Nerd Mentality

Bring Challenge Back To Games

Posted January 7th 2004 by Andrew.

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Developers should be making more challenges but they have to learn how to avoid the cheap ways of doing it while still catering to our impatience. One of the ways they are beginning to do this is to have continues start you from a point not far at all from where you died. Because of all the sensation we get from playing 3D games, playing the same parts over can get older a lot quicker than in 2D games. Besides, we don't have the patience to go through 10 minutes of gaming over again and would probably stop playing if we had to.We are very action-oriented. It takes a lot of experience and ability to slow down a game so that you get the player to start thinking. Even though we now have huge 3D worlds, it seems no one is utilizing the power of thought. In most cases the game does the thinking for you; the story sequences tell you what you should do for example. Yu Suzuki of Sega knew how to avoid this in his Dreamcast title Shenmue. It relied almost entirely on real-time speaking between characters to reveal the plot and story, which was the whole attraction to the game. That's just one of the ways it can be done.

Challenge can't only be about specific things like making the AI of enemies more accurate. It has to be real challenge, not the fake stuff, or what we call "cheating" by the computer. It shouldn't depend on luck. With all the freedom there is, the more you should be tested. Once you really learn the ins and outs of playing a game, hard difficulty can seem a lot like normal difficulty once you get used to it, you'll even enjoy going back to an easier mode and boast about how you're the master of it. You have confidence and a feeling of empowerment in the game. It is much more rewarding and there's a whole lot more quality to be had.

I'm tired of being spoon-fed explanations on how to do everything or where all the secrets are located. Games of all genres are becoming less fun when there are these expectations that you don't have to become a good player (a staple of gaming in the old days). What we should expect is to have to become good at the game in order to beat a huge boss and need to work at things a little. Overcoming challenge creates the best satisfaction in games. Developers also have to stop allowing us to get every item in RPG and adventure games; its okay if we miss things, we'll be more likely to play it over again. You stick with it because it's a great game that is challenging you!For this all to work, gamers have to be receptive to more challenge and thinking. Granted, we aren't used to it, but once you start playing hard and intelligent games, you appreciate them so much and seek more out that are like them. It can be like an obsession. It would give you another thing to do then to just wait around for the next quality title like F-Zero GX.

As a publisher you want to have people talk about a game as long as you can. Having them last longer is one of the main ways that can be achieved. And on the whole it can make the game more interesting. If game-makers really went after challenge we would have more fascinating and creative games. It opens up possibilities beyond the conventions that we keep on seeing over and over again. You'll probably be happier and proud to own a game that's challenging because there can be a certain prestige that goes with them.

Challenge takes away a lot of drawbacks from gaming in this generation. People complain all the time about games being too short. Actually, they are about as long, it's just that they are so blasted easy. People also tend to whine about something if they can't figure it out within a minute or two (think GameFaqs). Things come too easy to us in games. I'd rather think about things and make it a stimulating experience, not something you "go through." With all glitz of games that have the professional appeal of film, let's not forget the challenge in games. If we want quality gameplay we need challenge. With so much advent of sophisticated gaming, game-makers can't leave such a redeeming value behind.

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