Completely redid it.

i'm curious how you feel abt modern console/home pc/doujin shmups and modern pinball designed primarily for the home market. the arcade financial incenctive and culture is removed but the difficulty is the whole shtick. as a disabled freak i love shooting for a 1cc more than almost anything else in video games even though i'm awful weak at it.

i don't think it's about 'performance culture' so much as my just enjoying things that are hard (out of necessity really because everything is pretty damn hard for me.) especially as a video game is consequence-free and designed to eventually be beaten. many of these games also include 'easy modes' that are still ballnumbingly difficult, creditfeeding can act as a regulatory mechanism etc.

mayb i should write a page on this too. interesting essay

@badgersaurus ooh, I never thought about that b4, you're right! I think it shows how the context of difficulty can change once you remove something like location and money. those games can afford to keep their teeth because their entire identity is in that constant one-up. I don’t think that undermines accessibility so much as it changes it, bc even the most punishing shmups usually still come out with stuff like

(2) intentionally “easier” difficulty settings that would still look hard to outsiders.And you’re right, that consequence-free nature of games means that difficulty here can be enjoyed without real world stakes. And yeah, difficulty doesn’t always mean gatekeeping, sometimes it’s just the form a player chooses for themselves, even if the game offers ladders down as well as walls up.

(3) Thank you for that response! I look forward to reading it if you do! ^_^

I. LOVE. this! Excellent points, well-written, and so important. We are in dire need of a "cringe backlash".

New article out. Hope you can give it a read.