Life is Hardmode

I'm often asked (maybe at least once...) why I enjoy playing games that are hard and punishing, like Elden Ring, Hades, or Hollow Knight.

One could argue that life itself is already on hard mode, where effort doesn't always translate into reward. So why seek out difficulty in games, especially when they're supposed to offer escapism and relaxation?

I do enjoy calm and relaxing games too. But sometimes, unlike many aspects of life you want to feel that, getting better, learning from failure and persisting does pay off. So for me, enjoying games that are hard, is actually about the satisfaction of accomplishment that comes because of the hardship.

Thinking about it, I believe this is also why I like programming so much. It's about the challenge and how to best solve it. When you finally crack a tough problem or optimize a piece of code, it kinda is like defeating a difficult boss/challenge in a game.

The game loop of hard games is in fact similar to the process of debugging and refining code. Each failure is a lesson and an opportunity to improve.