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

[HellbirdIV]

Voted "Yes; Fun" because I -sometimes- do. I also tend to play games I've beaten before on medium settings when I want to experience the story and setpieces rather than have a tough challenge (Like when I replay a Call of Duty game, the setpieces are enjoyable without needing the difficulty ramped up) but sometimes I'll try the hard way anyway, so it really depends on a lot of factors - if the challenge is a major part of what makes the game enjoyable (as opposed to said setpieces, perhaps the story or just something else) then I'll generally try to power through it instead.

 

[NecroNinja]

I play every game I have on the hardest possible difficulty, as I feel I get the most of the game that way, and I will improve as a gamer by doing so. I will never lower the difficulty, as once I am challenged, I stubbornly persevere until I accomplish the goal. I will agree that it's not entirely logical, but there's some part of me that is so obsessed with overcoming difficulties, that I can't ignore it.

This has actually ruined games for me too. The most recent of which, being Hitman: Absolution. I jumped straight in on Purist mode, which the game strongly advises against. With the already unfair AI, matched with my perfectionist playstyle (no witnesses, no non-target kills, etc.) this mode becomes damn-near impossible to do. It became a constant trial and error exercise that completely rid the game of all fun. In fact, I never finished the game, I am one or two levels from the end, and I just got bored of it. All because I wouldn't drop the difficulty. But when I've finished with the more fun games I have at the moment, I will go back, and I will finish it!

 

[ultrabiome]

never if i'm playing on normal. many games i'll try on hard once i beat normal, but then no worries if something is too hard since i've beaten it on normal. i never play on easy anymore, i play for a challenge.

 

[Glasgow]

In most cases, yes. There are a few games I play for the challenge, which makes lowering the difficulty no suitable. Otherwise I just enjoy the experience and story.

I wish I could have had lower difficulty in Demons Souls.

 

[barbzilla]

For me it has nothing to do with credibility, but I will usually force myself to complete the game on whatever difficulty I selected without changing it (with the rare exception that it becomes tedious and boring). The reasoning behind this being that I like the feeling of accomplishment that a good challenge will give me. However I will balance this against how much fun I am having playing the game. I usually play on normal or one step above for my first playthrough. I will then ramp it up to the hardest difficulty the game has to offer if I enjoyed the game enough to want to play through a second time. There have been a few games that I have dropped the difficulty on (the Witcher 2 being one of them, as it was an RPG and I am usually really good at RPGs so I cranked it all the way up).

Either way it comes down to how much fun I am having vs my desire to feel as though I accomplished something.

 

[The Selkie]

Depends on the game. If I'm struggling because there's a poorly designed aspect/area of the game (like bad third person cameras or respawning, grenade happy enemies) then I'll drop the difficulty. For everything else I work out where I'm going wrong. Unless it's my second playthrough in which case the difficulty never changes.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

No. I'll quit the game and put it on hold before I lower the difficulty. No bragadoccio, I really do that. Inevitably I pick it up later and it's the easiest game in the world.

 

[smokingplane]

I really don't like to do it. But since I don't have enough spare time to keep trying I lowered it a couple of times to get trough an otherwise seemingly impossible fight.
I now it's a stupid pride thing, but it really bugs me to have to do that.

 

[Cronky]

I play every game I have on the hardest possible difficulty, as I feel I get the most of the game that way, and I will improve as a gamer by doing so. I will never lower the difficulty, as once I am challenged, I stubbornly persevere until I accomplish the goal. I will agree that it's not entirely logical, but there's some part of me that is so obsessed with overcoming difficulties, that I can't ignore it.

This has actually ruined games for me too. The most recent of which, being Hitman: Absolution. I jumped straight in on Purist mode, which the game strongly advises against. With the already unfair AI, matched with my perfectionist playstyle (no witnesses, no non-target kills, etc.) this mode becomes damn-near impossible to do. It became a constant trial and error exercise that completely rid the game of all fun. In fact, I never finished the game, I am one or two levels from the end, and I just got bored of it. All because I wouldn't drop the difficulty. But when I've finished with the more fun games I have at the moment, I will go back, and I will finish it!

99% the same as you/this^

I play on the hardest difficulty under the impression that if I don't know how much easier another difficulty is, then whatever I pick first will be normal in my head.

The only times I stray away from the hardest difficulty is cases like:

Hitman: Absolution - A slew of new features had been added that it felt the game was tailored for (that is otherwise taken out because of the difficulty).
Dead Space 2 - When the difficulty isn't a change in in challenge, but rather mechanics (limiting total number of saves). I guess this is pretty much the same reason as Hitman as well.
Any Co-op game - Friends/People usually understand where I'm coming from with my mindset above, but if they aren't having fun on that difficulty then it is worth dropping down to keep them interested.

 

[blackrave]

Gave in only once in Spec Ops:The Line
I still regret it

 

[Mr Mystery Guest]

I've only ever dropped down once in my life and that was playing Aliens vs Predator. I even wasn't really enjoying it but if you don't play to the end then you've just wasted your time i think.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Nope, I'll never drop the difficulty because the game can't best me.

The only thing that could possibly be seen as an exception to the rule would be puzzles. If I'm in a game that randomly decides to throw some kind of puzzle at me, I'll give it a dozen or so legitimate best attempts, but after that if I still haven't gotten it, I'll check Youtube or whatever for a solution so I can move on. It's not very common for me to do this, as it's generally only for the incredibly tedious ones that serve little to no purpose beyond padding out the game time. Y'know, stuff like that stupid bridge puzzle in Dragon Age Origins.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Depends on the game, but sometimes yeah. If it is just complicated, I'll usually leave it. If it just got ridiculous and shot the difficulty up for no reason, I turn it down.

 

[Kilo24]

Depends on the game, but usually no. It mostly depends on how hard the difficulty is and on how the developers chose to make it hard. If the game is hard because the enemies are smarter or have more interesting movesets available to them, I find it much harder to justify playing the easier difficulties. On the other hand, if the enemies just do more damage or have more health and/or cheat ala Civilization AI, then I'll be more likely to turn it down if I get into repeatedly dying at a single spot.

I'm still not that likely to turn down difficulty, however. I like challenging games, especially when they force you to carefully think about a game's mechanics in order to beat them.

 

[JagermanXcell]

I'll tell you one thing, I didn't do it for Demons Souls. Hehe.

OT: Absolutely not. If something gets tough I suck it up and keep trying till get better. Makes for longer games and some of the most greatest feelings ever when I get past that one difficult boss/ level after much trial and error.

You all know what I'm talking about: "That!" feeling.

 

[tippy2k2]

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.

i was struggling until i realized i could simply avoid everything once you learn that
you're kinda slippery like a snake

That's actually what I did a lot to get to the point where I was at (shoot them with magic, tuck and roll, shoot them again).

Then I got to this part...

Spoiler: Not really a spoiler but maybe you'd consider it a spoiler

I was fighting this one band of murderers in a graveyard. The one guy kept throwing fucking knives at me so running away and blasting them with magic didn't work well and the area was so enclosed that when I rolled away, the woods blocked the damn camera!

I am actually hoping to kick it back up to normal to see if I can save some gamer pride but that part was just such a pain in the ass that I just gave up on it...

 

[Fourspaces]

I very rarely find myself getting my ass kicked in a game when i'm playing it through on normal. Usually if I kick the difficulty up higher its because I know the game and I want the extra challenge. So, if i'm having trouble on master difficulty, I dont drop it down for the hard parts, I either abandon that playthrough or go research how to play the game better. For just experiencing a story, I play it on normal.

P.s. I agree with people saying that if difficulty is fake difficulty, its not worth conquering.

 

[The Lugz]

i was struggling until i realized i could simply avoid everything once you learn that
you're kinda slippery like a snake

That's actually what I did a lot to get to the point where I was at (shoot them with magic, tuck and roll, shoot them again)

well, combine that with traps and the magic shield and bombs and you have my basic tactic for playing the game
if i recall there was some downside to the shield, but i'm not sure what.

i had a pick n mix build with bomb effectiveness, health and just enough swordplay to hurt things
could be why my play-style was so.. eclectic.

also i don't recall getting hit with magic.. i guess i was dodge-rolling too-much lol

P.s. I agree with people saying that if difficulty is fake difficulty, its not worth conquering.

^ that. i refuse to play games like racing sims on hardcore because the ai's simply don't play fair and throw you off the track most times i cant resist a pit maneuver at 170k, sorry but i'm just not that good.
let me run the track solo and i'll make your ai look bad

and i don't play 'clop' or any of these 'lulz look at our broken controls' games
it isn't difficult, it's re learning to walk and it's stupid

 

[aguspal]

Nice BIAS poll you got there OP.


But no, I try my best to beat the harderst difficulty/hardest challenge first THAT IS FEASIBLE TO DO SO (Not trying to do the hardest challenge with a level 1 in a RPG, for example).

THEN if I cant really past that part... I just try more and more, because pretty much no game allows you to change the difficulty in mid game, and I always chosee the hardest one! I eventually pass the fucking part.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I used to play on Easy, when I was little, but now I'm no compromises. I play the game at the level intended or not at all. I haven't had to think about dropping the difficulty in living memory though, maybe FTL, but I really considered it in Ninja Gaiden Sigma (I think) against Alma, but the game was so condescending when it asked whether you wanted to switch to Easy mode I couldn't bring myself to do it.