Difficulty

petes

http://socialspew.com/post/5860458908/gaming-difficulty-1994-vs-2010

Anyone agree with this. I do kind of as I have played recent games where it was quite hard. For me older games had that extra satisfaction and playability when they were failry fifficult but felt great when you finished it!

These days not so much for me.

o1s1n

There are reasons beyond the usual 'games are getting easier to appeal to the masses' though.

Older software media like carts had a miniscule amount of space compared to modern things like DVDs/blueray discs. Therefore to maximise the enjoyment/time you got out of a game the difficulty needed to be higher.

Also, being on carts, games were a lot more expensive to produce and there was no real second hand market. So they needed longevity.

Personally I much rather playing older difficult games as I think the end pay off is far better, but there is room for both.

hooradiation

If games are in general getting "easier", which i am not sure is actually true, then I am perfectly ok with it.

I do not have the time or the inclination to deal with repeating the same sections over and over again until i get it right. I play games to be entertained and frustration is not especially entertaining.

of course YMMV.

Retr0gamer

As o1s1n said it's mostly to do with the fact that old games would last about an hour at most so making them difficult was a way to extend the lifetime of them. I still think that some games are insultingly easy but it is nice to be able to play most games knowing I'll be able to see the end since I've so many to play through! Still when something like Ninja Gaiden 2 or Demon's Souls comes along I love it as well!

eddhorse

Retr0gamer wrote: »

As o1s1n said it's mostly to do with the fact that old games would last about an hour at most so making them difficult was a way to extend the lifetime of them. I still think that some games are insultingly easy but it is nice to be able to play most games knowing I'll be able to see the end since I've so many to play through! Still when something like Ninja Gaiden 2 or Demon's Souls comes along I love it as well!

The ultimate answer to this thread is Demon Souls, I've been playing it for a week now and am still on the first level....sweet mother.
For some reason other games now come with regenerating health so all you have to do is go and hide and you will be good as new....just like real life :rolleyes:

I agree with the fact that older games didn't have as much memory so had to be difficult for longevity, makes sense. I also think newer games are easier to suck in younger players. More monies for developers.

pablomakaveli

Games are more affordable now as well so the average gamer will have a large collection so if a gameisd is frustratingly hard they'll only just give up and move onto the next one.

15 years ago when i got a game it would need to last me a while because it would be a long time before i'd be able to afford another one. So it was more important for the game to be challenging so it would last.

stevenmu

On average (of course there's plenty of exceptions) storytelling and plot has become a much more important part of the gaming experience. Increasingly many games are really more a story to be told, with the game mechanism simply being a way of bringing you into the story and then making it unfold before you. In these cases, something which is too challenging is just getting in the way of the story being told.

In the past the story itself was less important, and the fun in games was overcoming some challenge in dexterity, technique, strategy, puzzle-solving etc.

IMO there's room for both types of games, but the best games are the ones that manage to combine the two skillfully.

L31mr0d

There is definitely a glut of quantity over quality in popular gaming atm.

But thankfully there are still a few indie developers out there producing some fine games with increased difficulty (i.e. Braid, Super Meat Boy... etc)

Arcade games also will always have their place, that start out relatively easy, but if you want to top out on the leader boards, will require massive amounts of skill and hand-eye coordination (i.e. Super Stardust HD)

I don't actually think it's a case of games becoming easier, I think it is more a case of the big titles in gaming becoming easier. Most of the games that would be considered easy tend to also have MP. SP mode seems, for the moment, to be relegated to merely a MP tutorial, and, in such, tends to have reduced difficulty. I guess the developers know the average gamer doesn't want to waste time reloading a section ad nauseum when they could be playing online with their friends.

Jazzy

ive done the retarded difficulty thing as a kid, really cba with a single player game if it will just annoy me.... I have HoN for that

Redlion

In my opinion, I think the addition of achievements/trophies for completing the game at a higher difficulty is an incentive for gamers. I know this has been the case with me, and has allowed me to get 2, if not 3 completions of a game before I put it down(once on normal, a second on a higher difficulty). More value for money, from that perspective.

papajimsmooth

Beating Battletoads on the NES is one of my most enjoyable gaming memories. I dont even play single player on most games anymore

johnny_ultimate

I think there's a healthy mix of difficulty at the moment. Most games probably are a bit easier than they once were, that's for sure. I also think developers don't really understand adjustable difficulty - with most games harder just means more frustration as opposed to actually decent game design! Bayonetta is a recent game which IMO had inspired difficulty - super easy for beginners, normal for most, hard with significantly remixed enemies for a nice challenge after making it through normal, and finally an insane mode for the masochists.

I don't think all games need to be super difficult tbh - most games are just fun to play through, and artificially increasing difficulty doesn't work. I am, though, a fan of the old school - my favourite game (outside Portal 2, which also had a perfectly judged difficulty curve) of the year is Death Smiles. Again, there are easy modes for newbies, but so many challenges and replayablity on a wide, wide range of difficulty modes. It gets super hard, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

We need both - not every big budget game needs high difficulty, but I'd be seriously disappointed if they stopped making ass-kicking games like Bangai-O Missile Fury to knock us plebians down to size.