Real vs Artificial difficulty and the Aging Gamer

Playing through Tomb Raider yesterday made me think back to Legacy of Kain: Defiance, and why I never finished that game. I really enjoyed the mix of platforming, puzzles, and action in that game but couldn't bring myself to finish it. Why?

Like a lot of games that I play through these days, there was a bit of a tripping point where I got frustrated, put the game down, and didn't come back. With so many games to play, getting irritated and/or frustrated seems to have a greater impact than it used to; as I've gotten older my patience for frustration in my games has decreased immensely. A tripping point for me has become something that I used to tolerate in just about every game; it has become what I now like to call an Artificial difficulty; something that is a result of either poor coding, design flaws, or apparent disdain for the unfortunate souls that buy the game on the part of the developer.

Artificial Difficulty
Some examples of what I mean by Artificial difficulty:

• The tripping point in Legacy of Kain for me was a section where I felt like I was totally lost with no clear objective. I don't have time or patience for wandering around the same sections over and over again because I didn't happen to notice that small lever hidden in the corner, or that path leading back to a new area that isn't clear due to pre-rendered backgrounds or fixed camera angles. You want me to solve a puzzle? I'll solve the damn puzzle even if it takes me three hours. Just be clear about what I'm supposed to be doing.
  
• Most FPS games shoot themselves in the foot with filler missions that do not advance the plot or seem to be connected in any way with what I should be doing. I get bored and irritated when these non-essential activities end up being really hard. I put them down. Sometimes I'll pick it up again later, but not all the time.
  
• Technical flaws can often get in the way and make things more difficult than they should be. Bad cameras in a 3D action title, for instance, can make it unduly frustrating in the middle of a difficult fight. I enjoy challenging fights in my action titles, but can't tolerate losing based on shoddy design and not my own lack of skill. Don't make me work around the flaws -- fix them first please.
• Lack of checkpoints. This will make a bit of a hypocrite out of me, since I played all the way through the curse-inducing controller-chucker Shinobi on the PS2 (a game with a horrendous lack of checkpoints), but I loathe when games make you run through huge expanses of territory leading up to a boss fight. The boss is really challenging in these situations, which is by no means a bad thing, but for the love of God why do I have to spend 20 minutes getting back to the fight? I especially love when I die before the boss in these situations, mostly due to my impatience with the whole thing after trekking through the same section 10 times.
  

Real Difficulty
It's a bit of a nebulous thing, and really is more in the eye of the beholder, but what I like to consider real difficulty is the sort that you can overcome by getting better at the game. This applies to some of the examples I cited above in the artificial difficulty section, but the main difference I see is a feeling of accomplishment when I get through the tough spots in a real difficult game.

The best example of this in recent memory was Ninja Gaiden. It had me cursing at the screen and sometimes even putting the controller down and walking out of the room, but in the end it was my insufficient skills with the battle system that was causing the difficulty. This was proven when I went back to play some early sections after completing the game and found it to be quite easy, even in sections that I remember having a lot of trouble.

Gaming Age 15+
I wonder what really caused this shift towards low tolerance for difficulty. I wonder if this post would have any text in it back when I was 10 and playing through Blaster Master. Years ago difficulty was a badge a game could wear proudly around, daring gamers everywhere to complete it, flaws and all. Can't really control the length or height of your jump in Castlevania? Tough. Nicked your head on those spikes in Mega Man? You're dead. Deal with it.

And yet we loved it, every minute of it.

"I beat Mega Man in two hours! Beat that sucker!"

"Oh yeah? Well I finished Metroid in a half-hour! With only 30 missiles! In the middle of a snowstorm! With my mom yelling at me to go to bed!"

"Well... well I beat Dracula while only using those lame fire potions in Castlevania!"

... you get the point. Games back then were difficult, and flawed, but it just didn't matter. Now it most assuredly does. Perhaps it's because I've spent over 15 years of my life playing through games that continue to exhibit similar flaws, and I'm just tired of it and expect better. Perhaps it's because I don't have the time I used to have to work my way through the frustration to get that "A Winner Is You" or "Consider yourself a hero" message at the end of games. Perhaps it's because I now have enough resources that one game doesn't have to last me for months; that I can go out and buy something that doesn't frustrate me. Maybe it's a little of all of that.

Maybe it's just part of being a long-time gamer.

The ironic thing about this is that I now have a desire to pick up the game that sparked this discussion -- Legacy of Kain: Defiance -- and give it another chance. I think I still have it in my HDLoader library...