Incidentally, I'm not sure that image quite works the way the author wanted.

The 2010 gamer is a little dopey, but he's relaxed and smiling. The 1994 gamer is frustrated and angry to the point of screaming - he isn't happy until he's not playing anymore. I'm sorry, but that is not the experience I want out of my leisure time.

You could just as easily label the top row "Work," the bottom row "Weekend," and the columns by the time of day.

Good point. Maybe the picture would work better if the faces in the bottom showed bored, or indifferent, faces all the time.

But you have a point that people play different games for different reasons. If I am playing Singstar or Wii Sports with friends, I don't want it to be a stressful or even hard experience. Also some ("movie-like") games are a journey to somewhere, like reading a book or watching a movie.

But from many games you want challenge, otherwise it is pointless and boring. An adventure game with super easy puzzles, or playing a shooter in god-mode? Sports game where you always win easily?

I remember when I was a kid and had my first home computer, with only few games on it. The games of the time didn't usually have any real end, but I was so disappointed when I came so good in two of my favorite games (Munchman (a PacMan clone), and Parsec (a side-scrolling space shooter)) that after a couple of months I could practically play them forever if I wanted. I was really hoping those games would have been much more challenging.

Same of course today, paying 50€ for a game that you complete in a weekend, with no real replay value?

That.

I mean, I could try to finish that game that has 20 levels where you can't save and you have 3 lives, but... why bother?

Or, the game where you can retry as many times as you want with savepoints, but that has a jump/battle sequence that is hard as hell right after a 4 minutes cutscene that you can't skip over (the cutescene standing between the last savepoint and the sequence that is hard as hell naturally).

The idea that hard as balls games = fun, and maze like level design = fun is completely baffling to me.

Super easy games aren't fun either. Neither is boring linear level design. But I'd still take those over games so unfair and cheap they make my heart explode out of rage, or a game with level designs so complex i have to manually map out the level.

That's not fun to me. That's work.

If you want to go back to manual mapping of levels, or spending thirty minutes trying to find the one exit to a level, or every time you leap over a pit a enemy knocks you into it, then by all means go ahead. But that's not something I want back.

One thing I prefer with newer era games is that most games nowadays have some sort of tutorial, or the early missions teach you how to play. For some reason I much prefer that the game teaches me how to play it, to the old way where reading the manual was pretty much required before you touched the game.

I was reminded of this when I recently decided to try the original Settlers (SerfCity) game on PC, and also Amiga emulator (I know the series, I've just never really played it). I had exactly no idea how to start play it, so ok, I started reading the manual. Read it for about 3 minutes and just lost interest trying to understand the game mechanism.


Another thing is to remember how different it was to play e.g. adventure or RPG games back when you couldn't simply go to internet and google for secrets and walkthroughs. Nowadays it is too easy to go find the answer online whenever you get stumped, back then you found things out either by yourself, or maybe sometimes trading secrets with your friend who was playing the same game.

That's why adventure games became mostly pointless to me, I found I was looking for answers online quite soon if I didn't solve the puzzle fast, and in the end I was practically reading a walkthrough while I was playing the game.

Same has almost happened with many FPS games too. I want to find all secrets but they are so well hidden that I must read a walkthrough in order to detect them, before it is too late to find them after e.g. a checkpoint. That almost took the fun out of e.g. Serious Sam games.

I know, ultimately it is my own fault, I don't necessarily have to read walkthroughs.

You can also add old RPG or adventure games where it's possible to make the game unwinnable by doing/not doing something.

Because I totally want to start from the beginning after investing several hours in the game because I didn't pick up a broom in the first room, which is now unreachable of course.

There might one person who disagrees. Take a look at Rage Quit:

Rage Quit: The Impossible Game
Rage Quit: N+
Rage Quit: Super Meat Boy
Rage Quit: Ms. 'Splosion Man

The 1994 row should be about 20 levels longer. ;)

Sounds like Red Faction II, watching the cut scene for the 20thish time annoyed me so much that I looked up some cheats so I could finish it. It wasn't the first time I'd been frustrated in Red Faction II like that but I guess that one just annoyed me too much. If there was a cut scene skip button I would of been fine probably. Red Faction II just wasn't as good as the original.