Are Video Games Getting Easier?

A few of the industry pundits / journalist make the argument from time to time that video games are getting easier. This is an interesting point of view, as there's obvious negativity here - as if things getting easier is somehow a bad thing.

What I'd like to discuss for a minute is how this is probably not as true as it might appear - video games are just as hard as they've ever been, where skill checks are made. A skill check is a thing in a game where the player's skill is checked. Any game that uses button mashing or predictable patterns doesn't yield an effective skill check. Games like first person shooters have constant skill checks to see if you can get a reticule over something that's moving in a (hopefully) non-predictable manner.

What I think that the pundits / journalists are referring to is the removal of a feature of old games I like to call, "Fucking Annoying." Fucking Annoying are things like boss battles, mouse-over "challenges" to find the one pixel in a LucasArts game that's the clickable thingo, random battles with randomly unwinnable outcomes, no save or check points, that kind of thing.

A common poster child for the "it's just too easy!" of video games is World of Warcraft. Attention is drawn to its easy starting areas, tutorials, quest hints, monster layout, treasure placement as some sort of evil that should be crushed out. If we spend a bit more time in analysis we can see that it's not as it appears; we can get Ma and Pa and apple pie playing the game (9.3 million and climbing), and have a nice comfortable experience getting into it. Should you want more challenges, there are things that are as hard as a box of rocks - PvP, high end raiding, world bosses, whatever. If you think that clearing Naxxramas or getting High Warlord equipment is somehow "easy" then you're probably needing a bit of a tuneup.

Wait. I just called high end raiding hard, but also said before that boss battles Fucking Annoying. There's more to high end raiding than shooting the Maiden of Virtue in the head; if we consider co-ordination alone that's a challenge that must be constantly monitored and worked with. It takes real skill to align yourself consistently with 19/24/39/etc. other people, and if you don't believe that you need to watch synchronised swimming events.

From a certain point of view, the removal of Fucking Annoying means less frustration, and more fun. Sure, you're not going to be beating a controller through a wall or jumping out a window to make it all just stop, but I don't think the game's less hard - hard would determine a level of skill needed to beat these things, rather than randomness or persistence through irrational odds.

I applaud game designers getting rid of the things that most people don't want. I can understand Jimmy the Autistic Savant enjoying a rousing game of Heavenly Sword, with all its entertaining boss battles and throw-the-hat fun minigames, but for you and me it's time to move on.

Game designers are now giving us smart puzzles to beat. Games like Portal are not easy. If we consider the end level of Half Life Episode 2, that wasn't easy. Any online game with PvP is not easy in any remote sense at all, unless you happen to have a class-centric game with things being unfair in your favour.

So: no, I don't think video games are getting easier. I think they're getting more fun, more immersive, more pervasive, and easier for anyone who's not hard core to get into. And I really can't see how that could ever be a bad thing.