Videogames, as everyone knows, are for losers—literally. In defiance of our participation-trophy culture, videogames demand that their players fail, repeatedly. Not many games can make you cry, but scores of them can make you feel frustrated, angry and impotent. The word that we gamers use for this cocktail of sensations is “fun.”

Today’s most challenging games are dubbed “masocore,” a combination of “masochist” and “hard-core.” Masocore games are nearly devoid of instructions, kill new players within seconds, and require...