernadeath can basically be summed up as "How does this enhance the game?"

Most of the time it is "To make the game harder" or "To make the game longer". So it just adds fake difficulty onto the game.

Games that do pernadeath right are usually shorter games where it is about learning how the play the game, where each death all contributes to the final resolution and all the skills are true. Yet even that needs to be more then predicting deaths in advance.

[Jack_Bread]

Pixely and/or cutesy graphics. Think Realm of the Mad God or anything like that. Ugh, why. Used to be cool, now I feel oversaturated.

What's funny is Realm of the Mad God is using a pixel art graphic pack that you can buy. I can't seem to find the website, as searching anything related to pixel art gives me TONS of tutorials. Not saying all their art is from that pack, however.

I want to know, though, what do you guys think of the Binding of Isaac remake switching to pixel art from the old flash art?

[Neonivek]

It just depends if they can pull it off well and isn't an excuse not to try on the graphics.

[Vattic]

I have mixed feelings about perma-death. On the one had I love the tension and changes in play-style it creates, but dislike the frustration. I enjoyed how it was done in the Fire Emblem series where you can lose party members along the way without ending the game. I did have high hopes for how Haven and Hearth was going to deal with it as well with previous characters working as your ancestors who you could worship for benefits.

Pixely and/or cutesy graphics. Think Realm of the Mad God or anything like that. Ugh, why. Used to be cool, now I feel oversaturated.

What's funny is Realm of the Mad God is using a pixel art graphic pack that you can buy. I can't seem to find the website, as searching anything related to pixel art gives me TONS of tutorials. Not saying all their art is from that pack, however.

Only half true, the bulk of the graphics are from a free to use set made by Oryx over on the Tigsource forums as part of a game making competition. While searching for them to post here I found out that the RotMD people have since paid him to get more in the same style.

[Retropunch]

I love permadeath, as long as the game does incredibly well at avoiding unavoidable/stupid deaths. There is literally nothing worse than playing a permadeath game and dying through something out of your hands.

This is why I hate it when games advertise a 'hardcore permadeath mode' - it's just the same game with no saves, and the game hasn't been modified to work fairly with permadeath.

[Darkmere]

I love permadeath, as long as the game does incredibly well at avoiding unavoidable/stupid deaths. There is literally nothing worse than playing a permadeath game and dying through something out of your hands.

This, a lot. If I die and there's something I could have done differently to live (that's reasonably apparent) then I don't mind at all, can do better next time. If it's completely random "the dungeon collapses and you died" bullshit, count me out.

[SharpKris]

I love permadeath, as long as the game does incredibly well at avoiding unavoidable/stupid deaths. There is literally nothing worse than playing a permadeath game and dying through something out of your hands.

This!. you forgot to mention MMOs that use Permadeath in a fun brilliant and avoidable way.
to name a few who've twisted the term "permadeath" a bit into "dying is really bad for you",
Eve, Darkfall, Dark souls?, DAOC, Ultima, and so on. 

[Retropunch]

I love permadeath, as long as the game does incredibly well at avoiding unavoidable/stupid deaths. There is literally nothing worse than playing a permadeath game and dying through something out of your hands.

twisted the term "permadeath" a bit into "dying is really bad for you",

I think the 'dying is really bad for you' is the very best way to deal with it. Not the whole torchlight/diablo 'lose a bit of xp or gold' thing, but something which really makes you take a hit (like dark souls). I really like the mechanic of The Forest (and a few other games) where you wake up in a different/bad place on low health with none of your stuff the when you 'die' (or when you die for the first time). It gives you a strong reason to avoid death (more so than the permadeath 'oh well that's over, guess i'll just turn it off') and gives you the chance of learning from your mistakes.

It's a struggle though, because a lot of people hate the idea of being punished by their entertainment - and I do get that - but little risk gives little reward and all that.

[Arbinire]

didn't read through every post but one "feature" I'm really hating these days is "stream-lining".  When it was first being used to describe upgrades to games it made some sense, like the combat shift from Morrowind to Oblivion was actual stream-lining, because it took the dicey roll mechanics out of the hit equation and made sense.  Now it's just a term that means "our player base is too dumb to figure this out, and we need to hold their hands at every turn."

Also a lot of "open world" games these days.  What's the point of the open world aspect if the questing itself becomes linear and and points you exactly where you need to go?  Like Fallout 3 was a prime example of this.  There wasn't any real choice with what you were doing, and the story railroaded you hardcore.