Author: Scott (Page 98 of 104)

I try to play many video games, both in sheer number and in a variety of different genres.  Part of this is in an attempt to become a better producer, but it’s mostly because I find it fun.

While I cannot play every game that comes out, the lending library that we have here at work, along with the company store and the occasional purchase means that I can get pretty good coverage of all the “major” games that get released (although the definition of major is heavily controlled by how much marketing a particular game receives).

This initial brief inspection of what – to me – is a good game focuses on one aspect of games: difficulty.  As I’ve grown older and my total free time has become narrowly defined by my working hours, I’ve started to appreciate more and more the shorter games with solid story and gameplay: the Portals, the Mirror’s Edges, the Dead Spaces.  That’s not to say I don’t get enjoyment out of an epic like Zelda or Fallout or GTA.  It’s just that the length, after the initial 15-20 hours, begins to feel like it’s working against me instead of for me.

Starting a long game isn’t the problem.  The problem is that with a long game, I’ll often reach a point where the difficulty of progressing is no longer worth the reward of what I’ll unlock.  There’s a very fine balance between making a game challenging and making a game hard.  I feel that many games fall into the trap of needing to ensure an experience that isn’t too easy and end up forgetting that difficulty requires fun gameplay to motivate the player to continue.

Maybe I’m bitter because I played Street Fighter IV for two hours last night and couldn’t defeat Arcade mode on Very Easy.  Maybe it’s because I remember exactly when I stopped playing GTA IV – a mission where I had to clear out an entire building full of drug dealers.  I did so and got a great feeling of accomplishment, only to be shot down by a police helicopter trying to escape and being reset to the beginning of the mission.  Maybe I just suck at games with “IV” in the title.

Regardless, it just felt like I was being needlessly punished by the game.  Why weren’t the GTA checkpoints in the mission closer together?  Why are the Very Easy fighters on Street Fighter still so good at fighting?  I should never have to say, “What?  Are you kidding me?” to my TV while playing in regards to failing.  I should only say things like “Oops.” or “Agh!  I can do this!” or “Wow, those 12 year olds are much better with sniper rifles than I am.”

It’s funny because The Sims series is the exact opposite of most games.  There is very little difficulty involved.  In fact, if you let your computer sit there, your Sims will generally do a decent job at taking care of themselves.  All our money cheats are right there in the readme and there’s no stigma to giving yourself a million dollars to build that ultimate mansion.  And yet, designers and producers on the team still talk about making sure that we’re not making things too hard or too easy – that we walk that fine line where players don’t feel like they’re watching the game play itself but also don’t feel inadequate because they’re not “good enough” to get past the first level (of a career or skill, for example).

And that’s a good thing.