Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

OK, I know you’re frustrated, but look what you’ve done to your Guitar Hero controller.

A long time ago, games relied more on forced memorization and less on complexity to challenge the player. As a result, games have become challenging in an entirely different way. While there are some games that still challenge you to memorize and time things, like rhythm games, most games nowadays require you to learn specific skills with your interface, which can translate to a number of situations in games. But what it really comes down to is the question of whether games are easier than they used to be.

Challenge in a video game is an important aspect. Some games incorporate a difficulty setting, which usually only translates to more life for the enemies, things like that. Viewtiful Joe is a great example of a game with multiple difficulty levels that dramatically change the experience of the game.

Most speed runs prove that games aren’t getting any shorter, but it’s the entry bar that really proves they’re getting harder. Many games released today on consoles in particular are inaccessible to most people. These are the “hard core” games that you and I love: the Castlevanias, the God of Wars, the Metal Gear Solids. But if you have a sibling or friend who doesn’t play games like this all the time, they simply can’t, and even the simple operation of the controller can be daunting to them. This is starting to sound like Nintendo’s business model for their two newest game systems, but I swear it’s an accident.

The point is that the average console video game is, at its default and often by its nature, too hard for the average consumer. This is why games like The Sims… and its expansion packs… rock the sales charts time and again, consistently showing “our” hits like God of War who’s boss. It’s actually pretty surprising, if you think about it, that more companies are not attempting to create more accessible games like these that will appeal to the casual gamer. EA and Nintendo have got it, Namco Bandai is just starting to get it now.

The business model of exclusion is something that got its start in PC gaming, I think. I remember gaming back in the Commodore 64 days and knowing that if I went to school and talked about computer games, nobody would know what I was talking about. It was unlikely enough that many of them had an Atari 2600 at that point. This factor only became more pronounced over time as we started playing games like Wing Commander and Elite that would never fly… if you’ll pardon the pun… outside of our little worlds. The accessible games of that day were MULE and Archon, and both were still pretty tough to learn on your own.

This has continued to this day as the developers behind the games have gotten better at playing them, the games have become more challenging as a result, which has made the players better, which makes the play testers complain that games are too easy I imagine. You can imagine a kind of funnel effect where games become less accessible and only the most dedicated drop out the bottom of the funnel shouting, “damn, that was too easy!”

Really, just as we feel about controls in games, I think we can all agree that what all games need is a difficulty slider with a reasonably smart algorithm behind it that lets you make the game beat the tar out of you at the far right, and makes you fall asleep at the left. Get right on that, developers.

I want to customize controls on my Wii.