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

[Egomaniac]

Ok, take Skyrim. I'm stubborn, so I will put the difficulty slider to Legendary and do my best to stick to it. I come up to an enemy that's super overtuned and I can't get past him. I have a few options, I can either level up more, find better gear, try to get past him or try to cheese him to death. OR, I can turn it down to easy for that 1 mob and then turn it up again afterwards.

I don't want that choice in my mind, I want to figure the game out and not have the constant temptation to make it easier or harder for myself. When I start turning it down, the question of 'why even get stronger' crops into my mind; I don't like having the option available.

I mean you already made the choice to play at Legendary Difficulty. It sounds to me like you wouldn't enjoy the game at a "Normal" Difficulty....so it's very fortunate for you that the game does have that slider...

[TEHPALLYTANK]

It's not lying to yourself. You aren't saying "those options do not exist". You are just ignoring them because that's not how you want to play. For you, one difficulty is enough...so for you "Normal" difficulty is the only option that matters. For other people, that choice actually does matter.

You're literally arguing for self-delusion here. I can't ignore something that exists simply because I don't like it. What you're arguing for literally sounds like insanity to me, because it sounds like you're suggesting that you just pretend things you don't like are somehow magically not there anymore.

Most games with multiple difficulties require you to choose a difficulty when starting a game, the very existence of that screen presents me with an incontrovertible fact that multiple difficulties exist and I am choosing one. So either the solution is for me to never play games that have the difficulty choice a mandatory screen when starting a game, or to delude myself and pretend I never saw something that I very much did see.

[Egomaniac]

You're literally arguing for self-delusion here. I can't ignore something that exists simply because I don't like it. What you're arguing for literally sounds like insanity to me, because it sounds like you're suggesting that you just pretend things you don't like are somehow magically not there anymore.

No, I'm not. Im arguing that not all options have to apply to you personally. If you just want a default experience playing a game than "Normal" is the only option you need to concern yourself with.

[DechCJC]

I mean you already made the choice to play at Legendary Difficulty. It sounds to me like you wouldn't enjoy the game at a "Normal" Difficulty....so it's very fortunate for you that the game does have that slider...

I can guarantee that the game would be scaled very differently if there was only one difficulty, with much more attention put into combat. I love Breath of the Wild and Dark Souls, they're as difficult as you want them to be based on your in-game experience. Want to rush Ganon first thing? Crack on. It'll be near impossible but go for it. If you have the experience in Dark Souls you can completely bust your character in the first hour of the game, making the rest of it a joke.

They can both be hard if you want them to be, but you can make them easier by playing the game and figuring it out. I don't want a slider to make that choice for me, I want to make it myself in-game.

Sliders are lazy and unbalanced game design in my opinion. I don't like them, I have the right to prefer games without them as much as anyone else has the right to want them.

It's hypocritical for someone with my preferences to be called selfish, that's the point I was trying to get at from the start. I don't see why it's wrong for me to prefer games that are designed a certain way, but everyone has this mentality that 'more options can only ever be a good thing' and it just doesn't ring true for me.

[Unholyground]

I never play on easy, only normal because if there is no challenge then what is the point?

[DechCJC]

No, I'm not. Im arguing that not all options have to apply to you personally. If you just want a default experience playing a game than "Normal" is the only option you need to concern yourself with.

But the balance is rarely right. Normal is often under-tuned and hard has the issue where it's brokenly over-tuned in random locations. It's not balanced because they've made it so that 'normal' can be beaten by basically anyone and then they've just stuck a %damage increase to mobs and a %health decrease to the player; It's badly balanced and from my experience, games with 1 set difficulty level are the most enjoyable.

[Ealyssa]

I play most of single player games on easy or normal at most.

I don't find hardcore challenges really appealing when I play alone. I'm more into being immerge into a world and live an adventure.
On the other side I really like difficulty in multiplayer games. Clearing mythic raid in wow, ranked competitive in HotS or Overwatch. Apex, Division 2, Dauntless. I go up the whatever hardest content they offer.

[DechCJC]

-Snip-

Accidental double. Ignore

[Egomaniac]

I can guarantee that the game would be scaled very differently if there was only one difficulty.

Yes, it would be...but would it be scaled to your liking? Should everyone be forced to play Skyrim at Legendary difficulty?

[thilicen]

Whatever floats your boat, fuck anyone who thinks their opinion should play a role in how you personally chose to enjoy something.

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I never play on easy, only normal because if there is no challenge then what is the point?

Well a lot of games name their easy mode "story mode" these days for a reason. I enjoy the challenge myself but I can totally understand why a lot of people would prefer to enjoy a game like Uncharted, The last of us etc. on story mode.

[DechCJC]

Yes, it would be...but would it be scaled to your liking? Should everyone be forced to play Skyrim at Legendary difficulty?

No, it should be a balanced difficulty level where some areas are challenging and others are not based on your experience and gear. It should only feel like Legendary if you decide to go fight creatures that are blatantly far stronger than you, a random rat shouldn't pose a threat. The rat shouldn't become as dangerous as a dragon when I turn a slider up, there should be a constant realistic level of challenge.

I will keep referring to Breath of the Wild because I feel that it's a perfect example of a RPG with one difficulty balanced right; Anyone can enjoy it, it's as easy or hard as you want it to be.

[Katchii]

I typically go for the default normal experience, but have no shame in turning down the difficulty if it becomes too frustrating. I bought the game to enjoy myself and experience it, not get frustrated with it. I don't want the game to be too easy though, as there's simply very little sense of accomplishment if you can walk all over everyone.

I think games like Fallen Order and Ghost of Tsushima did it well where the enemies and game play are largely unchanged because the game is just more forgiving in how much damage you can take or how many mistakes you're allowed to make before you die, and not by a huge margin. Dying after making the same mistake 2-3 times feels much less frustrating than dying after making the mistake once.

[Unholyground]

Whatever floats your boat, fuck anyone who thinks their opinion should play a role in how you personally chose to enjoy something.

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Well a lot of games name their easy mode "story mode" these days for a reason.

Ya, the default mode is usually the intended difficulty which is generally normal.

[Egomaniac]

But the balance is rarely right. Normal is often under-tuned and hard has the issue where it's brokenly over-tuned in random locations. It's not balanced because they've made it so that 'normal' can be beaten by basically anyone and then they've just stuck a %damage increase to mobs and a %health decrease to the player; It's badly balanced and from my experience, games with 1 set difficulty level are the most enjoyable.

Normal, by definition, cannot be "under-tuned". That's the default experience. "Hard" or "Easy" are based on comparison to "Normal"

[Laqweeta]

I don't like it, honestly. Games like the latest Tomb Raider, I go straight to the difficulty below the highest difficulty. I beat the game on that, then go back and beat it on the highest difficulty.

I've never understood how to do it on games like Skyrim, Legendary difficulty. At level 1 you have like NOTHING and deal 1 damage to a health pool of 300 and get one shot so like.. Yeah. lmao

[DechCJC]

Normal, by definition, cannot be "under-tuned". That's the default experience. "Hard" or "Easy" are based on comparison to "Normal"

Look, we don't agree. That's fine. I don't expect everyone to. I just think it's hypocritical for others to label me as selfish for wanting a game without difficulty sliders; It's been proven to work well with multiple franchises and I have my reasons to prefer it. I don't believe that more difficulties are always a good thing, though I will admit that it has its place. I don't see the point in arguing it further.

[Mrbleedinggums]

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.

If the difficulty is worthwhile, I'll play it on hardest difficulty. If the difficulty only means that the enemies just have more hp/damage, and have stupid combos that cannot be avoided or make the game a headache rather than enjoyable content to overcome, then I won't play it on hardest difficulty.

Case in point: Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Playing it on hardest difficulty wasn't a challenge, it was just tedious and mind-numbing. Not to mention, when you'd die because of a stupid mechanic or ability the enemy it just didn't feel worthwhile. Witcher 3 I played on Death March and enjoyed it because even if you could die easily, you had multiple paths of being able to take on monsters and felt like if you mastered the game then you could have an enjoyable battle.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

No, I'm not. Im arguing that not all options have to apply to you personally. If you just want a default experience playing a game than "Normal" is the only option you need to concern yourself with.

How many different ways to I need to express this before you comprehend this? I cannot ignore facts simply because I find them objectionable, I cannot engage in self-delusion by pretending a choice doesn't exist when a choice exists. No matter how many ways you try to frame it, the fundamental fact of multiple difficulty options existing and most games mandating that you select a difficulty when starting a game means you are required to make a choice of which difficulty to play on before playing a game, or you're limited to playing games that either don't offer difficulty options or don't force you through a difficulty select menu prior to starting a game.

What you are asking me to do is to pretend that something doesn't exist, when it does exist, because it is inconvenient for me. You are asking me to lie, to myself. What you're asking of me is as unreasonable to me as if I were to ask you to stop thinking, it is practically impossible.


It is a simple fact that, for me, the existence of difficulty options can be a decisive factor in whether or not I enjoy a game. Not every game handles difficulty settings the same way, some just do a simple numbers pass changing the health and damage multipliers, while others alter the gameplay itself. Having to deal with sorting through that additional information can be a chore, to the point where a game stops being fun because I'm too busy trying to figure out exactly what the difficulty settings are changing and then trying to figure out which difficulty would be the most enjoyable for me.


Just accept the fact that the existence of difficulty options can be a large enough issue to ruin a game for me, and there is literally no argument you can make that will change this. I don't go around demanding that games have their difficulty options be removed, so I think it is fair that I ask people to not demand difficulty options be added to games that lack them.

[vashe9]

normal is the new easy, most games are more fun in harder difficulties
For me it's quite the opposite, if I never die/lose in a game, I'm frustrated

I dont really understand people who don't like challenges in games (except for story oriented games). That's why most people like PvP games (fortnite, lol,..)

ALL games need some of difficulty slider, or some people wont like it, thus less sales.

Wow with only mm+ and hm+ raids would lose a lot of subs, same for wow with only heroic dungeons and normal raid (thats why I'm not a fan of classic/vanilla anymore)

If a battle system is not enjoyable, I dont even try easy, I just drop the game... it means it's a bad game anyway

[Egomaniac]

Look, we don't agree. That's fine. I don't expect everyone to. I just think it's hypocritical for others to label me as selfish for wanting a game without difficulty sliders; It's been proven to work well with multiple franchises and I have my reasons to prefer it. I don't believe that more difficulties are always a good thing, though I will admit that it has its place. I don't see the point in arguing it further.

I can agree that not all games even need a difficulty slider. There are games that, as you said, the difficulty can be controlled in game by decisions the player makes. I'm just saying that the existence of that slider should not be something that detracts from your experience. Play Skyrim on Legendary. Play it on Normal. Play it on any difficulty you like. Just don't insist that should be the only option for how other people play Skyrim.