Failure - nobody likes it. People hate failing at life and they hate failing at games. But then again, is it not possible that a triumph in gaming or amazing moment of gameplay inspired goodness could be lurking within failure? What if the story of a game goes out of its way to say, "Hey, you can't win by yourself," and then when you finally learn that, in comes the help you need. Interesting read.

From the article:

At my first job in the industry, working in the single-player department at the now defunct Stainless Steel Studios, we were strictly forbidden to create scenarios with anything even vaguely resembling defeat or loss in the story-lines. So, being the stubborn sort, after we finished our first game, I immediately sat down and made a scenario, for myself, that was all about defeat.

I chose the Spanish Civil War for a setting, pitting the player against Franco’s overwhelming invasion force. The goal was to let the player rewrite history, a glorious triumph against all odds. I placed fourteen major cities across Spain, each and every one of which, except the capitol of Madrid, would go over to Franco’s side when he marched against them. There was nothing you could do. You could not fight, because your troops would defect in the face of enemy fire. You would get the hint sooner or later, and pull the rest of your troops farther and farther back, until only Madrid was left. A siege was announced, and the player was then told to hold out for so many minutes until European reinforcements arrived to help your cause – and you could go on to kick some serious Fascist butt.

My goal was to take the player’s expectations for a strategy scenario, dash them, and then make it absolutely clear that they were utterly doomed, before showing them a single glimmer of hope. I’d like to flatter myself that the scenario was moderately successful, both fun and dramatic (it did fare well on the fan mod sites). At any rate, I have never stopped being proud of engineering that retreat – of capturing a little whiff of the tragic moment in a game, in order to make the subsequent victory that much more glorious.

Read the full article over at gamasutra.com