Are Video Games getting easier?

[Petromir]

Modern games can seem easier mainly becasue they are less keen on cheating to kill you in genres where you can easilly notice it.

They used to get away with it as it was less noticiable.

The regen health issue isnt as cut and dried as many claim. Most games used to have health packs, what they mainly do if done right is cut out the anyoing searching for health packs. I favour a a hybred where small amounts of damage can be re-gened but larger amounts require healthpacks.

The main difference is games no longer feel the need to make everyone play at a certain base difficulty or higher to cover the lack of content.

 

[Manji187]

I just like to think that I'm getting really, REALLY good at them.

Me too. =-)

Man...I really..really...like your avatar (whycantibelinus). Just wanted to say that.

As for the topic: depends on the game and on the difficulty setting. Play Ninja Gaiden on maximum setting and then come back. But the general trend is indeed one of more "accessability". I mean if Nintendo is planning to introduce a "tutorial system" in their games..which essentially makes the game play itself...then we've come a long way since, say, the first Castlevania on the Nes.

 

[TermOfEndearment]

I Wanna Be The Guy was released in 2007. Gamings difficulty curve peaked there. The game's a free download. Then again you'll probably yell and break your computer before getting to the second boss.

 

[whycantibelinus]

I just like to think that I'm getting really, REALLY good at them.

Me too. =-)

Man...I really..really...like your avatar (whycantibelinus). Just wanted to say that.

As for the topic: depends on the game and on the difficulty setting. Play Ninja Gaiden on maximum setting and then come back. But the general trend is indeed one of more "accessability". I mean if Nintendo is planning to introduce a "tutorial system" in their games..which essentially makes the game play itself...then we've come a long way since, say, the first Castlevania on the Nes.

Thanks homie. =-)

 

[Catalyst6]

There are quite a few hard games left, but they are more of a niche thing than normal game. Most games try to accommodate the "casual gamer" and therefore hold your hand like you need a helmet to walk outside.

 

[PS3Aussie]

Gentlemen I direct you to STALKER clear sky in vetran "shudder"
actually thats why i love stalker no tutorials just basic equipment and an open enviroment you figure it out

 

[The Bandit]

Are games getting easier or are you all just getting better at games?

 

[Asehujiko]

Have you tried Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 or DA:O on the hardest difficulty(hell even ME1&2 on insane wasn't as hard as that game). The hard games are out there, you just have to up the difficutly from easy or normal.

DA:O wasn't hard, merely annoying and luck based. Opening a door to a room full of templars all of which instantly cast the same spell on somebody, instagibbing them is a design flaw, not actual difficulty.

 

[Exocet]

I beg to differ,games have gotten much more complex,and ergo harder.
Instead of having to master timing,2 dimensions and solely scripted enemies, we now have to be able to deal with an extra dimension,almost unpredictable human behavior when playing on the internet,AI on enemies and having them running back and forth shooting every x seconds,and loads of other things.
I mean,when playing Space Invaders,did you really ask yourself:"Is the cover I'm hiding behind solid enough,or will bullets go right through and hurt me?"
No.Now you do.

 

[Chicago Ted]

There was a fear to dying and true frustration after your booted to the main menu after missing those classic side scrolling jumps.

Why are you talking about that as if it were a good thing?

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

I dare you to find someone who's completed "Tetris".

In answer to the original poster though: yes, games are getting easier, and this is a GOOD THING. I'm playing GTA3 on my PC. This game came out years ago, and the most irritating thing about it is the lack of quicksave key. Why force repetition on us? Why do I have to go back to my safe-house after every single damn mission to save my game, instead of getting on with something I actually enjoy doing, like the NEXT damn mission? Why, when it's so easy to flip a car by accident and doing so loses you the entire mission, do I have to perform all the multiple car-theft missions in one go? What's the damn point?

Compare that to a game I recently finished, "Fallout 3", also for the PC. You can save and quick-save as much as you damn well please. I don't have to keep going back to my house every time I want to save. If I did have to do that, I would have given up. Now structurally those two games are not that different - sure, they look and feel very different, but they're both huge sandbox games with structured missions.

Games are getting easier because technical advances means that a lot of the old "artificial difficulties" are being phased out - and those are some of the things I most hated about games years ago. So yeah, let's keep the games industry, at least in this respect, doing exactly what it's doing!

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

There was a fear to dying and true frustration after your booted to the main menu after missing those classic side scrolling jumps.

Why are you talking about that as if it were a good thing?

EXACTLY! I agree with this guy. (Chicago Ted). He knows what he's talking about. So do I, except I can't put it half as succinctly as he can.

 

[Ieyland]

Oh come on, just because the old games didn't have a save feature doesn't mean present games are getting easier.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

I beg to differ,games have gotten much more complex,and ergo harder.
Instead of having to master timing,2 dimensions and solely scripted enemies, we now have to be able to deal with an extra dimension,almost unpredictable human behavior when playing on the internet,AI on enemies and having them running back and forth shooting every x seconds,and loads of other things.
I mean,when playing Space Invaders,did you really ask yourself:"Is the cover I'm hiding behind solid enough,or will bullets go right through and hurt me?"
No.Now you do.

Hmmmmm you make a good argument that games are more COMPLEX. I don't think it follows that they're easier. There's a big difference between difficult and complex, as I am about to prove with a real-life example from my childhood.

Take "Master of Magic", an extremely old C64 game that involved the player, as portrayed by a small yellow dot, running around various grey corridors in a top-down maze view. Frustratingly near the start was a vampire that held the dagger you needed to beat the minotaur at the end. Without that dagger, you didn't stand a chance in hell of surviving an encounter with him, yet you had to get past him in order to retrieve the amulet that was the object of your quest.

But the real monster wasn't the poor old Minotaur (if you have the dagger of death then he's dead, if not then YOU'RE dead, nothing complex there), it's the vampire you had to fight to get the dagger you needed to kill the minotaur. I do not know of ANY monster in ANY game that had a worse reputation than that vampire. It was ten pixels of pure death. I'm not kidding. If it got close to you, you were dead, yet in order to cast magic or try to hit him (not that your weapons and spells were particularly effective against him) you had to stop and use the "cast" command. Also, it could move as fast as you could. It couldn't be thrown off your scent. It would just keep coming, and coming, and coming, and NEVER STOP. Terminator-vampire.

It was about a centimetre tall and made of ten pixels, for chrissakes.

"Master of Magic" was not a complex game. There were several varieties of enemy, one NPC, a few weapons and armour, five spells, and some identical-looking corridors. Oh, and some fantastically creepy music. Everything that took place was written on a pixellated yellow scroll in text. TEXT.

And yet there remain only three games I've ever had actual nightmares about: System Shock, System Shock 2, and Master of Magic on the C64. I don't think I've ever experienced such nauseating dread in a game as I have when approaching the door to the corridor where that vampire lives. (Did I mention there's no "autosave" in "Master of Magic"?)

Dammit, now I've thought about it, I'm gonna start seeing those ten pixels in my dreams again.

F--king vampire.

Damn, this post has been cathartic. Ahem... anyways... point made I think.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Oh come on, just because the old games didn't have a save feature doesn't mean present games are getting easier.

Fallout 3 was a very easy - if time-consuming - game to finish, and yet it was more satisfying than many, many other games that I've played and could name.

 

[DarkHourPrince]

I've been a gamer since I was around 8 or 9 years old watching my uncle blow the heads off things in Doom and now that I'm being thrust into an age where games seem to be almost insulting the intelligence of my gaming demographic, I find it rather sad. I started picking up old titles again for the lack of challenge. I can't remember the last time I had to honestly stop and put thought into getting through a Zelda game since the N64 generation died, RPGS have also begun a steady nosedive downward. The only reason I spent 90 hours on FFXII was 1) a lack of anything new to play and 2) YOU CAN'T GET ANYWHERE UNLESS YOU SPEND THAT MUCH TIME ON IT.

When I picked up the Persona series, it felt like a fresh breeze lit up the dreary mess of what used to be gaming. After tackling Devil May Cry, I'd lacked anything else that truly demanded strategy and some degree of cunning to get through. Then I watch my little sister (age 12) try to play things that I played at her age and the moment she doesn't rebirth in the same spot she dies, she drops the controller and takes off for something that practically walks her through it. I think the problem with the gaming industry is that it's focusing on younger and more casual audiences who don't necessarily have the attention span or drive to try and conquer a game that would otherwise demand strategy and hard work.

....I'll stop rambling now.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

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.

exactly this. my dad and his friends used to beat hte living piss out of me in tecmo bowl and pacman and galaga, but they tried to play COD and halo...i literally went 50-0 against 4 of them


they are a little bit easier in some cases

 

[CK76]

Save points have really helped me, even Sonic on Genesis was tricky on one run for me back then.

I'd say games had to get easier in 3-D, can you imagine Ikaruga on a 3-D plane? Be impossible.

Also easy modes use to not exist as much, game was what it was.

 

[Sephychu]

Complete MGS4 on The Boss Hard with immediate alert failure, then come back with your "Games are getting easier."

Also, I believe Dwarf Fortress is getting harder...[i/]

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

I've been a gamer since I was around 8 or 9 years old watching my uncle blow the heads off things in Doom and now that I'm being thrust into an age where games seem to be almost insulting the intelligence of my gaming demographic, I find it rather sad. I started picking up old titles again for the lack of challenge. I can't remember the last time I had to honestly stop and put thought into getting through a Zelda game since the N64 generation died, RPGS have also begun a steady nosedive downward. The only reason I spent 90 hours on FFXII was 1) a lack of anything new to play and 2) YOU CAN'T GET ANYWHERE UNLESS YOU SPEND THAT MUCH TIME ON IT.

When I picked up the Persona series, it felt like a fresh breeze lit up the dreary mess of what used to be gaming. After tackling Devil May Cry, I'd lacked anything else that truly demanded strategy and some degree of cunning to get through. Then I watch my little sister (age 12) try to play things that I played at her age and the moment she doesn't rebirth in the same spot she dies, she drops the controller and takes off for something that practically walks her through it. I think the problem with the gaming industry is that it's focusing on younger and more casual audiences who don't necessarily have the attention span or drive to try and conquer a game that would otherwise demand strategy and hard work.

....I'll stop rambling now.

That may be true for SOME games, but sweeping generalisations like that don't generally work out as universally true. There are a lot of "casual" games. There are also a lot of games that you could easily spend hundreds of hours in total playing through and still not see everything they have to offer.