Opinion – Redefining Victory As Gaming Goes More Mainstream

Growing up, the bus ride to school served as the bragging grounds for my friends and me. I distinctly remember reveling in my accomplishment of getting through the special zone of Super Mario World, only to have my friend throw his successful completion of Mega Man 2 in my face later that week. Constantly trying to one-up each other was always fun, but the feeling of accomplishment was what made the battle most worthwhile.

This feature was originally published March 24, 2016.

I haven’t had any rivalries like that in my adult life, so when a fellow Game Informer editor challenged me to keep a record of all the games that I beat in 2016, I jumped at the chance to reignite the sense of competition that I enjoyed so much during my youth. I started off strong, beating both Rise of the Tomb Raider and Tales from the Borderlands within the first two weeks of the year, but after plowing through a couple more titles, I realized the games I’ve polished off feel different than the ones I played during my formative years.

The games I beat during my childhood rivalries – titles like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Donkey Kong Country, and Earthworm Jim – felt like achievements to finish. That feeling that you accomplished something not just anyone could do was fueled by the competition my friends and I used to take part in. Reaching the end and vanquishing the final challenges required the right level of skill mixed with persistence, and made you feel good about your skills as a gamer. 

With the continued rise of narrative-focused games over the past several years, many games have become less a test of skill and more of a pathway to experience a new story. Games like Bloodborne and XCOM – not to mention the swarm of indie games that capitalize on the retro-difficulty niche – still offer the challenge many gamers crave, but even more traditional action experiences like Uncharted present a default difficulty setting that strips away most of the challenge in favor of narrative. Instead of coming into the office and proudly proclaiming that I beat a game, I feel more compelled to discuss the various plotlines with another player, much like I would a television show I share in common with a coworker. 

Without difficulty driving the sense of accomplishment, these types of games reward players in different ways. The Lego Star Wars series may play like old-school action titles, but as I neared the end of my time with those games, the excitement I felt wasn’t centered on the climactic battles I was about to experience. Instead, I was just pleased to see the familiar story wrap up in a fun and unique way. 

While I enjoy these games for different reasons, they engage me in distinct ways. Beating some games is simply a matter of how long you stick with the game rather than how much skill you possess. Sometimes I feel more like I’m escorting the protagonist from one point of interest to the next, rather than actively fighting for my survival, but when narrative is the main draw, that might not be a bad thing. Modern innovations such as autosaves and strong checkpoints have thankfully eliminated much of the need for perfection in order to beat something. These are overall for the betterment of the medium, but it also makes for an experience that eliminates some of the blood, sweat, and tears aspect so many gamers love.

Too often, gamers want to elevate one of these styles as superior to the other, but having more varied experiences in the industry makes it a more inviting medium. Whether you count yourself among the most hardcore difficulty junkies or you’re a part of the wider swath of players that enjoy the narrative experiences, there are always new games to appeal to your tastes.

The games that have made the decision to sacrifice skill-based accomplishment for experiential reward have opened the industry to a wider and more diverse audience. While I love the sense of achievement that difficult games provide, I also enjoy guiding characters that feel like an extension of me through a story that I know I’ll be able to experience in full as long as I stick with it. 

Meanwhile, modern games that are difficult by design have enjoyed a strong resurgence; no longer commonplace, that sense of skill-based accomplishment has garnered titles such as Dark Souls and Hotline Miami a cult-like following. They can give players a higher level of investment in what is going on in the world, since they know their success is by no means guaranteed.

The fact is that most games do land in the middle. However, it’s unsurprising that the games that truly manage to marry these two experiences – like BioWare’s Mass Effect series and Rocksteady’s Arkham series – typically end up being my favorites. 

I’ll always love games like Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country, but that enjoyment doesn’t prevent me from also liking less-challenging experiences. More importantly, it’s not an either/or proposition: We’ll always have hand-crampingly-difficult games to take our skills to task and trophies to show off when we finish them. The only difference is we now also have the easy-going experiences that anyone can enjoy regardless of their expertise. If that means that more people can enjoy the hobby I’ve been so passionate about my entire life, I’m fully on-board.