Re:If you can't fail, why bother playing? (Score 2, Insightful)

I just started playing grand theft auto 4. The worst part of the game is exactly what the video describes -- when I get killed in a shootout, I have to go back to the start, waste a bunch of time getting across the city, only to risk more time wasting.

Why not just send me back to the start of the fight so I can give it another shot? Going across the city again is

- not fun
- doesn't teach me anything! (read: taking the tedium out doesn't make it "training wheels")

On the other hand (even if it is less work) succeeding in a shootout is fun. If this is what call a "neat trick," then I would say it's the neat tricks that are fun.

The goal of any game designer should be to make a game challenging but not tedious. Most games like GTA4 are tedious because game designers are simply not skilled -- it requires less skill to make a game challenging by simply making it more tedious.

Bad game designers ratchet up the tedium. Great game designers are able to find the sweet spot.

(Honestly, it almost feels like most games cater to obsessive compulsive traits.)