Many gamers will tell you that games have become a lot easier in the last few years, with many games even offering hints, tips or pointing you in the right direction when you get stuck. But when do games become too easy? When does in-game hand holding begin to ruin the game experience?

We've all heard about Nintendo's upcoming "demo play", a feature that allows players to ask for hints if they get stuck in certain games, and even offers the option to let the game take over until you want to resume playing. While that may be an extreme version of in-game hand-holding, it looks like in-game hints are becoming more and more common on all platforms.

In this interesting article, David Wildgoose at Kotaku brings up the issue of games that hold your hand a little too tightly, after he discovered that (much to his disappointment) while playing the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo, the game gave him hints every time he died, regardless of whether he wanted the help or not. (Discuss in the forum).
Go to the source for the full article.

I hit Retry on the Game Over menu and a loading screen popped up. It advised me to consider applying the explosive gel to both walls before detonating in order to take out all five thugs in one go.
Irritation hit me first, as I felt denied of the opportunity to test my solution. I now knew it worked, so where’s the fun in that?

Then I felt insulted. Yeah, so, I failed something once, it doesn’t mean I’m too stupid to work it out on a second attempt? Thanks, Mr Condescending Game Designer!

Then I felt despair. Is this really the way games are designed these days? So utterly terrified are our game designers that someone, somewhere will get lost for a moment or stuck on a puzzle that they feel it necessary to tell us exactly what to do the very instant we hesitate?

I’m Batman, I shouldn’t need anyone holding my hand.

Years ago, games never held our hand. Instead, they’d kick our arse.

I’d like to see designers place more trust in the player. To have faith that, despite hesitation or failure, they’ll still manage to get it right in the end. It’s nice to know there’s a hand there if you want to hold it, but sometimes its grasp is too tight. Sometimes you just want to let go and find your own way.

Miss Razz via kotaku.com.au »