Poll: Are games too easy?

[Susan Arendt]

Too easy for whom? People who've been playing them their entire lives or who devote the majority of their free time to mastering them? Quite probably. For the rest of the gaming public - which is the majority of people buying games? Nope.

The real problem isn't that games are too easy, it's that there isn't enough true distinction between difficulty settings. "Easy" in most games isn't really easy, it's just easy for serious gamers, while "Hard" isn't actually hard enough.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

The thing is about old games is they made them arbitrarily difficult, or genuinely difficult through either trial and error or pure savage unfairness due to a lack of options. However games were not as mainstream or as story driven, it was just "go for broke".

Now not only are games more story driven, they're more mainstream. Fair enough, trial and error doesn't need to exist any more, but pure savage difficulty is mostly removed as a standard because most devs know a good chunk of their fanbase either won't have the time or the patience for such things any more, technology has advanced so brutality isn't the main draw anymore, we have other things instead.

And it's a shame, but you can always crank the difficulty up...

Though most games may never be as arse-kicking as the old days, but I ultimately chalk that up to the devs utilizing what they had available to them - not much.

 

[MadeinHell]

I hate it when these threads appear on a GAMING FORUM

The kinds of people who frequent these forums enough to make and contribute to these kinds of threads are likely to be long time, frequent gamers also. This means that a lot of skill, likely across many genres, has been acquired and developed.

Games are not getting easier, gamers are getting better. If it's too easy, put up the difficulty. If it's STILL too easy, give yourself some form of limit, like only being allowed to use the starting weapon/s or for every enemy you kill, take a shot of Whiskey. If it's STILL too easy, you are a gaming master and no game beside old ones that killed you in one hit by touching anything (i.e. the really annoying, bad games of old times) will please you.

Plus, this topic appears fairly frequently. I've certainly seen it float around a few times before.

I partially agree with you that skill of most gamers has developed over the years, but I can easly see that game ARE in fact easier just by playing a game on an older generation console, or an old PC game.
Super Mario was a great game and yet at later levels IT IS HARD. "UFO:Enemy Unknown/Terror from the deep" are great games and they are simply hard from beginning to end.
Baldurs Gate, Metroid, Mega Man, Metal Slug, Might and Magic (I to IX), Gothic 1 & 2, Rainbow Six games. All those and many more were and still are as hard as they used to be, and many people loved that "hardness" in them.
It is a fact that many games became much easier than they used to be and sadly we have to accept it since the market is constantly growing.
Many years ago "Gaming" world consisted out of people who simply wanted to have fun in front of their TV or computer and that mainly meant defeating a certain challenge. That market has grown substantially over many years and new people are still incoming. Games are getting easier because the said "market" will grow even more if games are easy to play for people who have never done such thing before.
That's the main reason why games are easier this days, and while for people like me might not be particularly happy about that, it will continue to happen.

Thankfully there are always games to which we can turn to if we are looking for more of a challenge.

 

[meowman]

Games haven't become that much easier, just morwe accessible. It means that good gamers can play and have fun , but more casual players can still enjoy the experience. Just crank the difficulty up - that's what difficulty settings were invented for.

 

[Aerowaves]

There isn't a lives system in many games anymore so they're a lot more forgiving nowadays

I'm in it for the experience more than the challenge tbh. I expect to be challenged to get a sense of satisfaction, but I'm not going to feel cheated over only having to play some sections twice or thrice.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

Too easy for whom? People who've been playing them their entire lives or who devote the majority of their free time to mastering them? Quite probably. For the rest of the gaming public - which is the majority of people buying games? Nope.

The real problem isn't that games are too easy, it's that there isn't enough true distinction between difficulty settings. "Easy" in most games isn't really easy, it's just easy for serious gamers, while "Hard" isn't actually hard enough.

I usually opt against saying games were too easy because we've played them for so long because I've gone back to games of the past I never played (even some I did) back then, and they are savage in difficulty for what seems like no other reason than to give the game more value (the "some" I was talking about was Dick Tracy on the Megadrive, which I loved as a kid but never finished, and I still haven't...and Sparkster on the Megadrive as well).

Which reminds me, Dick Tracy and Sparkster need to be finished, new goal set.

 

[Savagezion]

Yes, indeed. Most of the time, I can rely on only the autosave to get me through a game. Very rarely do I feel like "I should save" I remember when games used to make real achievements for playing through without dying or saving your game 10 times or less. Achievements now seem hollow if you came from those days. Now it's like:

"Achievement unlocked: You walked through a door"
"Achievement unlocked: You talked to that NPC"

Most games on the shelves nowadays are really not that hard to beat over weekend or two. I personally would like to see more challenging games come out that are worth 60 bucks. Currently the only thing worth paying 60 bucks is the highly sought after replay value. I think this goes hand in hand that most people must want a game they can beat over and over again easily but not have it get boring. That's just a guess though.

 

[nick n stuff]

i don't want a challenge i just want fun. set the difficulty low and enjoy the satisfactory ease. no games are as hard as you make them

 

[Brainst0rm]

Generally games are just getting better. Developers have realized that making a game accessible doesn't mean easy, and worthwhile or rewarding doesn't mean being so difficult that you turn the game off in disgust.

Too easy for whom? People who've been playing them their entire lives or who devote the majority of their free time to mastering them? Quite probably. For the rest of the gaming public - which is the majority of people buying games? Nope.

The real problem isn't that games are too easy, it's that there isn't enough true distinction between difficulty settings. "Easy" in most games isn't really easy, it's just easy for serious gamers, while "Hard" isn't actually hard enough.

Like was recently said in an overflowing of grammatical notation by Yahtzee, devs haven't yet mastered the difficulty setting. 'Easy' in Dragon Age was so punishing for me that I gave up before I was even halfway through, despite the top-notch writing. So, what's my point... um, hmm. Making a hard game isn't hard. The insurmountable difficulty that turns people off of a game and keeps them from coming back is usually the result of a disconnect/miscommunication between game and player. And that's as natural as anything.

The game knows what it wants the player to do, but the player doesn't. That's the easy kind of difficulty. That's the entirety of a point-and-click game (especially of the 'escape-from-x variety'). That kind doesn't need to be on a slider - that kind needs to not exist at all, outside of being used for a specific purpose (I see that most often in the best RPGs).

I do wish more Developers understood that. Seems like most of the Escapist does

 

[Giantcain]

Play Ninja Gaiden 2, COD 4 and MW2 including Spec ops on veteran, Rainbow Six Vegas 1+2 including Terrorist Hunt on Realistic...
Those were challenges for me.
Games are still difficult in my eyes.

you forgot to add Demons soul's and 3D Dot game heroes on speluky mode

 

[Zhukov]

Yeah, a bit. But that's why they have difficulty settings.

 

[PurpleLeafRave]

Play Ninja Gaiden 2, COD 4 and MW2 including Spec ops on veteran, Rainbow Six Vegas 1+2 including Terrorist Hunt on Realistic...
Those were challenges for me.
Games are still difficult in my eyes.

you forgot to add Demons soul's and 3D Dot game heroes on speluky mode

I probaly will add those to the list. I am getting a PS3 plus both those games, Heavy Rain and Valkyria Chronicles after my GCSE's are over, as a present for working hard. Best present ever.

 

[Mafoobula]

In most games, I've found that the normal difficulty is sufficiently challenging to those playing through on their first times, while gradually ramping up the challenge until the end of the game. That's the experience I had, in particular, with the Metroid Prime trilogy and the God of War trilogy. Even games like Super Smash Brothers Brawl with their Sub-Space Emissary story mode follow that formula, starting out simple, then getting more and more difficult as you pick up characters. By the end, you have a working knowledge of the different playable characters, and you can pick the ones you're most comfortable with to finish.

The games that don't offer different difficulties are usually easy to make challenging on your own. For example, in the Pokemon series, there are strategies to make sure you have a well-balanced, decently leveled team by the time you take on the Elite Four. You also pick up and can buy plenty of items to boost the power and survivability of your team. OR. You can power-level maybe three pokemon, purposely waste some items (full revive, max elixir, etc.), NOT use the stat-boosting items, and just go into the Elite Four relying on luck and the might of your favorites. It makes becoming the champion that much sweeter.
Or, to put it in much broader terms, purposely put yourself on some kind of handicap. Not only do you have a challenge for yourself, you get some bragging rights.

 

[Johnmw]

Saw this thread and thought of Baldurs Gate 2. Still play it but damn it can be unforgiving (fuck you mind flayers). Games that are hard these days (WARNING massive generalisation incoming) tend to be cheap-hard. Not strategically challenging, but cheap and requiring luck or a glitch. Also with many rpgs nowadays is that they are so desparate to avoid grinding that they level up the characters more easily and consequently will frequently make what is meant to be an epic battle impossibly easy..... I told you there were going to be massive generalisations

 

[Calatar]

Saw this thread and thought of Baldurs Gate 2. Still play it but damn it can be unforgiving (fuck you mind flayers).

*high fives*
Replaying it today. Invisible Stalker, Chaotic Commands, Haste, Defensive Harmony, Protection from Evil 10', Improved Invisibility.... by your powers combined I have a 50% chance of not-dying in a Mindflayer fight. Potions of Genius also help.
Yeah, that game was hard, but in a very strategically passable way.

Dragon Age started out that way, but as I grew in the levels, I feared nothing (not even you, you goddamn Revenants). And that was scaling difficulty. So I'm replaying it on a harder mode. Now I'm dying a lot again. Ahh, NOW it feels more like Baldur's Gate 2.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Some are but others are not.
Yes and no aren't enough options.

 

[Auric]

No.

And ill never get people who seem to want to have to try 5000 times to beat the first boss.

 

[psychosiszz]

Older games yes. Most Newer games no.

Most games nowadays are aimed at instant gratification with little to no challege what so ever. Hell new games play the game for you (ff13).