7 ms·

An Easy Mode Has Never Ruined a Game

23 points by ourmandave 8y ago

danlugo92 8y ago
Just please make clear what mode/difficulty level the creators intended me to play.
setr 8y ago
If you consider interaction a core component of a game, affecting all other aspects of the "experience", then reducing that interaction, and level of awareness, time, practice, etc that builds into the experience clearly alters the experience. Consider the extreme -- play through any given game with a mario super star.. it's difficult to imagine the game experience isn't radically changed. These kinds of defenses for "easy" modes (that is, easier than the game was designed for) seem to be fundamentally based on the idea that an optimal game is simply a movie with some (perhaps optional) QTE's to keep you from getting bored. But they're not. Clearly not all games get any benefit out of increasing difficulty (most game's difficulty increase amounts to turning everything into bullet sponges -- this rarely alters the experience in any notable fashion), but that hardly means difficulty has no purpose or place. An easy mode might not ruin the game.. but it may be a worthless mode to have, and one that ruins the player's experience. The souls series would be generally uninteresting if you weren't pushed towards playing careful and meticulously. The DMC series would be generally uninteresting if you weren't pushed towards better and faster (and more stylish) combo'ing. Shadow of the Colossus, BioShock would have absolutely no impact/weight (incidentally, an easy mode has been added I guess to latest remasters). Super Meat Boy wouldn't even be a game anymore. Imagine never experiencing 100 to 0 pikmin loss! Without that threat, is it even the same class of game? If you couldn't play them properly, it would probably be a waste of time. Their stories aren't that interesting. They ain't books. Of course, for many games it doesn't matter. Uncharted series really is just a movie with some QTE events (and QTE events in the fashion of a cover shooter), and difficulty isn't a factor. CRPGs/JRPGs generally have such uninteresting encounters that you could rip out most of the non-roleplaying combat mechanics and still have much the same thing (but you lose that sweet, sweet timesink). Mass Effect 1 and Star Control 2 barely justify the existence of combat in the first place (reduce the fuel needs in SC2 and you'll radically change its early game however, probably much worse). They can be made easy... but it hardly applies generally. And these are all examples where they can be made easier, because they failed to make any use of their difficulty in the first place.
- fellellor 8y ago
  Also adding easy mode retroactively cheapens the experience for those who have invested genuine effort into playing the game so far. Also there is satisfaction in knowing you beat something that not everyone who bought the game has.
  - setr 8y ago
    I’m of the opinion that these are somewhat pathetic reasons to maintain any kind of design; let them be there, but they’re pretty minor. It’s not even clear they’re emotions worth keeping around. Anyways, take it away from them, and they’ll just find something else to latch their identity to (eg speedrun). Or find it elsewhere. Not a big loss. A small group (actually by definition), a shallow reason, a weak design motivator. Games are designed, with a particular experience, setting, balance, pacing in mind; if difficulty is part of that design.. then its a part of the design. That’s it. Caveat: Not all game features are actually part of a design. Not all games have an intelligible design in the first place.
waste_monk 8y ago
I really don't understand the drive to make everything easier. I've never beaten a *souls game because I don't have the skill or patience to do so, and I'm fine with accepting that. Why can't everyone else? I do wonder if the trend towards casual and mobile gaming has stunted a generation of gamers into being unable to cope when a real challenge of skill or wit appears.
- thatoneuser 8y ago
  Why lock away content that someone purchased just because they aren't talented enough to beat your arbitrary tests? If you wanna play normal mode just do that, I don't see why options are ever a bad thing.
  - rgoulter 8y ago
    Completing a sudoku on software which gives instant correct/incorrect feedback on digits isn't as fun as puzzling it out together. Part of the fun of sudoku is going through the mechanics, fairly. I've heard the Souls/Bourne games described as "tough but fair". For some games, the idea is that the fun comes from beating challenges from the design of the game mechanics. Similarly, there's fun to be had from Role Playing Games by not having magical foreknowledge about consequences. Saving, and loading to see how each choice plays out means the dynamic is "how can I get the best?" rather than "what would this person do?".
    - kruczek 8y ago
      > Saving, and loading to see how each choice plays out means the dynamic is "how can I get the best?" rather than "what would this person do?". I agree this changes the dynamic of a game. On the other hand, is it a bad thing? If someone is more interested in "getting the best" rather than finding out "what would this person do", then why should they be denied such freedom?
    - mrguyorama 8y ago
      >Completing a sudoku on software which gives instant correct/incorrect feedback on digits isn't as fun as puzzling it out together. Part of the fun of sudoku is going through the mechanics, fairly. That is entirely your subjective opinion. I would likely still have fun playing sudoku where my guesses had instant feedback
babuskov 8y ago
Easy mode has ruined games for me. For example, Metal Slug 3. My steam stats show I used to play it for 100+ hours. Before they added easy mode via infinite continues, I was really enjoying the game. I had to learn how every enemy behaves, where the powerups would drop and plan strategies to beat bosses. Every day I would get a couple steps further into the game and I could have played it for years. There's a great satisfaction and getting better at something and seeing the results. Then the change came and I completed the game in one afternoon. I didn't care about all the cool enemy setups on later levels, because I could just bomb them, die when I ran out of bombs and then bomb them again after I revive. There was no real challenge. I never turned that game on after that. Easy mode has ruined it for me.
- jai_ 8y ago
  I'm not sure I follow. I'm assuming the easy mode is something you have to explicitly select or at least have to the option to change to and from. Could you not have simply ignored the option of the easy mode and continued playing the way you had done before?
  - babuskov 8y ago
    Once the option is there, it's hard to ignore it.
    - burgerboy 8y ago
      Sounds like a failure that you orchestrated
    - mrguyorama 8y ago
      That is not a given. Plenty of people ignore easy modes by choice, either because they prefer harder games, or because they sneer at the "plebs" playing "their" games
      - JamesBarney 8y ago
        I don't think he was arguing it's impossible to ignore it. Just that it's hard.
ManlyBread 8y ago
Cheat Engine exists and it's a valid way of "correcting" the difficulty in games. I enjoyed Resident Evil 2 hardcore difficulty but I found the saving limitations weren't up to my tastes so I removed them.
mcv 8y ago
To me, it really depends on the kind of game, and why I'm playing it. Some games really are about the challenge. They're meant to be hard, because the game is the challenge. Remove the challenge, and there's no game. Other games are about the content, the story, and the challenge is preventing you from accessing it. For example, I play The Witcher on easy mode, but strategy games on hard. I've used save-scumming with some roguelikes, and that tends to ruin them a bit. It's a core feature of roguelikes that you're not supposed to play like that. I'm currently playing CK2 on Iron Man mode (no reloading old saves), which means I'm forced to stick with bad decisions and bad luck, and that makes the game different than I planned, but a lot more interesting; I'm no longer automatically the most successful ruler in the world. Although in the case of CK2, it does add value that I can also play without Iron Man mode; it allows me to explore alternative histories where I'm more successful than I deserve. But should a game like Pac-Man have an easy mode to allow everybody to finish all levels? I don't think so.
Smithalicious 8y ago
Oh come on. I have only played Dark Souls 1 but it's not even a particularly difficult game. Just look up guides and summon and you can breeze through it. There's a certain amount of "artistic vision" to a game like Dark Souls and I see no need to compromise that to pander to people not willing to put the effort in (and make no mistake, effort is the only factor at play here). The difficulty is part of the game; if you don't like it, you just don't like the game. Don't play it, don't demand it to pander to you.
Torgo 8y ago
The entire movie/captioning analogy is off. Language spoken in movies isn't meant to be adversarial but gameplay is. It's just not an accessibility issue. I hate this argument because it feels manipulative. If it's about accessibility and if you still say no, you're a monster.
- dankusmcmeme 8y ago
  This is a typical strategy of far left media.
Shorel 8y ago
Batman Arkham City was, in my second playthrough, becoming rather boring. Then I changed the difficulty to the highest setting and it was much more interesting. I had to plan everything and take a lot of care to not to die. In contrast, Alien Isolation is an unforgiving frustrating game in most difficulties. I hope it gets better on a second playthrough.
throwawaystale 8y ago
Game authors are welcome to do as they please, of course. But as someone who both likes video games and is quite bad at them, I've pretty much stopped buying them. Oh well...
provolone 8y ago
They say the customer is always right. In game dev users will ask for extra lives and powerful starting items in a multiplayer rougelikelike. I don't think it can always be as simple as giving them everything. Users should be catered to and given the best support, but at a certain point the developer knows best. The biggest players aren't always the most vocal. It is better to observe how the fanatics are playing and help the newbies grow into that level of game play.
apricot13 8y ago
I find that every few weeks a new game that is going to require an entire year of my life comes out. I have carved out about 1 hour 2-3 days a weeknight in which to play and every few weeks I get a Saturday or Sunday. I like to have the option of easy mode during the week and normal mode at the weekends - easy mode gives me the advantage of not spending 50% of my playing time remembering how to play! Games should be accessible to all and you should never be made to feel less of a gamer because you changed the difficulty setting.
Grue3 8y ago
Yes, it does. If you have to play a long time before any meaningful challenge appears, this makes the game not fun to play. People loved Flappy Bird because it was so hard to avoid dying. Imagine Flappy Bird Easy Mode. Nobody would play that.
lousken 8y ago
Easy mode doesnt ruin a game. Lack of options does. E.g. GTA is easy mode and you can't even change it. And e.g. Max payne 3 has difficulty settings but even on hard it's still easy.

23 points by ourmandave 8y ago

Just please make clear what mode/difficulty level the creators intended me to play.

setr 8y ago

If you consider interaction a core component of a game, affecting all other aspects of the "experience", then reducing that interaction, and level of awareness, time, practice, etc that builds into the experience clearly alters the experience. Consider the extreme -- play through any given game with a mario super star.. it's difficult to imagine the game experience isn't radically changed. These kinds of defenses for "easy" modes (that is, easier than the game was designed for) seem to be fundamentally based on the idea that an optimal game is simply a movie with some (perhaps optional) QTE's to keep you from getting bored. But they're not. Clearly not all games get any benefit out of increasing difficulty (most game's difficulty increase amounts to turning everything into bullet sponges -- this rarely alters the experience in any notable fashion), but that hardly means difficulty has no purpose or place. An easy mode might not ruin the game.. but it may be a worthless mode to have, and one that ruins the player's experience. The souls series would be generally uninteresting if you weren't pushed towards playing careful and meticulously. The DMC series would be generally uninteresting if you weren't pushed towards better and faster (and more stylish) combo'ing. Shadow of the Colossus, BioShock would have absolutely no impact/weight (incidentally, an easy mode has been added I guess to latest remasters). Super Meat Boy wouldn't even be a game anymore. Imagine never experiencing 100 to 0 pikmin loss! Without that threat, is it even the same class of game? If you couldn't play them properly, it would probably be a waste of time. Their stories aren't that interesting. They ain't books. Of course, for many games it doesn't matter. Uncharted series really is just a movie with some QTE events (and QTE events in the fashion of a cover shooter), and difficulty isn't a factor. CRPGs/JRPGs generally have such uninteresting encounters that you could rip out most of the non-roleplaying combat mechanics and still have much the same thing (but you lose that sweet, sweet timesink). Mass Effect 1 and Star Control 2 barely justify the existence of combat in the first place (reduce the fuel needs in SC2 and you'll radically change its early game however, probably much worse). They can be made easy... but it hardly applies generally. And these are all examples where they can be made easier, because they failed to make any use of their difficulty in the first place.

fellellor 8y ago
Also adding easy mode retroactively cheapens the experience for those who have invested genuine effort into playing the game so far. Also there is satisfaction in knowing you beat something that not everyone who bought the game has.
- setr 8y ago
  I’m of the opinion that these are somewhat pathetic reasons to maintain any kind of design; let them be there, but they’re pretty minor. It’s not even clear they’re emotions worth keeping around. Anyways, take it away from them, and they’ll just find something else to latch their identity to (eg speedrun). Or find it elsewhere. Not a big loss. A small group (actually by definition), a shallow reason, a weak design motivator. Games are designed, with a particular experience, setting, balance, pacing in mind; if difficulty is part of that design.. then its a part of the design. That’s it. Caveat: Not all game features are actually part of a design. Not all games have an intelligible design in the first place.

waste_monk 8y ago

I really don't understand the drive to make everything easier. I've never beaten a *souls game because I don't have the skill or patience to do so, and I'm fine with accepting that. Why can't everyone else? I do wonder if the trend towards casual and mobile gaming has stunted a generation of gamers into being unable to cope when a real challenge of skill or wit appears.

thatoneuser 8y ago
Why lock away content that someone purchased just because they aren't talented enough to beat your arbitrary tests? If you wanna play normal mode just do that, I don't see why options are ever a bad thing.
- rgoulter 8y ago
  Completing a sudoku on software which gives instant correct/incorrect feedback on digits isn't as fun as puzzling it out together. Part of the fun of sudoku is going through the mechanics, fairly. I've heard the Souls/Bourne games described as "tough but fair". For some games, the idea is that the fun comes from beating challenges from the design of the game mechanics. Similarly, there's fun to be had from Role Playing Games by not having magical foreknowledge about consequences. Saving, and loading to see how each choice plays out means the dynamic is "how can I get the best?" rather than "what would this person do?".
  - kruczek 8y ago
    > Saving, and loading to see how each choice plays out means the dynamic is "how can I get the best?" rather than "what would this person do?". I agree this changes the dynamic of a game. On the other hand, is it a bad thing? If someone is more interested in "getting the best" rather than finding out "what would this person do", then why should they be denied such freedom?
  - mrguyorama 8y ago
    >Completing a sudoku on software which gives instant correct/incorrect feedback on digits isn't as fun as puzzling it out together. Part of the fun of sudoku is going through the mechanics, fairly. That is entirely your subjective opinion. I would likely still have fun playing sudoku where my guesses had instant feedback

babuskov 8y ago

Easy mode has ruined games for me. For example, Metal Slug 3. My steam stats show I used to play it for 100+ hours. Before they added easy mode via infinite continues, I was really enjoying the game. I had to learn how every enemy behaves, where the powerups would drop and plan strategies to beat bosses. Every day I would get a couple steps further into the game and I could have played it for years. There's a great satisfaction and getting better at something and seeing the results. Then the change came and I completed the game in one afternoon. I didn't care about all the cool enemy setups on later levels, because I could just bomb them, die when I ran out of bombs and then bomb them again after I revive. There was no real challenge. I never turned that game on after that. Easy mode has ruined it for me.

jai_ 8y ago
I'm not sure I follow. I'm assuming the easy mode is something you have to explicitly select or at least have to the option to change to and from. Could you not have simply ignored the option of the easy mode and continued playing the way you had done before?
- babuskov 8y ago
  Once the option is there, it's hard to ignore it.
  - burgerboy 8y ago
    Sounds like a failure that you orchestrated
  - mrguyorama 8y ago
    That is not a given. Plenty of people ignore easy modes by choice, either because they prefer harder games, or because they sneer at the "plebs" playing "their" games
    - JamesBarney 8y ago
      I don't think he was arguing it's impossible to ignore it. Just that it's hard.

ManlyBread 8y ago

Cheat Engine exists and it's a valid way of "correcting" the difficulty in games. I enjoyed Resident Evil 2 hardcore difficulty but I found the saving limitations weren't up to my tastes so I removed them.

mcv 8y ago

To me, it really depends on the kind of game, and why I'm playing it. Some games really are about the challenge. They're meant to be hard, because the game is the challenge. Remove the challenge, and there's no game. Other games are about the content, the story, and the challenge is preventing you from accessing it. For example, I play The Witcher on easy mode, but strategy games on hard. I've used save-scumming with some roguelikes, and that tends to ruin them a bit. It's a core feature of roguelikes that you're not supposed to play like that. I'm currently playing CK2 on Iron Man mode (no reloading old saves), which means I'm forced to stick with bad decisions and bad luck, and that makes the game different than I planned, but a lot more interesting; I'm no longer automatically the most successful ruler in the world. Although in the case of CK2, it does add value that I can also play without Iron Man mode; it allows me to explore alternative histories where I'm more successful than I deserve. But should a game like Pac-Man have an easy mode to allow everybody to finish all levels? I don't think so.

Smithalicious 8y ago

Oh come on. I have only played Dark Souls 1 but it's not even a particularly difficult game. Just look up guides and summon and you can breeze through it. There's a certain amount of "artistic vision" to a game like Dark Souls and I see no need to compromise that to pander to people not willing to put the effort in (and make no mistake, effort is the only factor at play here). The difficulty is part of the game; if you don't like it, you just don't like the game. Don't play it, don't demand it to pander to you.

Torgo 8y ago

The entire movie/captioning analogy is off. Language spoken in movies isn't meant to be adversarial but gameplay is. It's just not an accessibility issue. I hate this argument because it feels manipulative. If it's about accessibility and if you still say no, you're a monster.

dankusmcmeme 8y ago
This is a typical strategy of far left media.

Shorel 8y ago

Batman Arkham City was, in my second playthrough, becoming rather boring. Then I changed the difficulty to the highest setting and it was much more interesting. I had to plan everything and take a lot of care to not to die. In contrast, Alien Isolation is an unforgiving frustrating game in most difficulties. I hope it gets better on a second playthrough.

throwawaystale 8y ago

Game authors are welcome to do as they please, of course. But as someone who both likes video games and is quite bad at them, I've pretty much stopped buying them. Oh well...

provolone 8y ago

They say the customer is always right. In game dev users will ask for extra lives and powerful starting items in a multiplayer rougelikelike. I don't think it can always be as simple as giving them everything. Users should be catered to and given the best support, but at a certain point the developer knows best. The biggest players aren't always the most vocal. It is better to observe how the fanatics are playing and help the newbies grow into that level of game play.

apricot13 8y ago

I find that every few weeks a new game that is going to require an entire year of my life comes out. I have carved out about 1 hour 2-3 days a weeknight in which to play and every few weeks I get a Saturday or Sunday. I like to have the option of easy mode during the week and normal mode at the weekends - easy mode gives me the advantage of not spending 50% of my playing time remembering how to play! Games should be accessible to all and you should never be made to feel less of a gamer because you changed the difficulty setting.

Grue3 8y ago

Yes, it does. If you have to play a long time before any meaningful challenge appears, this makes the game not fun to play. People loved Flappy Bird because it was so hard to avoid dying. Imagine Flappy Bird Easy Mode. Nobody would play that.

lousken 8y ago

Easy mode doesnt ruin a game. Lack of options does. E.g. GTA is easy mode and you can't even change it. And e.g. Max payne 3 has difficulty settings but even on hard it's still easy.