Episode 002
Easy, Normal or Hard.
When games were younger, it seemed like there was one level of difficulty. And apart from secret codes, there wasn’t much you could do to improve your chances of success other than practice.
Is the challenge what makes a game compelling, interesting, or even valuable?
What are we getting out of the experience as a whole, without consequence?
Why does there appear to be an obsessed recently with the difficulty?
Do you remember the first game you played where you tried to crank it up to hard and decided it was too much?
Somehow, the notion of difficulty has migrated into the realm of modern game mechanics. Or more appropriately, difficulty has been sort of singled out in some cases as a pseudo mechanic.
What do you think about difficulty?
Tell us about your harrowing tales of game difficulty via electronic mail or on twitter @betweenplayers
Games we talked about
Special Thanks
Illustartion Evan McIntyre
Audio Consulting Josh Hunt
Music Anamanaguchi – Dawn Metropolis