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

[tippy2k2]

These poll options are kind of crappy. I want to say no, but not for either of the reasons listed...

Well then I will stated what I said to another poster earlier:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.401569-Poll-Will-you-drop-the-difficulty-if-youre-having-trouble?page=4#16557839

Each option I put up there are all options that have been actually said in The Escapist potcat. There is also an "Other" option if somehow none of those apply to you. I would like to ask though:

What is your reasoning then?

 

[Monster_user]

Whats the point if it's not difficult?

To goof off, and/or enjoy the story.

Halo, and Red Faction, the one thing I enjoyed doing was sticking grenades to the hysterical opponents. Love those grunts in Halo, so entertaining in moderation.

If your facing a challenge, the adrenaline gets flowing, you get hyper, you get aggravated at the game. I don't want that. I want to relax, eat some popcorn, and laugh. Peaceful.

I used to believe that I had to beat the game on the hardest difficulty, when I was younger. I had to prove that I could. Wore out a ton of N64 controllers that way. 007, Rogue Squadron, F-Zero X, Cruis'n World, Mario Party 1, etc. Now I don't care for that. I don't benefit from the challenge, and I don't often enjoy the competitiveness. Jusy show the story, and let me enjoy the world.

The Longest Journey, and Zelda Ocarina of Time are among my favorite games. Not too hard, but they have a rich atmosphere.

 

[krazykidd]

No . I try to find out what i'm doing wrong so i can get better at the game , and at games in general . Skills from games carry over to others . Also i have been gaming for so log and i have learned so much , that i can play through most games on hard on my first playthrough. Gaming being my main hobby , i strive to better myself in all aspects . So i welcome challenge and frustration wholeheartedly knowing it will make me a better gamer .

No they don't.

The skills from Hearts of Iron 3 don't translate to Call of Duty.

For everyone it should be yes; some games spike the difficulty up insanely high (Battletoads much?) due to poor design, and just putting yourself through misery for some false sense of ego is just pointless, and not something everyone has time for.

Dying for 10-30 minutes could be natural for a game, but dying for an hour+ due to a broken boss with fake difficulty (or a crappily designed one) is just a waste of my time as the devs couldn't create a proper boss battle.

In some cases I may even quit instead; for The Witcher 2 I got started off with the dragon, and the dragon is one of the most broken pieces of gaming I have ever had the not enjoyment of playing; you just take damage randomly, and it's purely trial and error to get through without any help from the game's visuals.

If the game's this hard already from being stupidly broken and extremely vague, then the game design isn't going to improve from turning down the difficulty.

It's one of the reasons I gave up on The Witcher 2 and labelled it as a poor game.

Skills from Heart of Iron 3 may not translate DIRECTLY to CoD , but i'm sure it does indirectly . Such as being able to make strategic decision . What i mean buy that is . You play an RTS , what are skills you learn ? You learn to think strategicly , you learn to manage your resources , you learn to no rush into enemy territory , you learn to not be reckless . All things , when applies properly to CoD can save your life .

A game doesn't need to be the same genre for you to learn from it .

Also while i'll agree some games have difficulty spikes , most games most games do it at a point where you SHOULD know better . Where you should have learned and acquired the skills needed to past that section . The exception to this is games that REQUIRE grinding ( Jrpgs )but even then a proper strategy CAN help you advance when it shouldn't be possible . I'll give an example . I played Grandia 3 a couple of years ago . I made it all the way to the final boss and was getting DESTROYED . I looked up a walkthrough and realised i was 20 levels underleveled . 20 levels ! I was supposed to be level 50 by the final boss but i was level 30 . Apparently i passed through more than half the game being underleved significatly . Thats quite ridiculous if you ask me . What happened was , i managed to make up a combat strategy effective enough to beat bosses i shoulddn't have been able to beat .

It's all a matter of getting better at games , which , in my opinion , should happened naturally while you play . I'm honestly curious to what games/sections people are replaying for hours at a time and failing , because i seriously don't understand how that's possible . Developpers don't make games to purposely frustrate people , most of the time the people are doing it wrong .

 

[BartyMae]

What is your reasoning then?

I'm not completely sure. I enjoy having a challenge, and not being able to deal immediately with that challenge does not necessarily equate with having a bad time. If I was REALLY having a hard time, (i.e. I don't think I can beat it and I've tried a myriad of ways of attempting to deal with it), and I didn't have problems up until then, (and I have no choice but to deal with the problem), I'm more likely to cheat than anything else, honestly. A little memory editing here and there...and we're back on track!

 

[Callate]

I said a lot of rude things to Silent Hill 3 when it suggested I downgrade the difficulty during that damned carousel fight, but I haven't actually toned down a game's difficulty yet. I usually only play on "normal" difficulty, though- I'm no masochist.

EDIT: Oh, and I should probably add: I did look up a video walkthrough of Hotline:Miami after being killed a more than a dozen times by that ninja girl. But I don't really feel bad about that- that fight was incredibly cheap, and if you didn't know precisely what to do, instant death and repeat the steps that got you there ad nauseum.

 

[tippy2k2]

I'm not completely sure. I enjoy having a challenge, and not being able to deal immediately with that challenge does not necessarily equate with having a bad time. If I was REALLY having a hard time, (i.e. I don't think I can beat it and I've tried a myriad of ways of attempting to deal with it), and I didn't have problems up until then, (and I have no choice but to deal with the problem), I'm more likely to cheat than anything else, honestly. A little memory editing here and there...and we're back on track!

It sounds like you'd be in the "No; the game will not best me!"

I updated my OP with more in-depth analysis of each poll option a few days ago and this sounds like you:

No; the game will not best me!
You play for the challenge. You don't like giving up and dropping the difficulty feels like giving up. If you drop the difficulty, you're giving up the challenge and so what's the point?

(AKA The challenge makes it fun or at the very least, not unfun as you stated)

However, it's obviously your vote so I won't force you to vote for this (or any option really).

 

[Mikejames]

A lot of great games are bollocks at combat, so I see no problem in turning those down, but even if they're focused on being action-heavy I'm not ashamed of playing on easy when the difficulty starts to make it into a repetitive time-sink.

A challenge is one thing, but it's my recreation, not my job.

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."

I can second this. I may have a love/hate relationship with Dark Souls, but when I finally kill an enemy after dieing thirty times I'm not sitting back satisfied in my victory, I'm fuming about how I just spent several hours on an unnecessarily frustrating boss fight. Less challenge may water down some experiences, but the opposite end of the spectrum isn't the way to go for me.

 

[deathzero021]

i can get pretty stubborn with this but it really depends on the type of game. Most of the time, if i am getting completely overwhelmed by the difficulty i will lower it by one setting. if it is challenging but i can still make progress then i will usually stick with it. i do prefer a good challenge but if the difficulty of the game is more frustrating in it's design than it is fun, than i will usually play on Normal.

Only some games can manage a well designed Hard mode and allow the challenge to be a fun experience and not a frustrating one.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Yes, but I usually wait until it gets pretty damn hard. Although most games I just start on easy anyway so I can have a nice, relaxing, storytelling experience.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Spec Ops asked me this late in the game, and I'd dies a bit in one partiular area and it asked me if I wanted to drop the difficulty. I said NEVER!

However I do like when a game acknowledges when you do well, like inFAMOUS. I was playing through for a second time and afer I did well on the first mission the game bumped me up to a higher difficulty. Sort of a 'Fuck Yeah' moment.

 

[Arakasi]

I generally won't drop below normal unless I really want to finish the game and I really can't get past one area regardless of what tactics and walkthroughs I use. It is a rare occurance.

I also don't like changing difficulty mid-run. I prefer to have difficulty tied to the save file.

 

[BartyMae]

I'm not completely sure. I enjoy having a challenge, and not being able to deal immediately with that challenge does not necessarily equate with having a bad time. If I was REALLY having a hard time, (i.e. I don't think I can beat it and I've tried a myriad of ways of attempting to deal with it), and I didn't have problems up until then, (and I have no choice but to deal with the problem), I'm more likely to cheat than anything else, honestly. A little memory editing here and there...and we're back on track!

It sounds like you'd be in the "No; the game will not best me!"

I updated my OP with more in-depth analysis of each poll option a few days ago and this sounds like you:

No; the game will not best me!
You play for the challenge. You don't like giving up and dropping the difficulty feels like giving up. If you drop the difficulty, you're giving up the challenge and so what's the point?

(AKA The challenge makes it fun or at the very least, not unfun as you stated)

However, it's obviously your vote so I won't force you to vote for this (or any option really).

Here's the problem: the spirit of that option is all wrong. It's nothing to do with giving up, or ruining the point, or whatever...that implies that I don't really want to play it for anything besides the challenge, which I pretty much just directly contradicted with what I said about cheating. It's more to do with difficulty not necessarily equating to a bad time, and perhaps even being fun. The game is probably still fun without extreme difficulty...but perhaps not as much.

 

[Roxor]

I used to be in the "Always play on Easy" camp, only moving up if I could finish on Easy a few times.

In more recent years, however, I moved to "play on the default", usually forgetting that an option to change the difficulty exists (assuming the game has one at all).

 

[Reptiloid]

I do pretty much always play for the sake of the experience and not the challenge alone, so for most games I tend to go with normal difficulty, and will only crank it up to hard if it's a notoriously easy game or if it's a game I've played before.

I'll absolutely refuse to turn down the difficulty mid-game though, I feel like that would cheapen the experience. Once I've started on a certain difficulty mode, I'm seeing it through to the end! It's not a huge deal if I get stuck on a certain section, I'm pretty patient with stuff like that and don't give up easily.

 

[The Hero Killer]

I normally try to not play a game on a harder mode unless I know I will be able to beat it, for example if its a sequel to a game I've already beaten on a high difficulty. That being said no matter what I wont play a game on a mode below "normal". I see easy/casual mode for people who have no extensive knowledge or experience of videogames or their mechanics. My friends even went as far as to dub easy mode "girlfriend mode" a mode only your girlfriend who wants to be included or your parents would play on.

 

[Joccaren]

Nope. I play on normal first play of all games, no problems with difficulty at all. Its not challenging. Some games I'll play higher, just 'cause I felt like it, but I won't back down from that harder difficulty as there isn't any point to it. Rather than swapping down and having the game be a cakewalk, I'll just learn to play the game. Most of the time that's the only reason a harder difficulty is hard - 'cause on Normal or Easy you don't have to know how to play the game, and once you learn how to it becomes easy.
There are some few exceptions to this, namely ones with utter BS AI on the higher difficulty levels that honestly just cheat, and I'll know about them beforehand and not bother because f*** that.

As an example, Witcher 2, your example. The boss at the end of the first chapter [Not the intro, once you're at that town or W/E and you get into a fight with the Kingslayer]. I got my ass handed to me by him. Every. Fucking. Time.
There were also problems with large numbers of Nekkers and such, but constantly rolling back then forward allowed me to survive them easy enough.
After losing a good 10 times and making no progress, I went online to find out how to beat him. That taught me the game's basically instant-win strategy of using Aard [Or whatever the one that knocks them back and minorly stuns them is] then wailing on them with 2-3 heavy hits. Works on any enemy. Level it and Aard becomes a wave that knocks back many enemies. The game just became trollingly easy after that.
Also, once you get one of those +50 health upgrades... Its a lot easier. It feels like your health has tripled. Get two and you are god.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

No.
I've got this twisted sense of pride that won't let me.
The exception is when the higher difficulties don't involve the enemies having better tactics or anything like that, but can headshot you through walls and take a full clip to the head, while you the player are only slightly sturdier than a twinkie.
You know, artificial bullshit difficulty.
But even then I'll grit my teeth and mentally whip myself.

 

[spartandude]

If im really struggling to the point where im not having fun i will take the difficulty down because i play games for fun and if ir ainr happening then theres no point

 

[teqrevisited]

If I've chosen to play on a specific difficulty I wont back down. Usually I'll finish a game on Normal first (Exception being Deus Ex:HR.) and then go up.

I've been trying on and off for at least a couple of years to finish Devil May Cry 1 & 3 on DMD. Every time I've died it has been because I've tried to get one more hit in or been jumping around the enemy taunting it.

I don't play strategy on anything higher than Normal, because the AI cheats more often than not. Trying to use stealth units when the CPU knows exactly where they are anyway is just annoying.