![]() Most video games cannot rank on a scale like this for one, I find it highly nonsensical. Why else do they exist other than to “show off” one’s accomplishments? Not that many games with 1000 easy GamerScore or trophies maxed don’t exist if you’ve ever heard the term “achievement whore”, you know what I mean. I won I do not need anyone else telling me I won because the proof exists right before your eyes.īut, in the weird tradition of grinding, we now have this ranking system that awards us points, relative to our friends/enemies, based on some arbitrary number or accumulation of digital rewards that don’t even translate to usable currency. Just take a good look at any one credit clear of a shmup or fighting games, and you’ll see that victory comes as a natural part of the core mechanics. Games used to tell us what to do, but we could create our own objectives if we wanted. ![]() The whole system of achievements, trophies, whatever you can all it, strikes me as a giant farce. “Hey, someone’s bound to get bored with Super Meat Boy why not mess with their heads and make them think they’re doing something worthwhile? Yeah! We’ll put a achievement for making it through twenty levels without dying! That’ll show ’em that our game is really, truly hardcore.” Rather, developers add achievements after the fact. As far as that goes, achievements do not exist as part of the designer’s game. The task in question isn’t a genuine part of the game. Correct! Yet, there’s a slight problem here. So, who is right here? I may have a larger explanation, but it does not take into account the fact that Super Meat Boy’s achievement require an extraordinary level of control and mastery to live that long. ![]() Surprise, there’s a checkpoint waiting for you, because you deserve it! That tends to be the indie perspective in a nutshell – removing frustrations – that results in subpar gaming design with horrible risk/reward structures. They let you learn from your own mistakes, rather than glossing over them with one magnificent run (hence, my dislike of random level designs and randomization – learning such things can be difficult, but also unfair at times) of a particular segment. They added new obstacles and difficulties they added resources management and understanding. They were there for a reason, and not just to annoy the living crap out of you. This stuff’s maddening to me, because I can see they perceive what is difficult in games, yet remove them as outdated contrivances. Most of my failures come from randomness rather than any particular failure on my part. I still can’t beat a CAVE shooter on one credit, even though I’ve spent hundreds of hours I can beat Super Hexagon, given enough time and concentration. Super Hexagon has a bit of this, but it still doesn’t sustain itself that well. Those games hold your hand more than you think. The masocore sub-genre removes the feat of progressing to a point in the level you can’t beat and THEN defeating said task with your knowledge learned from failure. The previous “indie” games aren’t so much difficulty as they present one difficult situation you can try over and over again. It’s a long, sustained endurance match with the game. Real difficulty comes from understanding the game’s mechanics to a degree where you can proceed through a whole level without a single death. Levels are far too short and games remain far too forgiving with checkpoints. The ubiqitous GAME OVER screen may, in fact, rear its ugly head! Gasp! Even the games that we herald as “difficult” (Super Hexagon, VVVVVV, Super Meat Boy) don’t make the failure anything of a task. They are not willing to prevent your failure. The original part in question below, referencing a characteristic of Japanese games: The level of mastery to achieve there is insane. So I disagree with your statement on Super Meat Boy. Super Meat Boy has achievements where you have to go through all 20 levels of a world with no deaths. Patrick Gann, in discussing my article The Japanese Style (Part 1), had this to say about my claims regarding Super Meat Boy:
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