Playing games on easy difficulty- how do you feel about it?

[Texan Penguin]

I had to turn Doom Eternal down to "Too Young to Die" to fight the final boss and I'm satisfied. I've been stuck on the fight for probably a week or two now, and on the game as a whole for nearly three months, and I just wanted to be done. Even on TYTD it was still pretty intense, though.

In general, is there any shame in playing games on easy? Maybe it was just because Eternal was so mentally exhausting and (literally) headache-inducing to me that I finally needed to dial it down a little- 99% of the time I just play games on normal and they aren't nearly as intense.

[Jtbrig7390]

In general, is there any shame in playing games on easy?

Nope, Gaming is a hobby and is meant to be enjoyed. If you enjoy playing a game on easy mode than go for it. IMO games should always provide a easy mode.

I'm currently playing Doom 2016 on Ultra Violence and about to move over to Eternal.

Play however you want as long as your enjoying yourself.


(Clearly don't cheat in Multiplayer games)

[Jabakaga]

I usually play games on medium difficultly. If I'm dying I get frustrated and then I'm no longer enjoying the game simple as that so I sometimes set it to easy when playing shooter games on a console aiming with a controller is a hard mode it self for me.

[Kaykay]

Singleplayer games for me, are all about seeing the story, combined with abit of a power fantasy. I don't need a challenge, i need to be entertained.

Singleplayer games suffer from the fact that they are singleplayer, and that there's an end to them, so investing time to "get good" at them feels like a super wasteful thing(only so many hours in the week). I'd rather just get the experience and then go back to pwning noobs in other games.

Challenge is something you get from facing other real people, so counterstrike, league of legends or arenas in wow is where i get my challenge. And i don't feel my time investment to land headshots or cc-chain is wasted in games that will stick around for years to come, not in the same way i feel my time is wasted when completing every repetitive sidequest in assassin's creed or skyrim, to deal x% more damage to the final boss.

[Donald Hellscream]

Play the game however you like, sure there are people who believe that easy mode shouldn't exist in games, but those people can go fuck themselves.

[Neuroticaine]

Depends on the game. Often times, harder difficulties aren't really harder, just more annoying. Take the recent Assassin's Creed games. In Odyssey, I started off playing on a harder difficulty but dropped it down because the enemies were just HP sponges that took too long to kill. It didn't make the game any harder, just longer and more tedious.

And the end of the day, as long as you're having fun, that's all that matters.

[Samuraijake]

just remember that they put in that difficulty for a reason... and its not to make their customers/audience feel bad about it either

[Omedon]

Honestly? I see it as the default experience. Challenge is its own sort of thing that, to me, should be optional and not mandated by the art that is the kind of games I am drawn to.

That said, ok, some games EXIST to provide a challenge. I'm just not interested in those. I want to see the story unfold, explore a world, take in the ambience, and what I don't need is HITTHATBUTTONRIGHTNOWORDIE interrupting the experience.

The science of (for example) World of Warcraft for me is finding the path of least resistance, the guaranteed, low hanging progression, and setting my goals there so I can focus on BEING my character in the world. WoW serves this style very well, while offering M+ for crazy people... erm, people who like a challenge. In Dragon age, I crank things AAAALL the way down because, no, I'm not there to be told "you must be this good at reflexes to go further" because I put my time in as a younger person doing all the atma weapons and the save the queens of my early RPG years. Now, I just want a compelling world and story, and games that think their world is special enough to need me to "have skill" to see it can get along fine without my money.

Heck one of the reasons I quit GW2 early in its lifespan is they wanted their "challenging game" to come in the form of "can you get from point A to B without dying in the open world?" Like, yo, the open world is mine for being here and being remotely competent, it's not so special that you get to make it a skill check. That's when I moved on in my sampling of MMOs. WoW will always be home because the level cap is a given, seeing the content is a given, and challenge is generally optional. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle on that, and they know that, and won't try to.

So yeah, turn it down, it's yours, you bought it. And turn it back up when challenge is what you crave. And if you never crave challenge, that's ok too!

[Texan Penguin]

Honestly? I see it as the default experience. Challenge is its own sort of thing that, to me, should be optional and not mandated by the art that is the kind of games I am drawn to.

That said, ok, some games EXIST to provide a challenge. I'm just not interested in those. I want to see the story unfold, explore a world, take in the ambience, and what I don't need is HITTHATBUTTONRIGHTNOWORDIE interrupting the experience.

The science of (for example) World of Warcraft for me is finding the path of least resistance, the guaranteed, low hanging progression, and setting my goals there so I can focus on BEING my character in the world. WoW serves this style very well, while offering M+ for crazy people... erm, people who like a challenge. In Dragon age, I crank things AAAALL the way down because, no, I'm not there to be told "you must be this good at reflexes to go further" because I put my time in as a younger person doing all the atma weapons and the save the queens of my early RPG years. Now, I just want a compelling world and story, and games that think their world is special enough to need me to "have skill" to see it can get along fine without my money.

Heck one of the reasons I quit GW2 early in its lifespan is they wanted their "challenging game" to come in the form of "can you get from point A to B without dying in the open world?" Like, yo, the open world is mine for being here and being remotely competent, it's not so special that you get to make it a skill check. That's when I moved on in my sampling of MMOs. WoW will always be home because the level cap is a given, seeing the content is a given, and challenge is generally optional. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle on that, and they know that, and won't try to.

So yeah, turn it down, it's yours, you bought it. And turn it back up when challenge is what you crave. And if you never crave challenge, that's ok too!

I honestly did finish 99.99% of Eternal on HMP. I think I just finally hit my breaking point with the Icon of Sin.

In some instances, I do crave a challenge. But not when it's so frustrating you walk away from your desk with a headache or a migraine because it's so aggravating. I swear, if there are fucking Marauders in the DLC I'm going to have a pallet of rotten pineapples airdropped in front of Bethesda/id's front door.

It's situational- like for the newer Fire Emblems I turn off permadeath because I care too much about my characters. Yet I'm willing to push some of the most ridiculous challenges in platformers- like I want to get 100% time trials on Crash Bandicoot HD and get through Champion's Road in SM3DW.

I don't like things handed to me at all. But goddamn, dude- some days flying the W makes the day better, even if it's not the hardest difficulty.

[Azerate]

Play the game however you like, sure there are people who believe that easy mode shouldn't exist in games, but those people can go fuck themselves.

Pretty much this.

For me personally, it varies from game to game. Usually though, If I have to use the lowest, or second lowest difficulty setting (below 'normal') then that usually means I don't really enjoy that game. I know some people have this "I enjoy it despite sucking at it" but I can't say that's a feeling I share. I get frustrated if I get constantly owned or have to play at a difficulty where I see nothing can harm me.

In JRPGs with a new game+ I will often go normal first, and then the hardest mode on ng+ just for completion's sake. In a rare case of a non-rpg game that I play multiple times I might rise the difficulty on subsequent playthroughs, but I never start above NORMAL. I'm a bit afraid to get stuck later and having to replay it or something. Plus I'm not one of those elite gamers that are magically best at every game automatically.

[Tronski]

I had to turn Doom Eternal down to "Too Young to Die" to fight the final boss and I'm satisfied. I've been stuck on the fight for probably a week or two now, and on the game as a whole for nearly three months, and I just wanted to be done. Even on TYTD it was still pretty intense, though.

In general, is there any shame in playing games on easy? Maybe it was just because Eternal was so mentally exhausting and (literally) headache-inducing to me that I finally needed to dial it down a little- 99% of the time I just play games on normal and they aren't nearly as intense.

Depends on the game and how much you care about it. A challenge is always fun, but if it's a game you just want to finish in order to move on in your backlog, then it doesn't make sense to continue from last checkpoint every 3 minutes. Also depends on what makes ultra-hard hard, or whether it is annoying/unreasonable or not.

I e. Difference between Persona 4 hardest vs second hardest is just where you reload from when you die. Hardest use save file, second use checkpoint. But also, the difficulty is of the kind that is easy when you know exactly what to do, and unreasonable if it's your first playtrough, because everything is in preparation and not in adaptive.
So I just played it on normal.

Y's 8's inferno mode on the other hand, which the game basically tells you not to play, is gonna wipe the floor with you, but the solution is always git gud and try again. Maybe grind a little first so you survive 2 hits instead of 1 when you're stuck, but gitting gud is the only way through. That's fun difficulty (for me at leas)..

[zealo]

I honestly did finish 99.99% of Eternal on HMP. I think I just finally hit my breaking point with the Icon of Sin.

In some instances, I do crave a challenge. But not when it's so frustrating you walk away from your desk with a headache or a migraine because it's so aggravating. I swear, if there are fucking Marauders in the DLC I'm going to have a pallet of rotten pineapples airdropped in front of Bethesda/id's front door.

It's situational- like for the newer Fire Emblems I turn off permadeath because I care too much about my characters. Yet I'm willing to push some of the most ridiculous challenges in platformers- like I want to get 100% time trials on Crash Bandicoot HD and get through Champion's Road in SM3DW.

I don't like things handed to me at all. But goddamn, dude- some days flying the W makes the day better, even if it's not the hardest difficulty.

Frankly, I believe games like Fire Emblem, after the introduction of the ability to turn back turns was introduced, is a bit of a special case where permadeath is actually a warranted design decision.

Even if you don't plan on letting any unit die in your campaign, it actively discourages strategies based upon sacrificing units to get through sticky situations in maps, while the turn wheel insulates you as a player from the odd RNG bullshit and don't require full map restarts for a single mistake.

[Yunru]

It realy depends on a type of game.

Recent samurai jack game is pretty hard even on normal (due to lack on money to collect and i spend all meds so i didnt die on bosses lol).

But for most games easy --) hard is usualy just more hp and damage to the enemy and thats it.

However i like a type of difficulty when you have different game starts. X series has a good way like this when you can start with basic spaceship or un-armed scout ship that cant do anything.

[callipygoustp]

Don't think I've ever played a game on the easiest mode. At the same time, i don't think I've ever given thought to someone who does. What a ridiculous notion: how do I feel about how other people play a game?

[Kathranis]

I usually play games on normal the first time, then replay on hard if I like it enough. Some games do feel like they were really designed for hard mode, though. Recently, FFVII Remake is a great example.

Easy is something I tend to use only if the difficulty is frustrating rather than satisfying, if I'm only playing for the story, or if it's just a sandbox game I'm messing around in for fun.

[Rennadrel]

Some games are more challenging even on the "easier" settings, mainly because the gameplay is not as forgiving. I found that was my struggle with Doom Eternal. The last two fights in that game were pretty difficult mainly because of the damage the bosses put out. I never adjusted the difficulty though, I just kept trying until I figured it out and got better. To me, enjoyment is entirely what you get out of it.

[Pakheth]

I tend to play on medium, which is usually considered the 'normal' setting. But there are certain games I tend to play on easy mostly just for my own sanity like the original Devil May Cry.

However, there are games I feel should not have an easy mode as the difficulty of the design is intended and necessary to get the proper experience in the game, like the Souls series. But that doesn't mean all games should work like that. Also just because it's hard doesn't make it good. It's a fine balance very few games manage to master imo.

[Mirishka]

I had to turn Doom Eternal down to "Too Young to Die" to fight the final boss and I'm satisfied. I've been stuck on the fight for probably a week or two now, and on the game as a whole for nearly three months, and I just wanted to be done. Even on TYTD it was still pretty intense, though.

In general, is there any shame in playing games on easy? Maybe it was just because Eternal was so mentally exhausting and (literally) headache-inducing to me that I finally needed to dial it down a little- 99% of the time I just play games on normal and they aren't nearly as intense.

There are games (or content in games like WoW) that I've played on the hardest possible setting, and there are games where I want to enjoy the story and explore the world without being bothered with stressful combat every 30 paces.

And to be clear I don't mean this as an attack on you in any way, but the idea that there is 'shame' attached to the difficulty setting which you play a video game is just... it makes me facepalm. Gaming is a hobby. Gaming is supposed to be fun. If you want to play a game on easy, do so. If you want to play a game on hard, do that instead.

I know we live in an era of morons who declare themselves to be 'RE4L GAMERZ' because they play on higher difficulties, but the key word in that sentence is morons. Just play what you enjoy, and play how you enjoy. And you don't need to justify how you game to anyone.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

The default mode which is normal, If I'm engaged and having fun then thats video games to me.

[Mirishka]

just remember that they put in that difficulty for a reason... and its not to make their customers/audience feel bad about it either

Exactly. /10char