Difficult games are easy enough to find, and there are a lot of players who like them. And yet, it’s also easy to find people who use these games and their difficulty as a test of who is a “real” player. In this essay I explore why that gatekeeping mentality is harmful for the video game community as a whole.
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The Difficulty Debate
It’s easy to come up with examples of games that are difficult or tough. But when we talk about difficulty, what does it actually mean for a game to be difficult? In this essay we’ll look at different forms of difficulty in games, and analyze what makes particular challenges fair and unfair.
Talking About Games: Intent and Execution
Sometimes we talk about games in terms of the intent behind them. Perhaps a part of the game isn’t fun, but the designers made it that way. But is that a good explanation? In this essay I argue that the intent behind a system should not be relied upon for deciding whether a video game’s systems are good or bad.
Roguelikes and Progression: Aimless Wandering
Video games need to be able to quickly and clearly tell you what to do next, so that you know where you should go. But what happens if a game doesn’t have that clear sense of direction, especially when it’s most important?
Bullet Hells and the Information Problem
Bullet hell games are designed to be tough, but at what point do they become too tough? Using the example of Returnal, I explore how bullet hells are supposed to work and how they can go wrong.
Moral Choices: The Virtuous Player
Making good moral choices in video games is complex, and it’s easy to fall back on the simplistic. But when we rely on simple ideas, we lose the power that makes moral choices worth presenting in video games.
Moral Choices: Follow the Rules
When we make moral choices, we often fall back on a set of rules that are easy to remember and stick to. But it can be useful to take a closer look at those rules that we use. In this essay, I’ll look into the moral framework of deontology (i.e. “morality based on rules”), and examine how we might use deontological concepts to create richer moral choices and themes in video games.
Moral Choices: The Consequences of Our Actions
Moral choices in games are often framed around broad concepts of right and wrong that are usually given little additional thought. But what would happen if we started to dig into more detail about what makes actions moral and immoral? In this essay I’ll explain the moral philosophy of consequentialism and how it can be used to create richer moral choices within games.
Talking About Games: Not a Horror Game
Horror as a genre of video games can be both incredibly appealing and a source for a lot of debate. One major point of contention is what is really “scary.” However, I present the argument that trying to argue about what is and isn’t scary is ultimately pointless, as it confuses a very personal experience for a point of objective debate.
Dissonant Games
The idea of ludonarrative dissonance feels like one of those concepts that we don’t need to talk more about because all get it. But I offer in this essay that there is value in exploring the idea of this dissonance more, and how games can better embrace the conscious use of ludonarrative dissonance as part of game’s theming.
Abstracting Games 