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Some time ago I was returning a few movies I rented and decided that I wanted a video game. Something new, but something I wouldn't naturally buy. After skimming the ridiculously small PS3 aisle a couple of times I came across EA's FIFA 12. I had played FIFA before, granted not much, but enough to like it and know the difficulty level that comes with those games. Me and Soccer (Football if you will) we don't really get along well. I'm pretty good at not tripping over my own two feet, but let's just say I can't bend it like Beckam. And to make things worse, I don't follow Soccer! I couldn't tell you the difference between a Yellow Card and the ones from Monopoly, what merits a foul, or why anyone needs to yell "goal" for a solid two minutes. But I guessed I couldn't go wrong with the most popular game based off of the world's most popular sport - at least somebody has got to be right here?
So, looking for a new experience, I grab the game and bring it home. While I was playing the first game of the night, I scored one goal against some one-star team from Ireland - which I could swear was an accident. After the first half of the game the guys in green slowly, but surely started getting a leg up on me. I passed the ball, they intercepted it. I shot, they blocked. And for some god-awful reason their goalkeeper was a ball magnet. The better my A.I. rival played the more the commentators mocked my poor play-style, or rather, the players that I was controlling. Their escalating remarks eventually left me feeling oddly insulted and upset. That's when I paused my game and ejected the disc.
Perhaps my reaction was premature - after all, I could have won. It wasn't the game's fault; I just wasn't up to snuff. But one complaint I do have is that I couldn't find an easy way for beginners to learn the ropes and become easily acquainted with the game. I can see why they left it out. FIFA like Madden, 2K's Sports games, and more, all have a rabid fan base who have known the controls since day one and have been buying and playing ever since. Why would they need to waste the time and money on developing a tutorial system when most of their players know all that stuff, and have features like a simple control scheme? The same is true with games like Street Fighter, Call of Duty, and many other great titles. At times they seem highly technical, with a steep learning curve, and others when they are approachable and easy. Sadly, the lack of a tutorial system only amplifies this. Nonetheless, this confusing paradigm has left a bitter taste in my mouth after playing a lot of different games.
The divorce between accessibility and complexity is abundant in video games, but can be summed up in the question: Do you want to serve the casual or the hardcore? True, some hardcore games are more accessible than others, and some casual games have their own set of hoops to jump through. But as you will see it's not just limited to a question of "casual vs. hardcore", but instead a question of design philosophy and implementation of said philosophy rises. For example, let's look at Street Fighter.
Street Fighter is by no way a niche game, but they do have a hardcore following and Capcom knows and caters to that. In other words, the kids that didn't eat lunch at school so they would have enough money to go play Street Fighter II at the 7-Eleven by their house are most likely to be the same adults that are buying the Arcade Edition DLC. Because of that, Capcom has created an excellent combo of fighters that rely on nimble fingers and a load of skill. While they are great games in their own right, their complexity, technicality, and need to please their hardcore followers, have created a barrier to entry for button-mashing newcomers. Games like Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom have tried to remedy this by offering a simplified control scheme. But instead of letting this new system coax new players into the game - and the fully featured control scheme - it confines them to their dumbed down experience by always keeping it easy and never letting the player learn enough to move up to the big leagues. I have personally used the simple controls, and have found that they detract from the joy of successfully pulling-off a super move and other special maneuvers, and if given to a 5-year-old, they can beat the most seasoned of veterans. If Capcom were to implement simplified controls - similar to the ones used in Super Street Fighter IV on the 3DS - in Street Fighter 5, most purists would cry foul, and the last thing Capcom would want to do is make their long term customers angry.
Street Fighter is a great example of a game where the complexity of the game outweighs the accessibility of the game, but many puzzle games have overcome this very problem. The Portal series is an excellent example of this. At its bare bones, Portal is a game about using the available mechanics to get from point-A to get to point-B. But when you add Thermal Discouragement Beams, Aerial Faith Plates, and a variety of gels and cubes, Portal becomes pretty intricate. In an attempt to counteract this, the guys and gals at Valve start by introducing these concepts clearly and early, and then finish by slowly ratcheting up the difficultly level to acclimate the player. Because of that, the Portal games are some of the most balanced and perfectly paced entries in the puzzle genre. Portal is, at times, cerebral and difficult, but is approachable and understandable in a way that games with a comparable difficulty are not. But that's not to say Portal is a cake-walk. Portal2's co-op campaign is nigh unplayable if experienced with someone who's never touched a Portal Gun. In the same vein, you have a game like Braid where it's hard from the get-go, but the act of playing the game is a learning experience. So returning to complete earlier puzzles can be just as entertaining as finding new ones. Not to mention the controls are very easy to understand - forward, backward, jump, and rewind, there's nothing much to it.
While some games know how to let go of the training wheels at the right time, others hold your hand through the whole experience in a smothering attempt at accessibility. Asphyxiating aside, most players, including myself, feel like a game is treating you like you don't have the mental capacity or attention span to complete the task at hand when the training wheels are kept on the whole time. Imagine a world where, in a noble quest to make games accessible, all the answers are given to you. There's no challenge, no excitement, and ultimately no reward for playing or beating the game presented to you. Maybe I'm mistaken, but isn't the most enjoyable part of most games is where you figure out something all on your own? Whether it's an answer to a puzzle or how many times you hit a boss to cause damage, some of the most enjoyable things about video-games are learning or discovering something. Think back to when you first played a Legend of Zelda game. Remember how excited you were when you finally figured out how to get that door open, that iconic "puzzle solved" jingle ringing in your ears? Skyrim leaves many in awe simply because of the sheer amount of things you can find and do in the world. But in a reality where Bethesda would never let the Dragon-Born out of the nest these marvelous nuggets would be obviously given to you, ready to be picked and forgotten, most likely out of the fear that you'll get irritated and stop playing. Thankfully, Todd Howard knows we're not stupid.
Holding your hand until you get the hang of things is a perfectly fine practice, but we want to be let go of and find things out on our own. It's a natural part of the learning experience - master teaches the student, and then the student becomes the master. Games should never keep us in the rut of student, forever being fed the same easy information, never allowing ourselves to venture out and become a master on our own, thus always staying a student - The Miyagi Paradox, if you will. Allowing a player to learn and grow within the game-space is perhaps the finest thing a designer could give to a player. Remember that this growth and personal investment the player has in the game will keep them interested longer and more engaged than if the answers were given to them.
Between all of these things a question comes to mind. Why can't all games have a level of accessibility? Why can't I pick up any game in the world and be able to play it without any barriers or prerequisites, and have just as much as fun as if I were an expert? Why can't every game have an entertaining engaging learning experience? The simple answer, I can't. Simply because video games are designed either to be easy or hard, confusing or straightforward, intuitive or obtuse, and until there is some agreed convention among designers to make video games a certain way I don't believe I'll see any change. But one piece of advice I'll offer to any budding video-game designer out there, most players don't enjoy getting kicked around like a soccer ball.
- Wayne Strickland
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