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I actually do have a reason for disliking the inclusion of easy-modes in video games. It takes development time away from making a quality challenging gameplay

I actually do have a reason for disliking the inclusion of easy-modes in video games. It takes development time away from making a quality challenging gameplay experience. Unfortunately, since the casual market is larger than the hardcore market, it is smart for the developers to focus on the easier modes that cater to this casual base of players. The end result is that hard modes in games generally feel more liked some quick and dirty hack to make enemies super resistant to attacks or perfectly accurate aiming machines, or just throwing more of them at you. Perhaps if more developers took time to create a well-crafted and challenging gameplay experience it wouldn't bother me so much. More complex objectives or smarter enemies. Maybe that's a tall order, but it seems like in most cases, difficulty is a decision between fun, easy and unsatisfying, or frustrating, hard and maybe (or maybe not) rewarding.

potatolicious 17y ago
I disagree - you're assuming that there's something fundamentally different about the easy mode (different AI, for example), but that simply isn't the case for most games. Most "easy" modes really just multiply the damage you do to enemies, or nerf the damage they do against you. Look at, say, Call of Duty, a game that can be incredibly challenging on harder difficulties, but has a mass-appeal easy mode - the easy mode really just makes you a cushion for bullets, and there's nothing wrong with that. How enemies respond, how the AI works, everything remains the same.
- Goronmon 17y ago
  I would argue that Call of Duty is exactly the kind of game I am talking about. As someone who has beat both CoD2, Modern Warfare 1 and 2 on Veteran difficulty, I can say for sure that most of the difficulty is due to the exact reasons I mentioned. More enemies with more health and better accuracy. Beating the game on Veteran was more about figuring out hacks to the game mechanics (knowing when to rush through enemy fire to reach the point that stops enemy respawns) than due to any true challenge with the combat. One of the few examples of where good challenge was added was the point in the first Modern Warfare where you have to make a long distance sniper shot. On the harder difficulty settings, the wind and other factors were more pronounced, making the shot much more difficult, but in an interesting and challenging way instead of a more frustrating way. Unfortunately the rest of the game was filled with enemies with x-ray vision and what seemed like heat-seeking grenades.
- krakensden 17y ago
  It's not that there is something fundamentally different about the easy mode, it's that the developer spends most of their time making sure the default mode works. In other words, it's not that easy mode just divides the damage you receive, it's that hard mode becomes easy mode with a damage multiplier.

potatolicious 17y ago

I disagree - you're assuming that there's something fundamentally different about the easy mode (different AI, for example), but that simply isn't the case for most games. Most "easy" modes really just multiply the damage you do to enemies, or nerf the damage they do against you. Look at, say, Call of Duty, a game that can be incredibly challenging on harder difficulties, but has a mass-appeal easy mode - the easy mode really just makes you a cushion for bullets, and there's nothing wrong with that. How enemies respond, how the AI works, everything remains the same.

Goronmon 17y ago
I would argue that Call of Duty is exactly the kind of game I am talking about. As someone who has beat both CoD2, Modern Warfare 1 and 2 on Veteran difficulty, I can say for sure that most of the difficulty is due to the exact reasons I mentioned. More enemies with more health and better accuracy. Beating the game on Veteran was more about figuring out hacks to the game mechanics (knowing when to rush through enemy fire to reach the point that stops enemy respawns) than due to any true challenge with the combat. One of the few examples of where good challenge was added was the point in the first Modern Warfare where you have to make a long distance sniper shot. On the harder difficulty settings, the wind and other factors were more pronounced, making the shot much more difficult, but in an interesting and challenging way instead of a more frustrating way. Unfortunately the rest of the game was filled with enemies with x-ray vision and what seemed like heat-seeking grenades.
krakensden 17y ago
It's not that there is something fundamentally different about the easy mode, it's that the developer spends most of their time making sure the default mode works. In other words, it's not that easy mode just divides the damage you receive, it's that hard mode becomes easy mode with a damage multiplier.