Poll: Easy Mode

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

It's ok, I guess. People play games for different reasons, some like the story and some like the challenge. For those that like a good narrative easier difficulties can help improve the flow of a game. For those like myself who play a game for the challenge easy mode doesn't feature so heavily, but different players have different skill levels and easy modes can be a challenge for people just getting into a new genre. So yeah, easy modes definitely have their place.

 

[A.A.K]

I only ever game on easy difficulty.
I don't touch multiplayer.

Why?
I don't want a challenge. I don't want to be frustrated.
Games are just a fun time-sink. Nothing else. Intellectual challenges aren't exactly fun (I find at least), and a 'skills' challenge is irrelevant. I don't think gaming is a valuable skill. I don't want my 'skills' to constantly be tested.

 

[Soxafloppin]

It should be there.

Don't want to play on it? Don't play on it!

Take Dead Nation for example, I've beat all of its difficulties, but I enjoy the game most on easy mode because mowing down hordes of zombies is incredibly satisfying.

 

[Azkar Almsivi]

A;LKSHFAKLJDFH LWHY DOD YOU PLAYZ ON EAZIES!??>

Am I edgey yet?

 

[joshuaayt]

Easy mode is pretty much essential for people who want to get their family members into gaming- you think I'd have been able to get my dad to play Fallout 3 if he actually had to be good at the thing?
God no, he's way too impatient to learn a whole new skillset against adversity.

Now, though, a few years on? He makes fun of me for being shit at Dark Souls, which he plays every weekend. Easy mode is like a gateway drug, except a good thing.

 

[aether-x3]

I play on easy but screw anyone who says i'm a casual gamer. >:/

idk. I'm capable of playing on Normal, I just prefer easy. Unless there is no option for easy then I will gladly play on normal ( SMT 3 and DDS come to mind). rarely ever touch Hard mode cause I know I will die a lot and that just makes games not fun for me. then again the only games I've played on hard are Persona 3 and Lollipop chainsaw..

...I have dabbled in Very easy, but that's mostly for completions sake and for the MGS
games the first time round cause I will genuinely admit I suck at Stealth based games especially those with 3rd person shooting elements...

but yeah. I'm A-OK with easy mode.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

The school district in a city near mine recently instituted in no-zero policy. It basically meant that teachers couldn't give students zeros for missed or uncompleted work or tests. The argument for this was that the zeros would DISCOURAGE them and make them more likely to drop out, and so teachers would have to simply exempt the grade from the work altogether.

Comparing video game modality to school system policies is a little absurd.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

When is normal mode really ever so hard that you need to go to easy? On top of that, why do some games think easy mode is so hard, they need to include a 'very easy' mode?

Mega Man 10, Hexen, Warcraft 3, Starcraft 2, Star Ocean 3, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Lemmings, Onimusha 4, No More Heroes, Street Fighter 4. All of these include easy modes for first-time players who could be driven mad by these games' normal modes. At least I assume that's the case when a game's normal mode is seriously challenging to me, a veteran gamer.

However related to your second question, I agree that more than the standard 3 difficulty levels makes it more likely that producers will make very little alterations between them. There should be a noticeable difference between each level, more than mere stat reduction but possibly omitting the hardest parts discovered in playtesting. I remember a Tiny Toons game on the SNES actually omitted the entire fifth level on easy mode and yes, it was probably the toughest one in the game.

 

[C F]

Oh, you mean Pansy mode?

When I first played Halo, I would always do easy so I could have fun, but the enemies weren't much of a threat. It was alright, because I sucked at FPS games. At one point in Halo 3, I decided I actually wanted to be good at this game, so I made a point to always at least play on normal. And then I got used to that.

The first thing I did for Halo: Reach was solo it on Legendary. I have also done the same for Halo 4. The matchmade Firefights in Reach are also automatically Heroic, so I got used to that difficulty as being one of the norms. Now the de-facto Normal isn't much of a challenge at all.
Instead of Easy → Normal → Heroic → Legendary, the difficulty scale has become Pansy → Relaxed → Normal → Hard.

But not everyone is me, so I don't criticize the difficulty level they play.
Unless we happen to be playing co-op, in which case you better step up to at least Normal. Even if we're just running through to do an Easter egg, I refuse to play Pansy with assistance. We should be able to breeze through Normal just fine. If we're looking to fight side-by-side to overcome an actual threat, then it should be Heroic. If you want balls-to-the-wall tense action and uncertain outcomes for high rewards and Teh Achievements, then the situation should ask Legendary of us.

The same seems to hold true for (most) other games, I can adapt to and play Normal with little difficulty right off the bat. There are some supposedly tougher games I haven't tried though, but normal seems to be the rule of thumb for my casual play.

 

[mohit9206]

like a few of the people here i play a game for good story, intersting characters etc.
and i dont like gameplay to become a hindrance in my quest to enjoy and absorb the story.
so i play most games on easy if they have that option.
however thers one game i play on highest difficulty that is wwe games coz they are so damn easy even on harder difficulty.

 

[Swyftstar]

I don't play on easy mode. Generally there are around four difficulties. Easy, Normal, Hard and So hard that it's broken and unbalanced but you'll play it anyway to see if you can beat it. I usually play on hard because I've been playing so long that normal and easy are just boring. I will then try the next difficulty if I like the game a lot.
As far as what other people play on, I don't really care. Well, scratch that, I am glad that these easy and normal difficulties exist. It allows more people to get in on this great hobby of mine and it makes me look like a god when I go to their houses and blow through a game they've been stuck on for weeks.

 

[TehCookie]

Or, you know, just put in some separate trophies for hard mode and not be a total dick to the half of your fanbase that isn't filled with hardcore gamers.

You know there's a whole gray area between casuals and hardcore gamers right? I always assume that difficulties are set up like this:

Easy: Filthy Casuals
Normal: Actual Gamers
Hard: Hardcore Gamers

I find it ironic you call the casuals filthy when hardcore gamers are neckbeards.

Easy mode is great for non-gamers or people who don't want to take it seriously. I don't know why people would feel like they need to dictate how others play. If you don't like it don't play on it. It's only an option, it's not mandatory. I play on all the difficulties depending on my mood, I like having that choice.

Though I do like Devil May Cry's easy mode which is only unlocked if you die repeatedly in the first few missions.

 

[Mikeyfell]

Can we get through this discussion with out bringing up Dark Souls?

So In Dark Souls "people" want an easy mode. And by "people" I mean stupid fuckers.
Games are an art form and difficulty is an artistic choice the same as lens choice is an artistic choice.

If the difficulty is supposed to enhance the experience then the difficulty level should not be left to the player just as much as the lighting of a shot should not be left up to the viewer of a movie, or the key shouldn't be left up to the listener of the music.

But if you're making a game where the challenge is not made to enhance the experience, like you want the player to enjoy the narrative and challenge separately at their leisure, or use lower difficulties as training then Easy mode is almost necessary.

 

[DoPo]

Games are an art form and difficulty is an artistic choice the same as lens choice is an artistic choice.

If the difficulty is supposed to enhance the experience then the difficulty level should not be left to the player just as much as the lighting of a shot should not be left up to the viewer of a movie, or the key shouldn't be left up to the listener of the music.

That's funny. It's even funnier if you truly believe it. It's because so many games can be totally owned despite the difficulty through system mastery alone. Once you realise that, you'd realise that the difficulty is always at the hands of the player. It's because very often the higher difficulties are just fake layer of paint over the same thing. I played ME/ME2 on Insane. I actually got bored because the "difficulty" boiled down to "now fights take longer". And since I wasn't interested in padding out my playtime artificially, I bumped it down to Hard or Very hard.

The difficulties aren't quite an art for yet, at least not everyone is capable of expressing them properly.

 

[Mikeyfell]

Games are an art form and difficulty is an artistic choice the same as lens choice is an artistic choice.

If the difficulty is supposed to enhance the experience then the difficulty level should not be left to the player just as much as the lighting of a shot should not be left up to the viewer of a movie, or the key shouldn't be left up to the listener of the music.

That's funny. It's even funnier if you truly believe it. It's because so many games can be totally owned despite the difficulty through system mastery alone. Once you realise that, you'd realise that the difficulty is always at the hands of the player. It's because very often the higher difficulties are just fake layer of paint over the same thing. I played ME/ME2 on Insane. I actually got bored because the "difficulty" boiled down to "now fights take longer". And since I wasn't interested in padding out my playtime artificially, I bumped it down to Hard or Very hard.

The difficulties aren't quite an art for yet, at least not everyone is capable of expressing them properly.

Mass Effect is one of those games with adjustable difficulties.
It also has an easy mode.
Did you read the second paragraph in my comment?

Dark Souls and other games of it's Ilk aren't supposed to be easy so they don't have an easy mode.

In games like Mass Effect, Halo, Rock Band, Fallout, the difficulty doesn't influence the core of the experience, so the developers let the players decide how hard it should be. If a composer wrote a song where the key wasn't a core part of the experience I'm sure they'd include an option to change it.

Games are unique in that way where accessibility is a large concern and it's easier from a development stand point not to integrate difficulty into the narrative, so usually they just leave it open. So when From Software decides to take the next step and people claimer for an Easy mode, they're not promoting stagnation at that point they want the medium to move backwards.

I don't think adjustable difficulty makes a game bad but the next step in game design is to let the mechanics enhance storytelling and difficulty is a core mechanic in (Almost) every game.

 

[MiriaJiyuu]

I normally play on easy the first time around, then gradually bump it up to harder difficulties on subsequent playthroughs.

I find it harder to enjoy the game for what it is when I'm constantly dying every five seconds.

Same here, I find easy mode's good for learning the game and playing through the storyline the first time, after that it's all about completing the higher difficulties

 

[putowtin]

Start a game on "normal"
too easy... bump it up to hard
too hard... bump it down to easy

Seems simple enough to me!

 

[ThinkingWithPortals]

I honestly have no problem with easy mode on almost all games, the exceptions being the Souls series but that debate has been done a thousand times so I'll say no more.

The only thing I don't understand is when people who are perfectly capable of completing the game on higher difficulties without trouble play on lower difficulties to feel all powerful. I just don't see the appeal in that. Everyone plays games differently though, so they can do as they please.

 

[Razentsu]

I don't mind the option, nor do I mind that people do play on easy, but I never play on easy. Challenge is a big part of why I enjoy playing video games.