easy posts

The other day I was listening to one of my favorite gaming podcasts when the issue of a game's playing length came up. The speakers were lamenting that games as a whole have gotten shorter, and that's a Bad Thing. I started thinking about this, and began to wonder if the issue is that games are shorter, or that they've just gotten too easy and seem shorter.

Then I started to realize that there's a whole kettle o' worms here, just waiting to be upended. Have games evolved to be easier out of sheer gamer need? Do games need to be easier to satisfy an older generation of gamers that has less time for games, or to appeal to the widest possible audience? Is the true purpose of games to challenge, or simply to appease?