Why we play tough games

It’s an age-old question in gaming – why do we play games that punish us with unfair deaths, hair-pulling difficulty, and/or cheap enemies? Why do we, as a group, like this kind of pain? Well, a recent article in The Wall Street Journal asks exactly that: “If a Game Is Too Tough to Win, Can It Still Be Fun?” Of course, the recent poster child is the uber-tough, decidedly old-school Mega Man 9.

I assume the gamer obsession with hard games comes out of a few places – competitive instincts (I’ll beat this boss, even if I die 600 times trying!), a desire to test and prove skill, and good old nostalgia – old games tended to be damn hard. Maybe that’s why they were so good – you had to put time and effort into mastering them.

Read [The Wall Street Journal] Via [Kotaku]