If there’s anything that can be said about today’s video game industry it’s that it’s consumer-facing.
Every game and piece of hardware that’s developed is done so that it appeals to the broadest possible audience.
This isn’t a bad thing, it means more and more people get to experience new hobbies and it promotes growth as we are continuously delivered AAA-experiences.
But they will never live up to the phenomenal games from your childhood for one simple reason: they’re scared to let you fail.
We’re not the only ones who’ve noticed this trend towards accessibility, as Wired laments the death of the Game Over screen.
Videogames have long had a built-in system to punish failure, the Game Over.
In the arcades, this was a necessity. At home, it’s a measure to slow you down and remind you that you have made a mistake.
A Game Over doesn’t affect the stakes of the game’s story, but handled properly, it can increase the tension of a given encounter by gating it behind a personal challenge.
What’s the point of telling a “meaningful” story if the stakes are never raised beyond starting from the closest checkpoint?
Or worse, your main character could die in a scripted death, taking away all agency in the process.
It’s clear that gamers are craving this challenge as can be seen in the immense popularity of the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games, but until more modern games punish players more, they’ll never live up to those difficult games of our youth.
Loading ...
What? Todays games are plenty fun! Gamers are mostly just jaded.