When you’ve poured hours into a game, chances are you’re waiting for some grand conclusion to come of it. All the skills you’ve learnt, all the moves and muscle memory, ready to unleash on some final onslaught of evil forces.
You’ve hit that level, you’re ready to go, you’re psyched, you’ve got “Live to Win” on standby, then…
It’s taken from you.
That glorious moment deemed worthy to be finished by your hands has been robbed from you.
Bosses taken down in cutscenes, or worse: quick-time events. You’re not the master of your own destiny, just some predetermined avatar on an already-written path.
Remaking a classic game from years gone, only to remove certain levels. Or even worse, hiding mid-game sections behind paywalls.
The real tragedy in this is not the madcap logic for taking control from you, or the incessant corporate greed to fleece gamers out of more money, but the dejection that the player has to go through each time it happens.
To psych yourself up, only to be mugged off at the last hurdle is a feeling some of us know all too well.
