Are Video Games getting easier?

[Fetzenfisch]

games may become more complicated, but way more easier also.
on the other hand, they can be easier, because they are MUCH longer now. So unfair hardness doesnt has to hide the fact that it can be beaten in half an hour

But it still was very satisfying finally beating a game that gave you a million of hard times.

 

[silver wolf009]

I direct you to:
MW2 veteren, halo's legendary, ninja giaden's well... even easy in that game kicked me to the curb.

In awnser, no. While there are some eaiser games, some are getting harder.

 

[M0tty]

Well I got C&C the first decade a couple of weeks ago, in order to relive my younger days, and RA2 is massively massively easier than RA1

 

[TwistedEllipses]

The early arcade game didn't really have much in the way of levels so just made you play through the same or slightly different levels with increasing difficulty or without end...so maybe.

I'm not a fan of current games that don't have different difficulty settings. I breezed through GTA4 and Assassin's Creed 2, which was disappointing...

 

[oppp7]

Not really. There's just a larger range of game modes to choose from along with reasonable saves.

 

[Thaius]

Video games are having easier options. They are not simply "getting easier."

Video games are becoming more mainstream, and more people are wanting to play them. Not every gamer is a hardcore thrill-seeker who wants to spend 50 hours playing through a game that would take 10 hours if they didn't die so often. Some of us, including myself, want the experience more than the challenge: I don't look back on Bioshock or Okami and be proud that I finished it, I look on their incredible artistic merits and say, "That was an amazing experience." Difficulty doesn't factor in at all unless I go back again to challenge myself with it.

Point being, if you think games are too easy, crank up the difficulty. You don't have to play everything on easy mode.

And as for Pac-Man, the focus of gaming has changed. Pac-Man was never about beating the game. Ever. In fact, if you get far enough in Pac-Man, you eventually just get a kill screen: the game glitches out and becomes unplayable. The point of the old games like Pac-Man is not to get to the end, but to get as many points as possible. That focus has changed now, and thus difficulty is a much different beast. To compare an old arcade game's difficulty, where the goal was to get lots of points before dying, to a modern game, where the goal is to get to the end of the story, is to misunderstand the goals of arcade games versus modern video games.

 

[HT_Black]

Well, given that I finished Pac-man and Pac-man advanced, and then had a much harder time finishing the Mile High Club (Veteran difficulty), I'd say that video game difficulty is in the eye of the player. When you, like most of us here at the Escapist, can play the last line of TFAF, or slay the Dragon God, or destroy the Praetorian on insane, most video games aren't going to be very difficult.

 

[jamesworkshop]

really after play games for 10-20-30 years don't you think people might have got pretty good at them in that time

 

[xbeaker]

Seems like there have been several threads on this. But it isn't that they are just easier, it is a totally differant design philosophy. When you only had about an hour of total game play, and no save option, you make the game hard, so the player is constantly playing the early levels again and again to streach out the play value of the game. With save options, and 10+ hours of game, the developers want the player to be able to get through the game, so they tune it back. Plus, being able to save constantly, and restore to get past the hard parts makes things a lot easier. Go play any hard as nails NES game on an emulator using quick save and quick load, even money says you can beat even your worst childhood nightmare in the span of a few hours.

 

[Draithx]

Most mainstream titles are easier then in the past cause they want more people to be able to play them. Add the fact that most of us have played games for a long time and have thus become better at them and most mainstream titles become pretty easy on normal difficulty.

There are still hard games left (SMT, SRW and Touhou for example), but even they aren't as hard as games were in the past. I think the biggest change is that games have become more forgiving with save points and giving more info about what you are supposed to do.

 

[Ken_J]

No we're just getting better

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Much easier. Find any old 2D game, Sonic, Mario, Contra, etc. Count the amount of times you died. Put in God of War or something similar, count the times you die. Much less isn't it?

 

[Sylveria]

Not easier, just more accessible.

People couldn't complete Pacman not because it was a particularly hard game, but because they's had no experience in playing a Pacman-esque game. Try sticking someone from the Pacman era on Halo 3, see how they fare.

Try sticking someone from the Halo 3 era on pacman and see how they fare. You basically just refuted your own argument to. Someone who's been playing Pacman for 30 years isn't gonna know anything about Halo because the Xbox 360 controller has roughly 10x the buttons of a NES. How is that more accessible? Pacman didn't even use the A or B button, you had Up, down, left, and right on the directional pad. If you have A singular thumb, you can play it. It doesn't get more accessible than that.

 

[WorldCritic]

Yeah they are getting easier.

 

[NoblePhilistineFox]

games are getting easier,
in the beggining it was just doing that so mor epeople could play them casually(which is good, more gamers makes the game more fun provided you dont play with those kids and those douchebags online)
but now its getting to the point where its like, "graphics are great, story is good-great, voice acting is great(depending on game) clipping and programing is great, gameplay is....okay? challeng is meh"

and to people who are using "legendary with all skulls turned on" excuses, those are extended gameplay devices for you to play AFTER you beat the game.
the game itself is either normal or possibly hard mode.

 

[xbeaker]

Not easier, just more accessible.

People couldn't complete Pacman not because it was a particularly hard game, but because they's had no experience in playing a Pacman-esque game. Try sticking someone from the Pacman era on Halo 3, see how they fare.

Try sticking someone from the Halo 3 era on pacman and see how they fare. You basically just refuted your own argument to. Someone who's been playing Pacman for 30 years isn't gonna know anything about Halo because the Xbox 360 controller has roughly 10x the buttons of a NES. How is that more accessible? Pacman didn't even use the A or B button, you had Up, down, left, and right on the directional pad. If you have A singular thumb, you can play it. It doesn't get more accessible than that.

Quite true. We aren't getting better at games, we aren't really getting worse at them. They are just designed differantly. As I said above, most of the sense of games being easier is due to the save function. A game is seen as harder when it is more frustrating. When death means a minor inconveniance, it doesn't seem as hard as when death sends you back the the very begining of the game. If you consider difficulty as a function of complexity, then modern games are WAY more difficult then older games.

 

[CoverYourHead]

In a way, yes. But not for the reason most people think. Go back and play an old game, notice how it's really hard? Notice that difficulty is entirely coming from bugs, glitches, and terribly controls?

So yes, easier, and better.

Oh, and there are still games out there that are ball-bustingly difficult. I'm looking at you, Team Ninja.

 

[Da_Schwartz]

Abosolutley they're getting easier. Aside from save points and auto saves..some games you get away with ducking or walkign away and healing, or not having to do the entire level over after you die..or even start the entire game over after three continues. You had to be a better gamer then too. There was a fear to dying and true frustration after your booted to the main menu after missing those classic side scrolling jumps.

 

[Jay Cee]

I think that the story and narrative are becoming much larger focuses in contemporary games, so it's important not to hinder the player's progression.

 

[WestMountain]

Yes but haven't we been offered many more difficulty settings this year, like Gears 1-2s "Insane difficulty" etc because the game developers have noticed that some people want a real challenge?