What Makes a Video Game Fun (for me)?
Tags: Babylonjs, Gaming

Difficulty and the Feeling of Fairness

For the most part, people tend to break a game to make it either much easier or much harder. The Speedrunning community has been built off of the idea of breaking the game. The game has proven to be so easy for some that trying to beat the game in less time than it takes to install the game on their device of choice. Let’s take Dark Souls Remastered, for example. The average play time, according to Howlongtobeat.com, is just under 47 hours. The fastest speedrun record is around 32 minutes and 25 seconds. That’s pretty crazy but that brings me to the idea of Difficulty in games. Easy games can be fun and the same goes with difficult ones. I feel like difficulty is one of the most divisive aspects of a game. I’ve known people who look at a game like Sekiro as a punishment while others look at something like Animal Crossing as a game for kids (I personally love both of these games and play them based on my gaming mood). To say that one game is more fun than the other does both games a disservice because they don’t cater to the same audiences at the same time. What I find that promotes fun in difficulty is when you find a game that matches the amount of virtual adversity that you willing to suffer.

Something that every gamer has experienced is what is known as “being in the zone”. Being in the zone is the idea that you are fully immersed and in sync with your character. Everything else in the world fades out of existence because your focus is purely on your character/avatar and your virtual environment. This feeling is the closest that you will ever feel to being in the game. Sometimes, being in the zone doesn’t mean that you will succeed but you won’t give up. This is like that feeling where you’re constantly losing but you just keep saying to yourself, “I’m so close! I know I can do it on the next attempt!” This may include yelling at the screen, banging your fists against a desk, or suggestions from friends and loved ones to just take a break that fall on deaf ears. Regardless of frustration, you ALWAYS feel like there’s a chance that you could win. This, in my opinion, is difficulty done right. When you finally win, you feel amazing. That brings us to the one thing that can hurt fun, with respect to difficulty and adversity, the feeling of unfairness.

It’s a tough trek but there’s comfort and accomplishment in lighting a bonfire in Dark Souls (from GIPHY)

Fairness is the idea that, in a given choice or situation, you can progress even when the difficulty is high. When we perceive a situation as unfair, it can affect how much fun we’re having. Now when I talk about an unfair situation, I’m referring to a mechanically unfair situation, not story-wise. This isn’t always a big deal, if you know about it but it’s frustrating to waste useful items and energy on a no-win situation. I’ve seen several JRPGs that tended to use no-win fights as a way to build tension or progress the story. If you know about it, it’s a great way to put over a specific bad guy. Nowadays, it feels like games are better about this but occasionally include unfair scenarios.

When I encountered Zio for the first time, as a kid, I thought I was prepared to win this no-win fight. I didn’t realize just how much I was gonna lose. (Phantasy Star 4 — Sega Genesis)

One example that comes to mind is from one of my favorite new games, Final Fantasy 7 Remake. For the purposes of progressing the story, there are times where a cutscene will take place in a battle. These cutscenes tend to happen when an enemy reaches a certain amount of health. Unfairness comes into play when you use a move like a Limit Break right before one of these triggered cutscenes. Since some of them hit multiple times, the move will partially be executed and be canceled, in favor of the cutscene taking place. In that instance, you might feel like you’ve wasted your move. Because you can’t get the rest of your attack or start a cutscene of your own, you feel like your choice has had an unfair result. This also add an unintended mechanic to the fight, if you end up doing the fight again.

While not spoiling anything, Girlfriend Reviews perfectly illustrates the frustration (@ 8:22) — Warning: Mature Language

Here’s an example of a slightly different situation. In Ghost of Tsushima, you can learn a special move called the Dance of Wrath. This move allows the player to strike up to three enemies in quick succession. When used in a duel, you will strike your opponent three times. Sometimes, your opponent in a duel will clash swords and stop your attack to exchange a few words. This is kind of like how Final Fantasy 7 initiates a cutscene, except with one big difference. If this clash happens before your three slashes are complete, you will stop, trade words, break contact, and finish the move. The resolve used isn’t wasted because you’re given a chance to finish all three moves. Since this is a costly move, it feels more fair to handle things this way. It’s stuff like this that can help to keep things fair while maintaining the difficulty of the situation.

Jin stares down his foe, ready to duel (GIF courtesy of Playstation on GIPHY)

There are a lot of things that both define and enhance what makes a game fun and this post only scratches the surface. Hopefully, this was an entertaining read and inspired some ideas for any budding game developers. In any case, have fun with your development!

Dave Solares - https://twitter.com/PolygonalSun