The Importance of Losing
Why we should all embrace the ‘Game Over’ screen
There are a lot of emotions that go into a Game Over screen. Maybe we’re frustrated — we’re mad that we lost or failed whatever task that got us to this screen. Maybe we’re apathetic because we know we’ll have to wait a while before we can get back into the action.
They get wrapped up in each other so tightly that it’s hard to pick them out, but we know the feeling of losing because it’s a near-universal constant across all genres of video games. Whether it be getting shot, hearing the quiet buzz of rejection in a puzzle game, or falling to your death in a platformer, it’s implicitly understood that with the possibility of success, there’s also a possibility of failure.
But what does it do for the player’s immersion and game experience? Losing possesses curious properties. It can both increase and decrease player immersion and shape a player’s opinion of the game as a whole. We want the positive aspects of losing — how it motivates us to play better and make us pay attention to the little details — without the negatives — getting frustrated or disengaged with the game. What are the boundaries of this…
