On the Aesthetic Relevance of Difficulty in Games

In this paper I consider the aesthetic value of difficulty in games by contrasting the difficulty of art and the aesthetic value of mechanical difficulty in games.Whereas both games and art can be difficult in terms of affects, emotions and interpretation, games tend to include also mechanical difficulty in terms of practical goals and unnecessary obstacles.I argue that mechanical difficulty can be aesthetically valuable by requiring from the player know-how, which can be understood as an art of playing.While difficulty and the demand of skill can bring forth exclusive gaming communities, they can also have aesthetic value in terms of developing oneself through cultivation of embodied skills.