As a game designer I maybe overuse this lens... But if the main aspect we value about democracy & capitalism is competition, then yeah, there's no way a system left unattended continues producing competition without blatant & frequent interventions to help the losers and knock the leaders down a bit

This was a great read. My favorite part was the design direction of Miyazaki where he talks about making an elegant undead that feeds more on the aesthetic of sorrow rather than grotesqueness. 👏

Curious to hear your thoughts! :) I am also in college for game design atm. Fun to have a bit of an exchange on here 🙏

Higher upfront cost means less player base that can have fun with your game.
Additionally, I would be totally fine with the price increases if Nintendo or the game industry as a whole explained that this would help with layoffs and base pay for industry professionals. Sadly, this won’t happen.

I understand your sentiment here, however, the additional skins and cosmetics included as an extra price to the game doesn’t track completely. The reason is because the “door price” is what allows players to get their hands on the game experience in the first place…

On the souls side of things, I believe Elden Ring was so successful because of the way the player was given options in adjusting their own difficulty. The player was able to choose this by using different playstyles (using summons, magic, over leveling, etc.”)

The goal as a designer is to have peaks and troughs of challenge to an extent where the player never gets too frustrated or too bored. There’s a sweet spot for all games! But every games peaks will look different. The most important part, is that the player is rewarded based on the challenge.

Just because the difficulty can be adapted to the player does not mean there is no challenge. It just means the challenge isn’t as rigid. Also, it all depends on the game and gamer :) if I’m playing stardew valley, I’m not really looking for a challenge. Opposite for Dark Souls.

Modern difficulty for sure. There are times for both. But most often, the modern difficulty spread with adaptation to the players choices and ability enables the highest amount of players within the market you are designing for to partake and stay within the flow state for longer. 👏

As a game design enjoyer as well I super appreciate your thoughts on everything. My biggest love for this game is the level design. Just like you stated, you are rewarded as the player for exploring. On top of that, the game creates obvious affordances with the player that it always plays into. ❤️