[Levitz]

Your example touches on a very related phenomenon. Videogame design.

Anyone who has activated cheats on videogames enough times can attest to the fact that it takes the enjoyment away. We do have games with superficial, skinner-like rewards, probably the majority, but many still rely on the satisfaction of overcoming real challenges to reward players.

I reckon all puzzle games are like this.

[ethbr1]

Game (video- or other) difficulty is interesting, because the goal (a “fun” game) is so tied to individual skill level (and others’, if multiplayer).

Historically, there wasn’t much technical ability to dynamically adjust difficulty. So the player had to improve to progress.

But now it’s possible to engineer games that are effectively impossible to lose, yet always make a person feel like they’re barely winning (aka “fun”).

I’m not sure that swapping of objective difficulty for subjective difficulty was healthy, though.

[Gigachad]

This is why I hate when games make you play with the difficulty to deal with broken mechanics. The elder scrolls being one where you can just end up stuck and forced to lower the difficulty because your character is physically incapable of proceeding.

But then it’s hard to be disciplined enough to only use it when strictly required. And it just feels unsatisfying.