I’ve been an avid video game player since the first time I put a quarter in that ‘Weird Space Invaders thing’ all those years ago. Many games passed through my hands since then, some good, some bad, but no matter in witch category they would fall, many would have one critical flaw: they often confuse challenge with frustration.

Now before I go any further, I want to respond right away to the avalanche of ‘wuss’ emails I will probably receive later on. I don’t want to know that you were able to go through this or that level or mission on your first try. Fine, you were able beat the mission I wasn’t able to. Good for you, but the point wasn’t a single mission or a specific game.

A game is a game. It should NEVER make you want to destroy your console with a blood-stained hammer while damning the developers and their family up to their 37th generation. A challenge is a good thing. I sure don’t mind having to redo a hard boss several times before defeating him. Trust me, I’m a World of Warcraft addict, and I know what raid wiping dozens of times against the same boss is all about. I don’t mind a challenge requires skill, observation, learning abilities or fast reflexes. I do mind a challenge that’s base solely on luck.

As usual, I’m kinda late on games and only started playing Grand Theft Auto 4 about 1 month ago. It is a superb game! Although I preferred the humor and the 80’s feel of Vice City, I think GTA4 is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played.

Now let’s get one thing straight: I’m more than reasonably good at the game. I can make high speed runs from one side of the city to the other without loosing as much as the hood on my car. I’m good at combat and have a very good sense of what’s going on around me, so my problems here are not related to my driving skills. That said, I’ve been stuck for about a week at the mission.

<GTA4 SPOILER> where you have to kill Pegerino for revenge for having killed Kate. This mission starts as a very long car chase where the crappy car you’re stuck with during the run gets increasingly damaged from standard traffic and also from bird droppings, sneezing, and moonlight. The combat part that follows is not really an issue but then you have to follow Pegerino, who run away on a boat, with a freaking dirt bike. This part is not really fun by itself as I hate the bike physics in GTA4 but then the object littered run to the jump platform that allows you to get into a helicopter and continue the pursuit is just frustrating. Now I never went much further than that since my chopper seems to just explode soon afterwards for some unknown reason (NO, I don’t want to know why nor what I did wrong, I’ll figure it out myself thank you). What makes them think that people enjoy repeating the same thing again and again just to discover new ways at failing? I’m not asking game developers to just make it easy for us with little flowers and all, but come-on!</SPOILER>

Take World of Warcraft as another example. If you play(ed) it too, you know where I’m going with this. Mission ‘X’ kill ‘Y’ amount of ‘Z type of mobs’ where ‘Z Type of mobs’ numbers on the entire map at any given time is less than half the number required, even if you are all alone at the time. So just run around like a headless chicken until they re-spawn and pray to Illidan that no one else is on that quest at the same time. How about the ‘collecting’ quests where you constantly question the biology of Azeroth’s inhabitants; how come this boar has no stomach? How come this skeleton has no finger? WHY is it that this bird only has one feather? Oh look, how interesting, this wolf has not a single tooth. That’s funny, I kinda felt like there were several when he was chewing on my butt while I was waiting for my latency to get under the 10 digits mark.

Those are just examples and I know it sounds more like a personal rant than a real appeal to game developers but please, PLEASE sirs, please ask yourself how you would like it before creating a challenging part in a game. Feel free to challenge my brain, my reflexes, and my experience, even my patience to some extend, but please don’t challenge my luck.

Sincerely,

A paying customer.

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