There is a point in a games challenge that feels earned. You die, and try again, getting better as you keep playing. You learn from your mistakes, pushing the envelope at the new obstacle. Each death giving valuable feedback to prevent the next one.

I know, I used to enjoy putting in my quarter while someone was playing one of the many fighter games in the arcade, and kicking them off the machine. Yes, I was a jackass in my youth, but I was good at those games.

Then there's difficult for the sake of it. The kind put in games because the developers listened to the wrong signals, or pushed it there without understanding why.

I have spent enough years watching gamers to have a pretty clear picture of where real skill actually sits. From arcades to LANs to couch co-op, I've spent many hours watching gamers, and one thing that has been consistent over four decades is that gamers aren't as good as they like to claim. There are a few here and there, but in my own experience, we're talking maybe 1 to 3 percent that are as good as they say, and most of those let their wins speak for themselves.

We all seen the posts flooding forums, this game is too easy, make it harder. All the while its people not playing under normal conditions, using every advantage they can, then judging the game from that position.

Say it enough times and it starts to look like truth. Developers see it, respond to it, and push difficulty higher.

That is the loop. Inflated difficulty signaling feeding back into design, turning into difficulty creep. I wonder, is this coming from wanting to feel special and belong, or is it from the overabundance of cheating software these days?

At what point does challenge stop feeling earned and start feeling forced?

Yeah, there's a real difference between dying while knowing why, and dying confused.

The arcade pitted you against another player where skill was measured in front of an audience. Yeah, it was eating your quarters, but you were usually watching yourself improve in real time, getting cheered or laughed at. The guy who just kicked you off the machine wasn't lucky, he'd died there fifty times before you walked in.

Games today get it wrong now and it feels like the devs saw people praising hard games and copied the surface for more damage, fewer checkpoints all without understanding what actually made those games satisfying. Difficulty by itself isn't the point.

The feedback loop is the point. Cheap difficulty actually lets you off the hook, since you can always blame the game. Real difficulty holds up a mirror. That's what the arcade did. You couldn't escape your defeat so easily with the guy still standing at the machine.

TLDR: @Daroius oh our next game of BAR is going to take days my friend.

"So I am going to preface a lot of this thread of my reply's with terms that should not be offensive to anyone its contextual. "Normie" "Casual" "Gamer" "Old Hat" etc and its ok to be these things but know what you are and set you expectations of a GAME that not every game is for you."

In my opinion a lot of it depends on the game, some times you die and it feels like its cheap and the game skewed you over yea, however Old Hats and Gamers will push through find the how the system break down and works the solution, its a challenge most of us I'm sure know that games never use to have difficulty settings its a way of making things more accessible. Nothing wrong with that iv played a few games where the story was so good i didn't want the tick tock of combat getting in my way i just wanted more story. E33 was one of them... I did finish it on normal but it did feel like the Story was the star which is high praise from me since the combat is already A tier.

With the state of streamers and YouTube everyone thinks they have the be "the best" to get views, negating the fact that sometimes people just want to watch the average guy give it a go and have fun interacting with his viewers. A few times iv jumped into low view count streams and had the best time interacting with the chat and streamer just having fun.

At the end of the day, isn't that why we play?... competition is great but that's also another type of fun, don't force yourself to be something your not.

“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ― Mark Twain

Edited April 16Apr 16 by Dex