Is There Value in a Game You Can’t Win?

Is there though?

Until recently I’d taken the idea of winning a game for granted. So many games feature a win state and the point of the game is to achieve said state. Even games not explicitly about winning let you do this. For example: narrative driven walking sims let players make it to the end, thus fulfilling said game’s win condition. Winning is such a foundational part of how most games are created that when I recently encountered a game where I couldn’t always win it really rubbed me up the wrong way.

But what does that say about me as a player, or the game’s overall design?

For context, I originally spun into this rabbit hole of games being winnable thanks to Ring of Pain. Some of you may remember I did an impression collaboration earlier this year for the game. It finally released and I decided…