Source: Wikimedia Commons

The biggest problem that’s always faced Star Trek is pretty simple: continuity.

Not to say that it’s unique to Star Trek, but right now I’m watching through Deep Space Nine, and you can really feel the crunch of continuity as the show reaches its conclusion.  Season 7 is more or less impossible to navigate or understand if you haven’t been watching since the beginning; nearly every episode is a densely woven net of references, allusions, and call backs to earlier events.  It’s a lot of fun to watch, but I’d be completely out of luck if I hadn’t been watching the whole thing from the start.

So what does this have to do with challenge in games?  Well, it’s the same sort of problem.  The game industry has to keep bringing in new people, and that means that new players need to have a consistent entry point.  Which creates a problem when dealing with veteran players, because what’s challenging to someone new to games isn’t going to present much trouble to someone with a long and storied history of gaming.  Which brings us, appropriately, to the topic of entry points.

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