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Old 03-12-2008, 02:54 PM   #5
Disillusionist
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 83
Disillusionist will become famous soon enough
Re: Declining Challenge in Games?

Definitely easier.
Less challenging.
Dumbed down.

Not entirely a bad thing, as I can recall in the late 70s wishing to meet up with a few game designers and spend a decade with them in a locked room, doing terribly things to their spleen with a meat fork.

Conversely, I've seen a decline in game difficulty, based on every factor listed, and for that reason alone, I don't let my son play them. His 6th birthday is coming up, and I don't really want him thinking you CAN just rise from certain poor judgements, dust yourself off, and reload your last saved existence. The video game market has no obligation at all to teach kids virtues, far more interested in teaching them virtuals, and I have no compunction at all about not trusting them to do it.

In RPGs, I have yet to see a quest that was in any way difficult. In a recent one, the only problem-solving skill required was the ability to type a word correctly, after it had been spoon-fed to the entire playerbase through a consistent plot-heavy. I call it the "Rumplestiltzkin" Solution. Say the right word, and all goodness and light shine forth. I realize that given the medium, it can be challenging to code/paint/write a quest that will challenge the hardest critics, so this topic also introduces a tangential point.

Are game designers now so addicted to major praise for minor or mediocre accomplishments that we as players have forever blunted their edge?
In video games, if the eye candy is good enough, do we turn a blind eye to how lame the -theme- is?
In RPGs, are we sometimes so happy to be included at all, that we don't resist the temptation to heap superlatives on every plot, simply because it existed?
Are plot/quest designers so used to the static of background cheerleading that they've grown accustomed to the idea that -any- quest, no matter how insubstantial it was or effortless to execute, that -any- plot is a good plot?

What models of quests/game challenges stirred your blood the most?
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