The Entertainment is the Resistance

Challenge in games, is it "fun"? Is it supposed to be daunting? Is it cerebral or dexterity based? What presents a legitimate "challenge" in gaming?

I have played to completion Demon's Souls and I enjoyed it. The game presented a steady paced dexterity challenge sprinkled with cerebral pitfalls a plenty. One could not survive Demon's Souls without taking prudent measure of their surroundings. There was a need to move, to float, to parry, to cavort the loose analog sticks, on the PS3, about their sockets.This level of contest, to which one would face in Demon's Souls, could not be an enjoyable one without a certain level of thought to positioning, attack patterns, weaknesses, etc.. The cerebral challenge, inherent in the adroitness of the player controlling the sticks and manipulating the onscreen avatar, brings full-circle the satisfying  challenge that gaming can deliver.


The competition inherent in video games, such as Demon's, and Dark Souls, would be lost if it were not for the satiation of our desire to express our cleverness. If the result of the games design were not to challenge both ones handle on the sticks and ones ability to access the situations at hand, said game would lack depth. Depth is not achieved through the application of mashing buttons and dispatching countless drones, but, rather, it is through a nimble bridging of mental flexibility and quickness that we come upon "depth" in game design. Think of the trouble with games considered artificially difficult and game-breaking in challenge. What sorts of things would one consider that so harshly alienates the gamer from the masochist? Should a lack of hasty muscular reflexes truly prevent the player from resonating with a games mechanics/ its premise/ its overall design offerings.




After all, Demon's and Dark are about overwhelming odds in a foreboding land. Thus, would it not make sense, as a result of their underlying premise and the mechanics that feed from them, that the games--such as Demon's Souls and Dark Souls -- should be daunting and oppressive to those unwilling to invest in them-- unwilling to acquire the muscular reflexes to dodge the rusty axe of a worn, ogreish skeleton warrior. But, I look at this from a different perspective. In my experiences with Demon's Souls, and what little time I have spent with Dark, I must say that quicksilver reactions are not the be-all and end-all of there respective game offerings. It's , in fact, the steady pace at which you progress, the time you take to maneuver and scout about the arenas and corridors of doom, it's ultimately all about how you approach the battle; going into a fight in Demon's Souls you understand there is a level of expectation on your part, this isn't something exclusive to the Souls series of games, but it is something that they raise the bar on. The game expects you to fail, but learn from the experience, how you then approach all encounters--post demise or pre-demise--is then in your hands. It isn't all about mashing the attack button rendering mindless lunges and thrusting on-screen, rather it is a focused and measured calculation of your chances at success. This may mean scanning the environment for chocking points, cliff drops, or-- in regards to the direct threat of an opponent-- unprotected portions of their mass.



The player can deliberate on their own and overcome the mental and physical odds of the situation leading to elation and relief upon defeating a boss, like the Tower Knight or Flamelurker. This feeling is of the express need for mental faculties and hand-eye coordinated quickness.If not, then  I would instead be feeling reluctance at the thought of further encounters, reeling from the moments of having to mash and dash with no sorts of  contemplation or tactical weight to my battles. At present no game relishes its satisfying challenge like Demon's Souls does. While I did beat the game, I wouldn't want to dive in without my head--as that would, still , result in my timely defeat.

There is a real task in learning the controls of a game, applying them in-game and adapting them to the circumstances at hand. No, I don't mean to imply a set of controls that do not stay consistent at what they do at any given thing, but I mean to say that the player should be tasked to tactically apply their basic functions to the present conflict to their advancement or achievement. Lets say you have a basic attack button which swings a sword, then we must allow for the application of said attack to numerous situations to add depth to the experience--to add expectations to the experience. The resistance, the expectations, the challenge of a video game is the entertainment it presents. In Skyrim I choose to swing away at a bandit or contextually I wait for the right moment to sneak up behind them and do away with them. The bandit, while not providing the heft of movement and skill-in-movement required to beat a skeleton or other undead creature in Demon's Souls, still presents a resistance to the players goals. There are expectations here, they may not be on a level of trial and error or slow and steady analyzation of attack and movement patterns, but Skyrim expects you to be equipped properly for your approach, it asks that you be leveled properly for your approach and it asks that you know your limitations--what have you trained to do and how effective will it be against the bandit in your chosen approach. Sneaking by the bandit in Skyrim is all too plausible, and is a challenge in its own right-- a perspective expectation for a given choice of approach by the player.


Skyrim offers a much different challenge than any of the Souls games as does, say, a BioShock or an Assassin's Creed--though, some may argue otherwise. Challenge can be about the fear in loosing progress, but there must be a layer of expectation and its resistance to the players goals that resonates with the player, which should proceed the this fear. It should be that one understands the barriers of the game, the rings of fire that must be leapt through and that it is an experience that satisfies the desire to utilize our innate ingenuity to overcome. We may fool ourselves from time to time, but I think in some way, gamers/people in general, enjoy a flood of endorphins when we know that we have put-to-work our overall dexterity: our minds and our skills. Demon's Souls isn't necessarily frustrating, because it offers a ground of flexibility and tactics. Skyrim isn't necessarily easy, because it offers, again, a fair bit of flexibility and tactics--it is up to the player to take on the expectations in some way. With game-breaking difficulty, we see less flexibility and less of an emphasis on tactical apprehension; in favor of a luck based--discounting attributions and mechanics based on them-- system, void of any realistic expectations of the player. Presenting the player instead with difficulty spikes of obscene nature, limiting the enjoyment to those who may, indeed, resonate with its masochistic nature. In a sense, one may gather that this seems to be an expectation in and of itself: being willing to eat seemingly arbitrary levels of abuse, with the only hopes of overcoming it being if chance should favor you. But, I argue this is out of place with  the satisfaction of a well-designed challenge. 



If you expect one to reach a certain level in order that you may be ready to face the challenge, then place this throughout the game, have it be consistent in its design. But once the expectation is met, no longer should the barrier remain. But, with broken design, we may encounter unexpected barriers of resistance-- these are most likely due to unrealistic expectations of the players part. Though, the argument that it may only seem unrealistic to one person because they cannot overcome it is very valid; I remain stead fast in my approach. Shin Megami Tensei IV  presents a great deal of challenge. If one is not up to snuff, in terms of level and party demon composition--balancing the weaknesses and strengths of each demon against the whole party, then you will be dismantled and promptly propelled to the Underworld. This is fair, in that it is consistent but flexible throughout the entire experience.The press-turn system requires hitting weaknesses and, let me tell you, if  the enemy hits on your player or your demons weaknesses, they will not relent. To newcomers of the series this may appear harsh and luck based, but to a veteran, nuanced in the art of the games depth, it is clear that the expectations of the player mean more than just rushing in and hoping for luck to be on their side; though, I will note that Shin Megami Tensei IV includes a luck attribute, so take that how you will.



These are just a few of my thoughts on game difficulty and challenge. It must be balanced and not entirely overbearing. If it lacks any flexibility or reasonable expectations on the players part, then it is essentially void of satisfaction, in some cases. Some people may enjoy an unreasonably challenge, but some people also enjoy a reasonable amount of pain as well. I'd say that is fine, but for me there has to be some clear structural thread throughout the game that establishes reasonable expectations. Am I expected to experiment with manipulating the environment; am I expected to rely on the contextual button presses or can I improvise with non-contextual dexterity; must I study carefully the enemies movement patterns, are there openings in their gait, in their lunge, in their swing; or is the challenge purely derived in the nuances of the power dynamics and choices that I am presented with, clever solutions that litter any given level? Reflexive challenges are fun, but when there is a certain level of adroitness and maneuverability given and expected of the player--and not just mashing the sticks--then you add a layer of satisfaction that is naturally craved by gamers.  So, in the end, I will say we shouldn't separate the cerebral portion of dexterity, but view the challenge of gaming as a skill of cognitive and reflexive essence, representative in the expectations of the games mechanics/design/premises. The entertainment, the depth, is the resistance. Your goals in any game( Skyrim, GTA, Dark Souls) are blocked and the myriad of expectations present resistances that can be overcome. You want to take that huge sword from that Draugr, in Skyrim, then you are expected to steal it, or in some way incapacitate the Draugr to get it. Essentially it boils down to every game owing, in some way, its depth to a level of expectations, but not every game setting the bar at the same level or on the same plane of existence. But, what truly presents a feeling of accomplishment comes by way of a certain flexibility and maneuverability allotted the player. Not arbitrary and unrealistic "difficulty"that presents no understandable expectations. Requiring inhuman reflexes to defeat an enemy is quite a "challenge", but it doesn't satisfy a depth of challenge or a reasonable prescription of cognitive dexterity; so one could understand frustration in this task without elation in its execution and completion.     



Thanks for reading my jumbled meander. Any thoughts, questions, comments, concerns, etc. let me know. Stay tuned for more.