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This thread has been linked to the game 'Medal Of Honor: Frontline'.
It was a dull day outside, cloudy and moist, so I decided to stay in. What better way to vanquish my boredom than a good ol' bash on the computer, I thought. But the question that was really on my mind was "What game?" I gazed up and down the pile placed beside the beastly machine, and suddenly, for some strange reason, I was hit by a strange emotional dilemma, and I didn’t know what to pick. There's something with games that has always got to me. I see it like this.
There are games I like, that have impressive graphics and gameplay, but they always find a way to make me stay clear away from them. Medal of Honour: Frontline for example. It began by immediately amazing me with its graphics and realism, and then as I progressed I discovered how good the gameplay was as well. Then, after guessing that things would become more difficult as I got further, there came a point in the game where I felt “sod it!” The missions became too intense for a first person shooter, because of the hard to master controls, and I kept getting stuck as well as frustrated. So, when I reached a moment of helplessness, I switched things off with the intent of giving it another shot, another day.
The game made me too frustrated. And I find there are a lot of games out there that do this. Every game withholds the element of progression in some form or another, but it’s with this that I think some creators don’t get the balance right. They know that gamers want a challenge with their games, but sometimes I think they base the difficulty of their games on gamers of high caliber, which obviously isolates those, less skilled. I mean, I’m not a hardcore fan of the FPS genre, which ultimately suggests that I’m not incredibly good with them, but it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy playing them. With MOH: Frontline, I did get better the more I played, but yet still, like most other games, there comes a point where you’re tested to the limit, and nine out of ten times, after several chances, you give up, left frustrated, which obviously doesn’t leave much of an impression for future reference.
I’m all too familiar with this with the beat’em up genre. Everytime I get one of these I prefer to enter the story of the fighters than just fight for the sake of it. And it’s here where things start to roughen up. The only way we’ve seen beat’em ups progress is from arena to arena, fighter to fighter, and it’s not bad. But it almost guarantees a future moment where even five attempts aren’t enough to defeat the opponent. And it’s these moments I hate, and that I find quite similar to torture. It stresses repetition that isn’t very good for the game’s reputation, which is what prompts me to repel such games for the time being and explore with the others that I’ve seen very little of.
It’s not just beat’em ups and FPSs that contain this, but ultimately every single genre withholds this moment of extreme difficulty, using tactics of frustration and helplessness. Once you reach this moment, you tackle it as you have the level before, but only to find that things have changed. After a couple of heart-straining goes, frustration kicks in, and after several more, you feel helpless. Helplessness can only lead to one thought when playing, to switch off and have a break, but most of the time when this happens, I feel very reluctant to play that game again when I’m stuck for choice.
However, I have found with some games that these moments are only deceiving, that they actually can be overcome with a little more effort, but there has come a time where I’ve completely given up on a game, and that was with MOH: Frontline.
How about you?
There are games I like, that have impressive graphics and gameplay, but they always find a way to make me stay clear away from them. Medal of Honour: Frontline for example. It began by immediately amazing me with its graphics and realism, and then as I progressed I discovered how good the gameplay was as well. Then, after guessing that things would become more difficult as I got further, there came a point in the game where I felt “sod it!” The missions became too intense for a first person shooter, because of the hard to master controls, and I kept getting stuck as well as frustrated. So, when I reached a moment of helplessness, I switched things off with the intent of giving it another shot, another day.
The game made me too frustrated. And I find there are a lot of games out there that do this. Every game withholds the element of progression in some form or another, but it’s with this that I think some creators don’t get the balance right. They know that gamers want a challenge with their games, but sometimes I think they base the difficulty of their games on gamers of high caliber, which obviously isolates those, less skilled. I mean, I’m not a hardcore fan of the FPS genre, which ultimately suggests that I’m not incredibly good with them, but it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy playing them. With MOH: Frontline, I did get better the more I played, but yet still, like most other games, there comes a point where you’re tested to the limit, and nine out of ten times, after several chances, you give up, left frustrated, which obviously doesn’t leave much of an impression for future reference.
I’m all too familiar with this with the beat’em up genre. Everytime I get one of these I prefer to enter the story of the fighters than just fight for the sake of it. And it’s here where things start to roughen up. The only way we’ve seen beat’em ups progress is from arena to arena, fighter to fighter, and it’s not bad. But it almost guarantees a future moment where even five attempts aren’t enough to defeat the opponent. And it’s these moments I hate, and that I find quite similar to torture. It stresses repetition that isn’t very good for the game’s reputation, which is what prompts me to repel such games for the time being and explore with the others that I’ve seen very little of.
It’s not just beat’em ups and FPSs that contain this, but ultimately every single genre withholds this moment of extreme difficulty, using tactics of frustration and helplessness. Once you reach this moment, you tackle it as you have the level before, but only to find that things have changed. After a couple of heart-straining goes, frustration kicks in, and after several more, you feel helpless. Helplessness can only lead to one thought when playing, to switch off and have a break, but most of the time when this happens, I feel very reluctant to play that game again when I’m stuck for choice.
However, I have found with some games that these moments are only deceiving, that they actually can be overcome with a little more effort, but there has come a time where I’ve completely given up on a game, and that was with MOH: Frontline.
How about you?
Yeah, and it's games with boss levels that have this the most. If it becomes too difficult, you have to play the same stage over and over until you find the correct combination of actions to defeat the boss. And I've found that after about four goes it's fun, but from then on it's as if I'm forcing myself to go through something I'm not even enjoying.
I don't think that's psychologically healthy, forcing yourself to participate in what you don't like doing, and that's exactly what some games do when they become too hard. At the end of the day, when games reach their maximum difficulty stage, the game no longer maintains its enjoyable status, instead, it prompts the hardest situation in the game. And I've always thought that developers make their games hard, just to make it seem longer, which makes it seem more worthwhile.
I think there's a barrier some games cross with difficulty. It's when the controls are already arduous to work with and then the game itself begins rock hard. From here on, you would only get aggrevated because of constant defeat, and no-one really likes a game where they can't win.
I don't think that's psychologically healthy, forcing yourself to participate in what you don't like doing, and that's exactly what some games do when they become too hard. At the end of the day, when games reach their maximum difficulty stage, the game no longer maintains its enjoyable status, instead, it prompts the hardest situation in the game. And I've always thought that developers make their games hard, just to make it seem longer, which makes it seem more worthwhile.
I think there's a barrier some games cross with difficulty. It's when the controls are already arduous to work with and then the game itself begins rock hard. From here on, you would only get aggrevated because of constant defeat, and no-one really likes a game where they can't win.
I've been there many times. I get so far anfd then that's it. I just can't do it or I do then it's over but I still can't be bothered to play as I know that it will only come back again. I've got a few games just sat on my shelf rotting away (Can games rot?). Just the fact that I keep failing. Yes I do suck at games but I don't care.
It was a dull day outside, cloudy and moist, so I decided to stay in. What better way to vanquish my boredom than a good ol' bash on the computer, I thought. But the question that was really on my mind was "What game?" I gazed up and down the pile placed beside the beastly machine, and suddenly, for some strange reason, I was hit by a strange emotional dilemma, and I didn’t know what to pick. There's something with games that has always got to me. I see it like this.
There are games I like, that have impressive graphics and gameplay, but they always find a way to make me stay clear away from them. Medal of Honour: Frontline for example. It began by immediately amazing me with its graphics and realism, and then as I progressed I discovered how good the gameplay was as well. Then, after guessing that things would become more difficult as I got further, there came a point in the game where I felt “sod it!” The missions became too intense for a first person shooter, because of the hard to master controls, and I kept getting stuck as well as frustrated. So, when I reached a moment of helplessness, I switched things off with the intent of giving it another shot, another day.
The game made me too frustrated. And I find there are a lot of games out there that do this. Every game withholds the element of progression in some form or another, but it’s with this that I think some creators don’t get the balance right. They know that gamers want a challenge with their games, but sometimes I think they base the difficulty of their games on gamers of high caliber, which obviously isolates those, less skilled. I mean, I’m not a hardcore fan of the FPS genre, which ultimately suggests that I’m not incredibly good with them, but it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy playing them. With MOH: Frontline, I did get better the more I played, but yet still, like most other games, there comes a point where you’re tested to the limit, and nine out of ten times, after several chances, you give up, left frustrated, which obviously doesn’t leave much of an impression for future reference.
I’m all too familiar with this with the beat’em up genre. Everytime I get one of these I prefer to enter the story of the fighters than just fight for the sake of it. And it’s here where things start to roughen up. The only way we’ve seen beat’em ups progress is from arena to arena, fighter to fighter, and it’s not bad. But it almost guarantees a future moment where even five attempts aren’t enough to defeat the opponent. And it’s these moments I hate, and that I find quite similar to torture. It stresses repetition that isn’t very good for the game’s reputation, which is what prompts me to repel such games for the time being and explore with the others that I’ve seen very little of.
It’s not just beat’em ups and FPSs that contain this, but ultimately every single genre withholds this moment of extreme difficulty, using tactics of frustration and helplessness. Once you reach this moment, you tackle it as you have the level before, but only to find that things have changed. After a couple of heart-straining goes, frustration kicks in, and after several more, you feel helpless. Helplessness can only lead to one thought when playing, to switch off and have a break, but most of the time when this happens, I feel very reluctant to play that game again when I’m stuck for choice.
However, I have found with some games that these moments are only deceiving, that they actually can be overcome with a little more effort, but there has come a time where I’ve completely given up on a game, and that was with MOH: Frontline.
How about you?
There are games I like, that have impressive graphics and gameplay, but they always find a way to make me stay clear away from them. Medal of Honour: Frontline for example. It began by immediately amazing me with its graphics and realism, and then as I progressed I discovered how good the gameplay was as well. Then, after guessing that things would become more difficult as I got further, there came a point in the game where I felt “sod it!” The missions became too intense for a first person shooter, because of the hard to master controls, and I kept getting stuck as well as frustrated. So, when I reached a moment of helplessness, I switched things off with the intent of giving it another shot, another day.
The game made me too frustrated. And I find there are a lot of games out there that do this. Every game withholds the element of progression in some form or another, but it’s with this that I think some creators don’t get the balance right. They know that gamers want a challenge with their games, but sometimes I think they base the difficulty of their games on gamers of high caliber, which obviously isolates those, less skilled. I mean, I’m not a hardcore fan of the FPS genre, which ultimately suggests that I’m not incredibly good with them, but it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy playing them. With MOH: Frontline, I did get better the more I played, but yet still, like most other games, there comes a point where you’re tested to the limit, and nine out of ten times, after several chances, you give up, left frustrated, which obviously doesn’t leave much of an impression for future reference.
I’m all too familiar with this with the beat’em up genre. Everytime I get one of these I prefer to enter the story of the fighters than just fight for the sake of it. And it’s here where things start to roughen up. The only way we’ve seen beat’em ups progress is from arena to arena, fighter to fighter, and it’s not bad. But it almost guarantees a future moment where even five attempts aren’t enough to defeat the opponent. And it’s these moments I hate, and that I find quite similar to torture. It stresses repetition that isn’t very good for the game’s reputation, which is what prompts me to repel such games for the time being and explore with the others that I’ve seen very little of.
It’s not just beat’em ups and FPSs that contain this, but ultimately every single genre withholds this moment of extreme difficulty, using tactics of frustration and helplessness. Once you reach this moment, you tackle it as you have the level before, but only to find that things have changed. After a couple of heart-straining goes, frustration kicks in, and after several more, you feel helpless. Helplessness can only lead to one thought when playing, to switch off and have a break, but most of the time when this happens, I feel very reluctant to play that game again when I’m stuck for choice.
However, I have found with some games that these moments are only deceiving, that they actually can be overcome with a little more effort, but there has come a time where I’ve completely given up on a game, and that was with MOH: Frontline.
How about you?