Poll: Are games too easy nowadays?

[Gameslayer_93]

ive been wondering about this for a while now, since my first mainstream console (SNES ) it feels as if games are getting easier and easier. Now, i wasnt sure if this was just due to experience or if developers are just plain lazy now so i whipped out Goldeneye for N64 and couldnt complete it on 00 Agent (hardest difficulty), wondering if this is just me

 

[Nvv]

I'm unsure, some games now are easy, but so where some way back when. The big difference imho is the size of the games. Now you can make a game that takes anywhere between 8 and 70 hours, whilst in the olden days you could not make games as long as that. Instead they made it insanely hard so that people will spend lots of time on failing basically.

 

[Sronpop]

Well games didn't have difficulty levels back in the arcades. I wouldn't exactly call Halo on Legendary easy by any measure, so no, they aren't easier, we just have difficult levels more adapt to different players.

 

[debramster123]

im unsure. some games are but some games are very easy. i use the very easy games just to loose stress or just have a lil plain fun, but i never play em longer then 30 min. when i play with mates i play the harder games.

 

[randomsix]

I'm unsure, some games now are easy, but so where some way back when. The big difference imho is the size of the games. Now you can make a game that takes anywhere between 8 and 70 hours, whilst in the olden days you could not make games as long as that. Instead they made it insanely hard so that people will spend lots of time on failing basically.

Truth has been spoken.

OT: Way back when, many games relied on the gratification of overcoming challenges to be enjoyable. Nowadays, that is not so important as immersion, character, and story can add to an experience as was previously impossible.

 

[Netrigan]

They certainly tend toward the easy these days, especially if you stick with the default difficulty. I don't find this too big of an issue since the focus is more on story these days and I really don't feel like repeating the same nearly impossible challenge repeatedly until mastery sets in.

But a lot of games are as tough as you make them. Achievement hunting usually has some challenges that are tough and rewarding. It's rare I come across a game that's dead simple on highest difficulty.

 

[Roamin11]

Hey you lucky Escapist you! Did you knwo there was a video made addressing this topic?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2454-Easy-Games

There's your answer!

 

[Hosker]

No, not really. Most games have different difficulties so you can choose how hard they are.

 

[scorptatious]

You want a hard game? Try playing Super Meat Boy. That game isn't easy in the slightest.

 

[Best of the 3]

They are but for a reason. Would your average family member go and buy some game if the only difficulty was insane? No. Having more difficulties means that you can appeal to a wider audience. Besides, you can always turn difficulty up. And if you want it harder still then it's not a game you want, it's the challenge. Personally, I think it's fine as it is. I don't want to play a game that stops me in my tracks every 30 seconds due to it being to hard for me to do.

 

[Ampersand]

They must be because I seriously doubt i've gotten any better at them. I still think games are getting better over all, however it's getting harder to find a real challenge these days.(paradox? )

 

[Battenbergcake]

Demon's Souls.

 

[Sixcess]

I play most games on the default/normal difficulty setting, as I think that's the best way to decide how easy or hard a game is.

I don't think games are necessarily getting easier so much as they're becoming more accessible and less frustrating. I'd say that's been going at least as long as Halo: CE, with lots and lots of autosaves ensuring you'd progress smoothly through the levels, in sharp contrast to the old-school die-once-and-redo-the-entire-level style of earlier FPSs. Similarly regenerating health might be seen as dumbing down, but at least it avoids getting stuck, or having to struggle desperately through to the next med pick up on 1% health, as I had to do not so long ago on the original Half Life.

There's also some recent-ish games that don't seem to know the meaning of the word Easy. My first firefight in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., with the terrifyingly good AI resulted in me getting my ass kicked repeatedly in a way few FPSs have ever managed and never in the first fight of the game, and that was on the default difficulty.

 

[Woodsey]

They're easier because they don't cheat, which used to be the rule of thumb for many a game in the pre-historic era.

 

[moretimethansense]

A little of colum A a little of B

Yes games are by and large far easier than games from back when but that isn't always a bad thing and there are still a good share of Games for masochists though not as many as before.

On one hand completing a gamme isn't much of an acievment anymore (the real kind not that annoying little bastard pop-up) saying "I've completed X" doesn't mean shit anymore but on the other hand; many of my favourite games are meant to be played for the narrative or the experiance rathar than the challange. ie

I completed Demon's souls because I was enjoying the challange and wanted to be able to say "I have beaten this hard-as-nails game!".

or

I completed Okami because I wanted to see how it ended.

In the first example it becomes a point of pride you have done something difficult and you feel like a fucking god for having done it,

In the second basically anyone with opposable thumbs can do it but you feel amazing because the experiance is just that good.

Neither is inherantly better than the other and they aren't mutually exclusive either (see Persona 3 and 4) but it is understandable that mady developers prefer the second way of doing things.

 

[Gameslayer_93]

thanks for the feedback everyone, i'll have to start finding these harder games

ive been wondering about this for a while now, since my first mainstream console (SNES ) it feels as if games are getting easier and easier. Now, i wasnt sure if this was just due to experience or if developers are just plain lazy now so i whipped out Goldeneye for N64 and couldnt complete it on 00 Agent (hardest difficulty), wondering if this is just me

They are getting a bit easier, but at the same time they are getting more balanced and more immersive. Running out of lives pisses anybody off, it used to turn me away from gaming. But now we have checkpoints and quicksaves and the like. A lot of older games were also very unfair, and we seem to have grown out of that mostly.

As for ease, try playing Halo on Legendary or CoD on Veteran. Both are mind-blowingly, controller-breakingly hard - but beatable with patience and time. These are qualities that most older "hard" games didn't have. Most of those were just "you're not lucky enough to finish this" games.

which CoD are you talking about? cos i found MW2 insanely easy even on veteran but CoD4 i couldnt get past Hardened

 

[Wayneguard]

"Difficulty", when referring to videogames, is in most cases synonymous with frustration. I love megaman and donkey kong as much as the next guy; but, I, for one, am glad that games have evolved past that.

 

[Section Crow]

unsure

some games get extremely easy while some games get extremely hard or it could just be you getting used a games genre.

 

[FightThePower]

No, I've just got good at them. As have most of you I suspect.

Watch someone who's never played games pick up a controller. Watch them fail miserably even on the easiest setting. I mean, most games aren't ridiculously difficult like how they were in the NES days, but over the last few years I think they've remained the same.

I don't see difficulty as anything particularly positive or negative when it comes to a game. What I find a walk in the park might be incredibly tough for someone else; people often say that playing Left 4 Dead on Expert is really hard, but personally I find it pretty easy, so long as my teammates are decent enough.