squid5580 said:
You seem like a rational person so maybe you can explain why you are opposed to the "win" button as Susan described if it wouldn't affect you. It isn't like such a function would be in all modes just easy and optional. I can understand saying no way if it was in all modes of all games and there was no way around it. I just don't understand the opposition over something that is available but optional.
I'm not against the WIN button (or some definitions of it anyway), like I said, I use trainers and cheats my selfm if and when I feel like it. The argument with Susan was about getting into bigger AAA and hardcore games as newbies, making them "accessible" to the more casual crowd, learning the controls like analog sticks on the console controllers, learning core gameplay elements in different genres, etc. But in some games, the "What should I do?" button defeats the purpose, when the game's goal is find that out yourself, like in certain adventure games and RPGs. At some point in the game, you might get stuck, that what walkthroughs are for, it's not a new concept. But when it's incorporated into the game, new players tend to overuse that feature, rather than try to actually think. And in some games, even that button is pointless, when there are multiple choices and different ways to complete the game, based on your decisions. When the game tells you exactly what to do (in a game where the goal is for you to think), it becomes a simple game of "Simon says", going from point A to B without any effort on the player's part.
That's the problem with god modes and all-access cheats. In some games, it might be even considerable to use them, but, again, in some games, it defeats the purpose, when the game's main concept is to try and stay alive, like in survival games. Sure, you can god mode yourself through Silent Hill 2, but takes the Silent Hill out of the game.
So, yes, these things have a place in games, but enforcing minimal use would be a good idea to prevent the abuse thereby prevent the players to ruin the game for themselves, since games get entirely different when you play with cheats. It's a double-edged sword, because if the new players get used to these crutches and constant help, cheats, they end up depending on them, and they will never learn to play for real. They won't experience any game the way the creators intended, and they will constantly play a different (bleaker, watered down) game, and never experience the "real" deal. Like they say, give the man a fish, and he is fed for one day, teach him to fish and he is fed for the rest of his life.
Remember, back 10 years ago, easy difficulty wasn't even that easy, you had to try your best to complete them, and even then, some games scolded or ridiculed you for playing on easy mode, and totally scorned you for using cheats, labeling you a cheater and you wouldn't get your score (like in Blood 3D). You had incentive to try and play on your own, in normal mode. In adventure games, if you got stuck, without internet, you had no access to walkthoughs, you had no other choice but pixel-hunting and rubbing every inventory item against everything to see if anything happens. And don't get me started on RPGs, simulators and strategy games. THE HORROR!
Yes, these games were difficult to play, let alone master, but once you did, that tremendous sense of victory and accomplishment was our compensation, our trophy. Once you finally won that two hour long battle in StarCraft, once you managed to defeat Diablo in nightmare difficulty after the 1000th try, it's priceless. Lame and arbitrary achievement points and gamescores cannot compete with that. And these WIN button elements just discourage effort IMHO.
