Things Learned from Videogames: Balancing Difficulty

So I talked a little bit on Tuesday about how Final Fantasy 7 is an extremely well-balanced game, and how that's a big part of what makes it enjoyable. Balance is an interesting topic, and when it comes to videogames, it's sort of the holy grail. Games that are well-balanced become classics, while those that aren't tend to get relegated to the bargain bin. As evidence I cite Starcraft, so well balanced that it's still played competitively more than ten years after its release.

As for how this applies to writing books, well, let's give it a shot, shall we?

First, I think we need to establish that getting frustrated while reading is a negative thing. I think there are about as many readers who enjoy getting frustrated as there are gamers--which is to say a very small, very masochistic minority who like slogging their way through impossible material because after doing so they can brag about it.

There are many things that can frustrate a reader, but one of them is difficulty. If it's too damn hard to figure out what an author is saying, most people will get frustrated. Witness the legions of books abandoned partway through by high school and college students, let alone the general public.

So step one, people don't like to get frustrated. Step two, things that are too difficult can be frustrating.

Okay, but most people don't like books that are too easy either. The kind of learn-to-read chapter books that fascinated you in early elementary school don't still rivet you with their quality, do they? No?

Okay, so then we've established that people don't like books that are too easy or too hard. The goal, therefore, must be to land somewhere in-between. To achieve balance when it comes to difficulty.

Voila! We have learned something about how to write from the issue of balance in videogames! But there's more. They can even teach us a few things about how to do it. Tune in tomorrow for that bit.