Poll: Easy Mode

[DoPo]

Subjectively , i think people that play on easy are lazy . Play a game how it's meant to be played , pussies .

Yes, please tell me more on how games are "meant to be played" I love to know how people are wrong with no indication that what they are doing is wrong aside from some random guy shouting it.

I actually wander, do you regard people playing on hard to be "no lifers" (or whatever)? Since they too don't seem to play the game "how it's meant to be played".

OT: Meh, whatever. If an easy setting is there in a game, it doesn't bother me, if it's gone, I probably wouldn't mourn it. Although, I did play Torchlight 2 on Normal (which should be regarded as the Easy setting) and it was actually quite relaxing to just go and kill lots of things with little effort. However, when I played TL1 and it was too easy, it just bored me. So I dunno, maybe it also depends on the mood.

In a lot of games the "normal" option will have a description stating :" this is how the game was meant to be played". Has no one else seen this?

And in a lot of other games, there is no such description. And in other games, still there are descriptions for each difficulty setting describing when/where is it suitable for. Case in point, TL2, since I mentioned it already.

With that aside, is hard and similar not a proper way to play the game? Surely, people who choose that setting deserve some berating, the same way the Easy ones do.

 

[370999]

Onbjectively having an easy mode is good for new players and terrible players to get into a game .

Subjectively , i think people that play on easy are lazy . Play a game how it's meant to be played , pussies .

Surely if it includs an "easy" mode that is just as valid as the "normal" and "hard" difficultues? How, exactly do you determine on what difficulty the game is "meant" to be played?


I usually play on easy. Games are to relax. If I want more of a challenge the game difficulty goes up.

What does the word "normal" mean . Again that is just my opinion which isn't worth two squirts of piss . I left an "objective" reasoning for this exact reason.

So anyone who plays on "hard" isn't playing the game right?

Some advice, if you don't want your comments to be talked about don't post them. I find it hard to believe, that you couldn't predict that posting something midly provatice wasn't going to get a response.

 

[an annoyed writer]

I like having an easy mode. You see, when it comes to the games I like, I generally have the hand-eye coordination of a dead walrus that has balloons strapped to its arms (which is kinda ironic for someone who can draw pretty well), and sometimes an easy mode helps as a means of alleviating the issue. Sure, I might not get every achievement, but at least I get to see the end of the story (which despite what some will say, are actually getting better and better).

If there's something like a tangible reward for cranking up the difficulty (currently going through Halo 4 legendary for my retro Mark VI armor) then I'll do it. I just hate it when cranking up the difficulty makes your deaths feel cheaper than a dime-store. Like the end of Halo Reach. That fucking MAC cannon was the bullshittiest bullshit of the land of bullshit. I had to camp with a drop shield by the cannon until that covenant cruiser came into range just to have a chance of finishing the goddamn game. Trying to defend yourself against all of the phantoms there was like defending yourself against a horde of tanks with a Popsicle stick that you had to charge to swing. You're surrounded, you die in two hits, and you've got castlevania-1-whip-esque delay for every time you want to shoot.

The thing about difficulty in games is this: players like to feel like their deaths were their fault, not the fault of the game. We like to feel like it was our idiocy that led to our failure, rather than the game taking cheap shots. Different difficulty levels need to reflect the scenarios in the game, rather than just supercharge your enemy's health and weapons. I do believe some of the Metal Gear games did just this: More guards, that get better eyesight and combat capabilities as the difficulty is upped. They don't just get the "one hit kill cannon" and call it a day. They get smarter, more numerous, and more tactically capable. Difficulty rises because you have to be smarter about the situation.

 

[Doom972]

As long as I'm not forced to play it in order to unlock things (which up to this point has never been the case), I don't have a problem with the existence of the easy mode.
When I just started gaming, I would always pick the easy difficulty because I didn't have enough confidence in my gaming abilities yet. Once I played through enough games, I stopped using it. Now I tend to pick normal for strategy games and hard for anything else.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I would never play on easy mode but it is good that it is there. The more options for people to enjoy a game, the better.

 

[Jark212]

I think that easy mode is fun, I love playing as an unstoppable god of death.

 

[TheCommanders]

I usually play games that I'm playing exclusively for shits and giggles on easy, like Just Cause 2, or Saints Row. It's nice to have the option to just dick around in a game without having to try too hard.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

Man.

Remember when some games wouldn't let you get past a certain point if you had the game on easy?

Fuck you, Twisted Metal 2.

 

[Altorin]

I tend to play on normal, but I'm all about having fun when playing games, and tend to play with other people, so if a game is kicking our asses on normal, we may put it on easy.

It's all about the feeling of the game

 

[MorganL4]

Easy mode exists for the purpose of teaching people to play a game. For example: the original Halo effectively built the standard for FPS on the Xbox.... at that time many people had never played an FPS that wasn't Golden eye or Doom. Without easy mode they probably would have given up.... So I'd say it is good. I learned to play on easy, and now I start a game on normal and follow with a 2nd run through on hard (except Halo games where I start on legendary)

 

[Raggedstar]

Let's see...

I'm into platformers. They're my favourite genre and my skills are geared to those kind of games. I sometimes dabble into RPGs, hack and slash, and sandbox type titles, but platformers are my first love. I would rarely ever put a game on easy. Especially if it's a franchise I know well, I'll often even do the harder levels (except for Ratchet: Deadlocked. If my uber weapon does squat to you, that's not a normal level. I think they skewed it so the co-op will feel more balanced).

Recently, something popped into my brain. I haven't played an FPS in over 10 years. I never quite warmed up to the genre, but I looked at Black Mesa (since I watched an LP of Half Life 2 and it's episodes and enjoyed the setting, story, and characters). It's free, so why the hell not? If a shooter is going to win me over, then odds are it'll be a Half Life game.

I have Black Mesa on easy mode and still feeling the burn, but I'm progressing and having a good time. Maybe one day I can revisit it on a harder level, but if it was set to normal or hard, then I wouldn't be enjoying it and odds are would've put the game down. I'm more than halfway through and slowly getting better (as in not shrieking at flanking headcrabs and unloading an entire clip onto one to the point where it would be more lead than headcrab).

So the option here is to either abandon a good game (er, remake of a good game) or play on an easier setting to enjoy a game/genre I would've passed up on otherwise.

(though even as someone who is good with platformers, the platforming in this game is still shit lol)

 

[Odbarc]

Some things only work on easy mode. Particularly bad builds, crappy weapons and other useless tools.
Finding a use or function for something useless or broken is all the rage (fun).

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Easy mode is fine and should be there. There are only a few games that don't need easy modes/can't have them(eg Portal) but my problem is not with easy modes. My problem is with the lack of truly hard modes in some games. It is fine that not everyone likes that and it is good that anyone can play and even finish games now but I want my hard difficulty to be well hard.

 

[DustyDrB]

Uh....whatever?

Easy mode is easy. I generally play on Hard since I've been gaming for most of my life but I see absolutely no reason why you would look down upon anyone that plays on easy mode...

Same here. I tend to stick to Hard mode, no more and no less, because that's usually the right amount of challenge to make it most fun. But I'm not going to complain about there being an easy mode. I'd have to be a bag of dicks to do that.

 

[WanderingFool]

So, my question's simple: What do you think of Easy Mode? What do you think of the players who play on Easy Mode.

*Edit*

Unless you are some "H4rdC0r3" prick[footnote]I apologize if that seemed aimed at you, OP. That wasnt directed at you specifically, it was just a genral you.[/footnote], you should have no problem with easy mode or the people who play on easy mode.

I personally play on Easy mode only under certian circumstances, such as if Im trying a new game out for the first time and dont know what to expect, or if I want to get through a particularly tough level in something.

Hell, sometimes I like to play on easy mode just to screw off and have fun. Isnt that why we play games?

 

[HellbirdIV]

All games should have an Easy setting, simple as that. If you don't want to play the Easy setting, there's always a Normal setting that comes with it.

I adapt gameplay to my own standards. Usually I pick the second-hardest setting for my first playthrough to have a fair challenge and if I feel I can handle the game well I play on the hardest difficulty the second time around (Even with StarCraft II which kicks my ass hard), but when playing XCOM recently I picked the "Normal" setting first instead because frankly, Classic scares me

 

[In Search of Username]

I need it. I would have stopped playing games long ago if I couldn't get anywhere in them. I prefer it when there's a big difference between difficulty settings - it's a good sign when I can get through a game with little difficulty on normal, be completely fucked over by hard, and breeze through easy, for me. What I don't like is games I can get through on normal, but only by playing the game in a way it clearly wasn't designed to be played - for example Max Payne 3, playing on easy mode it was possible to jump around like a maniac as advertised; playing on normal, you pretty much had to stick to cover or you'd die. That annoyed me. Oh, and I like it when difficulty settings actually change stuff other than the amount of health you and the enemy have - like in MGS3 when you're given the EZ Gun for playing on Very Easy mode.

THAT IS ALL OF MY OPINIONS ON EASY MODE. DO WITH THEM WHAT YOU WILL.

 

[Alssadar]

Easy mode is a great thing for lesser experienced gamers of a genre. I find no qualms with it. I rarely play on easy mode, as I enjoy a good challenge and am fairly experienced, but it exists for others, not I.

However, Warcraft 3's Easy AI has managed to beat the Hard AI. Multiple times, each with the same result. That is something eerily strange.

 

[ThePS1Fan]

I'm big on the whole accessibility of games to everyone thing, so easy mode is great.

 

[prophecy2514]

Easy mode is for new players to that genre, and it deserves its place. If you want to play on easy even if you're no novice that's fine as well, all the power to you

My rule is to generally select the hardest difficulty because I like the fact that I'll be punished for mistakes I make during gameplay combat, so I can work out better ways to approach a situation.