A Difficulty Decision - Revisited

Not too long ago, N-Sider launched a two-day feature entitled A Difficulty Decision that covered everything related to current game difficulty. If you still havent read it , you may do so now. After the entire feature was put up, we had an almost overwhelming response from the community about the piece. My mailbox was flooded with speculation, ranting, and even personal testament towards the phenomena discussed.

So today I approach you with the follow-up article in an attempt to educate each other even further on this issue. Rock-hard conclusions still have not been reached (nor will they ever be), but by listening to every day readers we can paint a clear picture of the current situation. Together well explore this issue so we can have a better understanding of it.

The first observation I made with the feedback is that the age category probably needs widening. A many great deal of people who wrote in had the same disposition as older gamers even though they were 14 or 15. Also, like all theories, there are exceptions. Some younger gamers seem to be very persistent when pitted with a grand challenge (as opposed to my hypothesis about the younger generation). Of course, unless we conducted surveys en-mass, there are no possible ways to dig up the actual number of young ones who enjoy a good challenge.

Crossing The Line
After writing the original A Difficulty Decision, a key game in Nintendos line-up was released. This game, Animal Crossing, essentially turned the world of challenge and difficulty on its head. The game takes a back-road approach to game design in that you play without any obvious difficulty or challenges. Instead of escaping death and making accurate jumps across pits, you can fish at the river or talk to villagers all day. This one game could possibly change the perspective of game developers everywhere if it is embraced by many

Still, the question remains: Is Animal Crossing really lacking challenge? The answer is most assuredly no. Although it lacks any obvious difficulties, it is still throwing challenges at you even if indirectly. For instance, one person may challenge themselves to amass a collection of cabana furniture for their virtual house.

The difference in this situation mainly relies on two reasons: The first is penalties. In a game like Mario you are penalized for dying (which is restarting, hearing a failing tune, etc). In Animal Crossing, you do not get penalized for failing to accomplish your task. In fact, you can set your own tasks, which leads us to the second point. The pacing is completely varied between Animal Crossing and a game like Mario. In Mario, you are pushed to go further and faster. The complete design of the gameplay and even music pressure you keep moving along. Animal Crossing lacks any sort of pressure. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. The point is that even a game like Animal Crossing has a challenge and reward system in place, even if it isnt as obvious.

Let Me Guide You
One issue that was brought to our attention when initially writing the article, was of course the use of cheats, cheat devices, or guides. To dig deeper into this issue for the follow-up, I promptly contacted Prima Publishing, a respected company who prints many game guides. The following is their response.

N-Sider: Has there been a raise in the demand for strategy guides? If so, what do you feel could be the contributing factor for this increasing demand for game guides?

Prima:Yes and no. Overall guides are as popular as games. So when game sales pick up, so do guide sales.

Contributing factors are numerous - increased install base for the new consoles. Games are going mass-market with movie tie-ins and well known franchises. The guides themselves are higher quality and more useful then they were just a few years ago. More retailers are dedicating space to guides which gives a better opportunity to sell them. Games are more complicated and require a guide more than ever. Along with being more complicated games have so much back story to tell that a guide is a perfect vehicle for this.

Its interesting to see the response dig up many key elements as to why guides have been selling more. For one, the stories do have a larger presence in todays games which makes a written document of this nature instantly appealing. However, it all boils down to the idea of guides selling more frequently when the games themselves do. However, this begs the question: If this were truly the case, why did Super Mario Brothers 3 guides not run rampant amongst game players of the time? The title easily out-sold anything from the last 3 generations, yet the guides were not used as much. The theory of game complexity being the main factor seems to be shining through here. Todays games have many more puzzles littered throughout huge levels. Older games revolved more around action than puzzle solving. This makes it easier to get stuck.

So why do the younger generation only want to win (in relation to my former hypothesis)? We may never know really. The only way we can get a better idea about the situation is by listening to some reader response. Page 2 starts with some of the responses, completely unedited :