gaming difficulty

[Alcarohtare]

Hello everybody. I have been playing skyrim since it came out and LOVE it however last night I encountered an reaction to my gaming style that I was a little surprised at. I have been playing Skrim at the lowest difficulty level. I intend to raise the difficulty on another playthrough and just wanted to have fun and explore on my current playthrough. I was chatting online (xbox) to some friends and one of them commented that "anyone who plays a game on the lowest difficulty is a retard and is ruining the game, cos you kill everything in one hit so whats the point." I reacted strongly to this stating that I have not found my gaming to be too easy and not all enemies die in one hit but was told to stop lying and being a shit gamer.

This resulted in strong words and me telling him to play his way and I play mine...

Anyways the point is What is your opinion? Is it wrong to play a game on the lowest difficulty or is it just opinion?

(I know it will happen anyway but can we try not to digress into 'skyrim rules / sucks because...'

Thanks

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Is it wrong? No, of course it's not "wrong".

Does it compromise your enjoyment of the game? Only you can decide that.

Does it trivialize the content? I suppose that depends on how competent a gamer you are.

Would it trivialize the content for me? Most definitely.

 

[Shirastro]

I'm playing on default difficulty and i find Skyrim just ridiculously easy.

But i agree with you, everyone should play on whatever level they want. It's you that is playing the game, not your friend.

 

[Shadowstar38]

Playing on the lowest difficulty makes you just as competant as any other gamer. The important thing is that the game is engaging you.

 

[Freaky Lou]

Set it wherever you like it. Personally I like to set the difficulty as high as I can manage because I like when it's a real struggle to defeat enemies.

That said, if I die over and over and over again, I just get fed up and quit. It's why I've stayed away from Demon's/Dark Souls.

 

[the spud]

I don't find games lacking challenge at all appealing, but whatever makes you enjoy the game most. I would think that playing the game at the difficulty it was intended would be the most enjoyable, but it doesn't matter. Playing on easy doesn't make you any less of a gamer.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Play it however you like and ignore the idiots, also might want to look into new friends...

But playing something on too easy means you are missing a great deal of the games mechanics and atmosphere, and ultimately you feel no reward for achieving victory, so you might want to go up bit by bit just to give your games that extra spice.
Because the goal really isn't to finish, it's to get the best experience.

Though in the case of Skyrim I had to lower it back to normal because the game has zero indication of how strong the enemies are, one guy will fall with one fireball and the one next to him will brush it off and then two shot kill me, and enemies get unblockable finishing moves... playing the lottery really isn't what I want from this game.

 

[Pimppeter2]

I usually play on the easiest difficulty.
I have a life and work and a girlfriend I need to be living, doing, and doing seeing.


I can't spend too much time on a videogame always replaying and replaying the same mission just because its difficult. Sure, if I have time on my hands I'll up the difficulty and get that sense of accomplishment. But otherwise I just really want to keep going with the story.

 

[GundamSentinel]

For some games, difficulty can be an integrated part of the gaming experience (games like Dark Souls, or some old-school titles).

For me, Skyrim isn't one of them, so I play the game just to enjoy the quests and stories. The lowest difficulty was too easy for me, but the one above that was just right for my style of play. Not too easy, but I don't get frustrated dying all the time either.

I rarely play games for a challenge (Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are the only exceptions), so I generally don't really care about difficulty.

 

[skywolfblue]

This resulted in strong words and me telling him to play his way and I play mine...

Good. You shouldn't have let his opinion affect you enough to create a topic about it.

Anyways the point is What is your opinion? Is it wrong to play a game on the lowest difficulty or is it just opinion?

No. A thousand times no. Whatever difficulty you find fun is the right one.

 

[DementedSheep]

It?s not wrong to play a game on the lowest difficulty. It?s a leisure activity, play how you want to get what you want out of the game. Your friend is being an idiot. I don?t know why people get uptight over this sort of thing. I think it?s just an excuse to try and act superior.

 

[Denariax]

I don't buy a game just to parade around killing people in one hit with no repercussions.

Ex...cept the Saints Row games.

But besides that, difficulty should be like in inFamous; it scales itself to how you're playing and you can choose whether or not you keep it. Otherwise the game is piss.

 

[Carnagath]

I'd say that Skyrim needs to be played at least on normal diffculty, so you have some incentive to pump some points into smithing and enchanting and to explore the crafting aspect of the game, which is a huge part of it and offers that old familiar "RPG accomplishment" feeling. On the easiest one you can pretty much ignore all that and that's not cool.

On the other hand I see no reason to play it on the hardest difficulty either, partly because of its trademark bad Elder Scrolls combat system, but mainly because of its atrocious UI, which makes it very very tiresome to switch between multiple spells, abilities and weapons for each battle. So really, in my opinion, both the easiest and the hardest settings make the game less enjoyable.

On a related note, I'm having a blast with Dark Souls, since the new patch made my character slightly more powerful and nerfed the grinding a bit, so the overall brick wall finally showed some cracks along the edges.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

My opinion is that your contact on XBL is a douchebag you need to never speak to again, and that you should play on whatever difficulty YOU enjoy. You have nothing to prove by playing it on hard.

This.

I will usually play on the default difficulty first, on some games I go to straight to the hardest, but that's because I enjoy a challenge. Easy mode is really there for people who just want to enjoy the ride and take it easy, and that's perfectly ok. As long as the game is engaging you and you're having fun you have no need to set the difficulty higher.

 

[iFail69]

I played through Dragon Age Origins on Easy, then Nightmare, and any other playthroughs were done on Normal (Because I wanted a degree of friendly fire, my massive firestorms not hurting me or my allies seemed a bit TOO derpy)

I like to enjoy the story without constantly having to load saves because I died from that over-powered group of mobs that appeared and killed my party. Sure I played on the hardest difficulty to get that challenging feeling, but after I've done it once, I'll play through on the difficulty that allows me to enjoy the game.

Anyway, people should never criticise other people for playing a certain difficulty in a game. Everyone is different and I think you know what you want to play it on better than your friend does.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

It's not wrong, it's just not too fun. Every game is on the medium setting at lowest.

And since, I play a lot of multiplayer...

You kinda get used to playing on higher difficulties.