Why are games so easy these days?

[Mikhael Angelo]

I remember when I got Mortal Kombat 9. See, I played it, beat it, and played it again without very much difficulty. Then my friend finds his old super nintendo and old Mortal Kombat Two. Oh. My. Sweet. Jesus. It's like someone put my nuts in a meat grinder playing this game. But the thing is, I remember it being easy when I was younger.

So I came to the conclusion that it's just a matter of when when play games, we just get used to the way they're made. I bet if we come back and play the same games in 10 years, they'll be damn impossible compared to the games then.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Haha, that's totally logical and you know it. You want more difficulty but you don't want to increase the difficulty using the option that is so ironically "spoon-fed" to you in the settings menu.

In most games, changing the difficulty setting doesn't do much to affect the difficulty in any meaningful or interesting way.

...he wants greater difficulty. There's a difficulty setting. This isn't rocket science. Truthfully, it seems he's searching more for complexity than he is difficulty, in which case, he's going about this the wrong way.

Complexity is an important part of most genuinely difficult games. Dark Souls isn't harder than Skyrim only because the combat is less forgiving, it's harder than Skyrim because it demands additional engagement from the player in terms of learning enemy attack patterns, level layouts, and so on. Halo: Reach on Legendary isn't harder than MW3 on Veteran because the player dies faster when he or she makes a mistake (if anything, the opposite is true), it's harder because the enemy A.I. is smarter and has more options available to it.

Skyrim isn't complex?? @_@

The combat in Skyrim is very simplistic compared to something like Dark Souls.

 

[Phlakes]

Because in the 2010s, most people don't really want to die several dozen times in one level of a game. Some of us like the momentum of moving through it more than the challenge of trying to get past it. And that doesn't make anyone a better gamer.

Also, this is exactly what difficulty settings are for.

 

[M-E-D The Poet]

So im currently ploughing through mass effect 3, while the universe is huge (im making a point of visiting every system and draining it of everything i can find), and there?s many ''ooohhhhh'' and ''aaahhhhh'' moments of delectable eye candy, i cant help feel i have been cheated. Iv heard about how crap the ending is (PLEASE, no spoilers) but every mission so far is run and shoot enough ammo at any enemy until it drops. i wasn?t aware i was playing gears of war 4. And i'v found many games lately to be far far to easy. Modern warefare 3 had the difficulty curve of circle, as well as gears of war 3, halo reach, homefront, fable 3, assassins creed revelations, countless others! games these days seam to cater to people of a lesser intellectual capability.

Im no brainiac, but i would like more of a challenge than shoot this, run here, stab this. collect the right armour or weapons and the games play them self?s. i have smashed many a controller in frustration over the original resident evil, silent hill, metal gear, conkers bad fur day. games can be knocked over ina few hours now, it used to take weeks. This was meant to be an observation and has turned into a rant, my apologies, but frustration is making my brain melt!! im interested to know what does the wider gaming community think of the level of difficulty today?s games have. i just cant justity spending $100 on a new release to find im twiddling my thumbs the day after.

Try playing football manager 2012 if you want something difficult (This is that football game where having Messi and Christiano Ronaldo on your team does never mean you're even 80% sure of beating say Middlesbrough)
Play other games if you want something relatively fun .

 

[Shadow Master]

I don't buy the "controls are better" nonsense.

Many games are all together interactive movies nowadays.

Instead of playing AGAINST the game, which is what gameplay is (a challenge), you play WITH the game, going through and consuming the content created for you like you would a movie or book.

Game mechanics are swiftly losing ground to story content and gimmicks.
Don't get me wrong, story is what I adore about games more than anything, but game mechanics must always come first. They must provide real challenge and real problems to solve mentally. Without that you aren't playing a game but consuming a media product.

 

[42]

im tired of the argument that Mass Effect was dumbed down. The first games combat was uninspiring, terrible, and a pain in the arse. The second improved the combat, drew the whole RPG elements back, because lets face the fact, anyone who thinks Mass Effect is an RPG is silly. Its a tactical shooter at best, and yes you LEVEL up, but all it does is make you shoot bullets better, or have special powers. and then the third was the best, but people still accuse it of being the same as another game on the market. If no one else has noticed, but there a metric fuckload of games like it out on the market.


if your looking for difficult games, play Super Meat Boy, and the Binding of isaac, both very well done both worth your time.
and as for the reason why everything is getting easy, its because the publisher have to make the game accessible for a larger audience, not just the hardcore fans.

 

[VoidWanderer]

I think it's more like game developers are scared of punishing us for dying to stupid things (which still happens amusingly). They want us to enjoy the game and they believe that dying counters that.

It's like the GM in the D&D game I am in, it is quite fun, but with a Phylactery (not the lich one, an amber stone which captures the soul before death and restores the body to life after they die) and fate points which are essentially the 'Ctrl+Z' or Undo button. I find the fact death is seen as a dead end rather than a branch for creativity spoils some of my enjoyment of the game.

And I wouldn't say that games are easy per se, but 'normal' is for 'normal' people, the ones who have never played a game before. I get why developers do this, it's just a tangent to the 'make games more story-based' cries we gamers make.

The D&D game I am running is currently a Thieves Guild campaign, and I have no objection to killing players. Heck, I even had one player kill another. *wistful sigh* That was a good session.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Is the industry really catering for gamers who want shiny achievements and trophies for no effort put in?

Yes.

Sadly, it's a lot easier to make a skinner box than it is to make a challenge.

 

[Titan Buttons]

I believe it's a mixture of just being dam good at games and allowing a broader audince play games.

 

[Torrasque]

You have to remember old games were often harder due to bad design decisions not because they were developed to be intentionally difficult like dark souls and as developers have more experience this generally doesn't happen and I find most games on the hardest difficulty are usually very challenging anyway.

^^^ This.

Only an idiot would say that MW2 or MW3 get more difficult as the difficulty is ramped up, all that changes is the enemy's accuracy and how much damage they do to you. In Halo or Gears of War, this actually equates to difficulty (enemies get tougher too), but in CoD games, the "difficulty" goes up so much so fast that the only way you can play the game is by slowly peeking around corners to kill enemies slowly, burning through grenades, or spamming your gun enough to get through the masses. That is very poor difficulty design.

Stacraft 2 gets legitimately difficult in Hard and damn near impossible in Brutal. Halo Reach was a pain to get through on Legendary, but it was so satisfying. Maybe OP plays games differently from I do, but most of the games that I own that I find difficult, are legitimately difficult. Also, I've beaten all of those "very hard games" you listed in a day (or two depending on availability). Conker's Bad Fur Day is not a hard game by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe on Einstein difficulty and you have 1v8, but thats about it.

The only problem I have with games these days, is that too many of them try to appeal to the greatest majority. That is why MW3 fucking blows.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

starcraft isn't hard because its "twitchy" as you called it, its hard because you actually have to think about every single thing you do, and you have to be doing things all the time. Its chess at a thousand mph, the keystrokes come with practice just like playing a piano. I dont like that you pigeonholed it as twitchy

Guy...I had over 1,000 ladder games on SC1 and played Diamond on SC2 (a poor diamond, albeit). There's no need to defend it. I have a ton of respect for that game. Naturally it's more than just "twitch", but the fact is I just DON'T have the finger speed to be a really special player. I can think the game as well as anyone, but my micro was nowhere near the best players.

 

[silver wolf009]

Snip

i have afew counter arguments for you
3. cod [HEADING=1](especially 5)[/HEADING]/battlefiled/halo on hardest difficulty

I hear that.

Nazi soldier: We heard you like grenades, so here, we made you a little circle of them.

Oh god the grenades...

OT: Yeah, I don't find current games all that easy. I'm currently on a play through of PROTOTYPE on hard and...

...

*Looks out the window.*

...It's far from easy.

I personally don't like incredibly hard games. I want a challenge, not a rage induced coma, which some games have brought me to almost.

 

[Slayer_2]

Because they are well made. Old games were glitchy and poorly designed, half the time you couldn't see where you were going or what you were doing. Also, there weren't walkthroughs on the net to help you out when you got stuck.

 

[Bostur]

Starcraft 2 is a good example of the right way to make a game difficult, both in single and multiplayer. It allows players to be good at it, by having effective controls and enough variation to make it hard for players to think of everything.
Of course Blizzard is one of the few old fashioned developers that likes to design games in a way that went out of style a few years ago.

The problem with difficulty levels in many games is that often the player doesn't get the means to become good at it. If controls are inaccurate the player will not be able to make split second decisions. If the game lacks depth or tactical variation, the player can't improvise.

A game needs to have sufficient space for player actions and make use of that space with traditional difficulty.

Good difficulty is a 2 tiered approach.
1. A difficult environment.
2. Player tools to handle it.

Without both of those the game will either be easy, or hard in a frustrating or random way.

 

[mad_mick]

Why are games so easy?

Well, there's this [http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/easy-games].

Also, realize that there's a decent degree that games aren't getting "easier" so much as you are getting better while games are staying the same.

This was excellent. cheers for the link

 

[NightHawk21]

To be as successful as possible games need to maximize their consumer base. Making the game a little easier and putting in harder difficulties allows them to do appeal to people who don't play/ haven't played as much. That in addition to you probably having logged well over a couple hundred hours in various games throughout your life (its a skill practice and you'll get better) makes modern games easier.

 

[floppylobster]

So im currently ploughing through mass effect 3, while the universe is huge (im making a point of visiting every system and draining it of everything i can find), and there?s many ''ooohhhhh'' and ''aaahhhhh'' moments of delectable eye candy, i cant help feel i have been cheated. Iv heard about how crap the ending is (PLEASE, no spoilers) but every mission so far is run and shoot enough ammo at any enemy until it drops. i wasn?t aware i was playing gears of war 4. And i've found many games lately to be far far to easy. Modern warfare 3 had the difficulty curve of circle, as well as gears of war 3, halo reach, homefront, fable 3, assassins creed revelations, countless others! games these days seam to cater to people of a lesser intellectual capability.

I'm no brainiac, but i would like more of a challenge than shoot this, run here, stab this. collect the right armour or weapons and the games play them self?s. i have smashed many a controller in frustration over the original resident evil, silent hill, metal gear, conkers bad fur day. games can be knocked over ina few hours now, it used to take weeks. This was meant to be an observation and has turned into a rant, my apologies, but frustration is making my brain melt!! im interested to know what does the wider gaming community think of the level of difficulty today?s games have. i just cant justity spending $100 on a new release to find im twiddling my thumbs the day after.

I'm right there with you on Mass Effect 3 (I also haven't finished yet so you'll see no spoilers from me). The series has gone from interesting-but-kinda-clunky RPG with shooting elements, (and all the more charming for it), in part 1. To slick RPG/shooter in part 2. To a half-arsed cover shooter with RPG elements removed - that isn't half as good as every other cover shooter out there - in part 3. I haven't finished it because I'm not really enjoying it all that much. There feels like there's nothing new to discover (unlike the Mako expeditions in part 1). It's more like UNCOVER - that which has been laid out before you, and countless other gamers have already found before you. The possibility of discovering a secret is absolutely zero because it's so damn linear and obvious in it's layout and prompting.

I can't believe they took out the planet scanning (and Mako expeditions) in favour of finding a single set point on a single planet. Searching planets (in 1 or 2) was never essential, yet it's been removed just in case any non-gamers come across it and panic.

If you want to get back to the good old days of challenging and unpredictable gaming I suggest retro gaming. I've recently rediscovered a bunch of old classics on my first ever console (the SEGA SG-1000), and that's led me to find more on the ZX SPECTRUM and Commodore 64. There are a tonne of great games if do some research and sift through the 'best of' lists and pick what looks interesting to you. They require a bit more patience and the difficulty curves are often a little steep, but overall it makes for an interesting, challenging and ultimately rewarding experience. You'll be a better gamer for it if you can appreciate them.

EDIT: It's not that you've gotten better at games as some have suggested - Play 'Druid' on C64, Firelord on ZX Spectrum, Rygar on MAME, you'll find that games back then really were just more difficult.

 

[predatorpulse7]

It doesn't have to do with us getting "better" at games, 90% of today's mainstream games are really that easy. The thing is that the people making the games are tied down by the people trying to sell the games and so they strive to make the games "accesible" for almost all crowds, thus dumbing down the games massively.

Even the difficulty levels are a joke. A higher difficulty doesn't mean a smarter AI for example or certain routes(ex:that contain powerful weapons) being blocked off, it usually means that the enemies get double health(as do the bosses) and your weapons deal less damage. It is a artificial way of boosting the difficulty, sometimes making it impossible, so of course few people are gonna play it on those settings.

As stated by previous users, Witcher 2 did difficulty really well. It is tough on normal(but not that tough once you learn when to block, when to get out of the way, how to use signs to trap certain opponents etc.), a bit tougher on hard and nigh impossible at times on the biggest difficulty setting. The satisfaction of getting out a fight alive is terrific in the Witcher 2 and that's what it should feel like. I also like that the game doesn't give a HUGE F**KING ARROW to point you towards your next objective as if you were some lost puppy looking for your bone.

I'll give another example, of a game series I love but which has become way too damn easy, AssCreed. I gave the mouse and keyboard to my 11 year old cousin and even he found it nigh impossible to kill Ezio in an encounter with guards.

Games need to present us with challenges and by that I don't mean stupid achievements such as "hit this guy with 3 punches while the sun and the moon are in conjencture".

 

[Zen Toombs]

Well, there's this [http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/easy-games].

Also, realize that there's a decent degree that games aren't getting "easier" so much as you are getting better while games are staying the same.

This was excellent. cheers for the link

No problem. And thank you for reminding me I still have a season of Extra Credits to watch.

 

[orangeban]

I don't think games are too easy these days. As a gamer I'm more focused on story than on gameplay, so I generally prefer to go through games on easy while still experiencing the full story. Though I do tend to put strategy games and stealth games on higher difficulties, because I like the strategy involved there.

Anyway, I don't really understand why people want games to be "hard". When I think hard, I think frustrating and annoying.

So I'm not really in a position to comment on whether recent games are "hard" or not, since I don't even like that kind of thing.