Video games are easier now to encourage repeat business

August 25th, 2010

Thanks to unlimited lives, regenerative health, frequent checkpoints and glaringly obvious puzzles, video games are easier today than ever before. It's a fact.

The reason? Money. Specifically, the less frustrated you are by something, the more likely you are to buy it again.

Take expensive golf courses, for example. You think old fogies with money to burn would pay $200 per round to get "beaten" by a challenging course? Of course not. They'll go play somewhere "more fun," i.e. less challenging.

Similarly, as gamers became adults with disposable incomes, they've gravitated towards and demanded easier games—perhaps subconciously. Especially since they no longer have the open schedule of a 12 year-old boy.

So with money on the line, developers are more than happy to oblige with less frustrating games, which stroke our egos. Much like a club house.