Easy Does It – The Case for Lowering The Difficulty

I always enjoy going in on the hardest difficulty available for my first run of a game, but I don't look down on anyone who doesn't care to do so. It's not like it's a crime to be bad at video games.
On a side note, fuck that courtroom level in The New Colossus. Took me 20 tries to kill everything in the room while sprinting at full speed, hoping that a stray bullet didn't catch me in the ass and force me to restart once more.
 
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I've always been of the mindset that you should respect people's decisions to enjoy media the way that they want to. Does this obligate the developers to provide those options? No.

Count me among those who just don't derive enjoyment out of these mega-hard games like Contra, Dark Souls, Cuphead, etc. My work life is stressful enough as it is and the last thing I want to do in my offtime is play a game so frustrating that I consider hurling my controller. I prefer to come home and put on a game that I'm confident I will enjoy - now, I do play all games on the quote/unquote 'normal mode', while raising the difficulty on games like Halo/Doom because I am a bit more familiar with the FPS genre. The Rune-Trials in Doom are about as hard as I'm willing to go before I decide that it;s simply not worth my time.

I did give into the hype and bought a copy of Cuphead when it was released, hoping that I would be able to just get through it. I absolutely love the art and music, but it's just not fun for me. I respect other peoples' likes and dislikes. Some people like playing these types of experiences, and that's completely fine - but would I appreciate a more lenient difficulty mode on games like Cuphead and Dark Souls? Yeah, I would, because I don't play games solely for the challenge. I play them for the story/art/music/mechanics.
 
cdig said:
I find the guys writing atrocious but largely agree with his point.

Put it to the setting that makes you most happy.

If normal is frustratingly hard, lower the difficulty.

I do wonder though if lowering difficulty at the first sign of challenge isn't robbing him of some of the joy of overcoming an obstacle. Also, it seems he might just give up at the first loss and expect to win everything with no effect. Not a great mindset either.
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Not everyone plays games to be challenged. Some people just want to experience the gameplay/story without frustration.
 
If you don't want a challenge then just read a book.
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Except the problem is you don't know what the challenge level is going into the game, IMO having a difficulty slider is not a terrible thing to do, whether it means health bonuses give you more/less or shots from the enemy do more/less damage it's all relative. I do finding funny though that in most games enemies are one shot kill or at most a few, where as you take a veritable deluge of bullets before you die.

That said, it's a single player game, then don't preach to me how it should be played. I will play it in a fashion that makes it the most fun for me.

FYI, I play the neat game FTL with the mechanic that causes the "enemy fleet" to be on your ass in a few turns off and the game is much more fun (for me)
 
As long as you're having fun, play the game however you want. I usually play games on their default difficulties, some I'll go higher or lower depending on how I feel about the game. It doesn't help that most developers have no fucking clue how to actually develop difficulty scaling properly. Higher difficulties often feel cheap and slapped on with no thought given and easier ones often feel the same.
 
TheOne5 said:
They need to make enemies smarter, not harder to kill. Who wants to use 20 headshots, 15 rocket blasts, 5 nukes and an asteroid just to kill an enemy while the same enemy can kill you with a toe stomp. I noticed Nvidia and other companies are moving more into AI development while most game studios are pulling out of single player and letting multiplayer take over for game AI. What's up with that?
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Well, AI has new value now that the world is finding uses other than games for it. Games will benefit because AI will improve the experience, but developing AI for games is a decent path to a product that has multiple uses.
 
There are so many things that contribute to a game's difficulty that sometimes you got to take the easier route. Like other people already said, better AI or more enemies iso near perfect accuracy with 1 or 2 shot kills.

Some games normal difficulty equals another games easy or hard mode. Some games have terrible controls that make them harder then they would be with smoother or more accurate controls (I hated alex kidd or chuck rock on the master system for their cluncky controls)

I played horizon zero dawn on the 2nd difficulty from start to the last boss, but that one was so frustrating I dropped it down and one shotted him, maybe lame but so was that fight.

I like how borderlands 2 did it, finish the game in default difficulty, then be allowed to play again with the same char on a higher difficulty but you have some gear and know the game to compensate for the harder challenge
 
Hmm, I think even with real AI, single player portions will continue to be "directed". The vast majority of the people aren't really interested in the mechanics. They want stories. We already have this thing called movies but no, games must be dumbed down to that level because we can't have frustrated gamers.

Games have always been about winning. The question has always been how easy it is to win. That differs from person to person. Fun is also subjective. It's not fun losing 50:0 in Quake but for 1000 people that quit and go back to their dolls, we get one, maybe two brave youngsters to bear the torch.

tl:dr Kosta is a whiny noob.
 
I play most games on normal but a few I will turn down to easy. Games like Fallout 4 or Witcher 3. I just don't have time to grind for weapons or levels. I just want to enjoy the world.

Before kids and having a wife I was Mr. hardcore look at me beat X-Com: Terror from the Deep or destroy FFVII weapons. My game time is too precious now. To lose even an hour of work grinding or because I didn't dodge at the right time, it would take me years to complete one game.
 
I partially agree, just because I still enjoy my games, but don't have the time I used to have. Sometimes I just don't have the 2 hours to learn how to get through one section in a game.
 
I'm replaying Elex on Ultra difficulty right now and if it wasn't for the character running out of stamina runs after two sword swings and when you drink a potion, your character reads the label, shakes up the bottle, takes a sip, then savors the flavor, the game wouldn't be so hard.
 
I play games to be challenged.

Few games are difficult enough to be entertaining for long; everything now has evolved into a repetitive grind like Diablo. :(

I can't play something like that for hours, but I can run thru Doom levels in Arcade mode at max difficulty for hours, until my hands go numb.

I LIKE games that add another difficulty level when I beat the hardest one. I've not beaten Doom at Ultra-Violence mode yet, but I work on it when I'm "On".
(sometime you play better than other times; my friends hate it when I'm "on", as I don't miss with the railgun.)

I'm in my 50's; those of you wimping out because you're "old" need to get a fucking grip, lol. Aging is not for the weak...

I'm not as good as I was in my 30's, but we played Quake II 8 hours a day then. :)

The only way I ever play low difficulty is if I need to search to find something I'm missing, then go get it in my difficult game.

It's amazing how many wimpy people are "Gamers" these days; I hear Sims is pretty good, you guys... But it's not exactly [Hard], lol.

I'm also amazed the number of people who never saw Animal House... wtf???
 
I am a 30s gamer.
Played really stupid hard games as a kid, always on max difficulty heck, I had the time to play it until I beat it.

These days with grad school, work, house duties, attention to sharing time with significant other. I just dont have the time to struggle anymore.

Many have said and I agree the difficulty in many games just cranks enemy health (regent) and armor without giving you anything.
It seems ridiculous to me that at least they don't make them look more fierce.

I would love it if a game used diffrent character renders for each level of difficulty . that would rock.
 
Montu said:
If you don't want a challenge then just read a book.
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Depends on the book. If the book is written in Latin and you only speak English that could be a challenge.

Reading this:

51N595qwKOL._SX360_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


Is not like Reading this:
9781509302185_p0_v1_s550x406.jpg
 
DrBorg said:
I play games to be challenged.

Few games are difficult enough to be entertaining for long; everything now has evolved into a repetitive grind like Diablo. :(

I can't play something like that for hours, but I can run thru Doom levels in Arcade mode at max difficulty for hours, until my hands go numb.

I LIKE games that add another difficulty level when I beat the hardest one. I've not beaten Doom at Ultra-Violence mode yet, but I work on it when I'm "On".
(sometime you play better than other times; my friends hate it when I'm "on", as I don't miss with the railgun.)

I'm in my 50's; those of you wimping out because you're "old" need to get a fucking grip, lol. Aging is not for the weak...

I'm not as good as I was in my 30's, but we played Quake II 8 hours a day then. :)

The only way I ever play low difficulty is if I need to search to find something I'm missing, then go get it in my difficult game.

It's amazing how many wimpy people are "Gamers" these days; I hear Sims is pretty good, you guys... But it's not exactly [Hard], lol.

I'm also amazed the number of people who never saw Animal House... wtf???
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You're definitely not wrong, but you're also missing something.

Apparently you're still playing Doom, if that's your thing... that's cool. But what if you wanted to play other games? I too could spend time playing Doom, ramping up the difficulty, and getting progressively better at it however... I'd rather just move on and play something else. Not everyone cares about beating a game on progressively difficult settings. That game has been out for a year and a half, there's other games that have come out since then that people want to experience and simply don't have the time to keep putting the effort into getting better at Doom or any other game in between everything else going on in life and gaming.
 
TheOne5 said:
Common core math is bad enough. Now we have common core history.
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Have you guys never seen animal house? Read the whole thread and you'll see a clip that explains the Pearl Harbor quip. Sheesh.
 
DrBorg said:
I play games to be challenged.

I'm also amazed the number of people who never saw Animal House... wtf???
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Montu said:
Have you guys never seen animal house? Read the whole thread and you'll see a clip that explains the Pearl Harbor quip. Sheesh.
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The movie came out the year I was born. Yes, I will be 40 in Jan and yes, I saw the movie but missed the reference :(

Not sure why your amazed the number of people who never seen a 40 year old movie, even if it was a classic.

"Two wrongs don't make a right but three rights make a left."
 
Crysis 3. Can't get past a segment? Temporarily lower the difficulty until the next area. I like how they do it where you only can change it once at a time for some reason.
 
Montu said:
Have you guys never seen animal house? Read the whole thread and you'll see a clip that explains the Pearl Harbor quip. Sheesh.
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It was a joke. Animal House came out before I was born, so I don't really remember it. There are a lot of movies that I personally haven't seen. I got flamed a few years ago on another forum because I never heard of Caddyshack (I watched it shortly afterwards).
 
NAXDON said:
Crysis 3. Can't get past a segment? Temporarily lower the difficulty until the next area. I like how they do it where you only can change it once at a time for some reason.
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I'm stuck on the part where you have to chase the apc. I kept getting killed by the helicopter and haven't touched the game since. I got stuck on the last level of Bioshock Infinite and haven't touched it since either.
 
DrBorg said:
I play games to be challenged.

Few games are difficult enough to be entertaining for long; everything now has evolved into a repetitive grind like Diablo. :(
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I loved Diablo 2

Grinding in D2 was a treasure hunt, not a grind. I was a Cow Level Jedi Master.

I would join games where noobs had gotten the portal swarmed with cows and I could go in cold and clear it with my Zon.

I killed the Cow King every chance I got.

And I can't wait for a Remaster Diablo 2.

But I'd understand if it's not your thing, like many of us said earlier, to each his own. But I can't let you dis on D2 son :sneaky:

(teasing man, just teasing)
 
TheOne5 said:
It was a joke. Animal House came out before I was born, so I don't really remember it. There are a lot of movies that I personally haven't seen. I got flamed a few years ago on another forum because I never heard of Caddyshack (I watched it shortly afterwards).
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You got me.
 
I think it really depends on the game. Every game is different.

I think I - like most people - want more out of a game than just easy successes. If everything is too easy, then there is no sense of satisfaction when you succeed.

That being said, there have been some games where I ahve had to replay the same sequence over and over and over again before I am able to do it. That isn't fun either. There is something to be said for balance.

I'll usually start out a new game on a medium setting, and if I feel it is too easy, turn up the difficulty. If it is too hard, drop it down. (Though I don't recall the last time I dropped anything below medium)

On my second playthrough of a game (if I liked it enough to come back for more) I'll often crank the difficulty all the way up to see if I can do it.

4 years later, I just started my second playthrough of Deus Ex: Human Revolution last night, and did so with it cranked at the most difficult setting.

I ALMOST gave in to temptation to drop it down after failing spectacularly in some of the early scenes, but I stuck with it, and I found that it taught be a different style of playing the game. Instead of just charging in guns blazing, I am spending more time sneaking around corners, doing silent takedowns, hiding bodies, etc. because if I don't, I have to face all the opponents at once, and I'll definitely die.

I have found that this made the game MORE interesting than on the medium settings, as it involves some of the elements of the game that I mostly disregarded first time through, and turns it into more of a puzzle, involving lines of sight, patrols, silence, etc. in order to get past certain areas. Well worth it, and tuns it into a completely new game.
 
remember getting to the hard boss and contra, and having to set the difficulty to easy just to beat it?





Me either, because there was no difficulty setting. You had to fail repeatedly to succeed, as you do in life. There is no easy button. Sorry if I got too real for some of you folk.
 
MavericK said:
A large part of the issue is that there is little to no development on actually good AI these days. For the most part increased difficulty just means enemies with laser aim that do way more damage, while your shots are less effective.
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Reminds me of Civilization where Prince difficulty level means you have the same production/science/culture/whatever rates as the computer.

Easier difficulty settings mean you get bonuses, and the AI gets penalties, more difficult settings, and you get the penalties while the AI gets bonuses. You are still playing he same dumb AI.

I love that game series, but this has always frustrated me. All the difficulty setting does is determine whether it is you or the computer who is getting an unfair advantage.
 
MaZa said:
If the difficulty sliders make the enemies bullet sponges, screw that. That is not hard, that is just tedious.
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I remember on STALKER where the hardest difficulty setting actually turns out to be the most playable, because the bullet sponge algorithm just messes everything else up when you set it to anything easier.
 
mnewxcv said:
remember getting to the hard boss and contra, and having to set the difficulty to easy just to beat it?





Me either, because there was no difficulty setting. You had to fail repeatedly to succeed, as you do in life. There is no easy button. Sorry if I got too real for some of you folk.
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There are very few scenarios where life revolves around the ability to beat a boss in Contra, sorry if I got too real for you.
 
I always start a game on "Normal" because I figure that is what the game is designed around. Any easier or harder and the game isn't working as intended. Once I get the hang of the mechanics I'll up the difficulty until I am just on the edge of constantly failing. It is always about stretching yourself another 30% to get a real sense of challenge and accomplishment. To date, I have never needed to drop the difficulty in a game below normal or medium just to get by. These days with all the hand holding I usually set it to hard at first.

OPINION
To those saying you just want to experience the environment and story, maybe you're the audience walking simulators were made for. It sounds harsh, but seriously. Or go watch movies. A video game is the sum of its parts, and the balance of the gameplay is a large part of that. If you're not at least experiencing the game as originally intended by its designers then you're losing out on the whole experience of the interactive medium.
 
The two worst parts of this thread so far are:

1) Not knowing whether or not people actually think that the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

and

2) Starting to feel old because there are too many people here who haven't seen Animal House.

Otherwise, in reference to the OP, THIS IS WHY WE HAVE DIFFERENT DIFFICULTIES!!!! Stop shoving your mamby pamby bullshit about stories and art and crap down our throats. I just need some strippers and a rocket launcher to kick some ass! Yeah baby!
 
I see from all the posts looks like both sides are being argued already. Just going to put my experiences out there. When playing a single player game I have generally play on the normal mode first, then increase difficulty. I am fine with dying in games, going back to old saves to try again etc. Where an easy mode is nice for people like my nephews that wanted to play some of the games with me. I have no problem with them playing on easier settings so they can learn it and then slowly raise difficulty for them. Prime example was back during the guitar hero era, they loved coming over to my house and playing that but they needed it on an easier setting over all to be able to play when they were that little. Then when the adults played we raised it up.
 
mavrocket said:
The two worst parts of this thread so far are:

1) Not knowing whether or not people actually think that the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

and

2) Starting to feel old because there are too many people here who haven't seen Animal House.

Otherwise, in reference to the OP, THIS IS WHY WE HAVE DIFFERENT DIFFICULTIES!!!! Stop shoving your mamby pamby bullshit about stories and art and crap down our throats. I just need some strippers and a rocket launcher to kick some ass! Yeah baby!
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I saw animal house...

...like, 25 years ago.

I can't remember every line from the film :p
 
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