Gameology: Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community

Atillah, I must thank you. Reading your post, and savoring its intelligence, has brought me more pleasure than I deserve. Surely, there is nothing about this game we cannot figure out with such a mind at work on it.

Indeed, I think you have found what is addictive about the game. I might add, though, that what makes each of these rewards pleasurable is the knowledge that things could easily have been otherwise. Just as the game supplies constant rewards, it offers us just as many failures, setbacks, and opportunities to make painful mistakes. Loading an earlier saved game might be more trouble than we think it's worth, since we'll need to duplicate hundreds (thousands?) of actions we may have taken in the meantime. I lost track of the times I just restarted an entire scenario because I felt my overall strategy was lacking.