LogFAQs > #980212848

Both, if implemented poorly. However fall damage normally allows for a bit of suspense of belief, so it's less in-your-face than item durability.

I appreciate the point of both of them but, fall damage is more believable than "you found this 3000 year old sword in a cave whilst fighting a dragon and some goblins, guess what, you can only use it for half an hour before suddenly the last 3000 years don't matter and it's blunt!"

That said, I still haven't got over the first time I used an assault rifle in System Shock 2 on full auto and the degradation was quicker than my ammo usage. Maybe I'm just scarred about trying to fight a Rumbler with a gun that couldn't fire more than 60 rounds.