During the documentary, someone said something that just stuck with me - it hit a core bit of my personal beliefs, partially because it's similar to the best advice I was ever given (we'll get to that later). They said something along these lines, "Bob's greatest gift to painting was that he removed the fear of failure from the audience - it was their own world, and it could be anything they wanted it to be."
Removing the fear of failure is such an empowering thing, and this concept has taken many forms. You may not have noticed it hiding as the prime idea behind little bits of our world. For example, Nike has long encouraged us to "Just do it." Just do it - let go of the fear of failure and get out there and run. From The Last Samurai, we get the quote, "Too much mind. No mind." It's practically the same as Nike's slogan - do not worry or think about failure, just do it. Even Stroke 9, famous for Little Black Backpack in yonder 90s, makes mention of this ideal in their song Poltava:
'Cause we all fall from time to time
It's all I can do to draw the line
But don't forget
To take your chances anyway
And swim the oceans of regret
This brings me to the best advice I was ever given. I find it entertaining that it was actually given from an artist to me about the art I had done in my first class in five years.
Don't be afraid to suck.
See, he was talking about drawing lines - I sketch my lines rather than make a single, clear line. It makes most of my art look kind of awful. However, this concept of letting go of the fear of failure and just drawing a line... That's a powerful idea.
So how does this apply to games? Since it is "just a game," this fear we have is pretty much nonexistent. It doesn't matter if we fail, because we can just try again, right? Well, almost. Fear of failure in games is most assuredly something to avoid - if the player is afraid to fail, they are afraid to play. They won't try things out of curiosity. They won't press all the buttons to see what they do. If they have one bullet and only one bullet, figuring out how to fire said bullet is not going to be their priority - that bullet must be important and should be saved until the very last moment possible.
Limited use items suffer from the fear of failure for many, including myself and my roommate. We have a hard time using potions in games because we only have so many. What if we run out and we need it later? What if we don't get the maximum amount of health from it, and those three hit points we missed out on costs us the game later on? This is precisely the reason why my paladin in Diablo II specialized in the Prayer aura (which didn't work by the way).
So how do we get around this? If limited use items instead have a recharge time, it allows players nervous about wasting their resources to try it out and use it from time to time, even if we still hesitate in case we need to use that ability or item during the recharge time. However, if the recharge time is too long (say, thirty minutes), we may still avoid using the ability/item. That's a careful balancing act that requires much attention and playtesting.
What about when you're so close to the end of the level and you begin to fret because you've been doing so well? If you mess up now, your great run will come crashing down and you'll have to start over from the last checkpoint. You get jittery, anxious, and excited - you might actually make it!
This case is not so much the fear of failure as the anxiety of success. It's an awesome feeling, especially when you do succeed. It's an adrenaline rush, and who doesn't love that? We get this in games like Super Mario Bro.s when we're jumping along all those tiny platforms in later levels or in Soul Calibur III when we've almost got that perfect victory. We get it when we have that last sliver of life left and nearly have that boss defeated.
This is a good feeling. Intensity of this level means that the player is drawn into the game, and they most certainly are not looking away. To achieve this, we must make failure a negative thing. If the player loses nothing upon failure, then what does it matter if they lose? (See my post on making failure worth avoiding.)
So we've made failure something to actively avoid, so how do we instill this anxiety of success? We can't just spring these challenges on the player - we have to give them time to rest between adrenaline rushes. If we challenge them too much, then our challenges are the baseline - nothing special about them. However, if we have a challenging game or we've just hit that point of difficulty in the game, what can we do?
The answer is actually very simple - collectibles. Coins (Mario Kart 7), rings (Sonic the Hedgehog) gold (BIT.TRIP RUNNER), and souls (Dark Souls) are all temptations to the player. Trying to grab these items placed in tricky spots not only adds difficulty, but it is an open dare to the player. Think nya nya na-nya na, you can't get me. Who can resist these shiny things? How many times have you lost a life to trying to grab these pickups instead of just trying to reach your goal?
While the fear of failure is a powerful thing, overcoming it brings about a sense of invincibility. To be fearless is empowering, but in games, we need that fear of failure to keep the player from apathy. If they fear failure too much, they are not having fun. However, if we can hone in on that anxiety of success, the player will almost assuredly have a blast. In the end, it all comes down to hitting your target audience and carefully playtesting and balancing your game. Focus on what emotion you want the player to experience, and remember that they will grow in skill to match the challenges you present - if that challenge is great, overcoming it will award that sense of invincibility, for first the player must overcome the fear of failure.
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