When a game stops being challenging

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the elements that make a game challenging.

World of Warcraft (WoW) probably is one of my favorite games all time. It is the game I played the most by far and that entertained me for more than a decade by now. The main reason for this incredible lifespan is the fact that the game periodically received updates that provided new regions to explore and new evils to defeat. Now, 12 years after WoW got released, I still enjoy joining my friends in Azeroth in order to fight our ways through a dangerous instance.

Despite all the joy I continue to derive from playing WoW, I have to admit that the game has ceased to be challenging. The main problem is that the game mechanics barely have changed since the game’s release and, as a result of this, I have fully internalized all my virtual capabilities. Of course, I still have to be focussed and pay attention to critical events during a boss fight, but that is just a matter of concentration and does not challenge me to improve my skills in order to become better at the game. In addition, most of new boss mechanics that have been added to the game are very simple and easy to exhaust thus providing not a real challenge.

Normally, a game is challenging when a player operates at the limits of the own ability in order to exhaust one of the game’s challenges. In addition, while playing a challenging game, players can train their skills in order to improve their performance. In other words, a game is challenging when it follows the main principles of flow and allows players to train their knowledge.

Unfortunately, this is no longer the case when it comes to WoW for several years by now. Although I still enjoy playing the game and experiencing new story arcs, I noticed how I significantly reduced the amount of time I play WoW. Currently, I only play the game when I do have a fixed appointment with my friends in order to tackle a certain dungeon.

In general, I noticed that, although some content is left to explore, many games cease to be challenging as soon as I fully learned all the knowledge that is encoded in a particular game. As a conclusion, amongst other things, good games need to provide a lot of room for improvement in order to remain challenging for a long time.