Weapon degredation worked quite well, as a game mechanic that served to reinforce the atmosphere of tension and fear. It even reflected an overall theme of breakdown and disorder. And I definitely did have some fun "oh crap!!!" moments where one of my guns unexpectedly failed. :) The problem I think most people had was from a standpoint of realism/immersion/verisimilitude: in a nutshell, weapon degredation made no sense. What it modeled was not quite reality, and nothing justified the discrepancy. I think simulationism is a powerful technique in proportion to the extent that it leverages the player's knowledge and expectations about how things work in reality. If a game system runs counter to player expectations, then that system needs an in-game explanation -- and furthermore, the gameplay (and story) implications of that explanation need to be fully explored. So for instance, let's say SS2 explained weapon degredation as being caused by a nanotech mist that corroded mechanical systems. The designers would then need to address the player expectation that the mist would logically be affecting other mechanical systems as well, including ship mechanisms (elevators, doors, turrets, cameras, etc.) robots, the player's own cybernetic implants, and so on. Such an explanation would raise more player questions than it answered. Going against real-world expectations is risky. Before doing it, it makes sense to ask what the underlying goal is, and to see if there's some other way to accomplish that goal. In SS2, perhaps the "oh crap, my gun!" moments could have been accomplished in less obtrusive yet still systemic ways... enemies knocking the weapon from your hand comes quickly to mind; I'm sure there are even better ways. Deus Ex 2's "universal ammo" is another example of the dangers of defying player expectations. It's not that the mechanic is bad; it's just that it has an absurd in-game justification. If they had said "every weapon is energy-based, and all weapons run on a universal power supply," the players would've replied, "well, duh." But instead the idea was that a bunch of nanites were assembling themselves into ordinary pistol bullets on the fly. It's about as practical and believable as saying that, since it's "the future," you could have nanites installed in your nose to make you sneeze diamonds. Many people found it unreasonable and very off-putting.