We All Want Different Things From Games

What do you personally look for in games? Maybe you love lengthy RPGs to sink your teeth into, might be that all you're after is a machine for playing the new Call of Duty each year, keep things casual. Possibly it's a new social experience you can play with online friends, jumping in each week on Fortnite, Peak or something else. Or perhaps you don't fit neatly into a single box here, and that's perfectly fine.

I'm probably preaching to the choir if you're here reading this, but that versatility is a major reason why I love gaming. Games can be art, they can be cheesy escapism, they can deliver wonderfully complex branching storytelling you can't experience (not as well, anyway) in other mediums, a fun hangout. Each are valid, and we're all after something different. Our moods and wants greatly vary.

For me, I'm likely playing another round of Mario Kart, Jackbox or Everybody's Golf with friends. I also love something narrative-driven that I can sit down with over extended sessions; this year alone has seen me beat two Trails games, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and more while I've begun making progress on Hades 2. Games often give you a wide choice in how to proceed between different weapons, builds, difficulty settings, and more. Which is why it drives me mad seeing some people try to enforce their own rules on someone else.

I don't mean people criticising a game, that's fair enough. It's more the issue of how some attempt to police how strangers engage with a game or series. Telling people they didn't play Elden Ring “correctly” because they used magic, going off because they made different choices to you in Baldur’s Gate 3. Attempting to shame easier difficulty runs because it's allegedly not valid or “manly” unless you clear mega-ultra-nightmare mode, perish the thought. Those who rant about accessibility features making a game “too easy,” things like that.

None of this is new, particularly the often toxic debate around difficulty settings, yet I'm writing about it now because this issue persists across online spaces. Not only is it such an exclusionary mindset that keeps communities gated, this actively goes against a developer's intentions. Why would these features exist if the team doesn't want you using them? Specific progress differs depending on where you look, though with greater strides being made for accessibility, more big releases are giving us options on how to engage.

I don't like the phrase “let people enjoy things” because it's regularly used to silence criticism, though it's fitting in this context. If someone else's approach doesn't exactly match yours, so what? There's more important things to worry about. We all want different things out here, and I'm glad games can widely cater for that.