You're an absolutist. You think you know how every game should be and you're unwilling to consider alternatives, forever-and-ever AMEN. You are appealing to people's prejudices and their emotional sense of victimization. All that you have neglected is reason and fairness.
Your dismissal of people who don't want the game to have Easy Mode because you think they are elitist is CLOSE-MINDED because it is obviously preventing you from considering other possibilities. You are like the religious zealot who doesn't explore alternative explanations to natural phenomena because you think you have ALL the answers. First, why are you even speaking your mind on this topic only to immediately admit you have no knowledge of the subject matter? Your assumption that not wanting an easy mode in Dark Souls is rooted in elitism betrays your ignorance of that series and it's intentions and goals. It reflects a closed-minded attitude because you think you know how all games should be and are unwilling to learn what Dark Souls has to teach. You should have shown both sides about this topic. That you didn't suggests to me you don't know what you're talking about.
"Many gamers aren't into games that set out to flagellate and..."
Why does EVERY game need to cater to this audience, or indeed to ANY particular audience? NO game that costs money is allowed to be hard? Never? None? No matter what? And if I disagree, it can only be because I'm trying to exclude people? What the actual fuck? I never DEMANDED that EVERY game be changed to suit my tastes and condemned every single one that didn't. What gives anyone the right to corner the market like that? It's not fair.
"Did an Easy Mode matter to you?"
YES. Dark Soul's difficulty is not incidental. Dark Souls is not a game that just happens to be hard. What you are asking, whether you realize it or not, is comparable to demanding Infinity Ward put a fully featured Turn Based Strategy game in the next Call of Duty, and then acting scandalized when Call of Duty vets think it's a bad idea. Why can't we just leave the developers of this series to pursue the model they established in the first two titles?
Second, this game relies heavily on innovative community features. The fact that everyone is given the same content to explore is INTEGRAL to keeping those feature relevant.
Third, Dark Souls is designed from the ground up to instill a SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT. Putting an easy version of Capra Demon into the game turns Capra Demon from a MEANINGFUL obstacle into a TRIVIAL one and an artificial one of the player's own creation. That breaks the tension of the experience and the sense of accomplishment of it. In any other game, that would be a good trade off. DARK SOULS IS NOT THOSE GAMES. Everything is specifically designed around it's core design focus. What the fuck is wrong with that?
"Mad at the idea a game they liked could be enjoyed by more people".
How about you stop making up bullshit and do a little research next time? This is ridiculous. You should be informing the ignorant, not expanding the population. Why is it so offensive for a game to exist that does not cater to any one particular audience? This is not that complicated. People are just too stuck in their ways and unwilling to consider an alternative way of doing things. This is EXACTLY why we never get anything truly outside-the-box. Let's be perfectly honest. You perceived elitism and reacted without giving the topic a moment's thought.
The Mario comparison is spurious and ridiculous. And unnecessary. Lots of games have easy mode, because the difficulty isn't a core design technique those developers are utilizing to craft an experience. The difficulty of Mario, or say, Skyrim, is essential to the experience but it does not DEFINE the experience.
Thinking that making something optional means it doesn't matter to people who choose not to take advantage of it is an obvious mistake and a misunderstanding of how games work. There is such a thing as tension, you know. There is a good reason the Xbox controller doesn't come with a button dedicated to automatically beating whatever level you are on in whatever game you may be playing, even though using the button would surely be an OPTIONAL OPTIONAL OPTIONAL OPTIONAL OPTIONAL OPTIONAL OPTIONAL OPTION. Ironically it is Mr. Jim Sterling who is being absolutist and black-and-white about this, though I have no doubt he doesn't realize it. He's effectively saying he knows the way that all games should be and isn't interested in alternatives. He doesn't even want to hear your argument. He just says fuck you, you're a childish D-bag, you're an asshole, you're an elitist, I don't want to hear it LA LA LA LA LA.
THERE ARE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE IRONY.
This is absolutely the last straw for Jimquisition. It's regularly uninformed but this is just too much. This hateful, ignorant, insulting diatribe is the absolute worst forum troll nonsense I have ever seen as official escapist content save MovieBob.
For anyone who is willing to put aside their prejudices long enough to be informed about this topic:
And a thread from the escapist: [link]http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.392886-Dark-Souls-an-experiment-in-logic[/link]