I think more people need to learn the dwarf fortress classic of "losing is fun"
not in a "I think everyone would love and appreciate df!" way, but just because I feel like a lot of gamers have forgotten to enjoy the parts of a game that aren't winning.
like *old person voice kicks in* back in my day *ahem* but really back when I was a kid I played and loved tons of games, and fucking sucked ass at em.
we're talking years of only ever really experiencing the first couple levels of a game because I couldn't get passed it.
and that's not great! It kinda sucks! And there's more to the story like do I think old NES hard design is the epitome, eh! Do I think kid me somehow had it better primarily experiencing hard games over easy ones, no! Do I think there were downsides like me not really building an avid interest for the medium until after I found more manageable games, yeah!
Playing games that kicked my ass up and down the street and going "Ooo! I love the clones you can get in Ninja Gaiden 2- it's so fun playing with those for a bit before I fall in a hole :D" was useful for me learning to 'find the fun'- and that vibe of finding the fun is something I think is important to getting the most out of gaming.
DF took some of that idea and built a whole design ideology around it.
What if losing, in itself, IS fun- not like "Yay! I failed!", moreso that losing is when the most intense and interesting stories come out of a game designed to provide interesting and intense stories.
Losing is where you are tested, where you learn the flaws in your fort design, where you directly improve as a player as you learn more about the game.
Losing is fun because you get to look at what's going on and find enjoyment in the mayhem of it- the frustrations, or sorrows, or what-have-you all twist to positives because the game is doing what you play it to do- it's telling a story and you're in it and that's cool.
Losing is fun because you get to learn- you get to see what worked and what didn't, you get to practice your ability to 'react' to dangers as the screen starts filling up with issues you need to address all at once- you get tested and taught all at once, you leave 'failure' feeling like you gained something.
Anyways anyways, I mostly just think some people, primarily but not exclusively in PVP areas of gaming, haven't fully internalized the potential 'joys' of losing and are robbing themselves of a chance to laugh at how a full team push was defeated because no one looked behind them to see the one opponent ready to take them down- but to also LEARN from that, to go "Oh! Now I see how that strategy can be defeated, how do I tighten the plan up? How often can I properly fit in checking our flanks without that ruining my attention to the front?" etc
So they simultaneously stagnate on their own improvement but also become very... unpleasant, angry players. Because if they aren't winning, then what's the point? And if there's no point then they lash out because clearly SOMEONE (or SOMETHING, IE: the game) here is ruining their fun.
If they aren't winning then this game sucks ass.
If they aren't winning then fuck YOU, teammate, it's YOUR fault and since winning is the only thing that matters that means YOU are worth intense derision, which no one enjoys and now everyone feels like crap.
If they aren't winning then fuck YOU, opponent. You're unfair and shitty and an asshole because you committed the crime of *checks list* playing to win in a pvp game when you KNOW only they are supposed to win, jackass!
If they aren't winning then fuck this game, it's not designed right, it's not challenging them in the exact correct ways they want to be challenged because they already mastered the answers to those questions. The game isn't handing them the win so it's a bad game.
And the amount of joy they are allowing themselves is minimal.
And the amount of joy they are leeching out of others with their shitty attitudes is obscene.
anyways losing can be fun, you can literally learn from it or find enjoyment in the process and the story it gave you, if you'd like to.
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