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<blockquote data-quote="Libramarian" data-source="post: 7723644" data-attributes="member: 6688858">I wouldn't call it &quot;very niche&quot; when Dark Souls III was the <a href="http://www.vgchartz.com/yearly/2016/Global/" target="_blank">30th best-selling game of 2016</a>. I wouldn't say all games should be like DS, but I think it will be influential given its critical and commercial success.Also I think something like jumping into multiplayer Battlefield 1 is actually more frustrating and unforgiving than Dark Souls, and that's enormously popular as well. I think it's become increasingly obvious that game designers have vastly overestimated the importance of a smooth learning curve. A temporary plateau in the learning curve is a quid pro quo -- it's frustrating, but also more satisfying to overcome. This satisfaction is also enhanced by the network effect of knowing that everybody else is playing on the same difficulty level.As for horror games like Silent Hill, I don't think that the anxiety produced by high difficulty is inappropriate in that context at all. Quite the opposite. The problem is when it requires the player to repeat the same content over and over again, but this is only necessary if the game narrative is very linear. A non-linear horror game (like Day Z or Friday the 13th) can have players frequently failing during moments of fear/anxiety without requiring them to repeat content.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Libramarian, post: 7723644, member: 6688858"] I wouldn't call it "very niche" when Dark Souls III was the [URL="http://www.vgchartz.com/yearly/2016/Global/"]30th best-selling game of 2016[/URL]. I wouldn't say all games should be like DS, but I think it will be influential given its critical and commercial success. Also I think something like jumping into multiplayer Battlefield 1 is actually more frustrating and unforgiving than Dark Souls, and that's enormously popular as well. I think it's become increasingly obvious that game designers have vastly overestimated the importance of a [I]smooth[/I] learning curve. A temporary plateau in the learning curve is a quid pro quo -- it's frustrating, but also more satisfying to overcome. This satisfaction is also enhanced by the network effect of knowing that everybody else is playing on the same difficulty level. As for horror games like Silent Hill, I don't think that the anxiety produced by high difficulty is inappropriate in that context at all. Quite the opposite. The problem is when it requires the player to repeat the same content over and over again, but this is only necessary if the game narrative is very linear. A non-linear horror game (like Day Z or Friday the 13th) can have players frequently failing during moments of fear/anxiety without requiring them to repeat content. [/QUOTE]

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