The Rogue Wolf said:
That sounds like a valuable contribution to the list. How many times have we played a game on one mode, only to have the entire experience played our for us while missing on the aspects of challenge or difficulty that should be accompanying. When these new, aspiring gamers play into it, they get the whole deal, but don't come to understand part of the complication, the power, the captivation that beating the harder modes offers. Your idea would have a deep impact on that aspect, whereby leaving pieces out of the story or plot that are found in the harder modes, if they're so sought.
But I am wary of seeing these implemented, for the reasons that devs will get carried away with it, enabling you to skip whole segments of the game because it's a bit too challenging. Part of me thinks that that challenge is there for a reason, and that a lot of design went into making it that difficult. Some parts shouldn't allow skipping, or assistance, but should be more of a test of what you've learned. Midterms and finals are hard because they require effort to get through, to learn the material, as a proof of knowledge and skill, sort of thing. While hints should by all means be available, solving those portions is part of what makes those games as great as they are. Sometimes it's much better for the new gamers to overcome the problem on their own, so that they can do it at the next challenge, and the one after that, and so on--some of these devices would mean that the player who has trouble doing a multiple-bounce wall jump to get up to the next ledge would not learn to do the jump, but rely on the auto-gamer to do it for them. Part of what might get left behind in this rush to make the new crowd of gamers into ready-made gamers might be those important parts that each gamer needs to learn--our circle strafes, our specialized jumps and wall-hopping, our interactive interface points (grapple spots, information zones, radio checks, phone calls, etc). And let's not forget, part of what makes us better gamers after dying in the lava so many times is that when we finally master the timing of the jumps, spins, leaps, and platform physics and get to the objective without ending up a pile of burning carbon--and that's been our reward, that we have improved through necessity.
Remember Pitfall? How agonizing it was, falling into pits, being eaten by crocodiles, or jumping over a snake or scorpion only to realize that a tenth of your pixel was too close, and you died your pixelated death? And then, the next time--well, you probably died then, too, because it's a lot harder to jump over than you thought. But some point after that, you made it over the scorpion, past the snakes, jumped the logs, grabbed the vine without falling in the pit, and, whew, you made it to the end. You felt proud, and better than all of your previous other selves of moments passed, those swearing at a reptile made of a few black squares, those yelling "Jump, damn you, jump!" with all the ferocity of a tyrannosaur, those with eye-twitching frustrated nerves, those grasping the controller so hard they probably left an imprint. You had done it! You! Even after those despairing moments when things were darkest, and you wondered if it was even physically possible to jump on cue anymore, you had beaten it!
It's that feeling that is needed for us to become better gamers, and I'm afraid that while in trying to make gaming more accommodating to the new audience one of the causalities seen will be the challenge to make the effort necessary. Sometimes we need to sit there, get up on our own, and loudly proclaim "This shit will not beat me!". It's a matter of mixing that right amount of challenge, pride, arrogance, stubbornness, and curiosity to make sure that the game gets played as it should, and not just watched over as if they were scenes posted to youtube that you had to push a few buttons to watch. The pwn-ready gamers of today needed a swift kick in the pants and to be pushed down in the mud a few times before they could stand up and push back--and some of these options seem inclined to remove not only the pushing, but also the mud.
