What makes a video game challenging? Challenge in video games can be defined in many different ways, the amount of skill required, the amount of thinking and puzzle-solving needing to be done, the amount of information a game provides for you and the programming of the AI can all be adequate gauges of difficulty, and really what someone finds challenging is realistically dependent on the person themselves to decide. Therefore, I feel the more interesting aspect to look at with challenge in video games is the way that challenge is presented from the viewpoint of the games themselves. In that sense, challenge has been increasingly evolving ever since video games were initially created. In very many of the first major video games, challenge came from the limited knowledge provided to you and the ways you learned the game’s mechanics. Games like Tetris and Pac-man are probably not going to be very difficult for you once you understand the game’s mechanics, but it is in the learning curve itself that the challenge lies for most people. This was also sense in games like the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, where the games leaves you with little to no direction and challenges you to figure out what to do next. As games became more and more technologically advanced, difficulty settings and tutorial modes became more and more popular, thus providing more information to the player. In these games, the challenge generally came from either setting the difficulty to a higher level, thus beefing up the enemies and usually handicapping yourself, or in the difficulty of the actual gameplay mechanics in themselves. Much more recently, a newer trend has evolved in video game challenge, which became most popular with the Dark Souls series of games. These games go for an alternative approach to challenge where they throw you into extreme situations, generally way before you are reasonably expected to know how to actually beat them, and force you to figure out the mechanics through trial and error. These games are touted, by most, as the epitome of difficult games, but they follow pretty much the same formula as older games in that they are simply restricting access to information and forcing you to learn through the gameplay itself. The downside to this kind of challenge in video games is that once you have the required information, the game tends to be immensely easier. This has lead gamers to create their own forms of challenge outside of the game, whether that be by setting a certain goal for a high score, trying to beat the game in the fastest time possible and playing the game in alternative ways are just a few of the avenues some gamers take when they crave a more intense challenge. The problem, in my opinion, is that most games do not seem to be trying to advance or innovate recently in terms of integrating challenging aspects to their game, which could lead to games becoming rather stale and boring, especially for people who are looking for higher rates of stimulation from gaming. My hope is that games try and move away from the restricting information form of challenge as it does not truly feel like that much of a challenge to me and is easily overcome once the required knowledge is learned. I look forward to see what future innovations games have in store for us, especially when looking at the challenges they present.

With the introduction of mobile phones as important parts of our every day lives, new opportunities opened up for people looking to release their products on a mobile platform, one of the biggest markets being mobile gaming. Mobile gaming is not unique to phones though, Nintendo and Sony being the biggest proponents of mobile gaming with systems like the Nintendo DS and the PS Vita. However, there is quite a big difference on the perception of mobile games on phones and mobile games produced by dedicated gaming companies like Nintendo and Sony. Games released on the Nintendo DS and PS Vita are generally seen as very legitimate and respectable titles, while games released for phone are not seen as favorably. Personally, I play a few mobile games, specifically ones that fall under the gacha genre, which typically involve summoning for characters that can be used in different forms of gameplay and which heavily rely on in game microtransactions as most of the games are free to download and play. These games can be fun ways to pass the time and remind me very much of collectable card games, where the main appeal is the collection aspect, which is even more appealing when the characters you can collect are from your favorite TV show or game series. I think one main problem that people have with these types of games is the sort of predatory nature that is inherent to microtransactions, where you are heavily incentivized to spend money to make the gameplay experience more enjoyable. These monetization methods are very successful, even to the point that games released on major gaming platforms have started to adopt these methods, much to the dismay of gamers everywhere. To a lot of people, and my self included for the most part, the microtransaction form of monetization feels sort of counter-intuitive to the traditional ways games are monetized, where you pay a singular fee and are free to enjoy the full benefits of that game. When you spend money on microtransactions, you still get to play the same game you were already playing for free, but with a few added extra benefits, that usually dont last very long until you spend more money. I think another main problem people have with mobile gaming on a broad scale is that most games lack a lot of depth due to the limitations of the system. Traditional gaming systems are going to run games better than your phone 9 times out of 10, which is a huge turn-off for some people, especially when a game is available on mobile and on traditional gaming platforms. This lack of depth also provides less interest for people seeking a engaging experience, where gaming systems are going to have more tools to provide that type of experience, leading many gamers to see most mobile games as very casual and not worth their time. However, as more and more companies recognize the amount of potential money to be made in mobile gaming, I think we may see newer and more ambitious takes on the mobile gaming formula. Many companies have already started porting their older, less technologically intensive games to mobile phones, providing some already decent games for people to play. As mobile phones are enhanced and given more power to run more intensive games, I think more and more companies will look to mobile gaming as a serious option for releasing their games and we will definitely see improvements in the quality and engagement provided to us on our phones. Every gaming platform has to start somewhere, and I think we have only seen the beginning for mobile phones as serious options for gaming.