Are Video Games getting easier?

[Revolutionary]

Definitley, games are getting so easy....Finished COD2, COD4 , and MW2 on veteran, finished RSV2 on realistic, finished HAlo3 on legendary, got to level 50 in border lands in like 3 weeks.
Finished Splinter cell DA in hardest difficulty (cant remember what ist called). Finished portal in a day, Finished End war on medium by spamming tanks....ugh!

 

[experiment0789]

Yes.....and no. I'd like to think it's all pure skill, and I'm an awesome game who can easily beat any game on the hardest difficulty,but it's a little bit of both. Even if I have come along way as a gamer,I have to admit games are easier then they use to be.

Video games now are more forgiving,longer,better quality,harder to make,and most importantly to make money$!$(not that they weren't before). By these I mean the following.....

Forgiving: We have saves now,lots,and lots,of saves,Heck if we don't fell like saving,the game will do it for us. Also Regenerating health

Longer:

better quality: you can't get away with a game that doesn't look like It was made by an famous
artist.

harder to make: As each "good" game comes out,it also raises the expectation of what a "good game should be.

to make money$!$: if you can't make a good game,at least you can milk all the money making gimmicks you can with it.

 

[Fightgarr]

Here's the thing, games back in the day were hard for the wrong reasons. Back when the sidescroller was popular mechanics didn't allow for dodging 3 dimensions and so you had the bullets hells of Contra and the like. Games had punishing difficulty curves and to add on to that they had lives. What this was meant to do was extend the games rather short life to a reasonable amount. Take a look at some longer old school titles. Earthbound, Final Fantasy VI, Donkey Kong Country and even Super Metroid aren't particularly hard, but are all longer games with save mechanics. The thing about the 16-bit era and before is that games (if you could beat them) could be beaten in an hour or half an hour if done well. The punishing difficulty made up for the shortness of the game and increases replay value in the most frustrating way possible.

Now, games have the potential as a storytelling medium. People want to hear the entire story, not just the beginning of it. Games have to be an accessible difficulty so that they can tell their story. Now, with game potential where it is, games have the option to do more and more, but in order to make that salable, they have to make it easy enough for anyone to access that content. I'm one who believes that "games are getting shorter" is a bullshit statement, and it's part of this that makes that punishing difficulty of games of old totally obsolete.

 

[Mr.logic]

*Plays Mainstream Title #245*

I believe they are getting easier...

*Plays Demon's Souls*

Games are hard man, really hard.

name 5 other titles besides demon souls, that have come out in the last 3 months that are hard.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

Just reinstalled Giants: Citizen Kabuto from around 1999. Now, I remember it being quite difficult, but I sure didn't remember instakill snipers already in the beginning. Actually just about anything in that game is almost instakill. And no quicksaves and no checkpoints. Next I'm going to dig out Oni and compare the difficulty to CoD on Veteran. But I already know the result (i.e. CoD being generally much easier except of the cheap dick moves).

Well go back even more and you'll find games which are impossible to beat by today's standards.

Instakill snipers aren't a cheap dick move?

snip

Your post says what I was trying to say, but in a much better way than me. I agree wholeheartedly

 

[Marter]

*Plays Mainstream Title #245*

I believe they are getting easier...

*Plays Demon's Souls*

Games are hard man, really hard.

name 5 other titles besides demon souls, that have come out in the last 3 months that are hard.

I can't. I was trying to make a point that some hard games do come out, while the majority are very easy.

 

[Akalistos]

Yes they are... and aren't. It a difficult question and here's why. Videogames is a business. They need gamer to buy their product when Arthritis will cripple us. Therefore, the need game that are easy enough for newcomers. So yeah, they are easy... but that doesn't mean they can't be hard. Every games have different difficulty setting. So now, when you see is NORMAL would translate to EASY back than. Also, for the nes' Kids like myself, they ramp up the difficulty to make sure if we rant a game, we couldn't finish it in the time allowed. Now, it all about multiplayers that hook gamer for more that one rental. What can we do? All we need to do is accept this and play on Hard, God mode, Very Hard, Brutal, Titan difficulty and leave the Normal to the new generation. (alto they would never known true hardship like Contra on 3 live and Battletoad. Beside i remember 12 years ago playing Super Double Dragon with friend and being able to last until the last boss with one of my best friend back then. Sigh! Good times.)

 

[oxiclean]

splinter cell conviction was painfully easy, even on realistic. my first play through was realistic, and i beat it faster than probably any game in recent memory.

 

[MinishArcticFox]

I agree they seem to be too either that or I'm getting better which I doubt.

 

[Wicky_42]

Halo 1 is harder than halo 3. Shields regenerate slower, health doesn't, elites have plasma rifle hacks and the flood can hit you from 10 meters away if they begin swinging and you leg it.

Games are being made more accessible in order to get more sales and a larger market share. Some of the changes, such as the regenerating health, is a means to make gameplay more flexible and faster flowing. Sure, in goldeneye it was tense when you were on critical health, one kill away from winning, trying to get the drop on your opponent, but for the masses being able to duck into cover and come out guns blazing makes for more fluid gameplay.

Things change, changes become the norm, then that in turn evolves. For better or for worse. We'll just have to see where the industry ends up in another 20 years

 

[Hileo20]

Games of the past were made with many flaws, few lives, fewer save spots, and a lot less dodge room. So as a game itself, they are technically easier(less brain power), but they were harder due to their limitations and love for "Game over! Back to the start!)

 

[Kwoodchuck]

i highly doubt that video games are getting easier. they might be,but video games now have a story!!!!!!! if players cant finish the story, things....just suck. but still, theyre fun.

 

[likalaruku]

I look back to the games I played on various consoles of the early & late 90s, & I say to you "no."

 

[Joey245]

Are games getting easier, or are we getting more awesome?

 

[Mr.logic]

*Plays Mainstream Title #245*

I believe they are getting easier...

*Plays Demon's Souls*

Games are hard man, really hard.

name 5 other titles besides demon souls, that have come out in the last 3 months that are hard.

I can't. I was trying to make a point that some hard games do come out, while the majority are very easy.

Oh well my misunderstanding of your point(or joke)then.

 

[esperandote]

no, there are easy games and hard games, just like before

 

[Snarky Username]

The medium setting is much easier than older video games. The hardest difficulty usually makes up for that however.

 

[Swifteye]

you make it sound like easier is a bad thing. I believe there is a difference between easier and challanging. dynasty warriors is easier on easy but when turned to hard mode the AI becomes hard and near impossible to not get killed by. Old games made up for a lack of. Well anything else by having nail biting difficultly. Games have more to deal with now. There's stories. There's different elements. Not to mention that there are tools and abilities made to make gameplay easier for the gamer (quick time events). I like a game that is challanging myself. Something really cool or entertaining happens while I'm on the ride that is the playthrough. A really difficult circumstance make things challanging and put up tenseness and excitement at the thought that maybe you will lose. Or maybe you will win most epically.

This can happen in very simple games where all entertainment is based on random outcomes (like star wars battlefront or dynasty warriors). But say in Rpgs or most first person shooters everything is pretty much set in stone and there's no frills and everything is easy to prepare for. You get a nice ride but it didn't have enough twist and turns to make it enjoyable.

Are games getting easier? Well that depends. A lot of games where artifically made harder in america for rental and buying purposes. In theory many games aren't all that hard. Kinda like how in dynasty warriors. The difficulty comes more from AI being good at hitting you down in a couple of swats.

Personally. I think it doesn't matter. If your having fun with a game it's difficultly can become null and void and besides. Who wants to buy a game and then quit because it's too difficult(probably the reason developers stopped making games like that)?