Very often in games, we encounter frustrating elements. At face value, it may seem strange for games to include portions which are intended to spark such a negative feeling in the player, and often times, these sections are not actually intended to do so. Many times, a game will simply include a segment which was intended to be challenging, but missed the mark in some way. That’s not what I’m interested in talking about today, however.
Instead, I want to take a look at those games or segments in games which are deliberately designed to piss you off, those aspects that are just absolutely infuriating for no other reason than that the developers thought it would be a bit funny. The Iron Keep in Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin comes to mind, as do areas such as the Shrine of Amana or the Gutter. None of these areas had to be as annoying as they are to effectively convey their difficulty, and in fact, in the original version of the game, they were much, much easier. However, the Scholar of the First Sin version of the game attempted to shake things up for returning players, and decided to make the game much more frustrating in order to do so.
So what’s the point of doing things this way? What exactly do you get out of frustrating your players to such a degree? Well, it could be argued that such a high degree of frustration enhances the ultimate reward of overcoming the obstacle in question. This is a framework I reject, as the only thing I feel when completing these areas is relief I don’t have to do it anymore. There’s no real burning sense of accomplishment.
But like, media challenges its audience all the time, and so how is this any different? I think the ultimate difference comes down to the fact that I think that on some level, games need to be fun. That’s why they’re called games. If they’re not supposed to be fun, then call them something else. The last thing I want to have happen while I’m playing a game is to get so frustrated I have to stop. It just totally strips the fun out of everything I’ve been doing up to that point. It’s my opinion that games should try their best to avoid frustrating the player. Tedium is fine, but frustration, at least in my opinion, is almost always a detriment to a gaming experience.
