Poll: Will you drop the difficulty if you're having trouble?

[In Search of Username]

It depends whether the 'trouble' I'm having is preventing me from enjoying the game or not. I bump down the difficulty in cases like Max Payne 3 where the difficulty is making the game less enjoyable for me because it means I just have to hide in cover the whole time. In cases where the challenge is actually making the game more interesting I'd be much less likely to do so.

 

[sammysoso]

If I'm not having fun, then I'll probably drop the difficulty. I usually play on the default difficulties, so it doesn't happen all that often.

I like some challenge, but I'm no masochist.

 

[The Lugz]

I'm playing The Witcher 2 and I am just getting my ass handed to me. I don't know if it's the game's fault for having a less-than-intuitive fight system or my fault for sucking (likely option 2...) but after getting killed by these four bandits for the five hundredth fucking time, I finally said I'm out and kicked the difficulty down to easy.

the witcher 2 is a pain in the ass, you just need to understand it better to win
i was struggling until i realized i could simply avoid everything once you learn that
you're kinda slippery like a snake

also bombs, bombs are borderline broken. make lots of them

 

[Exius Xavarus]

well aint you a badass >.>

Yay sarcasm!

If that's the way you want to see it, sure. I, however, do not see it as such. It's not a matter of being badass or elite or anything of the sort. To me, it's not fun if it's easy. The challenge is the fun. It's not like I go around toting myself as above others for playing easier difficulties, either.

Although that's probably because my strength lies in single player. I'm pretty weaksauce when it comes to competitive multi player. :x

 

[StashAugustine]

Beat Dragon Age on easy cause I got sick of the combat, lowered the difficulty on DXHR on occasion (namely the fight with that one chick in the sever room). Alternately, I raised the diffuculty in Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway since that game is ridiculously easy on PC.

 

[thejackyl]

Depends on what is killing me/causing me to fail. I can't remember the last time I played anything on less than normal unless I was finishing up achievements.

Some examples: If I'm dying due to a jumping puzzle, 99% of the time lowering the difficulty will not get rid of that jumping puzzle. I remember playing Dante's Inferno and I got to one of these parts where you had to double jump and scythe swing to get from the current peg to the next. 50% of the time I would grab the previous peg, the other half I would be out of range of both of them and die. That was the only time any game has asked if I wanted to lower the difficulty.

In an FPS game for example, if I'm getting gunned down by periscope eyed super soldiers. (Like what happens on Veteran on CoD) than I'll knock the difficulty down a notch. Simply because at that point it's not difficult, it's broken.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Some types of games I usually start on easy because I know I suck at them (mostly hack & slash and some forms of strategy games). Generally though I'll adjust the difficulty as I go. If it's too easy, up it goes; if it's too hard, I have no qualms about dialing it down. I don't usually play games for a challenge. I just like the experience.

 

[Robot Number V]

Yes. Absolutely. Without a second thought. I understand why some people play games for the challenge. One of my friends talks about the satisfying feeling you get from beating a really difficult section of a game. But I've done that before, and you know what I get out of it? Nothing. If I'm playing the same damn section for hours before finally beating it, I don't think "FUCK YEAH I JUST DID THAT", I think "Fucking FINALLY. Maybe I can move on to something FUN now."

 

[Frokane]

well aint you a badass >.>

Yay sarcasm!

If that's the way you want to see it, sure. I, however, do not see it as such. It's not a matter of being badass or elite or anything of the sort. To me, it's not fun if it's easy. The challenge is the fun. It's not like I go around toting myself as above others for playing easier difficulties, either.

Although that's probably because my strength lies in single player. I'm pretty weaksauce when it comes to competitive multi player. :x

Its not saracasm, if you are generally playing games on high difficulty and succeding then you are a badass in my eyes ,but fun can be found in games outside of the challenge, i mean minecraft isnt 'difficult' but i bet you enjoy that.

 

[kommando367]

I only lower the difficulty if I'm getting slaughtered in a game with no progress whatsoever.

Witcher 2 isn't so bad after you get the movement perk (dodge distance +200%) in the sword tree and a nice stockpile of bombs. A lot of the difficulty in that game depends on how prepared you are.

 

[The_Craig1986]

I will drop the difficulty below hard, but I will never go down to easy.

 

[Madkipz]

I was listening to The Escapist Potcat a while ago and heard an interesting thing (although now I can't find which Potcat it was in so maybe I just made it up)...

A gamer wrote in a question and basically stated that they would not be willing to play on a lower difficulty because it would ruin their gaming credibility. I thought that was a rather silly notion but I suppose I can partially identify with it since I've never done that...until now.

I'm playing The Witcher 2 and I am just getting my ass handed to me. I don't know if it's the game's fault for having a less-than-intuitive fight system or my fault for sucking (likely option 2...) but after getting killed by these four bandits for the five hundredth fucking time, I finally said I'm out and kicked the difficulty down to easy.

Tippy2k2 is now a much happier camper! Geralt can actually survive the fight if he gets knocked down and I can actually handle fighting four bad guys at once! Unfortunately this makes some enemies piss easy to fight but I'll take that trade-off to stop getting killed. So the question to you:

Will you drop the difficulty or just keep ramming your head into the brick wall until one of you breaks? Let's assume for this that this is your first time through the game so it's not you fighting for achievements. Also, let's assume that difficulty is NOT the point of the game (so keep that silly Dark Souls discussion out of here!).

probably it is the latter. I completed the witcher 2 on normal to get a feel for the system, and in reality it is some level of fake difficulty put into it. Just spam the damage absorb ability (Quen), keep rolling and baiting for an opportune moment to attack. In addition you can make good use of both the knockback magic and grenades if they clusterfuck and stack. You'd do fine so long as you stay far away from potion mastery (bottom tree). It gets a lot easier after you get beyond the introductory levels, and I would recommend going the Roche way first, because you get more assistance from him in the later levels, and his assistant lady is smoking hot.

As for difficulty in games. Unless it is complex and complicated I just bump the slider to max to see what the game offers me. If the enemies grow too bulletspongy or boring as a result of the difficulty I might push it down to normal as I did in Dragonage 2 (terrible terrible game), and that is fine, but suffice to say this does not happen most of the time. I just stubbornly continue despite having difficulties, but I might reset the game and try again if there are alternative builds or abilities that I discover throughout the game so I can fight the odds with greater potency. I did this in New Vegas a lot before settling in on a heavy melee build, with explosives and science.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I don't generally have to turn down the difficulty but this is mainly because I go into most games on either the easy or, normal difficulty to begin with. For the most part, I don't even play through a game on higher difficulties for the most part. On another note though, the last few games I've played and really got into (Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, Nintendoland, Bully, Final Fantasy VI) don't have difficulty settings to speak of (or maybe I just haven't dug through the options enough).

 

[TreuloseTomate]

Other
It has never happened to me.

 

[Poetic Nova]

My stubborn self doesn't like it when I give up

 

[Exius Xavarus]

well aint you a badass >.>

Yay sarcasm!

If that's the way you want to see it, sure. I, however, do not see it as such. It's not a matter of being badass or elite or anything of the sort. To me, it's not fun if it's easy. The challenge is the fun. It's not like I go around toting myself as above others for playing easier difficulties, either.

Although that's probably because my strength lies in single player. I'm pretty weaksauce when it comes to competitive multi player. :x

Its not saracasm, if you are generally playing games on high difficulty and succeding then you are a badass in my eyes ,but fun can be found in games outside of the challenge, i mean minecraft isnt 'difficult' but i bet you enjoy that.

Actually, I don't really like Minecraft. :x Or its 2D counterpart Terraria. In order to slightly enjoy Minecraft, had to use a mod that lemme do literally whatever I wanted. And even then I didn't particularly enjoy it. Minecraft feels like work, to me. :s

 

[Artemis923]

I always play on the hardest difficulty available. If I run into something that's just so insanely hard that I can't possibly beat it, then I'm far more likely to just stop playing the game entirely.

Took the words right out of my fingers.

 

[Panorama]

Yeah FTL i did it, the first 3 or 4 goes on normal i was getting battered, i dropped down to easy and finally finished it & a couple more times then moved up to normal again last night and beat it twice.

 

[The Lugz]

In Skyrim I usually use the ~tgm cheat if I'm constantly getting one-shot. Usually by a mage's ice spear. Why can't my own ice spear be that powerful?! The only time I really lower the difficulty is if I want to quickly get through a slew of mobs and I have followers with me so I can't use the ~killall cheat.

Yes, I cheat like a ***** when I get bored of doing something over and over again. It's especially bad if I switch characters and end up doing something I just finished with a previous character....

that, part 1 and 2

i was having that exact problem, with briar hearts and the like oneshotting me it's because you've out leveled the content and the game assumes you have insane gear to go with it
( go there at level 5 and they don't hurt you as much, it supprised me too. )

stack up 60%+ magic resistance and casters will bother you no-more

your ice spears can become quite powerful but difficulty modifiers give insane bonuses such as 400% damage to npc's
so it can be hard to match without nutty + destruction gear or all your points into destruction

hope that helps with the combat!

and yes, i agree completing the game with new characters can get tiresome if you just want to get to a specific point
it is a massive open sandbox single-player, so do what you want at the end of the day!

 

[eimatshya]

As some other posters have said already, it depends on the game. In some games, dying a whole lot is just tedious. In other games, it presents a challenge, and I feel a great sense of accomplishment from finally getting past whatever it was that kept killing me. To some extent, this may be due to mechanics. In games where my failure is due to (or at least feels as though it's due to) problems with the game's design, I tend to lower the difficulty because the challenge doesn't feel... legitimate. As such, it doesn't engage me, and I feel like I'm wasting my life, so I either lower the difficulty or quit. On the other hand, when I feel that the problem is due to a deficiency in my skill or an inability on my part to figure out what to do, then it becomes a tantalizing challenge, and I rarely lower the difficulty or give up on the game.