#006: Hard Work

[The Wooster]

#006: Hard Work

In search of glories past.

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[RJ 17]

Oh...great...another - ahem - "window" that prevents the quote and preview functions from working...fan-frickin'-tastic...

Anyways:
To paraphrase Egoraptor: "All you do is jump and shoot, jump and shoot...shoulda called it Jump'n'Shootin' Man!"

I recently had a similar experience regarding the classic NES DuckTales game. I specifically remember being a master at that game when I was a kid. I knew were all the secret treasures were that let you unlock the secret final boss at the end of the game and everything! My nephews inherited my older brother's NES and, amazingly, it still actually works. I was babysitting them over the weekend a couple weeks back and they wanted me to play some DuckTales so they could watch.

.......it was humiliating...I couldn't even get past the Amazon level without getting my ass completely handed to me.

 

[rasta111]

Hey, not all modern games are that easy, I think the problem here is that over the years as video games have turned into a massive industry the developers have been encouraged to make their games more how shall we say 'sell-able'... In the old days development was more small time with just developers making games they thought would be fun... Somehow this quite often translates into ridiculously difficult by today's standards.

Speculation of course but some modern games live up to the old ways... Devil May Cry 3 for example, although it still shows in that they add in easy modes and settings to make the game itself easier but what's really wrong with that? Still they are rarer and rarer still these days...

I certainly get how games start to feel like work instead of entertainment... Could have something to do with so many people who actually try and make a living just playing games on streams and things like that. It's almost like they're voluntarily turning them into work... Somehow. I can hardly enjoy games anymore myself it can be so depressing... Feels like a really long time since I bothered with ANY game in fact. Make of all that what you will.

 

[gigastar]

Speculation of course but some modern games live up to the old ways... Devil May Cry 3 for example, although it still shows in that they add in easy modes and settings to make the game itself easier but what's really wrong with that?

Worth pointing out that while DMC3 did have an easy mode, you had to die a certain number of times to unlock it.

DMC4 played it straighter though, with the obnoxious dynamic difficulty in boss fights.

 

[nyysjan]

While games have gotten easier, i'd say lot of it has come due to less because of any vision of profit motive, and more because of better technology, better controls and UI's (though some is due to wanting to sell more games for more money to more people for more profit).

Which isn't to say games could not be harder, but often when a game is "hard" it is less due to any skill requirement, and more due to randomnes, also, bad or unresponsive UI, i should be fighting the enemies, not the game itself.

 

[shrekfan246]

M-m-m-modern games?!!?!?!?


AIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

[sub][sub]Full disclosure: shrekfan246 is a casual scrub who largely prefers the average difficulty of games released post-2000, and thinks that many retro games have an issue of getting away with being only two hours long at most once you know how to play because they had the difficulty curves of a space shuttle launch.[/sub][/sub]

 

[Gorrath]

Well, one of the reasons modern games seem less difficult is that they dropped one of the most annoying mechanics that old games often came stock-standard with - extra lives. Extra lives were a needless holdover from arcade games where sucking quarters from you was paramount and really had no place or use in console games except to ramp up the difficulty. Imagine Mega-Man if you had unlimited lives and checkpoints in four places on every level? The difficulty would plummet! Now imagine your first bunch of times playing through harder sections of Gears of War if, when you died a few times, you had to start the whole game over. Kinda puts things into perspective.

 

[Amir Kondori]

Anyone who thinks modern games are too easy should play some Nuclear Throne. It is a rogue-lite of course, but all action and super fun to play. Just be prepared to die a lot.

 

[And Man]

I'd argue that most older games had to be difficult, otherwise you would be able to beat them in a single afternoon (cue The Order jokes)

 

[Shadowstar38]

Oh...great...another - ahem - "window" that prevents the quote and preview functions from working...fan-frickin'-tastic...

Anyways:
To paraphrase Egoraptor: "All you do is jump and shoot, jump and shoot...shoulda called it Jump'n'Shootin' Man!"

I recently had a similar experience regarding the classic NES DuckTales game. I specifically remember being a master at that game when I was a kid. I knew were all the secret treasures were that let you unlock the secret final boss at the end of the game and everything! My nephews inherited my older brother's NES and, amazingly, it still actually works. I was babysitting them over the weekend a couple weeks back and they wanted me to play some DuckTales so they could watch.

.......it was humiliating...I couldn't even get past the Amazon level without getting my ass completely handed to me.

That sounds completely backwards to how it worked for me. I remember not being able to get past the first level of megaman when I was little. Nowadays I can crush at least a few levels because of the patience and gaming experience I've gained over the years.

 

[Hugga_Bear]

Well, one of the reasons modern games seem less difficult is that they dropped one of the most annoying mechanics that old games often came stock-standard with - extra lives. Extra lives were a needless holdover from arcade games where sucking quarters from you was paramount and really had no place or use in console games except to ramp up the difficulty. Imagine Mega-Man if you had unlimited lives and checkpoints in four places on every level? The difficulty would plummet! Now imagine your first bunch of times playing through harder sections of Gears of War if, when you died a few times, you had to start the whole game over. Kinda puts things into perspective.

Agreed, I don't really understand the clamour for the games of yesteryear. I played the games of yesteryear, they were frustrating messes in comparison to most modern titles. I love challenge, not difficulty, hence I adore games like Dark Souls which reward careful study and understanding. Being a master of most of my Megadrive games meant knowing exactly where all the offscreen kills come from and such things, being competent at Dark Souls means understanding the pattern of movements...

In other words, I feel that the 'mastery' of old games was pure repetition in a lot of ways, if a new level arose on The Lion King then it would be extremely frustrating even for an experienced individual. A new level on a Dark Souls game shouldn't be too damning. Indeed, my playing of the DLC's for 1 and 2 confirm this for me, I rarely died and then only because I was being silly or not planning ahead. (or Kalameet. Fuck that guy)

I think a good but challenging game allows you to master the mechanics themselves, not the timing of events within the game.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Well, one of the reasons modern games seem less difficult is that they dropped one of the most annoying mechanics that old games often came stock-standard with - extra lives. Extra lives were a needless holdover from arcade games where sucking quarters from you was paramount and really had no place or use in console games except to ramp up the difficulty. Imagine Mega-Man if you had unlimited lives and checkpoints in four places on every level? The difficulty would plummet! Now imagine your first bunch of times playing through harder sections of Gears of War if, when you died a few times, you had to start the whole game over. Kinda puts things into perspective.

Makes me think of that psp game, " Prinny: can i really be the hero" the disgaea spinoff game with the prinnies. It was a playformer and you had 1000 lives. But if you ( somehow) lost all 1000 it was game over. The normal mode had a "3 hit rule" where you lost a life for every 3 hits you took and in hard mode you died if you got hit once. It was a really fun game. I recommend it to anyone who likes platformers. I managed to beat it on normal and on hard. While on hard i had about 300 lives left when i beat the final ( not secret) boss.

 

[SweetShark]

Now this i'm really interested in ... seeing her play modern games. This comic is really showing potential and I look forward to the next one guys ... well now that I think about it, does Erin die at the end? Because the series is called Erin Dies Alone ....

...... That would be a sucker punch man.

Well, maybe Erin Die Alone mean in the videogames.
We will not see Erin Die in real life, but we see Erin dying all the time alone in a videogame, because, well, the Rad Panda is a hallucination of hers.
But I hope to be wrong an Rad Panda is a real person in disguise to help her.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

M-m-m-modern games?!!?!?!?


AIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

[sub][sub]Full disclosure: shrekfan246 is a casual scrub who largely prefers the average difficulty of games released post-2000, and thinks that many retro games have an issue of getting away with being only two hours long at most once you know how to play because they had the difficulty curves of a space shuttle launch.[/sub][/sub]

That had to be though. Back in the early 90s (or the 'good-old-days') games didn't have saves. You couldn't do two zones of Streets of Rage, pop in a save and come back to it after you'd done your homework. Games were short because the technology at the time required them to be. That it turn lead to the thumb-callousing difficulty because if a game was two hours start to finish it needed some mechanic in place to stop everybody being able to complete it on day of purchase.

 

[shrekfan246]

M-m-m-modern games?!!?!?!?


AIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

[sub][sub]Full disclosure: shrekfan246 is a casual scrub who largely prefers the average difficulty of games released post-2000, and thinks that many retro games have an issue of getting away with being only two hours long at most once you know how to play because they had the difficulty curves of a space shuttle launch.[/sub][/sub]

That had to be though. Back in the early 90s (or the 'good-old-days') games didn't have saves. You couldn't do two zones of Streets of Rage, pop in a save and come back to it after you'd done your homework. Games were short because the technology at the time required them to be. That it turn lead to the thumb-callousing difficulty because if a game was two hours start to finish it needed some mechanic in place to stop everybody being able to complete it on day of purchase.

I thought that for a while myself because I grew up with the Sega Genesis and the first game I ever played that had saves was Sonic 3, but as I've been exposed to more and more games via watching Youtubers, it has come to my attention that many more games than I thought on the SNES and even a few on the NES did in fact have save systems.

Most of them tended to be RPG-ish, sure, but some games like Donkey Kong Country even had functional save systems.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

>snip<

That had to be though. Back in the early 90s (or the 'good-old-days') games didn't have saves. You couldn't do two zones of Streets of Rage, pop in a save and come back to it after you'd done your homework. Games were short because the technology at the time required them to be. That it turn lead to the thumb-callousing difficulty because if a game was two hours start to finish it needed some mechanic in place to stop everybody being able to complete it on day of purchase.

I thought that for a while myself because I grew up with the Sega Genesis and the first game I ever played that had saves was Sonic 3, but as I've been exposed to more and more games via watching Youtubers, it has come to my attention that many more games than I thought on the SNES and even a few on the NES did in fact have save systems.

Most of them tended to be RPG-ish, sure, but some games like Donkey Kong Country even had functional save systems.

You're right about the SNES, but most of the famously difficult games come from the earlier NES and Sega Master System days. There are always exceptions (and they're usually RPGs) but most Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Atari ST games didn't have saves. By the mid 90s saves were becoming more and more common, but certainly during the late 80s early 90s they were very rare indeed. Even PC games from this era didn't really have saves, just simple level codes that allowed a new game to be started from the last level beaten.

 

[Skeleon]

Okay, at least the "games" that she plays are all ridiculously easy to identify. Personally, I preferred Mightyguy Y over the main series (also known as Stoneperson Y in Japan, I believe), but then that was the first title I got introduced to.

Also, modern games? Where you walk from mission marker to mission marker through a tight, linear corridor? I dunno, that will not really help Erin get better. Worse, probably. Unless the modern games in question are stuff like Super Meatboy, The Binding of Isaac, Rex Rocket, Don't Starve, Dark Souls etc.?

 

[FPLOON]

If I learned anything from Jim Fucking Sterling son, it's that modern video games give you that new kind of challenge if you're willing to find it... or something like that...

 

[Skeleon]

... well now that I think about it, does Erin die at the end? Because the series is called Erin Dies Alone ....

...... That would be a sucker punch man.

In the end, all of us die alone, even if surrounded by friends and family when it happens. All of us face the eternal darkness on our own. The best we can hope for is for it to arrive quickly when it does, rather than slowly, painfully, drawn-out.
So, really, the title could mean that she dies in 70 years, after having a great career that's compatible with a happy family life!
Was what I just said crushing or uplifting? I'm not sure.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Spoiler: Nooo...

Not...

Modern Games!?!

That's just... Don't do it Erin!