Week 7

One of the main ideas that kept coming up when play testing my paper prototype of Snake was frustration. I had a friend play test the prototype for me multiple times. After every few plays, I would ask how she felt about it. She stated that it was frustrating, but that she still wanted to play again. I also noticed that when play testing it in class, some classmates felt the same way. This is what lead me into looking into the frustration behind video games and why we continue to play them even with this. This topic was looked into in an article published by GAMERANT. One of their proposed reasons for a continued playing of a game, even when frustrated by it, is the player’s want to overcome the challenge. This is what I believe is one reason that play testers were driven to continue to play Snake.

“Someone who relishes in a game’s challenge feels satisfaction from overcoming the challenge, despite the end goal. It’s not about the reward, but the challenge itself. The more frustrating the challenge, the more they want to overcome it, and, ultimately, the better the high is when they are standing over their crumpled objective or competition–victorious.” (GR Staff)

The article also comments that “They can’t stand defeat and will not accept it, especially in the face of frustration.” (GR Staff)

I feel that this accurately represents why people continue to play Snake. The player wants to try again because of an underlying frustration with the game, and possibly even themselves. The player knows that they could do better and get a higher score. Regarding score, I also feel that it helps drive players to play again. When play testing, I noticed that those testing the paper prototype would show more frustration and want to play again when I told them what the current high score was. After a player would get past it, the still wanted to continue to raise the score higher, and then showed even more frustration when they were not able to continue going higher.

Another reason I think frustration drives people to continue playing is because of failure.

“To fail is seen as something catastrophic, a mistake that has to be rectified” (thelitcritguy, 19:25)

In the video, he speaks of the video game Bloodborne, and although the games Bloodborne and Snake are very different in most aspects, I feel as though they relate in the field of failure and the want to try again. In both games, you can be sent back to the beginning purely due to a small mistake. You can make it very far, but then lose right as you were about to reach something you wanted.

“You’re forced to reckon with your own inability to accomplish the things that you’d set out to do” (thelitcritguy, 19:43)

I feel that this last quote embodies what I wanted to look into in both of these games. Both games force the player to stop, even if only for a brief second, and analyze what they did that caused them to lose and have to start over.

Gamerant Article, by GR Staff

https://gamerant.com/video-game-frustration-why-we-continue-toplay/

Bloodborne: A Failed Video Essay, by thelitcritguy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DuT5MsB0SU