The best games strike a “magical balance between the excitement of facing new problems and the swagger from facing down old ones,” writes Nick Paumgarten about Miyamoto’s Nintendo games. You can’t stay motivated if you have to try your hardest all the time. You need to experience the satisfaction of exercising skills you have mastered, interspersed with the new ones you’re working hard to improve. It can’t be all learning curve. You need the downhills to coast and recharge.
