Why Do We Suffer for Fun? Ordeal Pleasure in Souls-like Games

TL;DR

Souls-like games create unique pleasure through sustained challenge, mastery, delayed gratification, and shared community meaning, transforming suffering into satisfaction.

Contribution

The paper introduces the concept of ordeal pleasure as a community-level phenomenon driven by three mechanisms, with analysis of design choices in Souls-like games.

Findings

Souls-like games coordinate difficulty, time, and social meaning to produce pleasure.

Design choices in specific games influence the experience of ordeal pleasure.

The framework extends motivation theory with a temporal and social dimension.

Abstract

Souls-like games exemplify how digital play can produce radical forms of pleasure through sustained challenge: players voluntarily invest tens or hundreds of hours in experiences designed to kill them repeatedly. This paper theorizes ordeal pleasure as a community-level phenomenon that emerges most fully when three mechanisms reinforce one another: Ludic Cultivation (mastery through fair adversity), Aspirational Deferment (delayed gratification oriented toward future growth), and Communal Mythopoesis (collective construction of shared meaning). Drawing on game design analysis, empirical player studies, and community discourse, we show how Souls-like games produce pleasure by coordinating difficulty, temporal structure, and social meaning-making. Comparative analysis (Elden Ring, Hollow Knight, Lords of the Fallen, The Surge) illustrates how specific design choices enable or undermine ordeal pleasure. The framework adds a temporal dimension to motivation theory and specifies social mechanisms beyond generic relatedness. It also offers design principles for designers seeking to create challenging games that transform suffering into complex satisfaction.