Monday, February 16, 2009

Videogame Glossary : Breakthrough

A breakthrough refers to a gameplay session where the player gets past being stuck on a particular puzzle or challenge in a game, usually on the first new attempt after being vexed by it and giving up during a previous gameplay session.

Sometimes a breakthrough can occur months or years after the player has given up on the game and moved on to other games. Breakthroughs occur with such regularity in videogaming that they can be used as a mental exercise to avoid excessive frustration.

Breakthroughs seem to be reliant on games designed with more frequent save points. In games where the save points are far apart, and thus the player is forced to repeat several very challenging tasks just to return to the point where they were stuck, the likelihood of breakthoughs diminish greatly. The trend in modern games is away from this sort of design, though.

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