Easy Does It – The Case for Lowering The Difficulty

jardows said:
Difficulty levels originally were like this:
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But I personally Preferred this:

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Realistic wasn't "harder" than hard, but you get get one-shot killed if the AI got a headshot.
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I re-played the original Deus Ex a few years back with some 3rd party patches to make it compatible with modern systems and higher color bit depths. It took some getting used to the older graphics, but once I did it still held up. Great game.

I'm replaying Human Revolution right now at "Give Me Deus Ex". As mentioned above, it is challenging but is teaching me a new way to play the game, which is great!

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Simply expanding his market. making a game too hard/difficult to learn, and a lot of novices won't bother playing; so you lose a sale. You don't start learning chess by playing against a grandmaster, losing gets old real fast, and then there's no one left to play against.

Besides, outside of the gaming community, no one's impressed that you reached level 56 of shoot the moron.
 
When I play a game for the first time, I usually have it on normal. If the game allows me to make quick-scope headshots every 10sec or acts like I activated God mode, I crank up the difficulty till I start having my ass handed to me. The only games I have ever started out on the most extreme difficulty were all the F.E.A.R games because of the awesome AI. Still haven't seen a game with AI like that since.
 
Toss in my 2c. As others have indicated in game AI is shit. The games AI does not employ better strategy on harder levels.. they usually just get more powerful weps.. HP and numbers to throw at you. I'm not into frustration.. to me it's like Doom 3.. simply turning off the lights and giving you a flashlight that lasts 5 seconds does not make a game more fun to play. I've been playing new games on easymode first time through for years... guess I'm just a big-ole-pussy.. ;p
 
I always crank it one higher than Normal for my first play and then back it down to normal if that's too much.
 
When it comes to games, I'm firmly of the opinion that it's your game and so you should play however you damn well like. I don't give a shit if some people want to play on ultra-hardcore mode or on the easiest difficulty. I'll play on whatever difficulty gives me the most enjoyment, and that might even vary depending what mood I'm in.
 
I play most of my games on easy. I'm mostly into it for the story and experience than the mechanics of the game play.

The few games that hook me, then yeah, I'll start ratcheting up the difficulty to enjoy the experience more. But first playthrough is almost always on easy mode.

Games where I get hung up, I'm more than likely to drop than I am to practice and get through it. Whether that says a lot about me or not is debatable, I guess, but it's the truth - I'm not going to beat my head against an artificial game obstacle unless it's really intriguing for me.
 
I'm surprised at how many people are surprised other people haven't seen Animal House, compared to some movies from that year (Starcrash), it just wasn't that good.

 
I grew up with hard games and played on normal if it even had a difficulty setting.
Later I found games getting easy so I tried playing on harder difficulties.
I remember playing Raptor: Call of the Shadows, when i played on higher difficulties I got a lot more money and access to better weapons.
Later I started playing on normal again as I didn't find that higher difficulties were more fun.
 
I play most of my games on normal these days and I find them to be perfectly fine on this difficulty. Not too hard and not too easy. I have some exceptions like Halo, Gears, and Doom where I bump up the difficulty one notch above normal but other games when you turn up the difficulty it only makes them feel more cheap and therefore makes them less fun. When I was younger I used to try and beat all my games on the hardest difficulty for achievement points and/or bragging rights. I would always get super frustrated and it got to a point where it wasn't worth it. In games like the CoD series when you turned up the difficulty it basically made the game cheat. Enemies could see you through walls and could shoot you right as you turned the corner and it made the game feel rigged. I play retro games as well and some of them are hard for all the wrong reasons such as poor controls and cheap level design and enemy placement. Luckily there are a lot of retro games that offer a challenging but fair experience and these are the ones that are remembered and played the most.

As for playing on easy, if a game is too hard for me on the normal difficulty I'll gladly switch to easy and feel no shame. When I played Radiant Silvergun a while back, the normal difficulty was too much for me even though I legitimately tried my hardest to stick with it and get better. I did get better but it felt like if I didn't have caffeinated reflexes at the time of playing I would die like crazy. I lowered the difficulty to easy and not only was the game still a legitimate challenge on easy but it was reasonable and more enjoyable. Again, I had no shame in lowering the difficulty and I never will feel shame for playing on easy in any game ever.
 
I think the biggest difference today is availability. NES games were expensive and often short. A higher difficulty made them last longer.
Today we have so many games that if we get annoyed we will simply move on.
 
The entire article's argument is falsely assuming one thing: that games are just about the story and plot substance.

They are called games for a reason and gameplay is as much a part of the entire package as anything else (if not more so since its a, you know, game).

If it's difficult then that's the way it was meant to be experienced. Game is too hard for you but you still want to 'experience' it? Go watch a twitch stream if that's what you want.
 
It depends very much on the game. For Doom as an example I want to be beaten all to hell as it's part of the experience. For some RPGs I'll happily go 'story mode' and play it like an interactive movie/book.
 
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doom 4 was fun on the hardest mode on the first playthrough.

Cuphead is an example of a game that needs and easy mode for casuals or people who just want to play stoned.

You can make an argument for both side. I prefer my games on the hard side. Getting annoyed/angry is part of my release.
 
True Fact: Last night the Eagles bombed ATT stadium...we left bird shit everywhere :)
Best comment so far. lol. Made more sense than a lot of these other comments.

Every time in a thread like this, people come in and state just how a game is SUPPOSED to be played which is all subjective. The enjoyment factor is different for each. I play a game how I want to play it, that's it. I could care less about hardcore mode, achievements, etc. I don't play for a score, I play to have fun and adjust the difficulty accordingly. Single player only, the only way to go for me.
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Parja said:
Where the fuck are your priorities?
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We used to annoy the other groups at work, especially marketing, by conducting meetings entirely in movie quotes, if possible. :)

Monty Python, The Matrix, Airplane; we awarded points afterwards, based on the notes we were taking.

They thought the notes were work related, lol.

One of the pHd's used to binge-watch movies on the weekends to try to up his score. :)

:rofl:
 
sfsuphysics said:
Everyone remembers "Beam me up Scotty" even though people don't remember every line in Star Wars





(See what I did there?)
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Hehe, yeah, but I'm being honest. I saw it at some point more than 20 years ago. I remember only fragments of the film. I remember the guitar smashing scene, and the "fat, drunk and stupid" line, but e en after being reminded in this thread I simply have no recollection of that pearl harbor line.
 
you find te difficult that provies a challenge to make you learn the game better... then you increase it. rinse and repeat.

I started my nostalgia phase with maste of orion (dos) on easy and worked my way up to playing it on impossible
I did Ufo enemy unknowm on supergenoius

both of these games gave me a good challange from what i wanted without locking me out of playing the game

and then you have skyrim which make you pretty much impossible to kil lat around levle 30 if you mazimize you powers in the game..
i only played the main story lines at that point just doe to story coriosity.


For me a lot of playing a game is learning how the mechanics works and improve my play style which is why i do a lot of 4x games or similiar game styles
 
First I think we need to establish a clear line between what is a challenge and what is a retarded artificial barrier (hp sponge type bosses as an example). Now agreeing that RAB's as mentioned above are in fact poor design and in no way more of a challenge, then I state that "What is the actual point of playing a game that has no challenge"? I don't condone or understand cheat codes or stupidly easy modes as I think you have just wasted your money when you could just watch a lets play on youtube if all you care about is the story line. That said, if you want to blow your money and play like that in single player, then be my guest. I am however absolutely 100% against handicaps and piss poor attempts at leveling the playing field in multi-player environments. People that cheat should be permanently banned first offense and games that artificially handicap skilled players should be reviled.
 
you have to be a sadist to enjoy playing on super hard difficulty.

my life principle is: take it easy.
don't give yourself undue frustration

I usually like running through shooters like invincible rambo. Unlimited ammo trainers make games fun. Pump 100 bullets into a bad guy, then kaboom.

On COD:WWII, I ran around with a panzershrek and blew up all the nazi foot soldiers
 
Also, small children like to play cool games too. Kids enjoy wandering around big pretty worlds....but they don't have twitch reactions or problem solving. The LEGO games have been great for our kids. There is very little penalty for dying or getting hurt. Minecraft on creative mode is another example.

On that note, more games need to have the option to turn off language and violence. People get sooooooo fussy when you suggest being able to turn off the language/adult stuff in GTA games. Well, then what game do you suggest a young child plays that has an amazing game engine and interactive world???
 
I don't play a lot of single player games anymore; mostly MMOs. When I do play other kinds of games I generally play on whatever level is the most fun. I don't like extreme hard modes where they quadruple enemy hit points and give you 1/4 of the ammo. I
 
I generally put the shooters I play on the hardest level with one exception- DOOM. I had never played it before and it was a bit of a different pace/feel for me- worth the money when all said and done--- but I had to back it down a bit.
Very soon going to see what Wolfenstein II looks like.
 
Kdawg said:
My life principle is: take it easy.
don't give yourself undue frustration

I usually like running through shooters like invincible rambo. Unlimited ammo trainers make games fun. Pump 100 bullets into a bad guy, then kaboom.

...
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I am exactly the opposite of this.

You only get better by learning to beat those better than you; all else is Fail.

Like I've said before, my life's ambition is to Jack a Valkyrie for her horse. IRL. :)
 
I'll go through the first run on [H] .. like Gears of War and those types of games .. then I'll play the game again on easy or normal and try and find everything I missed whilst trying to stay alive.
 
I beat demon souls. I enjoy the challenge most times. But there are times I wish that those games had an easy mode. I started getting into bloodborne, got past the first boss, but I don't have the time to commit to continue on.
 
viper1152012 said:
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.
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jardows said:
Difficulty levels originally were like this:

But I personally Preferred this:

Realistic wasn't "harder" than hard, but you get get one-shot killed if the AI got a headshot.
Click to expand...

In the Stalker game series, the hardest difficulty level (Stalker) meant that both you and the AI usually died to 1/2 shots from a pistol to an assault rifle. So getting better body armor was a BIG priority, as was avoiding most engagements early on in the games. This actually encouraged cautious, stealthy exploration, until you got skilled/confident/geared enough to ambush mutants/bandits (let alone more organized, equipped, and skilled factions). The end to the lonely bandit "Cheeki Breki" was done by knife to save on ammo.

Still got killed multiple times in the Stalker games, but it hardly seemed unfair or excessive at the hardest difficulty level; it just punished you mercilessly for stupid brain farts that you knew you shouldn't have done. And it was fair because the AI was penalized mercilessly for that, too. (y)

The first System Shock, too, had a difficulty system designed to encourage different playstyles, which the recent Deus Ex games have (somewhat) picked up on.
 
nightanole said:
Its should be more of "play the game that is fair". Having "casual" gamer play with a group of squadies that even with a the gun shoved up the sectoids arse, and still only have a 40% chance to hit, and its going to take 2 shots to kill, is going to make the player rage quit and miss out on a very rewarding game play experience.

We all cant be 20 year old aim bots. Not everything needs to be nintendo hard.

That being said, who wants a point and click adventure that is just one long hallway with cut scenes?
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I love point and click games that are just hallways with cutscenes.
An interactive story, even if the interaction is minimal is a different experience than reading a book.

If you don't like it, dont' play it. It's that simple. I believe there is room for everything. I enjoy hard shit as much as easy shit. (Just depending. There are some games where the lack of challenge ruins it for me.)

No one should be forced to like stuff that others don't.

For many people, they just want to come home from work and have fun. And having a simple easy game, can be just that.
 
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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Interesting analysis.

It seems that multi player is easier (cheaper) to develop than good AI.
 
MrBonk said:
I love point and click games that are just hallways with cutscenes.
An interactive story, even if the interaction is minimal is a different experience than reading a book.

If you don't like it, dont' play it. It's that simple. I believe there is room for everything. I enjoy hard shit as much as easy shit. (Just depending. There are some games where the lack of challenge ruins it for me.)

No one should be forced to like stuff that others don't.

For many people, they just want to come home from work and have fun. And having a simple easy game, can be just that.
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This describes me perfectly.

I get a couple hours a week to game. I'm playing thru Starcraft 2 campaigns now. On easy or normal mode. I like the lame-o cutscenes better than the game. Same with Halo Wars etc.

Give me a game I can beat without grinding.
 
only for those dumb luck puzzle sections (damn you RE:Nemesis Water Plant puzzle and SH: Piano puzzle) - didnt have easy walkthrough access then
 
steakman1971 said:
It depends on the game. Anyone remember old Psygnosis games like Blood Money? I sucked at these. I would have played with a trainer after a while. For me, these were too difficult and frustrating (even when I was a teenager at the time?)
X-com I played regular mode -it was just the right amount of difficulty for me. When you complete a mission, it gave you a sense of accomplishment. Early on, I kind of dreaded the battles as my squad didn't have good weapons yet. After a little bit of time, you start to increase (and the game also increases the difficulty to match your progression - good design imho).
What I hate is a game that is so difficult I end up rage quitting. I have enough frustration in real-life. I play games to have fun/escape. I also have very limited free time - don't want to waste it.

I'm currently playing the Sunless Seas. It's hard and borderline frustrating. I played for 2-3 weeks and recently was killed. I was pissed and took a break. However, I started a new career and will hopefully learn from my mistakes. I think this game needs a few tweaks (can take forever to get any money, some encounters are really tough, permadeath.)
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ah, Sunless Sea. The one of two games where we need to edit the speed and have a walkthrough handy . (the other being Morrowind.)
 
how many games are actually difficult enough to even warrant having to lower the difficulty?...I can't think of any (P.S. you can't change difficulty levels with the Dark Souls games)
 
Gigus Fire said:
... Maybe some of these game reporters can actually get good at playing games first. I wouldn't trust video game journalists for deciding what's hard and what's easy...
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You get good at a game by playing that game, a lot. "These game reporters" play many games for a short while, meaning that they can't get good at any one game.

For me the best difficulty setting is the one that makes the game most realistic, and here's how I define "realistic":
Most games are more or less derivatives of Role Playing Games, meaning the player takes the role of some protagonist. That protagonist can be assumed to have certain skills and abililties, most of which differ from those of the player. The protagonist is placed in an environment and situation typically never experienced first hand by the player.
Now the player has to decide what actions the protagonist should carry out, and then also perform those actions. "Realistic" is when it's as easy or difficult for the player, given his/her knowledge and gaming skills, to make the right decisions and carry them out as it should be for the protagonist in the given situation.

If the protagonist is supposed to be some hero who is not likely going to die from a stray bullet and who can easily defeat enemies, then that's how I as a player should experience the game, no matter how good or bad I am at playing it!
For those wanting more of a challenge then reducing the skills and abilities (and thus expected performance) of the protagonist is the way to go.

Then we have games that are more of real life simulators. Those are a completely different breed...
 
Last time i GAF about difficulty was on Modern Warfare 3, was trying to play on the hardest difficulty and was 3 lvls away from the end and i just broke down in curses from how much BS it is for the constant headshots you seem to get at any mistake in CoD, i left the game outright for a year and a half to two years, afterwards i saw the game sitting in my library, sucked it up and just lowered it a bit, completed it in that night like nothing... after that i now just set it to normal and have a blast, there is no point for me anymore other than personal satisfaction and seeing how artificial 99% of max difficulties are i really can't justify using them other than masochism.
 
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