Life is hard. It's only a little bit harder than Demon's Souls, praise for which forms the spine of my latest Kotaku feature. If you want to make me feel better you can a. pray and b. read the article. It includes a really fun anecdote from the game's producer about how getting stranded in the snow with a lot of other drivers inspired the idea for the game's multiplayer.
So read it, and send me healing thoughts! I'm totally a Black Phantom over here and I need to be resurrected!
Hopefully when I'm well I can explain a little better why I'm so interested in meaningful challenges in games right now. Or maybe you can discuss in the comments and arrive at a definition of "meaningful challenge" on your own.
17 comments:
Theraflu really helps me out in a pinch, especially when I have to keep moving. You should to get the kind that dissolves in hot water; it distributes through your system faster and drinking something hot always seems to be soothing.
Get the apple-cinnamon flavor, mostly because it treats flu symptoms very well, or at least it does for me, and it tastes pretty good.
Stay easy.
I'd totally help you move except I'm like 800 miles away and have to study for this big certification exam coming in two weeks. But if you want to put it off until like the 15th and get me a plane ticket to New York I'm sooooo there!
Loved the article, Leigh; it was concise, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. I sent it all the other designers at work.
That's what I've always counted on you for. :)
I'm actually a little worn off myself today :(
I really hope (no praying for me :P) you'll get better soon because I read your article yesterday on kotaku and I loved it!
I'm playing Demon's Souls these days like crazy, I'm not usually into games too difficult but as you said it's not hard for hardness' sake and I'm loving it so much! It's sooo addicting!
Get better soon, kisses from Italy ^_^
Meaningful Challenge. That's an interesting topic. I think the game has to present the player with a method to achieving a goal. That method may have a lot of rules and require logical thinking, quick reflexes, divided attention, or any other game control related skill. If you can see the method for achieving the goal, then you can also see your own limitations and requirements for improvement. This keeps you motivated to working towards the goal because you know that you lost due to your own error, and if you can try again, you might get it right this time. Basically, you are learning. You are developing a skill. That's what makes challenging games fun.
Even better if that skill has some applicability to your performance on real world tasks. Some games only require the skill of dumping hours of your life into them, but that's not really a skill I want to have all by itself. However, if a game challenges my ability to reason and react, then I may happily dump hours into it. This are skills that have some ability to translate outside of game.
A challenge is also fun when it is competitive with another human. This is a big part of the fun with online games. Street Fighter IV has been a huge challenge for me that I keep coming back to. I learn my opponents and I learn new ways to beat them. The game gives pretty clear indicators of your progress. Not only do you have the immediate feedback of winning or losing a match, but you also have statistics about your percentage of wins, preferred character, character with whom you win the most matches, etc.
In fewer words, a game has a good challenge if you can see your role in failures, if you can learn and develop your skill, if that skill has some everyday importance, and if you can compete for bragging rites with other humans.
I read the feature on Kotaku yesterday. Having played Demon's Souls myself, it is indeed an example of difficulty done right in video games. If you desire an experience containing meaningful challenge and constructive failure, this is your jam.
However, the key portion of my previous sentence is "If you desire."
There are many users who just don't want to be challenged. Period.
Of course, I'm not suggesting that Demon's Souls needs to be a game that anyone can play. What I'm saying is that if the market can provide a game like Demon's Souls, it can also provide games with story elements, play mechanics, and production values on par with or exceeding Demon's Souls that less-dedicated and lower-skilled players can enjoy.
Two fallacies often seem to permeate this discussion over challenge, engagement and accessibility in modern gaming:
The first is this notion that everyone who is attracted to a particular game should be attracted to it for the same reason. You or I may enjoy the challenge and discovery, but others mainly want to experience the story, the world, or maybe only the drama punctuated in specific sequences by the music.
The second fallacy is that if someone is interested in a game but they simply don't posses the skill or patience to master elements inherent to said game, that person should go play something simple, like what is offered on the Wii. Why should they? Why can't some developer out there satisfy their demand for one-button action odysseys or RTS-like titles without the tedious resource management?
In summation, I'm all about variety. If Leigh is concerned that this obsession over accessibility might contribute to the destruction of variety in gaming product, she would certainly have a valid point.
Get well Miss Alexander, and thank you for the interesting Kotaku piece.
That really sucks. I hope you get better soon!
@ Ivan M.
Regarding your second fallacy, doesn't playing a game that requires a single button constitute a simple game...or is there something more to the exact meaning of "simple" you are using?
(apologies for the deleted post above, my girlfriend's account was apparently signed in)
@ Ivan M
You seem to be contradicting yourself somewhat. First you say that there's room in the market for games like Demon's Souls, as well as more accessible games that anyone can pick up and play, but then you state that no game should exist which alienates players who are not willing to rise to the challenge, or who lack the skills to do so. Those people SHOULD go and play a simpler game, or be willing to step outside of their comfort zone.
Only making games that are accessible to everyone does kill variety. That is the danger, and that is one of the points that Leigh was making in her article.
Anything that one chooses to do with one's spare time should be a rewarding experience. Or else what's the point of doing it? Videogames should first and foremost be about gameplay, and so if you choose to play videogames, the gameplay should be rewarding. Demon's Souls is an excellent game that provides an atmospheric and immersive experience made richer through its gameplay. Any game can throw you into a dark, cavernous dungeon with lots of atmosphere. But that only goes so far to immerse you in the game's world. If the game is a button-masher, and your character is some hulking bad ass who can take an axe to the face without flinching, and then quickly dispatch whatever creature had the audacity to break his train of thought regarding which of his 13 available weapons he would use to eviscerate the boss who is just through that door up ahead, just beyond the neon yellow glowing save point, then all the lighting effects, textures, and rotting corpses in the world aren't going to make you feel any more a part of that world. But when you're just a mortal knight in rusty armor, and you know that any shadow could be hiding some demon that could very easily kill you if you don't have your guard up, or if you aren't quick enough with your sword, then that is something special.
Also, in regard to Leigh's article, I wonder if developers and publishers, when citing the percentages of people who don't complete games, aren't mistaken in attributing it to frustration in a game's difficulty. I think at least part of the problem is that there are so many games that are released every year, and so much buzz surrounding big budget releases. A lot of gamers (myself and my friends included) just get overwhelmed. It can be difficult to resist the temptation to go out and buy a game you've been anticipating on the day that it is released, even if you haven't completed the game that you only bought a week or so before. I have a whole shelf full of games that I still haven't finished for that very reason. And several of them I know I won't ever bother to pick up again, not because they're too challenging, but because they're too similar to hundreds of other games that I've played before. In other words, they're too damn accessible.
And finally, Leigh, I hope you feel better soon.
@ Branden Bean:
Perhaps "simple" might be the wrong term to have used, but I can't think of a more accurate word at the moment.
What I mean is simplistic in terms of design context: The circumstances and motivations surrounding what the player is trying to do within the game. Sure, you could argue that slaying the millennia-old dragon above a molten lake is just as clear a goal as hitting five consecutive strikes in Wii Sports bowling; but the former likely involves some sort of plot & a world while the latter is explicitly a party game.
Naturally, I concede that the possibility of the player making whatever experience they want out of a given game complicates the subject.
@ Justin:
[First you say that there's room in the market for games like Demon's Souls, as well as more accessible games that anyone can pick up and play, but then you state that no game should exist which alienates players who are not willing to rise to the challenge, or who lack the skills to do so.]
I don't know where in my comment you could've inferred that I said such a thing, especially when I'm championing the potential of the market to satisfy various demands. With respect, I think you should read my comment again.
As Leigh and others here would be similarly inclined, I too do not see an obsession with accessibility (or a fixation on exclusion, for that matter) as a positive force in the industry.
[Only making games that are accessible to everyone does kill variety. That is the danger, and that is one of the points that Leigh was making in her article.]
I already agreed with this sentiment near the end of my comment.
I have completed a) and b), Leigh. ;-) I do hope you feel better soon. Great article, as always. Hope you enjoyed your birthday..
Demon's Souls is great.. I notice that the only prominent critic who really panned it seemed to talk about its 'meaningful challenge' as his chief complaint and I thought that was kind of lame. I've had an article in the works for a while now, about the general shift towards easier but longer gaming experiences. Case in point, Worlds or Warcraft. It literally never ends, and it's all about collecting stuff, hanging out and watching numbers go up. Some people love watching numbers go up, I guess. I like tough games that make me stop just short of throwing the controller.
Get well soon, I hope you have a few friends that can help you out with the move.
Hey, I had the flu myself recently. Get well soon, and I hope you like your new apartment. :)
Did you survive the move Leigh?
Hope you're feeling better.
Interesting blog you got here. I'd like to read a bit more about this matter. Thanks for sharing this info.
Sexy Lady
London escort
Post a Comment