Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

[Segata]

Invisible I is. C'mon admit it you would love that idea and find it funny as hell as you watch those twitch guys scream and moan that easy is too hard.

[isiolia]

Yeah. I mean, I don't disagree that part of the draw of Dark Souls tends to be the feeling you get from finally actually winning a boss fight or whatnot. If a new player could just steamroll the whole game, then it'd certainly lack that.

However, it's a relative thing. Plenty of players might still get that experience out of an easy mode (which, I mean, if you really actually want it... Cheat Engine).

If it doesn't change the experience for others, then why would it matter? It's entertainment. Actually, Jim Sterling did a piece on this general theme a week ago.

I mean, if you can't enjoy something without the thought that other people can't, well, what are you actually enjoying?

Not like they couldn't gate optional areas/endings/etc behind less assisted modes. DS2 has rewards for never dying, and never using a bonfire in the entire game. I think most of us are perfectly content not bothering with them, but they're there.

[Exhuminator]

You're making elitists sound awfully insecure.

One could argue that players who won't push themselves to meet the skill level of their peers, and instead clamor for easy modes, are really the insecure ones. One could also argue that elitists are snide jerks and take things too seriously. Who's to say?

So let me be clear; I'm not saying that I'm "right" or that anyone should agree with me. I'm just telling you how I personally feel about Easy modes being implemented into long standing difficult game series. As one elitist jerk I do not speak for all elitist jerks, only myself.

I mean, if you can't enjoy something without the thought that other people can't, well, what are you actually enjoying?

The inverse question becomes why should everything have to accommodate everyone? Why can't there be elitist games for elitist gamers? I don't think there's anything wrong with that personally. It's a niche for a niche demographic.

[Ack]

I think you're all insecure.

[marlowe221]

Yeah. I mean, I don't disagree that part of the draw of Dark Souls tends to be the feeling you get from finally actually winning a boss fight or whatnot. If a new player could just steamroll the whole game, then it'd certainly lack that.

However, it's a relative thing. Plenty of players might still get that experience out of an easy mode (which, I mean, if you really actually want it... Cheat Engine).

If it doesn't change the experience for others, then why would it matter? It's entertainment. Actually, Jim Sterling did a piece on this general theme a week ago.

I mean, if you can't enjoy something without the thought that other people can't, well, what are you actually enjoying?

Not like they couldn't gate optional areas/endings/etc behind less assisted modes. DS2 has rewards for never dying, and never using a bonfire in the entire game. I think most of us are perfectly content not bothering with them, but they're there.

Not only that, but it seems like a lot of the people who argue against difficulty settings in games like the Souls series do it in very binary terms. Like the only possibilities are that the game be hard as nails or as easy as breaking wind. Like there's nothing in between.

If Dark Souls had an "easy" mode, that doesn't mean it would automatically have to be brain dead easy.

Hell, if they had bothered to polish the controls, camera, and hit detection in the game it would make Dark Souls a good bit easier without changing a single game mechanic.

[Segata]

The inverse question becomes why should everything have to accommodate everyone? Why can't there be elitist games for elitist gamers? I don't think there's anything wrong with that personally. It's a niche for a niche demographic.

Elitists don't always pay the bills. SFV appealed only to the tourney crowd...Pokken sold better. I get what you're saying and I do agree. We just don't live in NES hard era anymore. We live in the era where a single game can break an entire company even if it sells 4 million. Gotta appeal to the masses. Souls could probably be more difficult. Record of Lodoss war kinda reminds me of a Diablo souls and it's not very friendly and I liked it a lot on Dreamcast. Diablo itself is super easy even on higher modes.

[marurun]

One could argue that players who won't push themselves to meet the skill level of their peers, and instead clamor for easy modes, are really the insecure ones.

There's a perspective you might be overlooking, here... As a father of a 7 month old, with a wife who also works, I just don't have time to master a game any longer. There may be some enjoyable aspects to a game like Dark Souls, graphics, story, sound design, music, that I could still appreciate within the limited time available to me (and let's be honest, right now I couldn't even make time for a Dark Souls with easy mode). Sometimes it's enough to have a game let you FEEL badass, even if you really aren't one. This conversation is, admittedly, a little moot, because the Dark Souls folks are unlikely to do this. Maybe they could do it later, as a DLC or something, after the game is no longer new hotness. Pay to win is the new model anyway, isn't it?

[Exhuminator]

We just don't live in NES hard era anymore.

No, no we don't.

Pay to win is the new model anyway, isn't it?

Increasingly so, disturbingly so.

---

I want to express clarity that I'm not trying to belittle or bash folks who want to play on easier modes in games. That's your call, if it makes gaming funner for you, then fair enough. I was just playing Devil's Advocate for the elitist gamer, trying to explain the hardcore mindset for those who find it alien. People play games for different reasons. My favorite things about gaming are an awarding sense of exploration and overcoming difficult challenges. Therefore I lean towards the elitist side of the spectrum. Someone else might value story and spectacle above all else, and could care less about actual challenge. I can understand that viewpoint, I just don't share it.

[marlowe221]

So let me be clear; I'm not saying that I'm "right" or that anyone should agree with me. I'm just telling you how I personally feel about Easy modes being implemented into long standing difficult game series. As one elitist jerk I do not speak for all elitist jerks, only myself.

Let's do a thought experiment.

Let's pretend that we live in an alternate universe where Dark Souls originally released with three difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, and Hard.

Let's say that the difficulty of Dark Souls, as it exists in our current universe, is equivalent to Normal in the alternate universe. In other words, on Normal mode, our fictional Dark Souls is identical in every way to the real version of the game.

Are you saying that you would think less of Dark Souls as a game in the alternate universe simply because there are other difficulty levels?

I want to express clarity that I'm not trying to belittle or bash folks who want to play on easier modes in games. That's your call, if it makes gaming funner for you, then fair enough. I was just playing Devil's Advocate for the elitist gamer, trying to explain the hardcore mindset for those who find it alien. People play games for different reasons. My favorite things about gaming are an awarding sense of exploration and overcoming difficult challenges. Therefore I lean towards the elitist side of the spectrum. Someone else might value story and spectacle above all else, and could care less about actual challenge. I can understand that viewpoint, I just don't share it.

That's cool, man. I am trying to understand the "elitist" mindset because I don't think I share it.

There are some games I am really good at and play on their highest difficulty levels. There are others that I'm not so good at and I play on standard difficulty levels. It doesn't usually bother me either way.

I found Dark Souls specifically to be frustrating because it seemed to me that the inherent difficulty of the game is amplified by the fact that the game doesn't seem to be very well made, like it's barely holding together with some duct tape and bailing wire.

[Segata]

Zelda II The Adventure of Link was the only Zelda game until Botw that could be argued as a RPG. It's also a great game.
Castlevania II is a good game with an obvious flaw. There is a fan version that makes all the hints obvious.
Tokyo Beat Down is awesome.
Code of Princess is awesome.