Why are games so easy these days?

[Acier]

It's mainly because controls have vastly improved this generation.

Try playing Jak & Daxter or Metal Gear Solid 3 again, and you'll notice how fucking horrendous their controls were compared to the silky smooth controls we have today.

Also, most games have succumbed to the streamlined level design. No more branching paths or exploration unless it's already a sandbox game.

jak and daxter?? Try crash bandicoot or medievil. Now THATS some horrendous controls. MGS3, we adapted, we learnt the controls, and for me, its one of my favourite ps2 games! Why can?t the gamers of today adapt? or learn new things. why is it always press x to not die?!?!?!?!?

I'm not saying they're bad games, I love both of them. But especially MGS3's controls were stogie as shit.

You say we adapted to them, but that was then. Now we have games where the controls feel natural right out of the gate; That's progress.

THANK YOU.
Honestly, sometimes games were hard because of shitty design choices. And if difficulty sliders aren't HARDCORE enough for you why don't you add restrictions for yourself to make the game harder?

inb4 "not my job it's the developers"

 

[Lucem712]

I'm going with games are no longer arcade style. Way back when in the days of the arcade, games had to be insanely difficult to keep you putting the quarters in.

Now a days, games don't have to keep someone in front of your gaming machine. (unless it's an MMO, or something)

I'd suggest playing in a way that is difficult. When you pop in MGS 4, do so without killing a single person or having a single alert (or at least attempting to), when you play Skyrim turn up the difficulty and stick completely to your character.

True difficult is a hard thing to implement. I know a-lot of people get rubbed the wrong way but a game 'streamlining' their experiences but I'm gonna be honest and say I would never play an old school RPG where I had to balance my stats or worry about my HP or anything.

 

[Wayneguard]

False premise.

 

[Kahunaburger]

The only reason we found old games more difficult wasnt because the actual gameplay was harder it just the horrible controls or needlessly complicated interface.

I'm not sure that's necessarily true - I played Super Metroid pretty recently and it surprised me with:

A) How tight the controls and game design were compared to many modern games,

B) How much system mastery the game requires compared to many modern games.

For instance, in the Crocomire fight the limiting factor isn't the controls, it's your reflexes and ability. Deaths in Super Metroid never feel unfair, because you always know what you could have done to survive.

There are definitely many games (both modern and old-school) that have a complicated interface, but the difficulty issue can't just be boiled down to interface complexity.

 

[Aircross]

The only reason we found old games more difficult wasnt because the actual gameplay was harder it just the horrible controls or needlessly complicated interface.

Super Castlevania IV had super tight controls and an interface that was not complicated at all, and it still manages to kick my ass whenever I feel like playing it again.

Mario Galaxy 2 had a great balance between accessibility to casual players and difficulty for hardcore players.

Casual players didn't have to collect all the stars to beat the game, and hardcore players could collect all the stars.

 

[Total LOLige]

You could play on the highest difficulty, it always makes it a little more challenging. I don't think games are too easy there are a few challenging games out there, I found Uncharted 2 hard in places(not the puzzles they were a piece of piss) Metro 2033 had a few challenging parts on medium difficulty, or maybe they didn't and I'm just shit.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Because keeping your audience small by keeping games unaccessable is friggin dumb.

Difficult =/= inaccessible. Super Meat Boy has simple controls, but I don't think anyone would accuse that game of being excessively easy.

or pull the difficulty up.

The problem with increased difficulty is that in many games, increased difficulty setting doesn't actually increase difficulty in any kind of meaningful or interesting way. You don't have to manage additional challenges, you just have to do the same thing you do on Easy more precisely.

It's less "okay, so same segment except now the enemy is smarter at flanking you and has new abilities" and more "okay, so same segment except instead of getting back in cover after 2 seconds of shooting stuff you now have to get back in cover after 1 second of shooting stuff." There are exceptions, of course.

Or you should start playing different games than mainstream shit

This one I 100% agree with

 

[Kahunaburger]

Difficult =/= inaccessible. Super Meat Boy has simple controls, but I don't think anyone would accuse that game of being excessively easy.

Of course not, but on the other hand: About every old difficult game is difficult because it is as accessable as a lava pit... Unfair difficulty due to lack of informations, bad tutorials or simply stupid leveldesign and broken mechanics.

Depends on the game, but my general perception with old games that are considered A) hard (by modern standards) and B) classics is that they don't have accessibility/level design/mechanic issues. Design tends to be pretty tight, and difficulty is based on to what extent you have mastered precise and/or creative use of the mechanics instead of to what extent you have learned to use the mechanics at all.

The problem with increased difficulty is that in many games, increased difficulty setting doesn't actually increase difficulty in any kind of meaningful or interesting way. You don't have to manage additional challenges, you just have to do the same thing you do on Easy more precisely.

It's less "okay, so same segment except now the enemy is smarter at flanking you and has new abilities" and more "okay, so same segment except instead of getting back in cover after 2 seconds of shooting stuff you now have to get back in cover after 1 second of shooting stuff." There are exceptions, of course.

This again goes to: What games are actual difficult if we apply your criticism? Because modern day AI is (in theory) better than anything old games can bring up. But then again, I personally have yet to find a game where I am truly impressed by the AI.

Requiring more precision and control while executing basic stuff is actually how increased difficulty in many fields works. I don't see the problem if the game suddenly requeres about 20% more meaningful actions from me (be it hack&slash rpg, rts or fps) if I pull up the difficulty one notch.

Many games from many eras are actually difficult, but very few games have good difficulty scaling. An example of doing it right, in my mind, is the Halo series, particularly the later games. The AI gets smarter when you turn up the difficulty, and there are separate options you can turn on to add specific twists to the game - AI throwing more grenades, alternate and more difficult health mechanics, and so on. These difficulty settings work because they require the player to approach challenges from a different perspective, not just be 10% faster at hitting buttons.

An example of how not to do it is the Elder Scrolls series, particularly Morrowind and Oblivion. On higher difficulties, the "I win" buttons in those games still work, and specific attack methods become less useful. Instead of adding emergent challenge as the result of a higher difficulty, this basically just limits the viable strategies to a smaller subset. There are spells that faceroll anything on any difficulty, and therefore the game doesn't actually become more challenging - the "I win" button is an "I win" button on any slider setting.

 

[getoffmycloud]

You have to remember old games were often harder due to bad design decisions not because they were developed to be intentionally difficult like dark souls and as developers have more experience this generally doesn't happen and I find most games on the hardest difficulty are usually very challenging anyway.

 

[Al-Bundy-da-G]

You're older now and your reflexes are much better developed. It's the same reason why Super Mario World was a challenge when you were a child but now you can blow through it in about 45 minutes.

 

[Brutal Peanut]

Hm, well, maybe I am just really bad at playing video games; but normal/hard difficulties are more than enough for me. Perhaps it's my reaction times. *single tear*

 

[Elamdri]

Well, lets think about a few things here.

1st: Historically, video games were originally difficult for the simple reason that most people didn't own consoles, the simply played in arcades, and if a game was too easy in an arcade, they would never make money. Difficult games kept the quarters coming. With consoles however, if you make every game Nintendo hard then eventually people aren't going to drop $60 on a game they know they won't finish.

2nd: Also, take in to account that games in the past had a limit means of making something difficult. A lot of very early games were about pattern memorization and timing and reaction speed. And that was about it. Modern games have more advanced AI that can do things that earlier games couldn't. However, if you add in this Modern AI with the other difficulty increasing mechanics of past generations, games would be unbeatable. So some stuff gets tweaked. You don't have to memorize the positions of every enemy. You don't have to have perfect timing and reactions.

3rd: Difficulties exist for a reason. The fact is that giving someone else the opportunity to enjoy the game does not hurt you the player as long as there is a difficulty level that challenges you.

 

[Kahunaburger]

3rd: Difficulties exist for a reason. The fact is that giving someone else the opportunity to enjoy the game does not hurt you the player as long as there is a difficulty level that challenges you.

I'm personally of the opinion that games with difficulty settings should be designed to be hard, then given progressively easier difficulty settings. It's easier to make a hard game easy than vice-versa.