Originally by: Gavjack Bunk

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Nobody has yet managed to come up with anything that they can quantify and justify beyond "Just no".

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Quote:

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THE ILLUSION OF WINNABILITY

Another important trait of any game is the illusion of winnability. If a game is to provide a continuing challenge to the player, it must also provide a continuing motivation to play. It must appear to be winnable to all players, the beginner and the expert. Yet, it must never be truly winnable or it will lose its appeal. This illusion is very difficult to maintain. Some games maintain it for the expert but never achieve it for the beginner; these games intimidate all but the most determined players. TEMPEST, for example, intimidates many players because it appears to be unwinnable. The most successful game in this respect is PAC-MAN, which appears winnable to most players, yet is never quite winnable.

The most important factor in the creation of the illusion of winnability is the cleanliness of the game. A dirty game intimidates its beginners with an excess of details. The beginner never overcomes the inhibiting suspicion that somewhere in the game lurks a "gotcha". By contrast, a clean game encourages all players to experiment with the game as it appears.

Another key factor in maintaining the illusion of winnability arises from a careful analysis of the source of player failure. In every game the player is expected to fail often. What trips up the player? If the player believes that his failure arises from some flaw in the game or its controls, he becomes frustrated and angry with what he rightly judges to be an unfair and unwinnable situation. If the player believes that his failure arises from his own limitations, but judges that the game expects or requires superhuman performance, the player again rejects the game as unfair and unwinnable. But if the player believes failures to be attributable to correctable errors on his own part, he believes the game to be winnable and plays on in an effort to master the game. When the player falls, he should slap himself gently and say, "That was a silly mistake!"

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