Poll: Easy Mode

[Skoosh]

I don't mind the existence of easy mode, just so long whoever is playing on easy mode is CONSTANTLY REMINDED of how TOTALLY PATHETIC they are for doing do.

Oh, and easy-moders should also be barred from getting most, if not all, of the achievements/trophies for level/game completion.

Or, you know, just put in some separate trophies for hard mode and not be a total dick to the half of your fanbase that isn't filled with hardcore gamers. Just because you're playing on easy doesn't mean you didn't achieve something, just means it's not as impressive as if you had done it on hard. So put in 2 or 3 trophies, one for just beating the game, and another for beating it on hard. Do it on hard the first time, you get both, good for you, but there's no need to belittle everyone playing on easy. Many people didn't grow up gamers and it's discouraging to them when you make them out to be children throughout the entire game.

The only little "hey, this is easy mode" reminder I like is at the end of the game when you had your moment of victory saying "good job, try it on hard now" or something. People aren't pathetic for playing easy mode though. It's there for a reason.

 

[StriderShinryu]

If a game is too hard, and designed to be that way, you should recognise that it's not meant for you and leave it alone. And the opposite is true for games that some people might think are too easy.

Yep.

No one has issues with movies or books or music being, put simply, not to their tastes. No one has issues with games being of genres not to their liking. But, when it comes to diffioulty and games, there seems to be a prevailing sense of "one size must fit all," and that just doesn't make sense to me. These are all creative endeavours and it should be up to the author to decide what sort of experience they want to put forward. In some cases, altered difficulty completed goes against that creative decision.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Sometimes I like to play on Easy just to get a feel for the game, and if the game is fun enough I'll replay it on a harder difficulty.

 

[LetalisK]

It depends on whether the difficulty exists in such a way that it's a core of the experience. Something like Dark Souls, for example, wouldn't exist as complete satisfying experiences if the difficulty were removed. The same goes for fighting games. With games like that it's less about giving everyone a difficulty that they can play on and more about breaking the game into a bland lifeless experience.

If the difficulty is separate from what the cort of the game is, however, I don't see anything wrong with both easier and harder modes being included.

Dark Souls isn't an exception to the rule. One of the hallmarks of that game is its difficulty, but that doesn't mean someone else can't enjoy it if they were to decide to play it on a different difficulty.

Edit: Besides that, you're ignoring relative difficulty. If the goal is to make it difficult so that the player experiences a certain level of difficulty and not just for the sake of itself, then there is absolutely no reason there can't be a difficulty setting, particularly in a case like Dark Souls where you could build in an automatic scaling difficulty system that would also benefit the hardcore crowd. It makes no sense to purposely cripple your game when you can create a system that provides that baseline difficulty to every, or most, levels of skill. A game that keeps a specific and unalterable objective difficulty, ignores relative difficulty, and has the goal of being an experience that is intended to be difficult for the player is going to completely fail in that goal with all but a small subset of gamers(basically the small set of gamers that are not too bad or too good for the game).

 

[kyogen]

Dark Souls is not crippled by being designed for a single difficulty. From Software's Dark Souls team knew perfectly well that it is possible to design a game with multiple difficulty settings, and they chose not to do that. Instead, they built in stat-based, game-mechanical systems to accommodate players of different skill levels and play styles. It works perfectly well, but it does require all players to study the game and learn its systems--from playing, from guides (if you buy them, which I don't), from wikis, from forums. It's part of the lone hero/summon help structure. Players who aren't prepared to tackle that aren't really interested in playing the game. You aren't playing football/soccer just by kicking the ball around a park with no rules.

Personally, I don't mind easy mode if it's built into a game from the start and only affects one of several systems--usually this is combat, though platformers would need to redesign whole levels on occasion. When The Witcher 2 released last year for pc, and my laptop only barely ran it, I dropped the difficulty to easy in order to speed up combat and cut down on the lag. It didn't make combat especially interesting, though parts of it were still challenging, but it served its purpose well enough to get me through the narrative. The specific problem with a game like Dark Souls is that combat, narrative, and stat systems are too tightly integrated to affect just one by adding an easy mode. It is designed to be worked through, and demanding an easy mode for it is like reading a summary of Hamlet and assuming you know the play.

 

[mParadox]

Easy mode is fun!

And makes you appreciate it more once you try out Hard mode.

I do this with every game with the option of adjustable difficulty.

First Normal, then Very Hard and then Very Easy.

Games play out rather differently in each. Making it super fun.

 

[SadisticBrownie]

It's not a bad thing to have, but I certainly wouldn't play it unless the game itself was ridiculously hard or I just wanted to fuck around.

 

[Mr Binary]

I just put 'Alright' because I'm completely neutral towards it. I never use it, but I understand it's there for those who are either not accustomed to the game or just want to play the game for the story... or something of the like.

I feel like there's a lack of games which are truly hard though, which is why I praise the odd game like Demon's Souls... though once you get used to it that also becomes very simple. So I suppose my real issue with 'easy mode' is when I whole game feels like an easy mode.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

It's better that a game have an Easy Mode than be made too easy regardless of setting. More selection is rarely ever a bad thing, though I understand why some games like Doom would deny you access to the later levels unless you were at a higher difficulty setting, using 'I'm Too Young To Die' mode primarily as a training tool before the real challenge starts.

If your game is good enough, people will happily replay it on a harder setting once they're finished it the first time and learned the mechanics. I have now played and beaten God of War 2 on all 4 modes and even on the easiest one I never felt like the game was taking pity on me. I do wish games would quit offering to switch to an easier setting after repeated deaths instead of just letting me restart, but that's just my pet peeve.

 

[Twilight_guy]

It's a good thing to varying difficulty in most games. That makes an easy mode good. Difficulty mode does not have any significant influence on my opinion of people. I don't attribute any notion of nobility or skill on how good a person is at games. It's the same to me as being good at basketball or being double jointed, interesting but not influential in character.

 

[devotedsniper]

I've been gaming for years and years but i very rarely play on hard, its always normal or easy because i want to enjoy the story and game not die several times getting frustrated. The only time i really play on hard is when i go to replay a game ive already finished.

 

[TrevHead]

Edit: Besides that, you're ignoring relative difficulty. If the goal is to make it difficult so that the player experiences a certain level of difficulty and not just for the sake of itself, then there is absolutely no reason there can't be a difficulty setting, particularly in a case like Dark Souls where you could build in an automatic scaling difficulty system that would also benefit the hardcore crowd. It makes no sense to purposely cripple your game when you can create a system that provides that baseline difficulty to every, or most, levels of skill. A game that keeps a specific and unalterable objective difficulty, ignores relative difficulty, and has the goal of being an experience that is intended to be difficult for the player is going to completely fail in that goal with all but a small subset of gamers(basically the small set of gamers that are not too bad or too good for the game).

In an ideal world every game would cater to everybody and everyone would be happy but sadly that isn't the case. What you tend to get are games which are designed towards one difficulty with other modes just stat changes which often just mess up a games pacing. And since difficulty is more than just stats, they remain easy or hard in different ways. Everything in game design is connected, that's why you see ppl using such terms as hand holding & dumbing down both difficulty wise and controller wise on different platforms.

I'm honestly not been elistist or looking down on other gamers, but for different reasons some ppl don't want an easy mode full stop. To them you might aswell be saying that the game should have Saint's Row's purple dildo bat in it. Also some ppl just want to play a well designed game as the devs intended which automatic difficulty scaling doesn't offer.

Dark Souls is not crippled by being designed for a single difficulty. From Software's Dark Souls team knew perfectly well that it is possible to design a game with multiple difficulty settings, and they chose not to do that. Instead, they built in stat-based, game-mechanical systems to accommodate players of different skill levels and play styles. It works perfectly well, but it does require all players to study the game and learn its systems--from playing, from guides (if you buy them, which I don't), from wikis, from forums. It's part of the lone hero/summon help structure. Players who aren't prepared to tackle that aren't really interested in playing the game. You aren't playing football/soccer just by kicking the ball around a park with no rules.

Even though Dark Souls is much easier than many easy games insane modes, it's the fact that you can't be lazy, ever, otherwise it'll punish you. You have to study the game and be an intelligent player to make the game easy, not just cheat and turn it on to easy when you're feeling lazy and can't be bothered.

Skilled players who use their knowledge of a games mechanics to make a game easy is nothing new, it's just that it has largely become unnecessary for most ppl to have to do in modern games.

Another good example is shmups, if you have ever watched any good replays of a skilled player you might have noticed they they are very economical in how they move the ship. The most extreme example is safespots which you can see in work half way through this video, while the player makes the game look easy no noob would play like that.

 

[Windcaler]

Easy mode is fine on most games. However there are a few that it certainly doesnt belong in because it harms the overall experience.

As far as people who play easy modes, well generally Ill say its no big deal because most games have room for an easy mode. Generally if people want to play easy mode I see no problem with it, the issue is when that easy mode effects other peoples experiences. As i said few games have difficulty so ingrained and crucial to the experience but they do exist so its worth mentioning.

That said, games are also art and if a developer believes that an easy mode does not meet their artistic vision then it should not be included

 

[LetalisK]

Edit: Besides that, you're ignoring relative difficulty. If the goal is to make it difficult so that the player experiences a certain level of difficulty and not just for the sake of itself, then there is absolutely no reason there can't be a difficulty setting, particularly in a case like Dark Souls where you could build in an automatic scaling difficulty system that would also benefit the hardcore crowd. It makes no sense to purposely cripple your game when you can create a system that provides that baseline difficulty to every, or most, levels of skill. A game that keeps a specific and unalterable objective difficulty, ignores relative difficulty, and has the goal of being an experience that is intended to be difficult for the player is going to completely fail in that goal with all but a small subset of gamers(basically the small set of gamers that are not too bad or too good for the game).

In an ideal world every game would cater to everybody and everyone would be happy but sadly that isn't the case. What you tend to get are games which are designed towards one difficulty with other modes just stat changes which often just mess up a games pacing. And since difficulty is more than just stats, they remain easy or hard in different ways. Everything in game design is connected, that's why you see ppl using such terms as hand holding & dumbing down both difficulty wise and controller wise on different platforms.

I'm honestly not been elistist or looking down on other gamers, but for different reasons some ppl don't want an easy mode full stop. To them you might aswell be saying that the game should have Saint's Row's purple dildo bat in it. Also some ppl just want to play a well designed game as the devs intended which automatic difficulty scaling doesn't offer.

Except you could play the game without the "purple dildos", as it were. And having difficulty levels doesn't stop the game from being well designed. I don't see why a Dark Souls player should give a rat's ass if there is an easier difficulty level. Someone else somewhere across the world picking an easier difficulty doesn't suddenly mean the first Dark Soul's game is easier. Yes, the choice to play on an easier difficulty is there. No one is making them choose that difficulty. And it's not like difficulty levels haven't been standard practice for the gaming industry for years, so it's not new territory from a technical stand point. If the pacing is going to be messed up because of a difficulty level[footnote]Which I don't buy if players are actually choosing difficulty levels based on challenging them, which is irrelevant to everyone else's experience of the game anyway[/footnote], then have the pacing mess up on the way down the difficulty line instead of from the center like with most games.

Also, I used automatic scaling as an example, you could also have traditional difficulty picking. This isn't a binary choice between "every game would cater to everybody", which is not what I said, btw, and "There is only going to be super difficulty".

Edit: Mind you, I don't particularly care that Dark Souls has the one very difficult setting as I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy settings. I just don't see any practical reason for it as it can still be just as difficult without being as exclusionary. It seems to be exclusionary for the sake of being exclusionary, which makes no sense to me.

 

[eternal-chaplain]

When is normal mode really ever so hard that you need to go to easy? On top of that, why do some games think easy mode is so hard, they need to include a 'very easy' mode?

 

[Ix Rebound]

Easy mode is something i wish my dad used more often, cause sitting in my room hearing his character get disemboweled for the 30th time in an hour is just painfull

 

[Smiley Face]

I like it, generally speaking. I often play through games for the story, not the challenge, and in those cases, it's nice to be able to adjust the difficulty to a level where it doesn't necessarily demand my full attention. That said, the second playthrough of any game I usually play on max difficulty, so basically it's nice to have a range.

 

[Windcaler]

Edit: Besides that, you're ignoring relative difficulty. If the goal is to make it difficult so that the player experiences a certain level of difficulty and not just for the sake of itself, then there is absolutely no reason there can't be a difficulty setting, particularly in a case like Dark Souls where you could build in an automatic scaling difficulty system that would also benefit the hardcore crowd. It makes no sense to purposely cripple your game when you can create a system that provides that baseline difficulty to every, or most, levels of skill. A game that keeps a specific and unalterable objective difficulty, ignores relative difficulty, and has the goal of being an experience that is intended to be difficult for the player is going to completely fail in that goal with all but a small subset of gamers(basically the small set of gamers that are not too bad or too good for the game).

In an ideal world every game would cater to everybody and everyone would be happy but sadly that isn't the case. What you tend to get are games which are designed towards one difficulty with other modes just stat changes which often just mess up a games pacing. And since difficulty is more than just stats, they remain easy or hard in different ways. Everything in game design is connected, that's why you see ppl using such terms as hand holding & dumbing down both difficulty wise and controller wise on different platforms.

I'm honestly not been elistist or looking down on other gamers, but for different reasons some ppl don't want an easy mode full stop. To them you might aswell be saying that the game should have Saint's Row's purple dildo bat in it. Also some ppl just want to play a well designed game as the devs intended which automatic difficulty scaling doesn't offer.

Except you could play the game without the "purple dildos", as it were. And having difficulty levels doesn't stop the game from being well designed. I don't see why a Dark Souls player should give a rat's ass if there is an easier difficulty level. Someone else somewhere across the world picking an easier difficulty doesn't suddenly mean the first Dark Soul's game is easier. Yes, the choice to play on an easier difficulty is there. No one is making them choose that difficulty. And it's not like difficulty levels haven't been standard practice for the gaming industry for years, so it's not new territory from a technical stand point. If the pacing is going to be messed up because of a difficulty level[footnote]Which I don't buy if players are actually choosing difficulty levels based on challenging them, which is irrelevant to everyone else's experience of the game anyway[/footnote], then have the pacing mess up on the way down the difficulty line instead of from the center like with most games.

Also, I used automatic scaling as an example, you could also have traditional difficulty picking. This isn't a binary choice between "every game would cater to everybody", which is not what I said, btw, and "There is only going to be super difficulty".

Edit: Mind you, I don't particularly care that Dark Souls has the one very difficult setting as I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy settings. I just don't see any practical reason for it as it can still be just as difficult without being as exclusionary. It seems to be exclusionary for the sake of being exclusionary, which makes no sense to me.

If you really want to discuss the issue, not just spout your opinion but discuss the issue there is a thread on this topic already when I will link below. It has some excellent insight from both sides of the fence

Link: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.392886-Dark-Souls-an-experiment-in-logic?page=5#15869169

 

[Yopaz]

I love easy mode, it makes it possible to learn the game. That said I never pick easy in any game. I always pick normal or hard if I have played previous installments in the series a lot. Batman Arkham city was a game where I just instantly played it through on hard because I had finished Arkham Asylum a couple weeks before it was released.

I guess I don't like "easy" mode though. I like the option to choose difficulty. I love hard games, but I am not such a prick that I want to deny people the pleasure of enjoying it just because they have other things to do than struggle through an impossible game.

 

[Samantha Burt]

I think it's good, easy mode is great catharsis for when you're having a bad day. When I finally get my RAM upgrade in a couple days I'm whacking Just Cause 2 on this PC, and I intend to play on easy, because some games are just about dicking around. I have played games on Hard - Bulletstorm and MW2 come to mind - and it was certainly satisfying to do it, but not the most fun, personally.