Comment by emodendroket
4 years ago
I can't stand this kind of thing, but I do enjoy a lot of games that basically punish you until you develop enough skill to beat them. This is its own form of "grinding," I suppose, but one I find much more rewarding than essentially being rewarded for the number of hours I'm willing to do monotonous tasks.
The distinction is that you would never pay someone to learn how to beat the Orphan of Kos for you; the pleasure is in getting your ass kicked to the point where you throw the controller across the room, only to pick it up again a couple hours later. That's exactly the experience these Bullshit Games aren't creating.
I don't think it's true that nobody would pay to learn it. A friend made significant money as a dota tutor, and there's whole sites full of people selling tutoring time https://www.superprof.com/lessons/gaming/united-states/. Similarly, people pay for cheats/unlocks/walkthroughs.
Metafy is a big one too. But notably people are largely willing to pay if the game is played competitively. For single-player games, not so much.
That's true for a lot of players but the problem is that like any real-life skill, many players will hit a low ceiling of mastery in certain skills for whatever reason. Regardless of whether they're unwilling or unable, these low-skill players will not feel rewarded by the game. That's a problem if you're targeting a broad audience of players (which tends to be the most profitable strategy).