Me: remembering how many games were ruined by capitalism needing to make most of them too hard because "If they're too hard to beat during a weekend rental then people will be forced to buy the full game!"
I'm still bitter about Ecco the Dolphin and Dynamite Headdy. So much wasted potential.
Fuck that fucking octopus. Fuckin asshole. Suck off me
Arcade games were the way they were because they were modeled on the old carnival midway games. Pay your coin, play for a couple of minutes and move on to the next one.
Console games were the way they were because back then, challenge was something you expected when playing a game. You were supposed to gain mastery of the game over repeated plays over months. Today, nobody has any patience to gain mastery at a game and they expect to win because they paid for the game. This is why interactive movies and walking simulators are so popular.
"There are said to be some victors who take no pleasure in a victory unless their opponents are as fierce as tigers or eagles: if their adversaries are as timid as sheep or chickens they find their triumph empty."
-- Lu Xun, "The True Story of Ah-Q" https://www.marxists.org/archive/lu-xun/1921/12/ah-q/ch04.htm
First paragraph i agree entirely, that's the history that led to the intertwined difficulty/monetization.
Second paragraph i disagree entirely, and it's immaterial in analysis. Consumers changed desires along with the games changing in style, but before either of those arose, the monetization method changed and caused that relation.
Why was gaining mastery something people did? Because it was fun to get good, now games are developed in a way where the ceiling is low and absurd levels of practice are necessary to make any improvements.
Now games are developed in a way to let the player win, because the idea is that if you paid $60 you should win. Attention spans have definitely decreased and dying and starting over again makes today's gamers angry. Back then we just felt it was our fault and if we could just get better we could win. Now it's the game's fault.
Meh, you focus on a result and ignore causes except some human devolution which I find entirely unconvincing. I get upset when I die in call of duty and have to play the part again, but i don't mind dying at all in Mario 64 because it's fun as shit to try again due to the mechanics inherent fun-ness