Chris Plante said:
Hard-Earned Victories
Super Meat Boy may not teach us heady life lessons, but it does edify a core value: Victory is hard-fought.
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This is the axis upon which gaming can turn one way or the other--the way it instructs the player to handle failure.
On one hand, people who are unable to handle failure will be unable to learn. A player's failures within a game can spur them on into increasing their own ability--taking a task that was once impossible and turning into one that is easy. It's good for the player, it's good for the game, and it's good for the state of the medium itself. This path leads to games as something more than just "entertainment." Games can challenge the player, catalyze growth, and breed a sense of self-
esteem that is firmly rooted in self-
efficacy.
On the other hand, people tend not to tolerate any discomfort in their entertainment. They know what they like--they like what they know. Just
having a bad guy is enough of a "challenge," so there's no need to make him difficult. If you make the game difficult, well, now it's like
work or something. Don't get me wrong--there's such a thing as making a game "too hard," or more accurately making a game in which the gameplay doesn't adequately teach you the skills you need to meet the challenges ahead.
But we've been going to the other extreme. Making "cozy" games in which you can't really fail. Success is a matter of
time, not
effort. And as long as a handful of publishers are willing to make games like this, dumbed down to the point of being simple light-and-sound-diversions, they're handicapping the medium. If players have countless "easy" games that are visually pleasing and give them neat little achievements, there's no reason for them to endure the challenge of other games.
And nowadays? There are thousands of games available at every moment. It's not like the "old days," where you played Mario because
that's what was out. With too many options available, players have lost sight of the need to see a challenge through to the end. Why climb the wall when there's a ladder to the right? Or a door to the left? Or a path around it? When so many easier options present themselves, there's no reason to take the more challenging one... despite the fact that it will make you
better. Not just at the game, but as a person.
If we're going to move games out of the "fun distraction" category and into something greater as a medium (it doesn't have to be "art," by the way), we need to create games that
elevate and
engage the player, not just
entertain them. This means striking a balance between:
1. "Too casual." Farmville is a good one. There's no challenge. No opposition. Click, click, click. Come back in a few hours. Click, click, click. And you "win!" What exactly did you accomplish? Who cares? The game says I win! It rewards only the investment of time and money, with no mental effort required.
2. "Too hardcore." Some games really are harder than they need to be. A small group of people like it that way, because it allows them to feel "elite." They fight for more games to be built in such an exclusive way... without realizing that, by doing so, they will cut off their own air supply. New players won't be able to break into that "elite" club, so they'll fall back into the "too casual" scene. And they'll become the majority. And the majority rules.
We need games that have challenge. Real challenge. Tasks that require you to improve yourself, as a gamer, thinker, or whatever. We also need those games to provide the equipment a player will need to meet those challenges. The game has to scale that challenge, giving the player time and opportunity to learn the in-game skills they'll need for the tasks ahead of them. We can't keep making "casual games" and "hardcore games." And no one wants to make games in that "in between" zone, because they'll tend to appeal to one side or the other anyway, but run the risk of alienating that audience by being to "moderate."
We need games that act as a bridge. Games that have the buy-in of a casual game, eventually guiding a player to the challenge of a hardcore game. (Of course, we could discuss at length what
actually constitutes "challenge" in some of these games, but that's another topic!)
