Is 'Safe' Gaming The Best Kind Of Gaming?

An anonymous reader writes "James Portnow has written up an in-depth article about 'risk in game design'. He discusses the concept of the safe game, 'any game where given X hours (with minor variance for skill) any player will beat the game and get the prize.' Do you prefer your games tricky and studded with failure points, or does smooth and easy win the race?"

Easy answer:

[kestasjk]

It should be easy to beat in a given time on easy, more difficult to beat on medium, and impossible to beat in hard.

There's no game which isn't beatable in X hours though; given long enough anyone can beat any game.. Except Ikaruga.