Millennials want/need a challenge beyond standard, inactive teaching methods or assignments that are disconnected or seemingly irrelevant to their experience (Williamson Shaffer, Squire, Halverson, and Gee)–just as they need a relevant challenge in their games to keep them playing and re-playing once the game is finished.  The game should not be so difficult that it becomes impossible to complete.  In his overview of twenty of the most difficult video games, John Harris recognizes that

this is not to say that games must be easy. The impulse to make video games easier can be traced to a fundamental change in perception over what a game should be.    The older school of thought, which dates back and beyond the days of Space Invaders to the era of pinball, is that a game should measure the player's skill. Arcade games, in fact, must make it difficult for a player to last for any great length of time in order to keep money coming into the coin box. The newer concept is that a game should provide an experience to the player. The player is to feel like some character, or like he's participating in a story, or that he's making some difference in a fictional realm.   

In order to truly be rigorous, the game must balance the older and newer mentality, juggling between the player’s skill and the player’s experience (Koster).  “In this light,” according to Shuen-shing Lee, “to lose denotes a temporary setback rather than an ultimate consequence of gaming” – a useful model for drafting in a writing classroom (Elbow, et al), both in terms of student psychology and motivation.