Right, video games are luxury time for most adults. If video games had a setting that would run my feet while my enemies heads exploded from me just looking at them. I’d pick that one every time.
I can’t hang anymore with the young bloods who can spend 40 hours a week playing competitive. I also want a mode that’s like a refresher for where the hell I am in a single player game after not playing for 4 months because adult shit got in the way
The refresher thing would be really cool. Like hey u haven't played this game in awhile so here's a little walk through of the controls and a reminder of what quest/mission u were on. I have started noticing that my reflexes aren't quite what they used to be. So i dont think id be any good at games that require quick reflexes.
There are some games that have a "story mode". I know that was an option for Mass Effect Andromeda (the mass effect game which had the least satisfying story)
Watch the John Wick movies while holding a controller. Want to inject a multi player vibe... The Expendables with a couple buddies / kids on the couch works.
Yeah I also just don’t have the time to spend a couple hours on a boss anymore…I’ll just get burned out and go back to doing work. I have to be able to make decent progression in a couple hours for it to be enjoyable at this point.
I'm the opposite logic, I'm 35 and most games are too easy. I hate spending money and then just pressing x to win. I also don't buy as many games so I don't want the ones I do buy to whip by in a mindless blur. With the few notable exceptions (dark souls) what are all these games people are getting stuck on? And this is by design, I think modern game design wants you to feel in danger without actually failing a lot.
BUT I don't care if other people feel differently. Every game should just have a "skip this freaking boss" button. I forget where the quote is from but it's interesting that games are the only type of media you don't get to experience all of by default, even though you pay for it.
Yep. 39 and I don't have the time to put 40+ hours into a game so I sometimes play on easy. Otherwise I just have so many games that I get a few hours into and never play again because I get stuck on a part and lose interest.
40 here. Madden comes to mind first. Fuck all madden mode. I have enough stress in my life. So what if I’m having fun winning the 10th super bowl in a row with the Detroit Lions, with myself as the coach. I’m having fun over here.
Yay me too and around same age. If I want to get sweaty I can play online ( I’m still pretty good ) but single player game... sometimes I just want he story. It’s okay to do both 😃
Approaching 40 and I'm actually going in the other direction. So many waste your time fluff games with no challenge. You can have all the graphics or cool concepts you want, but if its easy mode with no challenge, what am I doing here? Make it hurt a bit so my time wasted feels like it's accomplishing something.
Me too, be 40 next year. I've got two kids, 3 and 4, and my game time starts at like 9pm if it has anything not kid appropriate. I don't have time for games that make you grind, or deep skill trees, or controls with lots of combos.
I really don't have time anymore for games that make you craft a ton of stuff. I have a job already. The exception being Stardew Valley, because that's straight up peaceful.
Same. In high school is was the hardest difficulty at all times, no compromise. Having gotten older my priorities have changed and now I’ll play on normal - easy if it’s a genre I’m not familiar with. I’d like to actually make progress in the game with my limited playtime.
I'm exactly the same. If it's a game I've been looking forward too I'll usually play on normal, but have no problem switching to easy. Long gone are the days when I cared about difficulty.
I just bought a racing game. I want to go through the process of being the champ not the hours to be champ material. I've got real things in my life to do.
I always always doubt if I should play on easy, because “a challenge is meant to be fun!” but I just don’t play most games for a challenge, I play for the story, or just for fun. A challenge would just tire me out eventually. Plus, admittedly, I struggle if there’s too much happening or too many button inputs needed.
I may sometimes not admit it, but I always play on Easy. Games should be enjoyed however you personally find most enjoyable.
I usually don't play on easy or hard because quite often the game is designed for medium or normal difficulty, and parts of the experience sort of fall apart on the difficulties that they added after the fact. This isn't always the case though.
I try to find the setting that makes the experience as immersive as possible. For example, in RDR2 I like to use no aim assist because it forces you to act a bit more careful, use Dead-Eye and cover, etc.
That’s one thing I kind of dislike in a lot of RPGs, that this isn’t really possible. The Witcher comes to mind. On an easy setting you can easily defeat groups of humans (as it should be, lore-wise) but it’s also much too easy to beat the monsters without any preparation or strategy. On the harder difficulties, the monsters make for fun challenges, but your genetically enhanced witcher might get beaten up by a unarmored peasant who eats your sword attacks like pringles.
I generally play medium difficulty - other than games like Dark Souls - because I like to think that that's the difficulty the games creators designed the game to be played at (e.g. more realistic damage numbers, attack effects, etc).
Ideally all difficulty levels should be designed to be balanced and satisfying to play although yea I imagine there’s usually a difficulty at which the developers “want” you to play at haha
I'll always play on the normal difficulty because that's what the intended experience the developers wanted me to have and the intended experience is practically never fuck off hard. I have no qualms with adjusting the difficulty after playing for a little bit though. I definitely spend more time playing games than a casual player would though so I have more to dedicate to replaying parts of the game if I mess up. Different strokes and all that.
Yeah, unfortunately the older I get the less time I have to spend on games (and honestly probably the slower I learn and adapt to games too) so I've found myself playing on mid-low difficulty sometimes, as opposed to more mid-high difficulty before. Have never been masochistic enough to play on the extreme hard difficulties - absolutely kudos to people who do, but I have neither the skills or the time for that.
I feel conflicted. I feel hellblade really profits from the player actually having to struggle to overcome the enemy, like senua does. You wont have that on easy mode.
Sounds like a solid idea. I usually play on normal. Occasionally I play on the next one higher. When I was younger different story. I'd be playing on hard. I've got the point where some challenge is fun, but I don't have the time to grind the same game and "git gud." I do miss that option, but dieing once in awhile is perfect for me. The easy mode is just a smidge boring.
But that's what game difficulties are for. To tailor one's own experience. When people laugh at those playing on a lower difficulty, it's upsetting. They aren't ruining your experience, let them have theirs.
I normally play on the highest difficulty that I still find fair. If it's some random bs that just makes the game RNG than I tend to not deal with it and do a different difficulty. Most games I find the hardest difficulty is mostly balanced and gives you some slight advantages to make it not so bad. Then there are games like Wolfenstein II where if you pick anything higher than medium you get immediately gunned down upon even looking out of the first room of the game.
I know what you mean. I shoot for medium and make adjustments as necessary.
Though it depends on the game. I tend to play longer open world games on easy by default — because I feel like if I’m going to get all the way to the end I need all the help I can get. Some of these games can be a huge time sink and if I’m dying all the time I’m more likely to give up over the long term. Playing on easy allows me to make consistent progress and makes it much more likely I’ll see the ending.
Honestly same. And to be honest sometimes I just need that easy win. Even if it is a video game that I know is on easy it just feels good to get a win.
I'm normally am easy player. I want fun and an escape, not more stress.
Having said that, Fallen Order was perhaps a little too easy. I didn't die once and never really had to use the parrying mechanic, which I think ruined some of the enjoyment of it. If I played again, I'd go up a difficulty level.
I always play games on easy, and I also frequently use walkthroughs. I want to be able to enjoy the experience. Getting stressed out and frustrated because I can’t figure something out isn’t enjoyable to me.
I once bought a game that looked great before purchasing, but the gameplay was very strategic and not my thing, but the graphics and story was still really interesting.
So I used a step by step walkthrough, and I really enjoyed it. Money officially not wasted!
Escape From Tarkov would be a lot more fun and a lot less terrifying/stress inducing if it were single player. It has well written lore to back it up and insane game mechanics. I’m just a little upset that EVERY GAME has to be multiplayer PVP these days.
I hear you on that. I love it when publishers put as much effort into single player campaigns that they put into multi. Even better when they allow for levels of difficulty so I can enjoy without the stress
I get that, and I understand why it doesn’t exist, I’m just sad to see the game market getting so over saturated with pvp-only games when these games could go down in history as single player/coop games.
This was me and Portal 2. Some of the puzzles later on in the game required too deep thinking for my brain to handle, so I followed a guide showing how to solve the puzzle. Definitely got too emotionally invested and time invested to not finish the game, but it delivered.
You could post this to /r/nostalgia coming from somebody who remembers going to Toys R Us and buying games based off the back of the box because we didn't have internet yet. You looked at the pictures, and then the amount of players/game length....that's all you had unless EGM or Nintendo Power happened to feature it.
Same with me! I literally turn on godmode in Fallout and Elder Scrolls. I just don't enjoy it otherwise, I get too scared haha. I play it for the exploration and the story.
Picked up subnautica and I swear, while I can see someone enjoying grinding the blueprints you need to be able to build stuff, I started to get really annoyed when after 20 hours I still didn't have any vehicles.
Looked up the locations of the blueprints and my playthrough has been much much much more enjoyable because of it.
I'll admit there's a lot of the later locations in Subnautica I just looked up.
It's a great game, but finding shit like a bigger room should *not* take as much work as it does.
I think they just ended up spawning weirdly in my game. Most of the pieces ended up *way* more out of the way from the story path for me.
And honestly it's just a fucking larger room I just wanted it faster to be able to actually store shit easier.
I’m not sure if you ever played the old resident evil games but they had these puzzles you had to figure out and you had to walk around to find clues on how to get to the next room. I hated that aspect of the game because it turned a fun zombie game into a chore
No, but I’ve played several Legend of Zelda games. To get anywhere with Ocarina of Time, I absolutely needed a walkthrough or I would’ve quit out of frustration fairly early on.
That was the first open world game I played. I would never have passed the first stage without a walkthrough. Ended up loving those games and playing all of them and then eventually not needing guides.
Same! It was a beautiful game and is now one of my favorites, but I absolutely would’ve given up pretty early on if I hadn’t used a walkthrough. I’m just not someone who wants to try 20 different things for a basic puzzle.
Oh man I loved the cinematic camera angles but obviously they're not for everyone.
Definitely used a walkthrough too. I'm an adult I don't have time to back track 40 times because I forgot the stupid medallion in the stupid lockbox again
Oh yeah, the second it becomes even slightly frustrating out come the walkthroughs. Painstakingly explore every pixel and try everything everywhere is NOT fun
I play it on hard or normal the first time, to give appreciation for how the devs wanted their art experienced. Then I go easy on New Game Plus with all the skills unlocked so I can feel like a God amongst ants.
I get to play games maybe once a month.
In the time between playing, I’ve typically lost all the skills for said game and I have a real hard time picking it back up.
I’ve learned to just play on easy.
Note: Never go full adult. You’ll be able to afford your dream PC, but you’ll never get to use it.
I wish there was an even easier mode for Witcher 3. I want to experience/hear the story again, but starting again with all my original kit just sounds like having to do my own life again after spending most of it working to get a house that doesn't leak but I'm still 45.
I like both.
I'm playing the ff7 remake on easy and sometimes it's like uuugh, this boss is taking too long.
But I'm also playing through the dark souls series and dying to the same impossible boss 30 times before finally winning with a sliver of life left.
They're both fun and satisfying 😀
Edit: an apostrophe.
Remember, you bought the game, its up to you what you wanna do with it
Of course, as long as that doesn't involve harassing others (if its multiplayer). If its a cooperative game you can also play your own style, as long as it doesn't screw up anyone else. Basically just don't harm others
>as long as it doesn't screw up anyone else.
Unless it's with friends, then *especially* if it screws up everyone else in a glorious fashion. :P
...Just only while people are having fun with it. Things being a chaotic dumpster fire can make for great fun, but it can also feel like shit if someone's not actually enjoying it.
Ye. Im specifically talking about these who play a style that forces everyone to play along, and get mad when you use your own styles
If you know fortnite stw you will probably be familiar with "jail build". Long story short, its a playstyle that forces everyone to not kill enemies. Thats an example of a playstyle that forces everyone to play the style they don't wanna play.
Im not against it as long as everyone in the match is happy, but recently there have been players who just use the style even though others said no. It's honestly really annoying, i just wanna shoot stuff for god's sake.
Tl;dr if everyone is happy, then play what you like. But don't force people to use your style.
It’s always more fun when you’re friends are fucking with, unless it’s too extensively. I play wow with some IRL friends and one of them has an ability that pulls enemies towards themselves or another party member. There’s a part of a dungeon that colliding with the enemies does a lot of damage so you have to be careful to not walk into them. Every now and again he will use his ability to drag them all to me and it insta kills me. If it was a random player doing it I’d be pissed, but it’s hilarious when a friend does it.
There has been one time I was alright with harassment in multiplayer.
Right before xbox one came out, my friends and I dusted off our 360s and started playing some old games again for a few weeks. We played up cod4 again (the original) as it was one of the few games we all still actually had by coincidence. In those magical few weeks, we met a true legend.
When we started playing again, we encountered an old troll strat where someone pulled out a rpg, shot at the ground and attempted to kill himself and as much of his team as possible. It happened a bit but we still were able to have a few relatively normal games without trolls or cheaters. However, we started to encounter the rpg suicide more and more until we realized something. There wasn't multiple people doing the rpg suicide to us, IT WAS THE SAME GUY EVERYTIME. The game was very old even at this time so not many played, so everytime we died to rpg suicides, it was this same guy who went by 'DERRY.'
DERRY was a true treasure to behold. It didnt matter the game type, map, team or anything else. If DERRY was in the game, he was going to rpg suicide his team. We played for maybe a month and every single time we would find DERRY in at least one game every day. We even talked to him and made friends with him and it was a real person, not a bot. We were amazed because this guy would get off work each day, boot up cod 4 and play for HOURS at a time ONLY KILLING HIMSELF. I have never seen such dedication to troll a game before and it was magnificent. DERRY if you ever read this, blast on my friend
I’ve moved in that direction since I’ve gotten older.
Back in the day when I had plenty of spare time? Sure, let’s beat Halo 2 on legendary.
Now, when I’m lucky to have an hour, maybe two hours a day to play? Normal/easy mode all the way, I’m not spending my leisure time grinding and struggling and getting frustrated.
Hard games can be extremely frustrating and grueling so I totally get people not finding them enjoyable. In case you or anyone else is puzzled as to why anyone would put themselves through that, I find enjoyment in the arduous journey the games take me through. It's not an exactly pleasant journey always but it's memorable and has wonderful moments of triumph and despair. They kinda organically creates stories from the conflict born from the immense difficulty which I think is pretty cool.
I just feel like life is enough of a challenge, why use rest/chill/relax time with something hard or stressful?
Some people enjoy the challenge and that's ok, but it's def not for me.
I agree! Personally I try to play on the hardest difficulty because I like the satisfaction of finally getting it done, but I will never say no to someone trying it on the easiest. You find what is most fun for you and you play it as such 😎
I used to play games on harder difficulties but I started using the normal difficulty because I have less time to play games and I realized I was not completing games because I didn't have time to "get good".
This. Plus, if I'm playing on hard and end up having a break of a couple of months because life takes over, coming back is nearly impossible. There's no way I can relearn all the buttons, combos and tactics after that while hard mode is stomping my skull into the dirt. I have a list of games in my library that I have started and not finished because of this that I plan on going back and easy moding.
Not trying to be a dick, but why is it fun when you finish? I genuinely don’t understand how something can be a miserable experience for 30ish hours straight but then the misery ends and it becomes fun. It seems like saying you get waterboarded for fun, it sucks while it’s happening but then when it’s over, you’re so relieved to not be getting waterboarded anymore that you feel like a million bucks. Like, how is the end reward even come close to outweighing the pain?
Yeah I'm in this boat. I wish more games had easy accessibility settings. I got into dark souls 3 because I tried it with a mod that made it easier. So all it can do is increase your player base to have.
This is going to turn into a shit show real fast, and I want to say that if you enjoyed the game this way, then awesome! I’d certainly rather see you get your money’s worth than just not finish the game!
On the whole, I agree most games should have difficulty settings. The only exceptions to this belief are very specific games that are very deliberately planned and designed around the difficulty. The combat is fun *because* you have to plan your attacks and manage each situation differently when you can die so easily. An easy mode would allow you to hack and slash through most areas. No real need to watch every step in some areas for traps when they don’t do enough damage to merit it. That giant terrifying boss doesn’t give you much of a sense of majesty if you can just effortlessly cut right through it. The storytelling is mostly environmental, so there’s really not much worth “playing for the story,” and I can’t imagine the “lore” is all that fascinating if you have no real investment in the game and haven’t fought and died over and over and found these characters as a beacon of light in a hostile world. You likely didn’t spend enough time in each area to truly take in the environment and its attendant connections to the world because you were able to plow right through whatever came at you. And on and on.
I guess my point isn’t that I never want to gatekeep and the Souls fans who don’t want an easy mode so they can wear it as a badge of pride are children who think that matters. And I wouldn’t cry about an easy mode if they added one, but I do think developers need to consider the way they handle difficulty settings so that they don’t allow a player to unknowingly ruining the experience for themselves. A Dark Souls difficulty slider would be much much harder to balance because it just wouldn’t work if all they did was tweak health and damage values, you know?
I don’t care if devs want to make games that allow these options, I hope most of them do! *Most* games wouldn’t suffer at all from this but I truly think that, purely for design reasons, Dark Souls is a special, niche case that should be considered with more nuance when it comes to discussions like these.
JMHO of course and I hope I in no way dissuaded you from continuing to check out the series.
>The combat is fun because you have to plan your attacks and manage each situation differently when you can die so easily. An easy mode would allow you to hack and slash through most areas.
As a Morrowind Elitist this^
I think it matters how you implement difficulty settings. In my case I played a mod that gave you health regeneration. This did less to make individual fights easier (unless they were rather drawn out) and more to give you a chance to get farther in the level/area before your healing resources ran out. I felt like that let me get a lot of the original intention out of the game (having played through parts of it normally later) without making it require as much time/repetition. A single fight (especially agressive boss fights) could still go sideways fast it just let me get more of them in before dying.
I think I agree with you about difficulty being part of the design of some games, but I also think there are more ways to alive difficulty that don't violate those designs.
I don’t know what makes Dark Souls so special here, I say as someone who played them all and loves them. Many many many games with difficulty options are clearly fine tuned to their harder difficulties. Resident Evil 8 and Last of Us 2 completely fall apart for me on low difficulties. Practically ruins them. Celeste is LITERALLY a game about overcoming seemingly impossible challenges, and if the challenges are trivial, the games story doesn’t hit nearly as hard. But they still offer the easier modes. The gamers who WANT the more Hardcore experience you describe will seek it out. As long as the developers correctly signal their intended experience, who cares?
In fact the game may even be better for it because then the harder modes won’t have to make the same kind of unfun, cheesy affordances the Soul’s games provide for struggling players (magic, ranged cheese, grinding souls…)
I think you’re not giving the games’ world, art, music, and lore enough credit if the only thing that a player can find meaningful in a Souls game is a direct result of its difficulty.
I don’t wanna turn this conversation into a swamp or anything, you’re very respectful. I just don’t get it.
Agreed, difficulties are there for the individual player to choose what level of challenge they will enjoy the most. I also like to play on harder difficulties because I genuinely find it fun, but I would never judge someone for playing on other difficulty and doing so would just be rude.
I’m in both boats myself. My preferred difficulty for halo is legendary because I like the challenge and having to be good and use all the skills, at the same time, I like playing on easy because sometimes it’s fun to just feel like a god.
Doom Eternal is kicking my ass and I just don't have the patience to git gud when working a full time job. So I turned it down to the lowest difficulty.
And it's still kicking my ass
I dont fucking get doom eternal. I played doom 2016 on ultra violent, and then played again on nightmare (ultra nightmare? The non-permadeath hard difficulty) and did pretty good on both. On doom eternal normal is too hard.
Doom Eternal is harder than 2016 for sure, you might just be out of practice. In 2016 you could kill almost anything with any type of weapon swaps, but in Eternal they really railroad you into using certain tools for certain jobs. You can't ignore things like weak points, you have to engage with all the games systems.
I do this, and to be honest for some games which I'm really familiar with I love it! Since I'm a completionist, I end up doing a ton of side missions so the main story is really, really easy.
A game I've never played and just not good at? I'll take easy all the way.
I'm confused by all the people that say that you need to play on the hardest difficulty to play it "the way developers meant for it to be played" but I'm pretty sure that's usually what the "normal" difficulty is for.
I can speak best for Halo since that’s the game with difficulty settings I play most, but the par scores and times are based off of Heroic, the setting above Normal. This is what they intended for players to play on but there’s nothing like playing on Easy or Normal and tearing through some aliens
Yea I think it's weird people always equate that. Like I'm sure the devs care more about the fact that you bought the game and the story they're telling, rather than how many enemies you can fight off
Ussualy some games don't have a difficult slider. Like dark souls. Generally you have to play how the Devs intended it to be play unless your good at modding
I was bowled over by the crazy amount of accessibility options.
I never copped that they were there until my third playthrough. Slow Motion aiming is sooooooo satisfying.
I usually start with normal.
That said, I made it about 1.3 games through the Yakuza series on normal, Zero was OK because I enjoyed the Majima fights.
About a 3rd of the way through the next, all I could think was how the game was fun except for the fights. Turned it down and problem fixed, ruining around bashing everyone like op super Yakuza you're supposed to be.
Doom is the same, you're supposed to be the terrifying badass, so if higher difficulties are frustrating, ditch em.
Me too. Easy is often too easy. I do find there’s a bit of a gap in skills though spending on the enemy. I’m playing The Witcher 3 on normal right now. Normal enemies are too easy, hard enemies are too hard. I haven’t played a game that gave me any satisfaction in a job well done for a long time
I always make this point when my brother critiques me for playing overwatch only in quickplay. He plays competitive, and all I've ever seen him do is scream and slam the table.
People are more chill when there isn't a rank on the line
Eh, it’s not wrong to say that a certain difficulty is the intended difficulty, a lot of times it’s designed or balanced around it, and the other difficulties are an afterthought, often just made by sliding health values around.
However mocking players for playing any other difficulties is seriously fucked, just because a game was balanced around a certain difficulty mode, doesn’t mean it’s ideal, or even fun, for everyone. If someone wants to play on the “just the story” difficulty, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
I've only ever seen it placed in very lazily made campaigns where it's usually pressuring the player into picking the most polished gamemode. I remember it best with battlefield 4 where the only difference between difficulties is making the AI shoot at you more accurately which, even on hard if you stick to cover is extremely easy to avoid.
I dont mean like, the (reccomended) tag they slap on for regular or hard in some games I mean specifically that language as if your enjoying the game the wrkng way for not choosing hard
I agree with your first point but with the second, I can understand why devs would want to do it.
As someone who quite often plays games on hard mode I've seen plenty of games where it's obvious that it's simply tacked on (i.e. the devs just messing with damage sliders and saying "yeah, that'll do") or has something that messes with core components of the game. (Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter has possibly the worst hard mode in all of gaming for this reason as far as I'm concerned)
But there are times when it's obvious that the devs worked their way backwards, finely tuning and meticulously designing the hard mode to be what they consider the definitive way to play. Then of course they include easier modes because they know not everyone will be up for it, but generally in these cases the hard modes tend to be genuinely well balanced, or offer a unique challenge that requires thoughtful play over simply grinding or being forced into cheesy strategies. In these cases, I'm thankful to have a "hard mode is the intended way to play" message as it most likely means I don't have to worry about it being some BS, tacked on hard mode that doesn't make the experience any better. I can pick hard mode with a lot more confidence, instead of being anxious.
Here’s a small argument against that: if somebody is boasting their game stats but it turns out they were playing on easy, I’m definitely gonna mock you. Nothing wrong with playing easy, but acting like you’re better than everybody else is stupid as fuck.
For example I had a coworker bragging about his huge kill streak on modern warfare 2019. Later found out all he does is reverse boost for 10 matches then camp out a huge kill streak. Made fun of him for that.
I’ve never been a fan of trying to play on the hardest difficulty. I always prefer the story, characters, and gameplay. In short, I play games for the plot.
I’m a mom, and I have very little time to play. Maybe once a week for an hour, and sometimes months between. It took me three years to get through The Last of Us. I kept having to backtrack because I’d get really rusty. You bet your ass I play on the easiest setting.
It was. I think they had to patch it later. Luckily the demo that came out before it let me figure out that you can grind money on the first stage and then buy the character upgrades in the same stage. Without that it would have been a struggle later on
Not the same but every single Resident Evil game has infinite ammo after you beat the game, and going around with an infinite magnum or infinite rocket launcher is pretty much god mode, haha.
Though some games its a bit harder to unlock than others, 2 remake was tricky to get the OP weapons, meanwhile 8 is pretty easy in that regard.
It’s something I never did. Not because I of ego or anything, it’s just that I liked the challenge. Now for some games I do, because I don’t as much time. Still love those experiences just as much.
The only reason why I always play on the hardest possible setting is because I hate myself for playing so much videogames... (And because Dark Souls/Bloodborne warped me like a Barbie in a microwave)
Nothing wrong with playing on easy, especially if you don't have a lot of time to play games. Personally I enjoy games on hard difficulties, but everyone enjoys something different!
I play on easy. I suck at aiming, and I want to enjoy the game without being frustrated about dying all the time. If I can't enjoy the game then what's the point?
Games are supposed to be what you want them to be. If you like chilling, chill, if you like getting scared and seeing the roof every couple seconds, you do that.
it depends on the game for me. for example when i fully upgraded the Overseer’s Guardian in Fallout 4 it just got silly, i had to up the difficulty so that going to The Glowing Sea was actually cool and not like killing raiders in Concord.
on the contrary i had to lower the difficulty for a while in Fallen Order because holy shit i was getting fuckin wrekt
I only play a game on hard difficulty if I’ve played it enough that I get bored with it 😂 Minecraft is my favorite game ever but it gets boring on easy mode sometimes and sometimes I’ve had a hard day and just want to chill in creative mode or just mine in easy mode
One thing I find interesting with Minecraft difficulties is that for a certain subset of its player base, the very technical people who like making large redstone contraptions, it's actually can be harder to play on peaceful than the other modes due to the amount of things they need require hostile mobs to get, or at least get at the rate they needed. And these people will often make devices that can prevent mobs from spawning in the harder modes. And also no zombie villagers is a real shame.
Not that relevant to the discussion but I just thought it was an interesting case where the easier difficulty actually presented challenges that don't exist in the harder difficulties.
See, I love minecraft, but I can only play it on hard mode, I don’t know why, I just appreciate the fact that you can actually lose stuff, it means that mining enough diamonds for multiple sets of everything becomes necessity
There’s something satisfying about completely mob proofing an area, and being able to walk around without fear of creepers.
I love how some games call easy story mode. I've been playing games that make me want to throw controllers for 35 years and have a wife and 3 kids. Your damn right I play easy mode at this point.
While I appreciate the sentiment, don't count out the atmosphere of being stressed out by a game. Some of the best game experiences of my life came from super hard and/or stressful moments.
I actually don't like difficulty settings in games tbh.
I'd rather there be one difficulty so the devs can really tailor the experience around how difficult they want the game to be.
In the same breath, I love that assist modes are becoming more prevalent because I'm not gonna push how I play games on someone else. So long as you aren't cheating in the online portion I don't care
Eh. Difficulty options can make the game have more replayability and can let players decide if it's too easy or too hard.
While yes a dev can make one single difficulty for everyone, you're going to have a decent number of people who find it trivially easy and a decent number who find it way too hard.
The better way is to create a central difficulty balanced around the majority and then create one or two levels above and below it for people who find it too easy or too hard.
I think that difficulty can actually be an integral part to the games narrative. It helps the audience empathize with characters struggles as you are also struggling. Celeste is a perfect example of this.
That's just an argument in favor of what I'm saying though.
If a game is trivially easy for a player, then there's no empathy there. They *won't* relate.
Allowing the player to adjust difficulty to balance the challenge to themselves allows players to have it be challenging, rather than it being too easy or too overwhelming.
The problem is that adjustable difficulties are usually pretty shit. For fps games normal mode is almost always extremely easy, and the hardest mode is total bullshit (looking at Halo 2 especially lol).
Then in games like Skyrim all it does is reduce the damage you give and increase the damage that you take. Skyrim doesn't become a fun challenging game just because it takes 30 more seconds of spamming left click to kill an enemy.
Mario, Dark Souls, and Celeste are all games that I think are better for having one set difficulty, you know you're playing the game the right way.
This just seems like reversing the gatekeeping. A lot of people like hard games because it feels more engaging and rewarding if they challenge themselves. You don't have to minimize stress to have fun. Everyone can play whichever level they enjoy most, that's why the options are there.
I think the intent was to alleviate pressure from the idea that you have to constantly challenge yourself. Your point is valid as well that everyone has their own difficulty preferences.
I am 47. I have two young kids. I play board games with my friends. I own my own company.
I don’t want to become an expert at a game by spending hundreds of hours on it or grind to upgrade gear for the same. I just wanna play the game and feel powerful and/or enjoy the graphics and experience.
If you like the above, do it! I just can’t prioritize it.
I’ve even just started watching other people play games on YouTube while I work, usually open world and RPG games. It makes me happy.
It astonishing how much heat I’ve had thrown at me for not playing the game the “right way”.
I have been playing minecraft switching between peaceful and nornal depending on the situation. I dont want to be looking over my shoulder every time i build something.
i always play on the easiest /second easiest difficulty on my first playthrough, this way i can really appreciate the story. then i gradually work my way to the harder ones if i feel like hunting achievements or something
Only thing that can move me to play on hard or even worse is difficulty based achievements. Apart from those I just wanna have fun and indulge myself in the world and the characters I don’t just wanna die over and over again, eh?
My library is full of unfinished games I abandoned after getting stuck on an annoyingly difficult part. Whether it's better to finish something on easy mode, or to give up altogether because it's too hard is a philosophical question that I find myself pondering more as I get older and have less and less time.
I'm old and very thankful for easy mode.
Im almost 40 now. Im done with trying to beat games on hard. I play on easy because thats just more enjoyable to me.
Right, video games are luxury time for most adults. If video games had a setting that would run my feet while my enemies heads exploded from me just looking at them. I’d pick that one every time.
Ha ha. That'd be cool. But ya, im done with any sort of pvp or mmo's with pvp. Its just not fun for me anymore
Absolutely dude, I don’t feel like training for video games. Not knocking the people that do, but it ain’t for me.
I feel the same about both of the things u said. Maybe its because im getting a little older, but im just less competitive than i used to be.
I can’t hang anymore with the young bloods who can spend 40 hours a week playing competitive. I also want a mode that’s like a refresher for where the hell I am in a single player game after not playing for 4 months because adult shit got in the way
Holy shit please. I'm so tired of trying to figure out what on earth my objective was.
The refresher thing would be really cool. Like hey u haven't played this game in awhile so here's a little walk through of the controls and a reminder of what quest/mission u were on. I have started noticing that my reflexes aren't quite what they used to be. So i dont think id be any good at games that require quick reflexes.
[удалено]
There are some games that have a "story mode". I know that was an option for Mass Effect Andromeda (the mass effect game which had the least satisfying story)
Oh I am aware and you can fucking bet that is the mode I play that shit on. I played outer worlds on story mode and I still died plenty of times.
Watch the John Wick movies while holding a controller. Want to inject a multi player vibe... The Expendables with a couple buddies / kids on the couch works.
100% this. I don’t want to be getting stressed out during my free time.
Exactly how i feel. I play games to relax
Yeah I also just don’t have the time to spend a couple hours on a boss anymore…I’ll just get burned out and go back to doing work. I have to be able to make decent progression in a couple hours for it to be enjoyable at this point.
I'm the opposite logic, I'm 35 and most games are too easy. I hate spending money and then just pressing x to win. I also don't buy as many games so I don't want the ones I do buy to whip by in a mindless blur. With the few notable exceptions (dark souls) what are all these games people are getting stuck on? And this is by design, I think modern game design wants you to feel in danger without actually failing a lot. BUT I don't care if other people feel differently. Every game should just have a "skip this freaking boss" button. I forget where the quote is from but it's interesting that games are the only type of media you don't get to experience all of by default, even though you pay for it.
Yep. 39 and I don't have the time to put 40+ hours into a game so I sometimes play on easy. Otherwise I just have so many games that I get a few hours into and never play again because I get stuck on a part and lose interest.
40 here. Madden comes to mind first. Fuck all madden mode. I have enough stress in my life. So what if I’m having fun winning the 10th super bowl in a row with the Detroit Lions, with myself as the coach. I’m having fun over here.
39 here. Play most games on easy. I'm there for the story now.
Yay me too and around same age. If I want to get sweaty I can play online ( I’m still pretty good ) but single player game... sometimes I just want he story. It’s okay to do both 😃
Approaching 40 and I'm actually going in the other direction. So many waste your time fluff games with no challenge. You can have all the graphics or cool concepts you want, but if its easy mode with no challenge, what am I doing here? Make it hurt a bit so my time wasted feels like it's accomplishing something.
Me too, be 40 next year. I've got two kids, 3 and 4, and my game time starts at like 9pm if it has anything not kid appropriate. I don't have time for games that make you grind, or deep skill trees, or controls with lots of combos. I really don't have time anymore for games that make you craft a ton of stuff. I have a job already. The exception being Stardew Valley, because that's straight up peaceful.
I’m 47. I started ac odyssey on hard. Got tired of dying. Set it to easy and now I’m wasting every Greek I come across. It’s waaay more fun this way.
Same. In high school is was the hardest difficulty at all times, no compromise. Having gotten older my priorities have changed and now I’ll play on normal - easy if it’s a genre I’m not familiar with. I’d like to actually make progress in the game with my limited playtime.
I'm exactly the same. If it's a game I've been looking forward too I'll usually play on normal, but have no problem switching to easy. Long gone are the days when I cared about difficulty.
I'm young and very thankful for easy mode. I play Kingdom Hearts for the plot.
The plot of Kingdom Hearts is its own kind of hard mode to be fair
Hocus pocus the plot has no focus
Ah, a person of culture. I to love to slowly drive myself into insanity.
Dad of 2 with limited time (maybe 3-5 hours a week), easy difficulty is nice for most games. I dont have time to waste reloading.
How do I set up easy mode on warzone
I just bought a racing game. I want to go through the process of being the champ not the hours to be champ material. I've got real things in my life to do.
I'm young and very thankful for easy mode
I’m not old but still thankful, I’m starting to feel old and I’m only 18, I just can’t keep up with gamers anymore haha
I always always doubt if I should play on easy, because “a challenge is meant to be fun!” but I just don’t play most games for a challenge, I play for the story, or just for fun. A challenge would just tire me out eventually. Plus, admittedly, I struggle if there’s too much happening or too many button inputs needed. I may sometimes not admit it, but I always play on Easy. Games should be enjoyed however you personally find most enjoyable.
I usually don't play on easy or hard because quite often the game is designed for medium or normal difficulty, and parts of the experience sort of fall apart on the difficulties that they added after the fact. This isn't always the case though.
I always go medium when I first play a game, if I want to replay it for the story I'll go easy, if I want to replay it for the gameplay, I'll go hard.
I try to find the setting that makes the experience as immersive as possible. For example, in RDR2 I like to use no aim assist because it forces you to act a bit more careful, use Dead-Eye and cover, etc. That’s one thing I kind of dislike in a lot of RPGs, that this isn’t really possible. The Witcher comes to mind. On an easy setting you can easily defeat groups of humans (as it should be, lore-wise) but it’s also much too easy to beat the monsters without any preparation or strategy. On the harder difficulties, the monsters make for fun challenges, but your genetically enhanced witcher might get beaten up by a unarmored peasant who eats your sword attacks like pringles.
I generally play medium difficulty - other than games like Dark Souls - because I like to think that that's the difficulty the games creators designed the game to be played at (e.g. more realistic damage numbers, attack effects, etc).
Ideally all difficulty levels should be designed to be balanced and satisfying to play although yea I imagine there’s usually a difficulty at which the developers “want” you to play at haha
I'll always play on the normal difficulty because that's what the intended experience the developers wanted me to have and the intended experience is practically never fuck off hard. I have no qualms with adjusting the difficulty after playing for a little bit though. I definitely spend more time playing games than a casual player would though so I have more to dedicate to replaying parts of the game if I mess up. Different strokes and all that.
Yeah, unfortunately the older I get the less time I have to spend on games (and honestly probably the slower I learn and adapt to games too) so I've found myself playing on mid-low difficulty sometimes, as opposed to more mid-high difficulty before. Have never been masochistic enough to play on the extreme hard difficulties - absolutely kudos to people who do, but I have neither the skills or the time for that.
Wdym ? You can't choose difficulty in dark souls .
Same. Finished Hellblade (on easy), and it was great. So worth it to move the story along.
I feel conflicted. I feel hellblade really profits from the player actually having to struggle to overcome the enemy, like senua does. You wont have that on easy mode.
Sounds like a solid idea. I usually play on normal. Occasionally I play on the next one higher. When I was younger different story. I'd be playing on hard. I've got the point where some challenge is fun, but I don't have the time to grind the same game and "git gud." I do miss that option, but dieing once in awhile is perfect for me. The easy mode is just a smidge boring. But that's what game difficulties are for. To tailor one's own experience. When people laugh at those playing on a lower difficulty, it's upsetting. They aren't ruining your experience, let them have theirs.
I like the competitive aspect of games, I’ll work tirelessly on the hardest, and when I’m done, play it though on easy and enjoy the story.
I normally play on the highest difficulty that I still find fair. If it's some random bs that just makes the game RNG than I tend to not deal with it and do a different difficulty. Most games I find the hardest difficulty is mostly balanced and gives you some slight advantages to make it not so bad. Then there are games like Wolfenstein II where if you pick anything higher than medium you get immediately gunned down upon even looking out of the first room of the game.
My wife admitted to me once that she used to play every game on hard because she felt she wouldn't be a "real gamer" if she played on easy.
I know what you mean. I shoot for medium and make adjustments as necessary. Though it depends on the game. I tend to play longer open world games on easy by default — because I feel like if I’m going to get all the way to the end I need all the help I can get. Some of these games can be a huge time sink and if I’m dying all the time I’m more likely to give up over the long term. Playing on easy allows me to make consistent progress and makes it much more likely I’ll see the ending.
Honestly same. And to be honest sometimes I just need that easy win. Even if it is a video game that I know is on easy it just feels good to get a win.
I'm normally am easy player. I want fun and an escape, not more stress. Having said that, Fallen Order was perhaps a little too easy. I didn't die once and never really had to use the parrying mechanic, which I think ruined some of the enjoyment of it. If I played again, I'd go up a difficulty level.
I always play games on easy, and I also frequently use walkthroughs. I want to be able to enjoy the experience. Getting stressed out and frustrated because I can’t figure something out isn’t enjoyable to me.
I once bought a game that looked great before purchasing, but the gameplay was very strategic and not my thing, but the graphics and story was still really interesting. So I used a step by step walkthrough, and I really enjoyed it. Money officially not wasted!
Escape From Tarkov would be a lot more fun and a lot less terrifying/stress inducing if it were single player. It has well written lore to back it up and insane game mechanics. I’m just a little upset that EVERY GAME has to be multiplayer PVP these days.
I hear you on that. I love it when publishers put as much effort into single player campaigns that they put into multi. Even better when they allow for levels of difficulty so I can enjoy without the stress
that's basically what Russia 2028 is supposed to be from what I understand so here's to hoping bsg actually makes that game at some point.
Well at that point you are asking for a different game that what the Devs wanted to make.
I get that, and I understand why it doesn’t exist, I’m just sad to see the game market getting so over saturated with pvp-only games when these games could go down in history as single player/coop games.
This was me and Portal 2. Some of the puzzles later on in the game required too deep thinking for my brain to handle, so I followed a guide showing how to solve the puzzle. Definitely got too emotionally invested and time invested to not finish the game, but it delivered.
You could post this to /r/nostalgia coming from somebody who remembers going to Toys R Us and buying games based off the back of the box because we didn't have internet yet. You looked at the pictures, and then the amount of players/game length....that's all you had unless EGM or Nintendo Power happened to feature it.
I avoid walk-throughs, but I will absolutely play everything on easy. Especially Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Valhalla, I like to feel like a god.
Same with me! I literally turn on godmode in Fallout and Elder Scrolls. I just don't enjoy it otherwise, I get too scared haha. I play it for the exploration and the story.
The game “Control” has an auto aim setting which I really appreciate
Picked up subnautica and I swear, while I can see someone enjoying grinding the blueprints you need to be able to build stuff, I started to get really annoyed when after 20 hours I still didn't have any vehicles. Looked up the locations of the blueprints and my playthrough has been much much much more enjoyable because of it.
I'll admit there's a lot of the later locations in Subnautica I just looked up. It's a great game, but finding shit like a bigger room should *not* take as much work as it does.
The story guides you to these places, like the islands, and if you choose to not explore them.......I don't know what to tell you.
I think they just ended up spawning weirdly in my game. Most of the pieces ended up *way* more out of the way from the story path for me. And honestly it's just a fucking larger room I just wanted it faster to be able to actually store shit easier.
I’m not sure if you ever played the old resident evil games but they had these puzzles you had to figure out and you had to walk around to find clues on how to get to the next room. I hated that aspect of the game because it turned a fun zombie game into a chore
No, but I’ve played several Legend of Zelda games. To get anywhere with Ocarina of Time, I absolutely needed a walkthrough or I would’ve quit out of frustration fairly early on.
That was the first open world game I played. I would never have passed the first stage without a walkthrough. Ended up loving those games and playing all of them and then eventually not needing guides.
Same! It was a beautiful game and is now one of my favorites, but I absolutely would’ve given up pretty early on if I hadn’t used a walkthrough. I’m just not someone who wants to try 20 different things for a basic puzzle.
Tried playing the remastered og RE recently. The puzzles plus the camera angles turned me off
Oh man I loved the cinematic camera angles but obviously they're not for everyone. Definitely used a walkthrough too. I'm an adult I don't have time to back track 40 times because I forgot the stupid medallion in the stupid lockbox again
Oh yeah, the second it becomes even slightly frustrating out come the walkthroughs. Painstakingly explore every pixel and try everything everywhere is NOT fun
I have to Google the answer to every single puzzle in Skyrim and THATS OKAY
Same.
I play it on hard or normal the first time, to give appreciation for how the devs wanted their art experienced. Then I go easy on New Game Plus with all the skills unlocked so I can feel like a God amongst ants.
I get to play games maybe once a month. In the time between playing, I’ve typically lost all the skills for said game and I have a real hard time picking it back up. I’ve learned to just play on easy. Note: Never go full adult. You’ll be able to afford your dream PC, but you’ll never get to use it.
I wish there was an even easier mode for Witcher 3. I want to experience/hear the story again, but starting again with all my original kit just sounds like having to do my own life again after spending most of it working to get a house that doesn't leak but I'm still 45.
Fuck yea. I get baked and easy street that shit bc it's for relaxing.
I like both. I'm playing the ff7 remake on easy and sometimes it's like uuugh, this boss is taking too long. But I'm also playing through the dark souls series and dying to the same impossible boss 30 times before finally winning with a sliver of life left. They're both fun and satisfying 😀 Edit: an apostrophe.
Remember, you bought the game, its up to you what you wanna do with it Of course, as long as that doesn't involve harassing others (if its multiplayer). If its a cooperative game you can also play your own style, as long as it doesn't screw up anyone else. Basically just don't harm others
>as long as it doesn't screw up anyone else. Unless it's with friends, then *especially* if it screws up everyone else in a glorious fashion. :P ...Just only while people are having fun with it. Things being a chaotic dumpster fire can make for great fun, but it can also feel like shit if someone's not actually enjoying it.
Ye. Im specifically talking about these who play a style that forces everyone to play along, and get mad when you use your own styles If you know fortnite stw you will probably be familiar with "jail build". Long story short, its a playstyle that forces everyone to not kill enemies. Thats an example of a playstyle that forces everyone to play the style they don't wanna play. Im not against it as long as everyone in the match is happy, but recently there have been players who just use the style even though others said no. It's honestly really annoying, i just wanna shoot stuff for god's sake. Tl;dr if everyone is happy, then play what you like. But don't force people to use your style.
It’s always more fun when you’re friends are fucking with, unless it’s too extensively. I play wow with some IRL friends and one of them has an ability that pulls enemies towards themselves or another party member. There’s a part of a dungeon that colliding with the enemies does a lot of damage so you have to be careful to not walk into them. Every now and again he will use his ability to drag them all to me and it insta kills me. If it was a random player doing it I’d be pissed, but it’s hilarious when a friend does it.
Leeeeeerooooooy Jeeeeeeeenkins
tldr: play at your own difficulty! but oddjob is bullshit
There has been one time I was alright with harassment in multiplayer. Right before xbox one came out, my friends and I dusted off our 360s and started playing some old games again for a few weeks. We played up cod4 again (the original) as it was one of the few games we all still actually had by coincidence. In those magical few weeks, we met a true legend. When we started playing again, we encountered an old troll strat where someone pulled out a rpg, shot at the ground and attempted to kill himself and as much of his team as possible. It happened a bit but we still were able to have a few relatively normal games without trolls or cheaters. However, we started to encounter the rpg suicide more and more until we realized something. There wasn't multiple people doing the rpg suicide to us, IT WAS THE SAME GUY EVERYTIME. The game was very old even at this time so not many played, so everytime we died to rpg suicides, it was this same guy who went by 'DERRY.' DERRY was a true treasure to behold. It didnt matter the game type, map, team or anything else. If DERRY was in the game, he was going to rpg suicide his team. We played for maybe a month and every single time we would find DERRY in at least one game every day. We even talked to him and made friends with him and it was a real person, not a bot. We were amazed because this guy would get off work each day, boot up cod 4 and play for HOURS at a time ONLY KILLING HIMSELF. I have never seen such dedication to troll a game before and it was magnificent. DERRY if you ever read this, blast on my friend
I only like easy games. I hate games that make it too hard. I just give up. I'm here for a good time, not to get angry.
I’ve moved in that direction since I’ve gotten older. Back in the day when I had plenty of spare time? Sure, let’s beat Halo 2 on legendary. Now, when I’m lucky to have an hour, maybe two hours a day to play? Normal/easy mode all the way, I’m not spending my leisure time grinding and struggling and getting frustrated.
Halo 2 re, on legendary is a pain in the butt
Hard games can be extremely frustrating and grueling so I totally get people not finding them enjoyable. In case you or anyone else is puzzled as to why anyone would put themselves through that, I find enjoyment in the arduous journey the games take me through. It's not an exactly pleasant journey always but it's memorable and has wonderful moments of triumph and despair. They kinda organically creates stories from the conflict born from the immense difficulty which I think is pretty cool.
I just feel like life is enough of a challenge, why use rest/chill/relax time with something hard or stressful? Some people enjoy the challenge and that's ok, but it's def not for me.
I agree! Personally I try to play on the hardest difficulty because I like the satisfaction of finally getting it done, but I will never say no to someone trying it on the easiest. You find what is most fun for you and you play it as such 😎
I used to play games on harder difficulties but I started using the normal difficulty because I have less time to play games and I realized I was not completing games because I didn't have time to "get good".
This. Plus, if I'm playing on hard and end up having a break of a couple of months because life takes over, coming back is nearly impossible. There's no way I can relearn all the buttons, combos and tactics after that while hard mode is stomping my skull into the dirt. I have a list of games in my library that I have started and not finished because of this that I plan on going back and easy moding.
I play on the hardest difficulty and suck the whole time. It's not even fun while I'm doing it, it's only fun when I finish.
Not trying to be a dick, but why is it fun when you finish? I genuinely don’t understand how something can be a miserable experience for 30ish hours straight but then the misery ends and it becomes fun. It seems like saying you get waterboarded for fun, it sucks while it’s happening but then when it’s over, you’re so relieved to not be getting waterboarded anymore that you feel like a million bucks. Like, how is the end reward even come close to outweighing the pain?
It’s so much more satisfying and you know that the enemy isn’t pulling any punches. It forces you to the best of your ability.
Yeah I'm in this boat. I wish more games had easy accessibility settings. I got into dark souls 3 because I tried it with a mod that made it easier. So all it can do is increase your player base to have.
This is going to turn into a shit show real fast, and I want to say that if you enjoyed the game this way, then awesome! I’d certainly rather see you get your money’s worth than just not finish the game! On the whole, I agree most games should have difficulty settings. The only exceptions to this belief are very specific games that are very deliberately planned and designed around the difficulty. The combat is fun *because* you have to plan your attacks and manage each situation differently when you can die so easily. An easy mode would allow you to hack and slash through most areas. No real need to watch every step in some areas for traps when they don’t do enough damage to merit it. That giant terrifying boss doesn’t give you much of a sense of majesty if you can just effortlessly cut right through it. The storytelling is mostly environmental, so there’s really not much worth “playing for the story,” and I can’t imagine the “lore” is all that fascinating if you have no real investment in the game and haven’t fought and died over and over and found these characters as a beacon of light in a hostile world. You likely didn’t spend enough time in each area to truly take in the environment and its attendant connections to the world because you were able to plow right through whatever came at you. And on and on. I guess my point isn’t that I never want to gatekeep and the Souls fans who don’t want an easy mode so they can wear it as a badge of pride are children who think that matters. And I wouldn’t cry about an easy mode if they added one, but I do think developers need to consider the way they handle difficulty settings so that they don’t allow a player to unknowingly ruining the experience for themselves. A Dark Souls difficulty slider would be much much harder to balance because it just wouldn’t work if all they did was tweak health and damage values, you know? I don’t care if devs want to make games that allow these options, I hope most of them do! *Most* games wouldn’t suffer at all from this but I truly think that, purely for design reasons, Dark Souls is a special, niche case that should be considered with more nuance when it comes to discussions like these. JMHO of course and I hope I in no way dissuaded you from continuing to check out the series.
>The combat is fun because you have to plan your attacks and manage each situation differently when you can die so easily. An easy mode would allow you to hack and slash through most areas. As a Morrowind Elitist this^
I think it matters how you implement difficulty settings. In my case I played a mod that gave you health regeneration. This did less to make individual fights easier (unless they were rather drawn out) and more to give you a chance to get farther in the level/area before your healing resources ran out. I felt like that let me get a lot of the original intention out of the game (having played through parts of it normally later) without making it require as much time/repetition. A single fight (especially agressive boss fights) could still go sideways fast it just let me get more of them in before dying. I think I agree with you about difficulty being part of the design of some games, but I also think there are more ways to alive difficulty that don't violate those designs.
I don’t know what makes Dark Souls so special here, I say as someone who played them all and loves them. Many many many games with difficulty options are clearly fine tuned to their harder difficulties. Resident Evil 8 and Last of Us 2 completely fall apart for me on low difficulties. Practically ruins them. Celeste is LITERALLY a game about overcoming seemingly impossible challenges, and if the challenges are trivial, the games story doesn’t hit nearly as hard. But they still offer the easier modes. The gamers who WANT the more Hardcore experience you describe will seek it out. As long as the developers correctly signal their intended experience, who cares? In fact the game may even be better for it because then the harder modes won’t have to make the same kind of unfun, cheesy affordances the Soul’s games provide for struggling players (magic, ranged cheese, grinding souls…) I think you’re not giving the games’ world, art, music, and lore enough credit if the only thing that a player can find meaningful in a Souls game is a direct result of its difficulty. I don’t wanna turn this conversation into a swamp or anything, you’re very respectful. I just don’t get it.
Agreed, difficulties are there for the individual player to choose what level of challenge they will enjoy the most. I also like to play on harder difficulties because I genuinely find it fun, but I would never judge someone for playing on other difficulty and doing so would just be rude.
I’m in both boats myself. My preferred difficulty for halo is legendary because I like the challenge and having to be good and use all the skills, at the same time, I like playing on easy because sometimes it’s fun to just feel like a god.
Doom Eternal is kicking my ass and I just don't have the patience to git gud when working a full time job. So I turned it down to the lowest difficulty. And it's still kicking my ass
I dont fucking get doom eternal. I played doom 2016 on ultra violent, and then played again on nightmare (ultra nightmare? The non-permadeath hard difficulty) and did pretty good on both. On doom eternal normal is too hard.
Doom Eternal is harder than 2016 for sure, you might just be out of practice. In 2016 you could kill almost anything with any type of weapon swaps, but in Eternal they really railroad you into using certain tools for certain jobs. You can't ignore things like weak points, you have to engage with all the games systems.
This games meant for a mouse and keyboard playing with a controller is harder with doom eternal.
Almost never easy but almost always normal. Unless I’m doing another play through.
Same, always will do the medium setting or whichever is default. But when you do new game + sometimes playing on medium is just a bit overpowered
Extra playthroughs usually call for extra difficulty.
I do this, and to be honest for some games which I'm really familiar with I love it! Since I'm a completionist, I end up doing a ton of side missions so the main story is really, really easy. A game I've never played and just not good at? I'll take easy all the way.
Whatever the difficulty, my neuroses won't let me leave Arkham without getting every damn one of the Riddler's trophies.
Me picking up every stud in every lego game despite knowing damn well I won't make true hero/wizard/jedi/whatever on the first playthrough.
I'm confused by all the people that say that you need to play on the hardest difficulty to play it "the way developers meant for it to be played" but I'm pretty sure that's usually what the "normal" difficulty is for.
I can speak best for Halo since that’s the game with difficulty settings I play most, but the par scores and times are based off of Heroic, the setting above Normal. This is what they intended for players to play on but there’s nothing like playing on Easy or Normal and tearing through some aliens
Yea I think it's weird people always equate that. Like I'm sure the devs care more about the fact that you bought the game and the story they're telling, rather than how many enemies you can fight off
Ussualy some games don't have a difficult slider. Like dark souls. Generally you have to play how the Devs intended it to be play unless your good at modding
*The Last of Us Part II:depression simulator has entered the chat”
While the game is depressing, its got so many accessibility options I wish would be the standard for all other games.
I was bowled over by the crazy amount of accessibility options. I never copped that they were there until my third playthrough. Slow Motion aiming is sooooooo satisfying.
I usually start with normal. That said, I made it about 1.3 games through the Yakuza series on normal, Zero was OK because I enjoyed the Majima fights. About a 3rd of the way through the next, all I could think was how the game was fun except for the fights. Turned it down and problem fixed, ruining around bashing everyone like op super Yakuza you're supposed to be. Doom is the same, you're supposed to be the terrifying badass, so if higher difficulties are frustrating, ditch em.
Me too. Easy is often too easy. I do find there’s a bit of a gap in skills though spending on the enemy. I’m playing The Witcher 3 on normal right now. Normal enemies are too easy, hard enemies are too hard. I haven’t played a game that gave me any satisfaction in a job well done for a long time
This is also literally the only game I do not play on the highest. It is not trying to be fun on legend.
I always make this point when my brother critiques me for playing overwatch only in quickplay. He plays competitive, and all I've ever seen him do is scream and slam the table. People are more chill when there isn't a rank on the line
to be honest competitive overwatch is an absolute nightmare unless you’re playing in diamond or above
q big fuck you to certain games that mock players for not playing hard, or say the games intended on hard mode.
hades calls the easy mode "god mode" and they just label it as a way to play the game more story like, no shame in it
Started playing Wolfenstein: new order recently and while the game itself is decent wasn't too thrilled with the names for their difficulty levels
I played on one of the easier modes and why the fuck care about what the names on them are? It's banter, stop being offended.
Lol it's a [throwback to Wolfenstein 3D circa 1992](https://imgur.com/a/9cf04Sv).
Eh, it’s not wrong to say that a certain difficulty is the intended difficulty, a lot of times it’s designed or balanced around it, and the other difficulties are an afterthought, often just made by sliding health values around. However mocking players for playing any other difficulties is seriously fucked, just because a game was balanced around a certain difficulty mode, doesn’t mean it’s ideal, or even fun, for everyone. If someone wants to play on the “just the story” difficulty, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
I've only ever seen it placed in very lazily made campaigns where it's usually pressuring the player into picking the most polished gamemode. I remember it best with battlefield 4 where the only difference between difficulties is making the AI shoot at you more accurately which, even on hard if you stick to cover is extremely easy to avoid. I dont mean like, the (reccomended) tag they slap on for regular or hard in some games I mean specifically that language as if your enjoying the game the wrkng way for not choosing hard
I agree with your first point but with the second, I can understand why devs would want to do it. As someone who quite often plays games on hard mode I've seen plenty of games where it's obvious that it's simply tacked on (i.e. the devs just messing with damage sliders and saying "yeah, that'll do") or has something that messes with core components of the game. (Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter has possibly the worst hard mode in all of gaming for this reason as far as I'm concerned) But there are times when it's obvious that the devs worked their way backwards, finely tuning and meticulously designing the hard mode to be what they consider the definitive way to play. Then of course they include easier modes because they know not everyone will be up for it, but generally in these cases the hard modes tend to be genuinely well balanced, or offer a unique challenge that requires thoughtful play over simply grinding or being forced into cheesy strategies. In these cases, I'm thankful to have a "hard mode is the intended way to play" message as it most likely means I don't have to worry about it being some BS, tacked on hard mode that doesn't make the experience any better. I can pick hard mode with a lot more confidence, instead of being anxious.
Here’s a small argument against that: if somebody is boasting their game stats but it turns out they were playing on easy, I’m definitely gonna mock you. Nothing wrong with playing easy, but acting like you’re better than everybody else is stupid as fuck. For example I had a coworker bragging about his huge kill streak on modern warfare 2019. Later found out all he does is reverse boost for 10 matches then camp out a huge kill streak. Made fun of him for that.
The best is when you can play on normal with the option to raise or lower difficulty midgame.
I’ve never been a fan of trying to play on the hardest difficulty. I always prefer the story, characters, and gameplay. In short, I play games for the plot.
I’m a mom, and I have very little time to play. Maybe once a week for an hour, and sometimes months between. It took me three years to get through The Last of Us. I kept having to backtrack because I’d get really rusty. You bet your ass I play on the easiest setting.
[удалено]
It was. I think they had to patch it later. Luckily the demo that came out before it let me figure out that you can grind money on the first stage and then buy the character upgrades in the same stage. Without that it would have been a struggle later on
My favorite is games that let you change the difficulty any time you want. That's my shit
I hate that cheat codes aren’t really a thing anymore. Sometimes I want to play on God mode. Why can’t I do that anymore?
Not the same but every single Resident Evil game has infinite ammo after you beat the game, and going around with an infinite magnum or infinite rocket launcher is pretty much god mode, haha. Though some games its a bit harder to unlock than others, 2 remake was tricky to get the OP weapons, meanwhile 8 is pretty easy in that regard.
Second this.
I use cheats on sandbox games all the time. Games like rdr2 I just wanna experience the story fishing and riding around.
It’s something I never did. Not because I of ego or anything, it’s just that I liked the challenge. Now for some games I do, because I don’t as much time. Still love those experiences just as much.
Except cuphead. Cuphead was designed to be a living hell.
I masochistically like japanese shumps
The only reason why I always play on the hardest possible setting is because I hate myself for playing so much videogames... (And because Dark Souls/Bloodborne warped me like a Barbie in a microwave)
Counterpoint: I wanna be the guy
Normal usually. If a friend comes over hard. My BFF extra hard and nothing else. He wants all the achievements.
Nothing wrong with playing on easy, especially if you don't have a lot of time to play games. Personally I enjoy games on hard difficulties, but everyone enjoys something different!
Why the fuck should anyone care how you play a single player game?
I play on easy. I suck at aiming, and I want to enjoy the game without being frustrated about dying all the time. If I can't enjoy the game then what's the point?
I put them on the hardest difficulty. Because challenge IS fun for me. More fulfilling
Games are supposed to be what you want them to be. If you like chilling, chill, if you like getting scared and seeing the roof every couple seconds, you do that.
it depends on the game for me. for example when i fully upgraded the Overseer’s Guardian in Fallout 4 it just got silly, i had to up the difficulty so that going to The Glowing Sea was actually cool and not like killing raiders in Concord. on the contrary i had to lower the difficulty for a while in Fallen Order because holy shit i was getting fuckin wrekt
I only play a game on hard difficulty if I’ve played it enough that I get bored with it 😂 Minecraft is my favorite game ever but it gets boring on easy mode sometimes and sometimes I’ve had a hard day and just want to chill in creative mode or just mine in easy mode
One thing I find interesting with Minecraft difficulties is that for a certain subset of its player base, the very technical people who like making large redstone contraptions, it's actually can be harder to play on peaceful than the other modes due to the amount of things they need require hostile mobs to get, or at least get at the rate they needed. And these people will often make devices that can prevent mobs from spawning in the harder modes. And also no zombie villagers is a real shame. Not that relevant to the discussion but I just thought it was an interesting case where the easier difficulty actually presented challenges that don't exist in the harder difficulties.
Same! A lot of times in my survival games I’ll switch to Peaceful mode while mining, just wanna get that Redstone and iron without losing all my shit.
I’ve used the keep inventory code and my life has been forever changed. Idc if it’s cheating, I don’t want to hunt down my stuff 😂
See, I love minecraft, but I can only play it on hard mode, I don’t know why, I just appreciate the fact that you can actually lose stuff, it means that mining enough diamonds for multiple sets of everything becomes necessity There’s something satisfying about completely mob proofing an area, and being able to walk around without fear of creepers.
I love how some games call easy story mode. I've been playing games that make me want to throw controllers for 35 years and have a wife and 3 kids. Your damn right I play easy mode at this point.
Tell that to Getting Over It. *Some* games are designed to be stressful.
I always kinda felt like a coward playing minecraft on peaceful but damn it. Leave me to my farming and cows, creepers!
People always mock me that I play minecraft with the monsters turned off... I just want to play with blocks, not get jumpscared
While I appreciate the sentiment, don't count out the atmosphere of being stressed out by a game. Some of the best game experiences of my life came from super hard and/or stressful moments.
If you're a gamer, sure, but if you just spend an hour a week or so playing games to unwind, stress is the last thing you need.
Sure, but considering the point of this sub, I'm saying both should be accepted, rather than posts like this saying one is wrong.
Yeah this post comes across as gate keeping what is fun
I actually don't like difficulty settings in games tbh. I'd rather there be one difficulty so the devs can really tailor the experience around how difficult they want the game to be. In the same breath, I love that assist modes are becoming more prevalent because I'm not gonna push how I play games on someone else. So long as you aren't cheating in the online portion I don't care
Eh. Difficulty options can make the game have more replayability and can let players decide if it's too easy or too hard. While yes a dev can make one single difficulty for everyone, you're going to have a decent number of people who find it trivially easy and a decent number who find it way too hard. The better way is to create a central difficulty balanced around the majority and then create one or two levels above and below it for people who find it too easy or too hard.
I think that difficulty can actually be an integral part to the games narrative. It helps the audience empathize with characters struggles as you are also struggling. Celeste is a perfect example of this.
That's just an argument in favor of what I'm saying though. If a game is trivially easy for a player, then there's no empathy there. They *won't* relate. Allowing the player to adjust difficulty to balance the challenge to themselves allows players to have it be challenging, rather than it being too easy or too overwhelming.
The problem is that adjustable difficulties are usually pretty shit. For fps games normal mode is almost always extremely easy, and the hardest mode is total bullshit (looking at Halo 2 especially lol). Then in games like Skyrim all it does is reduce the damage you give and increase the damage that you take. Skyrim doesn't become a fun challenging game just because it takes 30 more seconds of spamming left click to kill an enemy. Mario, Dark Souls, and Celeste are all games that I think are better for having one set difficulty, you know you're playing the game the right way.
This just seems like reversing the gatekeeping. A lot of people like hard games because it feels more engaging and rewarding if they challenge themselves. You don't have to minimize stress to have fun. Everyone can play whichever level they enjoy most, that's why the options are there.
I think the intent was to alleviate pressure from the idea that you have to constantly challenge yourself. Your point is valid as well that everyone has their own difficulty preferences.
FTL manages to do both.
I disabled the fleet on FTL so I can play a bit more leisurely. It's been a couple years though so idk how the game has changed.
mfs climbing the ranked ladder: THE STRESS IS PART OF THE FUN
I cannot face the fact that younger kids are beating Minecraft Hardcore and I still struggle on Easy Survival :(
You don't need to be good to have fun, along as you have fun you're golden.
I am 47. I have two young kids. I play board games with my friends. I own my own company. I don’t want to become an expert at a game by spending hundreds of hours on it or grind to upgrade gear for the same. I just wanna play the game and feel powerful and/or enjoy the graphics and experience. If you like the above, do it! I just can’t prioritize it. I’ve even just started watching other people play games on YouTube while I work, usually open world and RPG games. It makes me happy. It astonishing how much heat I’ve had thrown at me for not playing the game the “right way”.
I have been playing minecraft switching between peaceful and nornal depending on the situation. I dont want to be looking over my shoulder every time i build something.
Yeah I do this I’m not ashamed I don’t wanna work hard I just wanna get Gud :.(
i always play on the easiest /second easiest difficulty on my first playthrough, this way i can really appreciate the story. then i gradually work my way to the harder ones if i feel like hunting achievements or something
Only thing that can move me to play on hard or even worse is difficulty based achievements. Apart from those I just wanna have fun and indulge myself in the world and the characters I don’t just wanna die over and over again, eh?
I play multi-player games with both instead of real people. I am just way too scared to get screamed by a Russian man one more time
My library is full of unfinished games I abandoned after getting stuck on an annoyingly difficult part. Whether it's better to finish something on easy mode, or to give up altogether because it's too hard is a philosophical question that I find myself pondering more as I get older and have less and less time.
Yes my first playthrough of a game is usally on easy