Bored Gamers: Bad games; bad losers
Jim Devereaux on keeping the gamer playing
Ok, I’ll admit it – sometimes I can be a really bad loser. Most of the time I’m a pretty mild-mannered chap, but on occasion I still succumb to the sort of angry controller throw down that used to strike me without warning when I was a young teenager.
Admittedly this sort of childish behaviour is unhealthy, and I ought to really grow out of it. But on the other hand, my irrational rage is not without foundation.
The best games are, as an ancient gaming philosopher probably once said, easy to learn and hard to master.
There are, however, too many games that get this elusive balancing act entirely wrong. With little warning, they’ll throw too many metaphorical balls into the arms of the unicycling whilst juggling gamer, and send him or her crashing to the floor with embarrassment.
The further back in time you go, the worse games were for punishing players in this way. For example, such were the time pressures on designers in the early 1980s, quick fixes and poor compromises were made frequently just to get the game out in time. The most famous of which being E.T. for the Atari 2600, a game so poor and impossibly difficult that tens of thousands of unsold copies were eventually buried (and recently exhumed just for the hell of it) in the New Mexico desert!
Such sloppy practices led to the first (and only) major crash of the gaming industry in 1983.
Fortunately, this trend has diminished in recent years, with games makers understanding the value of quality over quantity. Today, keeping players who’ve forked out up to £50 for their latest epic that took five years and £250 million to make, playing for as long as possible, is essential – and therefore, games are easier to play than ever.
The best games are easy to learn and hard to master
That’s not to say I don’t like a challenge though, not a bit of it. Make a game too easy, as is the overriding temptation these days, and you remove all the value from playing it.
Mario is a classic example of how to get it right: simple control mechanics that get slowly and steadily more challenging, requiring more accurate timing, finesse and forethought as you progress through worlds.
So if you’re going to challenge me, oh noble gamer makers, do it firmly – but fairly. Seriously, I can’t afford to keep replacing these dang controllers …
Bored Gamers is an hour-long weekly show on all things gaming.
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