I think your over thinking a now common marketing technique.

Saying the title on the box is evident that marketing is in charge of creativity is unfounded, as marketing very rarely, if ever, has anything to do with a game outside of marketing said game in the best way possible. The way the title is spelled has no impact on the game, and last I checked, does not fall under the banner of gameplay or even come close to it.

It is absolutely impossible to determine anything out of that, other than their marketing department is going along with other developers who are doing the same thing, whether some of us find it aggravating or not, it does nothing to either help nor hinder the game in anyway whatsoever.

Oblivion did well, and was a good game; Left4Dead did well, and is a great game (IMO). Thief 4 might do just as well, or not, it depends on the game, not the jpeg. No one is ever going to call it "Thi4f" – it's just a marketing tool.

(P.S. "1337 speak" "dude speak" "and "l337 sp33k" do not have, nor will they ever likely have, established rules, arguing weather or not a "4" can be an "e" is kind of a moot point when you're talking about the daddy of all spontaneously made-up internet lingos that change depending on who is the one typing at that given time.)

Well, for me, the PC is a far superior platform on the basis of what can and cannot be customized, as well as the input devices (keyboard/mouse vs. control) On a PS3 or 360 your ability to customize anything, most notably, player mods, is severely limited, to non-existent (with a few exceptions, such as Unreal Tournament 3)

I've played games for as long as I can remember, I built my first computer when I was 13, and I'm one of the few people who liked and got vista to work flawlessly. I started playing on consoles and I still have them and play on them, but I love my PC, and whenever I have the option to buy something on the PC vs. say, my PS3, I get it on the PC. Why? because I know I'll enjoy it far more on my PC because of things such as the improved visuals; most "decent" PC monitors run at a higher resolution then 1080P HD TVs, and thus can offer a better picture overall in most cases, Better control; it's inarguable that a good mouse and keyboard offer FAR more options than any controller for any console, Modability; Some games, notably Fallout 3 and Oblivion, are far and away better when you pile on some of the better community Mods.

Nowadays it is not unreasonable to buy a decently powerful PC at a relatively low price point that is fully capable of playing any game currently on the market, but it's still a choice. For me, the PC is a superior platform because I understand my PC, I use it every day for more tasks then I can name, and I keep it healthy.

I think my point is thus, the benefits of a PC out way any console on the market (in my opinion) for those of us who know how to work them. For me, it's worth my time and money, but like I said, I also have consoles, I play games for games, but I'll still take a PC copy over a console copy any day of the week.

(Intel Quad-Core 2.4ghz CPU, 8gigs RAM, 9800GTX 512mb, 250gig HDD and Windows 7 – Total Cost: $800.00)

Huh.... well it seems RE has done well for itself over the last... what is it now? 13 years?

I have always looked at other games for inspiration when working on my own concept documents, it’s a fantastic way to see what works and what doesn’t, and can oft lead to entirely unexplored areas of design, one gameplay mechanic can be fantastic in every way but one, and in musing in ways to fix its single fault you can find completely new ideas to use, ideas that can, as a whole, make for a better game.

And I would tend to agree that polish and simplicity is paramount in this day and age, while I personally prefer an immensely complicated and involved gaming experience, many feel daunted when presented with such, and I believe that it is through the mentioned intuitiveness and polish that one can achieve highly sophisticated mechanics that are approachable by the masses. Which, if WoW proved anything, it’s that polish sells, and where as I hardly feel WoW is complicated from my standpoint, and I must admit feeling great personal animosity towards it for what I feel it has done to MMOGs as a whole, I cannot deny the fact that it proves what the majority of gamers look for, approachability, something EPIC has excelled at in my view point, all of the game mechanics just make sense, and even the more advanced aspects such as UnrealEd are simple to learn to a point of functionality, and that’s something many more publishers should strive for in my opinion.