Playing games on Easy: opinions

[Blueobelisk]

I used to like to play on Hard and get it out of the way but I just don't have time for that nowadays.

I stopped being stubborn and dropped down to easy so I could finish the games on time for other games. It's just about story and experience for me, and if there's time depending on the game ill go back and try on Hard, or maybe if I revisit an older game.

[Draenox]

Depends on the game. I play the Halo games on normal difficulty or lower because I wanna enjoy the story, and I don't enjoy it when i'm being smacked all the time. A game like Crysis 2 I played on the max difficulty setting though. Dunno why I differentiate between them, even more so because they're both FPS games.

[Video Games]

I feel like shit if I play a game on easy but not a lot a drive to play it on harder difficulty besides certain games. Beat sephiroth at 40 on proud mode and it took me 200 attempts. I had a lot of funstration there.

[Fencers]

How do you guys feel about playing games on easy?

As long as difficulty isn't linked to major aspects of design; difficulty is 100% irrelevant in any video game.

A game such as Demon Souls doesn't "work" if it were easy or forgiving. The punishing difficulty is key to the design of Demon Souls. Whereas another game like say, Super Mario Bros. 3 isn't designed around a particular set of punitive or sharp difficulty systems.

Another example would be something like, Hotline Miami where the difficulty is vital to how the game functions fundamentally.

Any consideration outside of the core design of gameplay is irreverent. Always. It can never be true that anything can be considered higher than gameplay.

[Deleted]

Most games I play on normal. Some games I play on easy, if I don't really like the mechanics, but want to learn about the story (Bioshock), some games I play on hard, because they're meant to butcher you and I like it (Dungeons of Dredmor).

[McNeil]

I can't remember the last time I played a game on easy mode. I always put them on either normal or hard, depending on the game. If I'm completely new, it'll be normal. If I already have experience with the genre, It'll be hard.

[Varyk]

I usually play games on every difficulty, starting with easy.

[Shinzai]

I tend to play games on Hard, unless I find that it's just a broken difficulty where the computer doesn't abide by any game rules in order to stop/kill you. If I just want to breeze through something I'll play on Medium, but I almost never play games on Easy, even if there are achievements and other nonsense attached to it.

I think the last time I played a game all the way through on easy was the shareware release of Doom: Knee Deep In The Dead. I pretty much consider Medium/Normal difficulty a baseline bar - must be this good to play. Just my opinion though.

[Belize]

Sometimes, I just want to slaughter things on the easiest level.

[Borfl]

I don't have fun sleeping through games so I put them on hardest right off the bat and if its too meta for me I go to the one below hard.

[Flaks]

I get really irked if that elite in halo just stand there and takes it instead of dodging a grenade toss.

[Deleted]

Depends on the game, what mood I'm in, why I'm playing the game, etc.

There's a whole host of reasons I might play a game on easy, normal or hard. Sometimes I just suck at the game, can't get my head around it for whatever reason. At that point it's not longer really putting it on easy though.

[Skelington]

Skelington usually just does normal or medium unless the difficulties range from baby-> hardcore-> stereotypical elite asian tier. Most of the time he just wants to have fun with the story and gameplay rather than challenge his epeen to new heights. Hard modes come after if at all.

[inux94]

Hardest difficulty where available, I love the satisfying feeling of completing a hard level.

I'm probably going to spend ~40-50 hours on the SC2:Heart of the Swarm campagin, considering I spent 9 hours on the last map on Wings of Liberty.

[Manbanana]

If it's a game with a storyline that I've been looking forward to, then yeah I'll choose easy. Other than that, I play on normal and if I'm feeling frisky I'll bump it up a notch to hard or whatever.

[Adam Jensen]

Depends on the game and how "easy" easy is.

Mass Effect's "Insanity" is easy. Halo's "Legendary" was actually hard. So I play Halo on Normal and ME on Insanity. However, sometimes if I just want to relax, I'll push it down to Easy on various games.

I played DE:HR on Tell Me A Story difficulty because I was interested in the story and I tend to start games on easier difficulties and play harder difficulties the second time around. Sometimes I like to learn the game first.

---------- Post added 2013-01-27 at 08:59 PM ----------

I sometimes play games on easy, but I'm notoriously bad at video games apparently :P I usually go normal, but occasionally I will put it on easy just to see what it's like, especially if a genre I'm not so good at. I prefer games that let you choose per mission though or change in the middle of combat so I'm not stuck on easy mode if it's too easy.

Yeah I like that ability. Like in Skyrim, I got pissed off about a Dragon Priest, gave up and brought the difficulty down. Or in Mass Effect when you encounter a Krogan Battlemaster after a long dialogue and if you die, you have deal with the dialogue again.

[Brash]

There are some really interesting responses here, and I'm really shocked so many people are for the Easy mode.

Also, how do most of you find time for multiple playthroughs? I do one at most because my time is somewhat limited, and I have about 200 games, and a ton of which are waiting to be played, or partially finished.

Have to agree with you. I always thought most gamers were of the same mindset as I am. I usually start games on the hardest difficulty, some games I have to move down to the one below it but I figured most gamers wanted a challenge from their games not to mindlessly mash x or always pick auto-attack in battle, etc.

[Deleted]

In the games I play, normal tends the ridiculously easy setting and the hardest setting is where I actually have to pay a little attention and might die a few times.. so I usually go for the hardest. In games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Skyrim, I don't even know who the easy setting is meant for.

And yea, I usually go for the story also but not rushing through it all makes the story so much better. I get to see the side quests, read the ingame books, talk to NPCs.. but more importantly good AAA games I actually want to play are so rare that if I find one, I want it to last. And if I really only want the story and dont care to actually play the game, I just watch it on youtube. Saves a lot of money..

[inboundpaper]

Depends on the game, Halo/CoD are all on Hard first, RPG's are on normal or easy.

[Sealed]

Unwinding. Taste of power. Storytelling. Challenge.

There are many reasons to play a game. Difficulty isn't always relevant.

I'm certainly not looking for challenge when I go nuts in a sandbox world, but I did play and enjoy Demon's Souls specifically because its only difficulty level is "Unforgiving".

Variety !