Fearzone said:
Easy, Medium, Hard levels gets the job done.
I like the way MMOs do things though...In other words, set the basic game at easy, and then have medium, hard, and very hard optional side games, that reward you with some gear or some trinket you can use to show off your leetness.
That is a good idea, though I think the various difficulties would be easier to implement. The "difficult side challenges" means that developers would have to make more content for their games. It would work for MMOs as quantity seems to be preferred over quality, though maybe not so much with single player games.
However I can think of games that go that route as well to increase their difficulty with side challenges while keeping the main game easy. "Final Fantasy 7" with the "weapon bosses" are one example.
@Yahtzee: I'll admit that watching your video on "Demon's Souls" (DS) was infuriating on my end, and I haven't even played the game. But I do like dungeon crawlers and I believe a game should be a challenge. Suggesting that DS have a difficulty options at the beginning of the game is something I like to see in games as well, though arguing that the game wastes a person's time by killing them frequently is not easy to agree with.
As you stated Yahtzee that you have a limited amount of time to play a game before posting their review so time is an important factor, and being a critic you would have to find something to...well, criticize. However the argument of a "game wasting" time seems absurd as any game is a waste of time, at least that is what all parents say to their kids. You said it yourself that MMOs like "Age of Conan" appear to distract you from washing the gimp or writing a novel--though I think that argument could be applied to any video game, or conventional games like "tag".
Criticizing a game because it is hard is also something difficult to believe as I think games should provide a challenge. Yes a game could be frustrating to the point that it may make you eat your fedora hat and then regret it when you head toward the toilet, but challenge is there to make the player learn how they work and overcome them. Some people here made some points that you could dodge better in the game with specified gear or realize the dragon on the bridge by the detail of charred bodies. It sounds like the clues were there in the game and, in time, would allow you to eventually overcome the challenges Yahtzee. However not picking up the clues to solve a challenge can make anything frustrating, as any student that overslept a lecture in an Algebra class on how to easily solve problems on the test next week could point out.
It's a good read, Yahtzee, though I still find points in the article and in the "Zero Punctuation" disagreeable on this end. Labeling a game as bad for wasting time seems silly as any game could be a waste of time (along with movies and reading entertainment books, though I wouldn't want those to go). Also criticizing a game for being difficult just makes you look...well, like you haven't tried learning what to do with those challenging scenarios.
