Some games are simply frustrating. They are not necessarily difficult games, they just feature some section or encounter that is out of balance with everything surrounding it. I’ve been playing through God Of War and reached such a section. It’s an environmental puzzle which requires me to maintain my balance while walking along a series of beams avoiding rotating blades. It took me four attempts to work out that I could jump the blades, but even then I need to ensure I’ve lined myself up correctly with the beam I’m balancing on or I’ll fall to my death. Throughout most of this section the camera is looking vertically down on my character, Kratos, and so only provides limited information regarding where I am supposed to be heading, or how close the blades are.
Being unable to get through this particular section after several dozen attempts I actually started to wonder why I was actually bothering to keep playing. I had stopped being engaged, I was trying to complete the section out of spite, a desire to show the game that I wasn’t a failure. It’s at that point that I decided to quit the game.
Looking back on those few minutes I spent trying to get through that particular section it felt like there was some variant of the Kübler-Ross model at work.
After the first few deaths I felt stupid for making a mistake and was annoyed at myself (Anger). This was followed closely by a feeling that it couldn’t be entirely my fault and that the game was obviously broken (Denial). Several failed attempts later I started to reason with myself. I must have nearly reached the end that last time, and anyway there would be a checkpoint after this section so I’d never have to do it again (Bargaining). This soon gave way to stubborn frustration, a sense that I was now only doing it to try and prove to the game that it hadn’t beaten me (Depression). Finally I realised that I wasn’t going to get through that section, at least for the moment, and asked myself why I was even bothering. It was at that point that I calmly quit the game and turned off the PlayStation 2 (Acceptance).
I don’t think that all games need to be fun in the frivolous sense. What they should at a minimum strive to be engaging. Sympathy For Lady Vengeance is a very powerful film and maybe one of the best films I’ve ever seen but it is not a particularly pleasant experience. I can’t say I was having fun at any point while I was watching but I was constantly engaged and enthralled. It was utterly compelling I simply couldn’t stop watching, and I never once felt like I was watching just to get to the end. With God Of War, and too many other games, I’ve kept playing at times just so I could get to the end; there’s something wrong with that.
Shouldn’t playing a game be an end in itself and not merely a means to an end?
4 replies on “Continue..?”
That section of God of War… oh man… the memories… gah
Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes!! God of War is a wonderful game to be sure, but it’s not perfect, and you put your finger right on the biggest problem I had with it.
The question you pose at the end of your essay really is the crux of the matter, in my view. Games have an awful way of erecting barriers that seem to lose their meaning at some point in the experience. When they do, it’s amazing how often we just keep plodding through, feeling somehow obligated to finish or get through a particularly pointless or unrewarding section. Why do we do it? That’s actually a very good question, isn’t it?
Great point, however the motivation of playing a game through until the end is moot for so many titles where the developers actually don’t take the time to put an effort into making the game really good. You really have to look out there for meaningful conclusions, stories end pretty much unresolved because there needs to be potential for sequels etc.
For me, that’s the important motivation to decide to stop playing a game if there are such kinds of moments where it’s all mechanics and you don’t really have a good chance to complete the sequence because of inherent mistakes or misconceptions.
I had a similar experience with Force Unleashed. I stubbornly pushed through until the final battle, at which time I was firmly of the mind that I just wanted to finish it so that I could see the ending and go to sleep. Then I remembered YouTube.
Sure, I felt like a cad for a while, having failed to earn that ending, but the problem was solved. I went back and beat the game later, when I was less frustrated.