Poll: would you lower the difficulty?

[Stew Coard]

Basically I was having a tough time making my way through a specific part of dragon age and so I reluctantly lowered the difficulty and made it through with little difficulty, and after that continued on with normal difficulty. What I want to know is how many voting escapists would willingly turn down the difficulty of a game?
My thinking is that if it become's too hard, it is no longer fun and therefore nullifies the point of a game so yeah it's ok to do that. But what are your thoughts?

 

[ultrabiome]

on normal difficulty - never will change it, normal is usually the new easy
on hard difficulty - i have probably already completed normal, so no reason to downplay.

but that's me. i don't mind it for anyone else, as long as it doesn't negatively impact my game.

 

[Zhukov]

Yeah, I've done that a couple of times.

The last occasion was Dragon Age 2. My preferred party members prevented me from having any healers, which made certain parts of the game awfully tough. Had to turn it down to normal difficulty when fighting the rock wraith and the bone pit dragon.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Rarely. Only if it's really breaking my balls. I turned it down for the Kayran fight in Witcher 2, because I kept getting one-shot by the tentacles and that's a ***** of a way to learn a fight you're not allowed to save during.

 

[WoW Killer]

I've never done it. Say in Skyrim I set the difficulty right at the start of a playthrough and then stick with it. If I die, I try again. What you usually find in Skyrim playthroughs is it can be really tough early on in the game, but gets ridiculously easy later on regardless of how high you whack the difficulty up. The challenge then, I guess, is to try to reach that point where it gets easier. If you were to start out on easy and then put it up to the hardest setting once you've gained a foothold, or if you were to tone down the difficulty at specific moments during that early game, then it's not the same. That's just me though. Single player game means you can play it how you like.

Although, I kind of dislike it when developers put difficulty sliders in as a way of escaping the need to balance their games correctly. Just an observation, but games with such sliders tend to have a lack of balance; looking at you, Bethesda, in particular.

 

[JEBWrench]

I play my games on easy anyways, if I lowered it, I may destroy the universe.

 

[hazabaza1]

I used to, but now I generally just stick with the difficulty I start with or turn it up if it's too easy.
It's been tempting to turn it down when my arse starts getting handed to me (looking at you, Bayonetta) but in general I keep it up.

 

[MammothBlade]

If a boss keeps using cheap moves, they're fair game for the cheap little trick of lowering the difficulty just to get past them. So yes, I do it frequently in games I can.

 

[Kahunaburger]

I generally beat my head against any kind of insurmountable challenge until it goes away. Or try something new - particularly in a game like Dragon Age, there's generally something (in Dragon Age's case, it usually involves some combination of Glyph of Paralysis, Glyph of Repulsion, Force Field, and Crushing Prison) you haven't tried that you can use to win a fight. Worst-case scenario, I cheese my way out of the problem.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

I've only done it once, and quite recently too in Oblivion.
I just want to finally beat this ocean of bland and not have to grind my way through this uninteresting world.

 

[Total LOLige]

I always play on normal, if I get stuck I try and try until I've got past where I'm stuck. And if persistence doesn't pay off I top playing it for good, I usually try again in a year.

 

[TehCookie]

Nope, if I'm dieing I'm doing something wrong and need to think of a way to improve. If I had trouble with a boss or something the next one shouldn't be easier. Then again most of the games I play don't let you switch difficulty mid-game. If the game does allow you to do that it just seems like shallow difficulty and all it does is raise enemy healthy/attack and lower your damage. If I want to play on hard make it more fun not tedious, give the enemies better A.I that I have to counter.

 

[Ando85]

I made a thread awhile back about if you liked adjustable difficulties at any point in a game or a set in stone difficulty you pick at the beginning. Many said that they see no disadvantage to adjustable difficulties.

I think I prefer the set in stone type so I am not tempted to lower it. I just have a sort of anal satisfaction (that does sound a bit wrong lol) in beating a game at a certain difficulty. If I lowered it to easy for one tricky part I wound feel as though I didn't complete the game at the difficulty I wanted.

 

[Squidbulb]

Nope, if I'm dieing I'm doing something wrong and need to think of a way to improve.

Or the game is broken, cheap or unfair.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I don't and I always play my games on normal just because sometimes the normal setting really means you get your ass handed to you and hardest means 'I will break your blood pressure' in that same game.

I don't really mind if other people lower their difficulty because I get that sometimes people just want to enjoy a game and not be bothered by getting stuck in one spot for bloody ever.

 

[unbreakable212]

I refrain from lowering difficulty, even if a particular part in a game is causing me to tear my hair out, I like to beat a game on normal, then up the difficulty to max on the next playthrough to see if i'm upto the challenge, this does cause me to get quite frustrated at times, but if I ever find myself with frustration rising and not expecting to win/survive, i'll turn it off and come back another day.

Usually i'm able to eventually beat whatever is in my way, only for another equally aggravating obstacle to pop up. Don't mind others lowering the difficulty - each to their own.

 

[dimensional]

I cant honestly remember ever seeing a game where a fight was broken, cheap or unfair.

Hmm havent played many fighting games then the last boss is usually at least one of those and occasionally all three, i.e unbreakable 100% combo on you usually via a stun loop is broken, they routinely break established fighting game rules i.e no stun on hit and or a shed load of armour and invincibility moves as for unfair well they sometimes have have ludicrous amounts of health and damage buffs and some have a nasty tendency just to say you aint gonna win because I am reading all your inputs and will shut you down no matter what mix ups you try.

For every game except fighting games I very rarely change the difficulty up or down if I find it too hard I usually just keep pushing on or give up altogether.

Fighting games though I usually stick it on easy unless I am playing with my main or subs then it would be medium or higher depending on how confident I am and what game it is ofc (then I usually quit at the last boss because most are no fun to fight).

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I never lower the difficulty. I beat games; games don't beat me.

If I get to a part I have difficulty with, I try new tactics. If those don't work, then I try to refine them. If that doesn't work, then I just keep trying to play better until I eventually accomplish my objective.

That said, I have no problem with other people lowering the difficulty. I play for both the story and the challenge, but I acknowledge that not everyone plays for the challenge part (or, at least, not as seriously as I do).