Make Your Games Challenging, Not Frustrating blog - SuperNormalful

One of the things I keep hearing about the game, Dark Souls, is that it is incredibly difficult but not really frustrating. Dark Souls managed to provide a change to players but never an unfair one. If you were unable to dodge the powerful, super-hit from the boss monster you died as a result, and when there was clearly time to avoid it you can only blame yourself. In other situation, when the attack is so insanely fast that no human on Earth could possibly have the reflexes to dodge it something has gone wrong. It is very risky for a game to go down the "hardcore" road that Dark Souls travels because it is easy for it to become a frustrating mess if the attacks are too fast or the monsters are too hard to hit. As long as a game can remain fair in how it deals damage, meaning you never get hit when you're behind a wall, the attack was clearly avoidable, and there was obviously a way to counter the game is never really unfair. Of course, people will still complain that the game is too hard when they don't have the success they expect, but those are just the usual, sore-losers of the game that are not used to a game that punishes the player for smaller mistakes.