Playing games on Easy: opinions

[Joeydivision82]

Why play a game just to see it through and "get it over with"? If I am going to play the game, its going to be how I want to do so, and again that is generally as difficult as the game allows. If slogging through it on easy just so you can watch the ending is so important, why not just watch it on Youtube and skip it over?

I find the journey just as important as the destination, and again, I'll play through them at the difficulty I want. I'll get through my backlog when I get through my backlog. I've got 2 kids (read: limited playtime) and I'm working my way through. I imagine those with more free time should have zero problem getting through their library of games regardless of difficulty.

I'm not suggesting burning through it just for the ending, I'm saying make the journey a bit easier, to see how the story pans out, and then get to the ending.

Just because youboutvit on easy doesnt remove 99% of the story, Nd you only get the ending.

An example is the original Devil May Cry, you get all the scenes, you still get to do some exploration, but you get to skip passed the black cat like mini bosses, among a few other things, and in no way does that take away from the story.

People also said "if I want just a story, I'll read a book" which I also don't understand, because not all games come in book form, and actually, a great majority of them don't. Aside from that point, why read a book when you can play the book?(in a sense) and get the complete story still.

I'm not say opinions here are wrong, but I don't feel that cgallenge equals quality story telling.

When I want a challenge, I'll play an RTS online, or Demon's Souls, or even have a race to finish a game with a friend.

Challenge in standard single player games can be fun, but my main purpose for playing is for the story, so I don't see how "watching the ending in YouTube" is the same as plaything the entire game, challenge or no challenge.

[Zonas]

Eh, I'd never go on easy for a game. Half the time, typical normal mode feels like it's on easy. My first playthrough though, I just stay on normal, it's easier to see the finer details in a game and get a feel of the actual gameplay. Then I'd replay it on the highest difficulty for trophies and such.
I suppose it's why I always like games that don't have a changeable difficulty, but meh.

Some games are kind of impossible to play with higher difficulties though. Either the combat itself makes it too pointless or it can't be balanced enough. Good example would be ES: Oblivion, where it gives enemies insane amounts of health that makes you spend literally half an hour fighting the guy, while no matter your current level, it still takes forever.

[Nahela]

I still almost always play on at least normal, but the older I get and the bigger my gaming backlog gets, the more often I'm willing to notch down that difficulty to make sure I can get through a game in a reasonable time.

[Descense]

I avoid playing strategys on super hard because.... well AI cheats like hell.

When it goes for shouting games it realy depends on the mob HP. If i shut him into a head on superhard...well i want him dead... not like sending 10 shots in head and its stil alive.




Turning this game on hard is a very huge challange... you dont have super mutant regeneration.
1 shot = dead

[Ajax Epic]

Bottom Line, a game is meant to be fun and entertaining. And that means different things for different people.

I personally could care less about a challenge. If I'm playing alone, I only play games on easy or normal (unless I'm forced to play on a higher setting to unlock content). If I'm playing with friends, I'll do whatever they want to do and be just fine if they pick harder settings.

The way I enjoy playing games would drive most of you insane from boredom, but since I'm too laid back, very well endowed...with patience, and suffer from highly addictive tendencies, I enjoy slowly and casually being both an immovable object and unstoppable force as I bring about the apocalypse upon any NPC brought before me (not a fan of PvP unless it's team based, even then rather co-op vs a.i.). The best example of this is my RTS tendencies of turtling until I'm pop-capped with a fully upgraded army and then steamrolling all my enemies in one massive wave of death and destruction.

But to each their own =)

[Duruka]

People also said "if I want just a story, I'll read a book" which I also don't understand, because not all games come in book form, and actually, a great majority of them don't. Aside from that point, why read a book when you can play the book?(in a sense) and get the complete story still.

Books are primarily a story telling device. Video games are not. The focus should be on gameplay, and while a good story certainly helps it should come secondary (or tertiary, or...quaternary, depending on where you rank music and graphics in terms of importance).

Also books tell better stories than games in general.

[Laurcus]

Eh, I'd never go on easy for a game. Half the time, typical normal mode feels like it's on easy. My first playthrough though, I just stay on normal, it's easier to see the finer details in a game and get a feel of the actual gameplay. Then I'd replay it on the highest difficulty for trophies and such.
I suppose it's why I always like games that don't have a changeable difficulty, but meh.

Some games are kind of impossible to play with higher difficulties though. Either the combat itself makes it too pointless or it can't be balanced enough. Good example would be ES: Oblivion, where it gives enemies insane amounts of health that makes you spend literally half an hour fighting the guy, while no matter your current level, it still takes forever.

Oblivion's "difficulty levels" are just flat out retarded. One of the big problems with Oblivion is that all mobs scaled with your level, but your damage and defenses really only scaled from a couple sources, and it's not difficult to reach a hard cap on both. Mob damage and health scales up infinitely though. So you may max out your character's effective combat stats at level 20, and be able to crunk everything in the game as a result, but any levels you gain after that point will actually reduce your overall power. I have a maxed out Nord melee character with all the trimmings, and when I got within about 20 levels of my max I started reducing the difficulty, because fights were just taking so damn long. And even with hard capped armor even normal enemies were starting to be able to take a good sized chunk out of me.

Oblivion's difficulty system and level scaling are just poorly designed.

[Sealed]

Books are primarily a story telling device. Video games are not. The focus should be on gameplay, and while a good story certainly helps it should come secondary (or tertiary, or...quaternary, depending on where you rank music and graphics in terms of importance).

Also books tell better stories than games in general.

Correction : the focus of a video game should be on whatever the team behind it is aiming for. If they want to make a game that is fun to play, good. If they want to tell a compelling story, I'm interested as well. There are loads of crappy books and there are plenty of great story-driven games.

It would be nice if we were finally able to move on from the last millenium's mindset that considers those newfangled entertainment media inferior and shallow for artistic purposes. I say that as both a long-time reader and gamer at core.

[Mothhive]

Actually, just remembered I always play FTL on Easy. That's only so I don't throw my PC out the nearest window though. Fucking RNG...

[Duruka]

Correction : the focus of a video game should be on whatever the team behind it is aiming for. If they want to make a game that is fun to play, good. If they want to tell a compelling story, I'm interested as well.

That's fine. But I don't think gameplay should ever suffer just so the developers can tell a story. There are lots of ways to present the story through gameplay, without excessive use of cut scenes.
As for "games" like Heavy Rain and the Walking Dead, I don't have a problem with them, but they can barely even be called video games (in my opinion of course).

There are loads of crappy books and there are plenty of great story-driven games.

I never said otherwise. But how many of those great games can live up to the classics of literature? I'm not saying every game story is bad, it's just not the ideal medium for telling one.

It would be nice if we were finally able to move on from the last millenium's mindset that considers those newfangled entertainment media inferior and shallow for artistic purposes. I say that as both a long-time reader and gamer at core.

I agree. You can't really judge a game based solely on the writing though; it has to have a good combination of everything. Writing, presentation, music, and especially the gameplay (although that's not a recognized form of art, and I doubt it ever will be).

Look, I'm not trying to say playing a video game just for the story is wrong. I've done it myself once or twice. I think it should be about more than that though. Anyway, we're getting a little off topic.

[Sigrun33]

I'm not suggesting burning through it just for the ending, I'm saying make the journey a bit easier, to see how the story pans out, and then get to the ending.

Just because youboutvit on easy doesnt remove 99% of the story, Nd you only get the ending.

An example is the original Devil May Cry, you get all the scenes, you still get to do some exploration, but you get to skip passed the black cat like mini bosses, among a few other things, and in no way does that take away from the story.

People also said "if I want just a story, I'll read a book" which I also don't understand, because not all games come in book form, and actually, a great majority of them don't. Aside from that point, why read a book when you can play the book?(in a sense) and get the complete story still.

I'm not say opinions here are wrong, but I don't feel that cgallenge equals quality story telling.

When I want a challenge, I'll play an RTS online, or Demon's Souls, or even have a race to finish a game with a friend.

Challenge in standard single player games can be fun, but my main purpose for playing is for the story, so I don't see how "watching the ending in YouTube" is the same as plaything the entire game, challenge or no challenge.

I'm not even going to argue that, but I guess my point is, if I am going to play the game, it is going to be for more than just the story. It is going to be "to play the game". Gaming as a medium is more than just story (at least to me). It's about the entire experience, game play included. So as I said before, I'll get through my back log when I get through it. I'd rather play the game in the way its right to me rather than just to see it to see it. To me playing on easy just to see the story would be akin to playing a movie on fast forward with subtitles. I might get the story and see it through, but it wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable.

[Djuntas]

Dont mind it. I will do it to speed up a game (Like Torchlight II /NG+ farming) or to practice. Eventually I would like to play any games I invest time into on the hardest difficulty.

Take my case with Age of empires 2, the ancient old RTS. I started playing it again around summer inn 2012. Just now I won a game againts computer AI on the hardest option and only lost 26 units (Considering I once had a "lolz game" where I lost over 800 units 26 is great and could have had less really), and 1 building. Back when I started I would rather play it on almost hardest option (Hard), and I learned the game on easy. Now I wouldent dream off playing againts PC AI without hardest.


So yea...If im bad, bored or wanna learn I play it on easy. I barely ever played Warcraft III on hard trough, just cant seem to handle it.

[Adam Jensen]

People also said "if I want just a story, I'll read a book" which I also don't understand, because not all games come in book form, and actually, a great majority of them don't. Aside from that point, why read a book when you can play the book?(in a sense) and get the complete story still.

Honestly, I think video gaming is a great medium for story telling. Look at Deus Ex HR or Mass Effect or Dragon Age. All three of those games were very effective for story telling and in someways more effective than a movie or a book because the story becomes more personal to the player. For example, in Deus Ex, I don't watch the action hero save Faridah Malik, I *am* the action hero saving Faridah Malik, so it just feels more immersive than just watching it.

People don't often think of video games as a story telling medium, but when done right, they are very effective for that purpose.

[Deoxysprime]

I try to play on harder difficulties most of the time. Really depends on the type of game I'm playing.

In games like Guitar Hero/Dance Dance Revolution I (and I think everyone else did too) started on the easiest mode and worked my way up. I don't play DDR any longer, but I still play GH type games on the highest difficulty.

In 'serious' games I'll usually test it out on the highest difficulty available. I'll keep dropping it down until it's playable. If it gets easy again, I'll turn the difficulty up (if difficulty changes midgame are possible.) I recently played through Tales of Graces f, I did my first playthrough on the difficulty just above normal (which wasn't labelled hard mode) and I enjoyed it. There were some amply challenging bosses and random encounters weren't overly time consuming.

Games are generally more fun when I'm more challenged. I don't want to hit a wall though.

[Madruga]

When I really get into the game, I tend to complete everything it has to offer. The hardest difficulty, all secrets, all unlockables.

The disadvantage of this is that I tend to not play so many games as I could if I just moved on, but I always enjoyed taking my time, even if everybody else was already in newer games.

And I don't even have to say that I have fallen to the WoW pitfall... How do you complete a game that is not suposed to be completed? lol

[Sigrun33]

Honestly, I think video gaming is a great medium for story telling. Look at Deus Ex HR or Mass Effect or Dragon Age. All three of those games were very effective for story telling and in someways more effective than a movie or a book because the story becomes more personal to the player. For example, in Deus Ex, I don't watch the action hero save Faridah Malik, I *am* the action hero saving Faridah Malik, so it just feels more immersive than just watching it.

People don't often think of video games as a story telling medium, but when done right, they are very effective for that purpose.

Absolutely. I also feel that at the higher difficulties (which are done rather well in HR) you get the sense of urgency to skulk through the shadows and utilize your hacking skills and ability to make silent kills, making you feel like the bad ass Adam Jensen when you pull it off successfully. To me its the game play along with the narrative that encompasses the story in a game.

[Shinzai]

Absolutely. I also feel that at the higher difficulties (which are done rather well in HR) you get the sense of urgency to skulk through the shadows and utilize your hacking skills and ability to make silent kills, making you feel like the bad ass Adam Jensen when you pull it off successfully. To me its the game play along with the narrative that encompasses the story in a game.

This ties in a lot with my comments on Dead Space and its ilk - if a game doesn't present a challenge, you often don't feel as though you're playing the character that you've been assigned. If DMC 3 wasn't hard, you wouldn't feel empowered as Dante once you start getting everything right and become able to clear entire areas without taking a hit, on the virtue of your own skill.

As Adam Jensen, Solid Snake, Sam Fischer, or whoever, if you're not being challenged with dying for screwing up, or at least being pursued viciously through an area, then what's the point? On easier settings, you have no feeling of place within the game world. It's less that you're a hero character, rather than everyone else in the world is a weak idiot who won't even try to stop you. Not to mention that a lot of satisfaction is garnered from clearing an area in an expert manner, reflecting what your character embodies.