From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

To lose interest in games because they are too difficult.

They are too difficult because you have lost interest.

I'm doing great at Quake and Dawn of War the Soulstorm Czampaign.
--
How old are these alien civilizations?

I don't know, a million, half a million yrs old?
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:04:22 -0500, The Wizard of Izz
<[email protected]> wrote:

To lose interest in games because they are too difficult.

They are too difficult because you have lost interest.

I'm doing great at Quake and Dawn of War the Soulstorm Czampaign.

I think the complaint is that the loss of interest isn't necessarily
that they are too difficult. I think the evidence shows that most
people aren't afraid of difficult or time consuming games. It's that
the effort of mastering some of these games isn't worth the effort
involved. Whether that's because the game is made to be intentionally
grindy, or because the player picked a game in a genre that isn't
suited to them, or whatever reason, the rewards of pushing through the mechanics aren't worth it.

But it can often be hard to see WHY a game doesn't feel rewarding
enough, so the difficulty level is often a catch-all excuse. After
all, if you bang your head against an early-game boss, repeatedly
dying, it's often easy to say "It's just too hard" even though the
problem might as likely be, "the game doesn't give enough feedback" or
"the controls are too imprecise" or whatever.

Then, also, people play games for different reason. I've previously
described this as the "Pong vs Adventure" problem, where one group
engages with a game /precisely/ because they enjoy the challenge of
mastering the mechanics, whereas the other group feels more rewarded
by immersing themselves in the virtual worlds the game presents. For
the latter group, excessive difficulty interferes directly with the
part of the game they enjoy.

Fortunately, for all the other many problems in modern game design,
one nicety is that many games cater to both styles of gameplay, with
robust difficulty scaling to meet the needs of any player.
Unfortunately, video-game culture still interferes with this a bit
("Oh, you played on "Easy mode"? You're not a real gamer!") but this
is happily starting to recede somewhat.

So everybody gets to be happy!!!! ;-)




(Still getting through the backlog slowly! Are you all tired of my
posts yet? I can go back on vacation if it helps ;-)



--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Sun, 02 Nov 2025 13:22:30 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> wrote:

(Still getting through the backlog slowly! Are you all tired of my
posts yet? I can go back on vacation if it helps ;-)

That's ok you can stay. :-P

Seriously, I knew you were back as soon as I grabbed headers and I saw
10 (!!) new messages to read. That is the most I have seen at one time
since you left.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

On Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:04:22 -0500, The Wizard of Izz ><[email protected]> wrote:

<snip>

Fortunately, for all the other many problems in modern game design,
one nicety is that many games cater to both styles of gameplay, with
robust difficulty scaling to meet the needs of any player.
Unfortunately, video-game culture still interferes with this a bit
("Oh, you played on "Easy mode"? You're not a real gamer!") but this
is happily starting to recede somewhat.

And I would reply with something like "Son I was already a Real Gamer
when the best part of you dribbled down your mama's thigh.

I play for fun, if the game feels like work, it has failed as
entertainment.
Same basic argument over subtitled foreign films (usually with
monochrome subtitles with absolutely zero checking as to what the
background is.).

Honestly, how much more does it cost to do the text in one color with an outline in another black/white or white/black so it shows against all
possible backgrounds?

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 11/3/2025 6:07 AM, Xocyll wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

On Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:04:22 -0500, The Wizard of Izz
<[email protected]> wrote:

<snip>

Fortunately, for all the other many problems in modern game design,
one nicety is that many games cater to both styles of gameplay, with
robust difficulty scaling to meet the needs of any player.
Unfortunately, video-game culture still interferes with this a bit
("Oh, you played on "Easy mode"? You're not a real gamer!") but this
is happily starting to recede somewhat.

And I would reply with something like "Son I was already a Real Gamer
when the best part of you dribbled down your mama's thigh.

I play for fun, if the game feels like work, it has failed as
entertainment.
Same basic argument over subtitled foreign films (usually with
monochrome subtitles with absolutely zero checking as to what the
background is.).

Honestly, how much more does it cost to do the text in one color with an outline in another black/white or white/black so it shows against all possible backgrounds?

More than you would think.
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Xocyll <[email protected]> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

On Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:04:22 -0500, The Wizard of Izz ><[email protected]> wrote:

<snip>

Fortunately, for all the other many problems in modern game design,
one nicety is that many games cater to both styles of gameplay, with
robust difficulty scaling to meet the needs of any player.
Unfortunately, video-game culture still interferes with this a bit
("Oh, you played on "Easy mode"? You're not a real gamer!") but this
is happily starting to recede somewhat.

And I would reply with something like "Son I was already a Real Gamer
when the best part of you dribbled down your mama's thigh.

I play for fun, if the game feels like work, it has failed as
entertainment.

Ditto. I don't like grinding games. I already do that IRL! I like quick fun games.
--
"We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him." --1 Thessalonians 4:14. Slammy colony Doyers' party Monday.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 11/4/2025 4:46 PM, Ant wrote:

Xocyll <[email protected]> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

On Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:04:22 -0500, The Wizard of Izz
<[email protected]> wrote:

<snip>

Fortunately, for all the other many problems in modern game design,
one nicety is that many games cater to both styles of gameplay, with
robust difficulty scaling to meet the needs of any player.
Unfortunately, video-game culture still interferes with this a bit
("Oh, you played on "Easy mode"? You're not a real gamer!") but this
is happily starting to recede somewhat.

And I would reply with something like "Son I was already a Real Gamer
when the best part of you dribbled down your mama's thigh.

I play for fun, if the game feels like work, it has failed as
entertainment.

Ditto. I don't like grinding games. I already do that IRL! I like quick fun games.

I definitely don't put grinding in the 'hard' category. That's just
make work repetitive crap to artificially extend the length of the game.
If I liked that I'd work on an assembly line (never mind those jobs
are almost non-existent here anymore, thanks corporate greed/china.)

At most I put up with it in EDF, but still don't like it. BL2 I went so
far as to modding the game to make it reasonable. Souls games I can
handle a bit as it's actually still usually challenging, and I can at
least try different weapons while doing it, and I don't really need to
do it if I don't want to, it's usually just to upgrade weapons to try
them out - a vicious cycle :)
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2