Poll: Why are video games getting so easy?

[DazZ.]

It's to make gaming more accessible to new consumers so they sell more games.

It's a reason I play multiplayer usually, that will always be as hard as the people you play against.
And there is always someone better than you.

You can always mod it to be harder.

 

[sievr]

I do think it's true that more easier games are being made, primarily because games have become a big business and almost all developers are big businesses trying to reach as wide a market as they can.

Back in the olden days, you only had so much memory available on a cartridge or floppy, so the only way of making a game experience last was to make it incredibly difficult. Think of "Another World" for a good example. Now we have essentially unlimited amounts of memory, and developers who spend two years on a title want people to be able to see all the money and man-hours that got dumped into these things.

But there are still very difficult games out there. They're just generally not the huge box-office hits, they're the ones developed by smaller or independant companies who feel they can afford to do something risky, like challenge people.

 

[UnwishedGunz]

I dont know why but it seems like all the games i play these days are getting easier then before, I dont really have a good example because all the games I play are super easy. even when i play L4D2 and expert its easy

what tactics do you use in l4d2?? everytime i get to the finale the AI rapes on me by sending out tank/charger/hunter combo and it insta rapes my whole team

well it really depends on what map your playing on send me a messege and i can tell you some tactics to use on whatever map

 

[Ascarus]

Games are much easier. It's a symptom of them having to appeal to as wider audience as possible.

this. and companies realize that most players do have lives that they must attend too (all internet rhetoric to the contrary). so having games that are easier to progess in will likely grab the attention (and money) of more people who don't have a great deal of time to dedicate to it.

 

[Drodgyn]

Either I'm really bad at games or I've not noticed this. Not sure which is the case.

 

[razormint21]

Game Mechanics, Controls, pretentions to realism, and non pretentions to realism. Plus, the "many ways to tackle a problem" option.

In short, gamers can now have more hands on control.
Before, platformers had only run, jump, and shoot. Now we even have dash and a variety of intuitive ways to lay damage to enemies that otherwise we could just avoid.
Before, part of survival horror's charm is the awful helplessness you feel with its controls. Now we have action controls that assign the most crucial moves to simple buttons.
Before, fps were only about bunnyhopping and headshot abilities, now we can choose the alternative sneaky bastard approach or the tank-the-damage-since-i-regenerate-approach.

IMHO, while games were not only toned down to capture a wider audience, we should also note that certain innovations in gaming made it so that we have a reasonable experience. I mean, ikaruga is really a test of skill, but i feel so helpless when the going gets too tough. In GOW, i hit the red zone but i still get the urge that i can still win since i feel more "in control" with my character.

2 cents...

 

[anthony87]

Hell even take a look at Ninja Gaiden, one of the hardest games out there that made me damn proud to complete....

.....Then the sequel gave you the ability to finish off most enemies with a single attack, during which you were invulnerable while executing.

God damn you wider audience...

 

[veloper]

Games are much easier. It's a symptom of them having to appeal to as wider audience as possible. Personally i find that even when i turn the difficulty up it does not become more hard, just more cheap, less fun and more imbalanced towards certain play styles/ weapons.

This so much.

I don't understand why designers won't simply balance their games for hard difficulty and after this just scale back the gameplay on normal and easy mode instead.

It's not like the balance actually matters in press X to win mode, but it does for a challenging game.
Longer isn't the same thing as harder. Invalidating certain classes or abilities isn't harder either, it just makes your choices easier.

 

[Orbert]

Most of the reasons have all been covered above: more mass appeal, no need for constant coin feeding, technological improvements, but the big one for me, and the reason I'm glad games have gotten easier, is story and atmosphere.

I play video games for the same reasons I watch a movie or read a book: they're immersive, captivating, thought provoking and/or entertaining. The first time through on Bioshock I think I played on easy, because I didn't want a challenge. I played through on normal or hard or something next time and actually dying was just annoying. It didn't add anything to the game. It would be like a movie rewinding itself every few minutes or having to flip back a chapter in a book occasionally and having to re-do what you already did. So yeah, I definitely do not play most video games for a challenge.

Some games I do play for a challenge. I used to play Mechwarrior 4 in a competitive league, which was tough, and I play the Starcraft II beta, which is also a big challenege (unless I get matched up with a total newb). Any head-to-head arcade game is like that too, like Tetris or something. When you're playing someone who's better than you it's a big challenge. Me and my friend are doing Halo 3 on Legendary right now, which really isn't as hard as I thought it would be, but still, we can't just run through never dying like on easy or normal.

Challenge was all older games had going for them. You don't play early Mario games for the atmosphere or storyline, you play them because they're an amusing challenge, and when you get really far or actually beat it you feel accomplished. I don't play games to have a sense of accomplishment. Unless I'm in a certain mood, a game being really difficult just makes it unpleasant and definitely not fun. Why would I play a game that's not fun? Just for the sense of accomplishment? Yeah, fuck that.


Also: L4D2 being easy on expert? I don't see that being possible. I've played with plenty of groups and expert has never been easy. Less challenging than you want it to be, maybe. But I don't think anyone could ever just waltz through on expert.

 

[Babitz]

Any time saving is a necessity. I seriously don't want to start playing over the last 30 minutes. If I have to, it becomes boring, tedious and I begin losing my interest for the game. So, no. That's not an issue with the difficulty.

I don't know what to think about the modern games' difficulty any more. When I was younger, I used to play on normal. I though the hard mode was reserved for the ones who played the game more than once. Now I don't bother anymore. I played Mass Effect on normal and it was insultingly easy. That's why I'm playing ME2 on hard and it's alright, though it's not that big of a difference, but at least someone took me by surprise now and then. The KOTOR games were also piss easy. Not to mention BioShock.

 

[CloakedOne]

Games being easier probably equates to a few factors that we should be grateful for: better programming, user-friendly controls, and games that just don't fuggin' CHEAT (sometimes, anyway). games are easier because they are better than the old ones. Also, games are moving toward being interactive movies instead of heart-pumping, teeth-gnashing challenges. More mainstream games are more movie-like and story driven whereas the old games were, let's face it, made for kids who just liked watching their character kill things. This in many ways is still true, those violence-loving kids have just grown up into violence-loving adults. They are still overlooking the story in order to complain about the game play. Don't get me wrong, I believe there should be a balance, but many games are designed to be like movies and that's what you pay for in most of the more popular games. if you want mindless fun involving challenging scenarios and rapid button mashing, they still make games like that, so people that complain that games are too easy should go play those because they cater to the "game" part much more heavily than the "video" part.

 

[black orchid1]

to put it in one sentence. because poeple are getting happy to play the same game over an over again (sequals) and poeple like shiny graphics and lots of senseless exspolsions

well i could be wronge but thats what i think of the situation

 

[rekabdarb]

achievements.
dev want to reward people who actually play... well (good?.. o wait better than everyone else)
so they make the game overall easy, then getting... some achievements difficult.

But if your fucking stupid like me, you play Dante must die/fuck you mode

 

[Proteus214]

What's the magic word again? Everyone say it with me now:

[HEADING=2]"ACCESSABILITY"[/HEADING]

The expansion of the games market requires that games not only appeal to a wider audience, but be usable by said audience. Such things that make gaming inaccessible to people can include being a parent, having a full-time job, having a physical handicap, having a mental handicap, or any combination thereof. A vast majority of people all over the world fall into these categories. In order to make gaming a more acceptable and lucrative luxury, you must make it accessible to the majority. This means making games that don't create frustration, that are easy to understand, that can be played in shorter "sessions," and don't require a high degree of dexterity to play.

And here's the best part: it's been successful!!

Twenty years ago, video gaming was a young person's hobby.

Today,
[HEADING=2]OLD PEOPLE ARE PICKING UP VIDEO GAMES[/HEADING]

Spoiler

As much as people want to say that the industry is failing, it's so far from it.

 

[Count Igor]

Games aren't getting easier. I'm getting better.


Well actually, they are a bit, after hundreds of 8 year olds started complaining and sending death threats to developers.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

I actually think we should include an absolutely fucking insane mode into every videogame released right now.

MASOCHIST MODE!

Basically:

1. All of the game world becomes mirrored

2. Enemies are stronger, can move faster, and 7 times more powerful.

3. Amount of ammunition found in guns varies from half a clip to FUCK ALL.

4. NO CO-OP. It's one player only, buddy!

5. NO CHECKPOINTS. If you die, GET READY TO GO BACK INTO HELL!

6. Double the pricing for upgrading, half as rewarded.

7. If teammates die, THAT'S IT. They won't get up at all for the remainder of that stage.

If you do beat it, you get the "Hurt me HARDER!" Achievement for 250 G.

So worth it, believe me.

 

[tehweave]

I've played some rather difficult games from the NES or 8-bit era, and I've played some pretty hard games from a modern day standpoint as well. (I'm looking at you Metroid Prime 2.)

I don't think games nowadays are getting easier, I think it's more popular nowadays to make games easier, that way more people can say "Hey! I beat it!" instead of having a small group of people say "I just beat Rygar for the NES!"

It's because gaming has gotten so mainstream and popular, that they need to make the games themselves easier so the masses can still enjoy a victory.

In most old school titles, the best way to win is to spend hours and hours on the same level, dying dozens of times, and then finally make it to the next level, only to die more. The addition of save files made things easier, so you can get to a checkpoint, save, then move on instead of being thrown back to the beginning.

A lot of modern games are still really hard (I mean, I couldn't even get past the lava spider in Devil May Cry) and even have the choice of playing on very hard difficulties. (Fallout 3 on very hard is a challenge, but more like a speed bump as opposed to a straight road.) Frankly, I like the challenges of old-school games, but need the balance of easier scenarios so that I'm not pulling out my hair in frustration because I can't beat chaos from Final Fantasy.

 

[Wargamer]

Let's make something clear about gaming; a good game is one where you feel like you're about to lose at every challenge, but don't.

If this has confused anyone, let me expand further.

Gamers want to be challenged. The novelty of turning on God Mode and sprinting through a game murdering everything gets old really, really fast. On the other end of the scale, a game where you have 0.3 seconds between the loading screen clearing and being ass-raped to death to find some cover will be hurled against the wall in short order, so when we say "challenged" we clearly don't mean a challenge only 0.000000000000000001% of gamers will ever achieve.

Players as a whole do not accept failure well. If they know why they failed (ie: they went out into the open, or didn't press the Grab button when jumping for a ledge) then it isn't so bad, but when there's no explanation for their faliure besides "the game fucked up" or "the game's a cheating bastard" then the anger rises quickly.

The answer, therefore, is to avoid like hell the old Nintendo Hard mentality. Most gamers I know are of the opinion that if they do everything right, they should win. This means that if I cling to cover, snipe carefully to conserve ammo, and relocate often so I can't be flanked and/or grenaded, I expect to win the gunfight I've just waltzed into. Thus, if the game arbitrarily decides that you can only use one piece of cover in the room, or spawns invincible enemies behind me, I'll get sick of it very quickly.

Overall, this mindset DOES make games easier, but in theory it makes them easier for the better; Uncharted 2 was an absolute ballache to do on Crushing, but because the game had 'rules' that I could understand, follow and indeed exploit to my advantage, it never reached the point where I just decided "fuck this!" and walked away. I can't count how many Megadrive or SNES games I have abandoned in this manner.

 

[silasbufu]

They're doing it to enlarge the target audience so to say.
You wouldn't see idiot parents buying their 12-year-olds games like Gears of War if they were impossibly difficult , like games were back in the days.