Okay I didn't want to engage the current "rewind feature" thing in vidya game twitter r/n because the original statement being parodied in the meme is such obvious stupid bullshit, HOWEVER I see a teaching moment, design-wise, so.

Let's say you're a game designer and you are making a platformer. You want it to be really challenging for the player so it requires a lot of disparate things: precise timing, good reflexes, etc.

Adding a failure or punishment state (falling off a cliff, landing on spikes, enemy attack, whatever) helps you in two ways

1.) it complicates what would be an otherwise more simple decision-making/execution process
2.) it creates tension because we don't "want" to fail(*)

(* except when we do; c.f. @jesperjuul's "Art of Failure" -- https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/art-failure)

In a lot of old school "arcade" (and NES-era) platformers, the fail/punishment state was usually "do it over again:" you'd "die" and have to replay some of the stage, either from checkpoints or the very beginning.

It was... okay, in terms of extrinsic motivation to play, but just like the Konami and Capcom brawlers of the 90s, the more compelling reason for that design choice is coin drop

Fail = lose limited life = need to put in another quarter to try again.

Which, fine, but you'll notice that as console games became the norm and their design choices evolved, this kind of harsh punishment tended to fall out of favor.

Why? You don't need coin drop on an SNES. You bought it already.

What has happened in the interim, though, is that people (like me) who grew up on "NES Hard" games, have internalized that design decision as What Good Design Is because it was part of games that were formative in our understanding of the medium.

But honestly, EVEN THEN, aggressive fail states that require retreading weren't really "good design" either. They were a relic of the arcade era, for the most part, one that we've steadily gotten rid of with: checkpoints, auto-saves, and -- da-daaaaaaah! -- save state-ish rewinds

Think about it: if the EXECUTION TASK is what should be engaging the player, then a feature that allows them to practice, attempt, re-attempt, and then finally succeed at it is MORE desirable for your intended design outcome, not LESS.

Remember, any of my students reading this:

Design is about creating an environment that encourages your player to have the kind of experience you hope for them to have. "Challenge" is a multi-layered thing.

And always, ALWAYS question where your design assumptions come from.

Anyhow "dur hur rewind and save states are cheating" is some Gamer Bro bullshit and: fuck that.

Have a pleasant new year.