Poll: Do you lower the difficulty setting if you find a game too hard? (Somewhat Skyrim related)

[TheDrunkNinja]

Yeah, I've been dying a lot in Skyrim. I swear, killing the first dragon took me four times. My character gets overwhelmed easily when there are more than three enemies attacking, and having a companion only helps in the most mild manner. So about half way through, I had had enough and decided to change all that.

So, I ramped up the difficulty to Expert and am content to stay there.

See, the way I play RPGs is that I am a HUGE pack-rat with my equipment. I always have this set quota of just how much I should be using--whether it's potions, poisons, soul gems, fully charged weapons. It's weird, but I'm just wired to play it safe, always saving powerful things with the "in case I need it later" mentality. I'm fighting with an ice troll with an unenchanted steel sword while I have a perfectly good fire-brand sword stored away so I don't waste it's charge on the troll in case a fucking DRAGON is over the next hill!!!

So yeah, if the difficulty is just on normal, everything will kick my ass because I'm subconsciously using bare minimum assets since I know it's on normal and, therefore, manageable. If it's on expert, though, every moderate encounter will feel practically like a boss fight. I'm more inclined to use that potion of poison resistance against that giant spider since it's fucking impossible to fight without it.

I wonder if anyone else is just as anal about things like this as I am...

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

If it is brutally hard, and despite my best attempts to get by, I will lower the difficulty. However, I have to really lose a lot, like I feel like I have no chance in hell, and despite my attempts to do better, I still die.
On the other hand, if I am finding the game too easy, I will definitely raise the difficulty. I've already had to max Skyrim and I feel like I need some more mods for difficulty also.

 

[ViralBiae]

F**k no, I toughen up and take another crack from a different direction. Experiment until you find your path to success. You don't improve if you just make things easier when you're stuck and having trouble. And when you do succeed, the effort put into your trial makes the victory even sweeter.

What if you're in a no-win situation?

I know those words are in English, and that they form a sentence, but that may as well have been written in Swedish for all that I understood about it.

 

[afroebob]

No, I can't lower the difficulty. It makes me feel like a puss

 

[iamclockwork]

I always choose the hardest difficulty there is and never lower it. Just savor the challange!

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Playing on master difficulty as a mage. I actually don't mind getting killed over and over again, Dark Souls saw to that

I will turn the difficultly down if I'm getting one-shoted by some bandit with a warhammer multiple lives in a row. Usually I can get through with careful planning but at certain points its quicker to trade in my dignity for 20+ minutes and lower it to novice.

Any other game I won't change it.

 

[face_head_mouth]

I always play a game on Normal difficulty the first time through, under the assumption that the resulting experience will be closest to what the people who made the game intended. I figure that I can always replay the game on Hard later if the game is good enough to deserve it. However, I don't see anything wrong with those who decide to play on Easy; after all, why should I try to tell you how to have fun?

Back in the PS1 days, my cousin and I would sometimes play on Easy when we would rent a game to keep things moving (especially in single-player games, because it wasn't much fun for the person watching to see the person playing die over and over). Resident Evil 2 was one game I remember us playing on Easy (after retrying the first 10 minutes over and over for an hour or so).

 

[Orks da best]

always play on the easist diffculty, i play for fun, for me its fun to stomped things flat... only reason i would increase the diffculty is for an acivhment, other than that, stompy stompy stompy.

 

[chaos order]

Today, after dying several times in Skyrim, I've decided to lower the difficulty setting from Adept to Apprentice.Because frankly, even though I do like the occasional challenge, I play games to have fun. And if I'm getting really frustrated from playing a game, I'm not having fun, this kind thing of kills the experience for me.

So what about you guys? What games have you played that you lowered the difficulty setting mid-game and for what reason? Or do you like to increase the difficulty if a game is too easy?

just out of curiosity did you lower he difficulty at high hrothgar when you meet that troll

 

[Worgen]

I've only done it in one game in memory, heroes V (the normal game and the first expansion) and that is because its possible to play a map for a few hours and end up in an winnable fight if the enemy is allowed to build a really big army and they enemy has an easier time doing that on normal and did, I still feel bad about playing it on easy to, someday I will go back and play though it again on normal only.

 

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

Depends, if its one simple enemy, and I've tried a long to to kill it but keep failing, I'll lower the difficulty.

 

[MammothBlade]

Not usually, unless I'm not having fun or I absolutely can't proceed without lowering difficulty. It's a matter of fun. I don't enjoy crushing enemies without a challenge, nor do I like enemies having ridiculous advantages. There's this sweet spot between normal and extreme most of the time... hard, more challenging, but not punishingly so.

 

[WolfThomas]

Only if I'm stuck on a crap save and I can't pull off a victory after a few tries. It then goes back to the original and I feel a little guilty.

 

[captaincabbage]

F**k no, I toughen up and take another crack from a different direction. Experiment until you find your path to success. You don't improve if you just make things easier when you're stuck and having trouble. And when you do succeed, the effort put into your trial makes the victory even sweeter.

What if you're in a no-win situation?

I know those words are in English, and that they form a sentence, but that may as well have been written in Swedish for all that I understood about it.

Alrighty then, how about I give an example?
What if you were stuck in an area where all of the enemies have too much health, you have too little, your weapons are terrible and theirs seem to kick all manner of ass? A situation where no matter what you do, you're going to end up skewered on the end of something pointy. A situation where you cannot beat the odds.

 

[scorptatious]

Today, after dying several times in Skyrim, I've decided to lower the difficulty setting from Adept to Apprentice.Because frankly, even though I do like the occasional challenge, I play games to have fun. And if I'm getting really frustrated from playing a game, I'm not having fun, this kind thing of kills the experience for me.

So what about you guys? What games have you played that you lowered the difficulty setting mid-game and for what reason? Or do you like to increase the difficulty if a game is too easy?

just out of curiosity did you lower he difficulty at high hrothgar when you meet that troll

I've decided to lower my difficulty when I fought my first bear. It was outside of Ivarstead.

I've decided to bring the difficulty back up again. Apparently going off the beaten path and exploring really helps out in gaining experience. I've even gotten some Dwarven armor at Windhelm. So it's back to Adept difficulty for me.

 

[darkcalling]

I start every game on normal. If the game is kicking my butt after the first hour or so I drop it to easy. If I'm steamrolling everything I up it to hard. I like a challenge as much as the next guy but if i'm getting killed by the same stupid boss for an hour and a half that's not fun. Fun should come before unforgiving challenge.

 

[Wayneguard]

Today, after dying several times in Skyrim, I've decided to lower the difficulty setting from Adept to Apprentice.

Thank God. I thought it was only me who was dying in Skyrim. I guess Oblivion softened me up and got me used to having leveled enemies in every dungeon. I found some fucking cottage with a mage named Drelas at like level 10... holy shit did I get destroyed. I haven't lowered the difficulty just yet but Skyrim has definitely been challenging so far.

 

[Wayneguard]

[double post]

 

[CthulhuMessiah]

No. I crank it up.

Like a man.