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[ZugZug123]

When I was in college we played Doom on hard and kept trying to use the least amount of ammo possible to kill enemies. Fast forward to now, I have a full time job and other responsibilities, if a game has an easy mode, I'm gonna take it. I want to experience the game, not get frustrated and drop it.

Also, in college I had little money so we had to make the games last, now I am more of a game collector than actual player. Backlogs on every gaming device I own.

 

[Turnip Truck]

This takes me back to the good old days of the GBA. There was a forum on another game site where beating Fire Emblem FE7 was considered a badge of honor because of the difficulty. I tried it and absolutely hated it. There was a lot elitism in the form of "If you don't beat FE7 you're not a real gamer" on the forum. Screw that, I'll forego the badge of honor for a balanced and enjoyable overall game experience.

I recently started playing Fallout 4 and absolutely fell in love with the setting, atmosphere, music and multiple storylines of the world (my first Fallout experience). However, the difficulty was a bit off-putting. As an RPG fan, I'm more accustomed to swords & sorcery than shooter mechanics so maybe this was a factor. In any case, I dropped the difficulty from Normal to Easy and am now able to immerse myself fully in the world without breaking the flow from constantly dying and reloading.

It's all about knowing what aspects of gaming appeal to you personally.

 

[Ernest]

Life may be challenging enough.

First reply nails it.

My life is already hard mode, I don't need to be frustrated by games when I'm trying to relax, and I certainly don't need to waste what little time I have left on this planet re-playing a section over and over, getting it "perfect".

 

[Mashing]

I played Nier: Automata on easy (with auto-evade even) because I just wanted to experience the story. Don't care about challenging combat.

Plus, I'm getting older and don't have as much time to devote to one game anymore.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Games are designed to be beaten. Real challenge is not something that exists in games. It exists in the real world where you can't always win no matter how hard you try.

Life may be challenging enough.

Perfect first post.

 

[Steel]

I can't play games on easy. Not because of any sense of superiority but because orherwise it feels like I'm going through the motions or I'm playing an interactive film. Challenge is fundamental for me.

Yeah, I get bored quick if a game has no challenge. I feel like if a game is too easy that there's no engagement. Exceptions to that are games that are almost entirely focused on the story rather than the gameplay, of course.

 

[dancegrenade]

I feel bad that you have anxiety attacks and don't get the rush of playing games on hard.

Its like a pump at the gym, except for your brain

You are so wack. lmfao

 

[Jeronimo Jones]

I play for different reasons depending on what's going on in real life, but I try to avoid going too easy on difficulty.

 

[gutter_trash]

Challenge was important when i was younger.

Now i just want to have fun

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

In fact, difficulty in games is ideally designed in such a way as to trick our brain into believing we've overcome a challenge and accomplished something meaningful, even when we know this is false. Games that are "too easy" fail at pulling this trick off.

 

[Air Zombie Meat]

Have never played on easy, it's just boring to me. These days I usually go with normal and then if I like the game enough will replay on harder difficulties.

 

[Soltype]

I wonder what some people on here would be doing if video games were still largely difficult?

 

[rockyt]

When I was younger playing on higher difficulty was a sort of badge and feels good. Now I don't care when I get the chance to play I play on normal to easy.

 

[KingV]

I think some (most) games are not good enough for me to feel like I should spend the time mastering them.

I enjoyed playing through Nioh, which has a good challenge, but a lot of games I do drop to easy because the mechanics are not interesting enough.

Also, I like to 1) beat games and 2) have limited time to play, so I will sometimes use easy to whip through a game that I find relatively mediocre in gameplay aspects.

 

[EdgeXL]

I get my sense of satisfaction from real world challenges like taking on difficult projects, negotiating complex deals and meeting the goals I set for myself.

I don't have the time to repeatedly die at video games. I just want to experience the game.

(That said, I do not play only on easy. I tend to stick to normal.)

 

[Windu]

I don't play games to be frustrated. The days of me powering through a game like that are long gone, I now have enough money to buy other games whenever I want. I don't have to wait until birthdays/christmas to get a new game. So if a game is frustrating or I don't like it, I move on to the next thing.

 

[____]

Challenge was important when i was younger.

Now i just want to have fun

Pretty much this.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

As long as it's fair, that's more important to me than how difficult the game is. Punish me for my mistakes but don't introduce artificial difficulty just to be a pain in the ass. If it has to involve save scumming to have a realistic chance of beating a given situation, then your hard mode is shitty and unbalanced.

Some games the addition of a difficulty selection is frankly stupid. In STALKER the only difficulty worth playing is Master, and in Crysis the only difficulty worth playing is Delta - not because of any elitist notions about the challenge of the game, but simply because thats how the game is balanced and designed to be played, and lower difficulties actively make the game worse. But because these games present a difficulty slider without explaining that the easier difficulties are boring and unbalanced, people don't know this and just assume the Master difficulty is a bunch of aimbot AI, and end up wondering why they're so bored.

I usually play on 'normal,' but almost never on hard, with the exception of sports games and Guacamelee.

But, for almost every narrative-driven game or progression-based game, I play on normal. Not because I don't want to overcome challenges, but because the enjoyment that I get overcoming a contrived challenge is worth much less to me than the frustration I get facing contrived challenges. What I like most about games is exploring worlds, even from as far back as the 2D platformers I played on NES and Genesis, the satisfaction I got for beating a level wasn't so much "wow, I overcame that difficult challenge," it was more, "I can't wait to explore the next level." It's essentially still the same for me now.

Most games on 'hard' or more hard aren't adding the types of challenges that I enjoy, they're making contrived situations more frustrating. A game like Call of Duty or Uncharted, on the harder difficulties, I don't enjoy those "challenges" because all they mean is super-human abilities by the CPU and more bad guys with better/super-human accuracy.

Because the hard difficulties in these games are clearly tacked on and unbalanced. The difficulty settings in most regen-health shooters just crank up the damage %% without any testing.

 

[Zap Rowsdower]

It maybe hard for some people to understand, but challenge isn't the only reason people play video games. It's not even the only interactive part of many video games that justifies them as video games.

People in this thread have already said they play a lot of games just to relax. I also believe a lot of people often get the enjoyment out of the tactile feedback from action games even they aren't that challenging. Sometimes people just want to explore. Sometimes people just want to enjoy an interactive storyline (like a BioWare game, Witcher 3, BioShock, a VN, etc.) without having to deal with combat.

And there are plenty of notable games in which I find the combat to be the least interesting interactive element. Half of GAF says this about Witcher 3, and it's how I've felt about most BioWare games. Mass Effect is already easy enough for me on normal mode, but I probably wouldn't enjoy it any less on easy because the combat isn't the reason I stick with it at all, and you can't YouTube the game because your character and the decisions you make are yours. The exploration is also something that can't be experienced through YouTube, but also doesn't necessarily require challenge beyond finding hidden stuff.

Yeah, I find people who treat the idea that there are more to games than just challenge as an alien concept kind of weird and out of touch. Those people seem to not get that immersion is an important facet. Games as a narrative medium is what I enjoy, the ability of games to immerse you in its world and let you interact with its characters. Stuff like that is something other mediums can't do as well. Challenge does nothing for me, there's very little satisfaction to me in it. But stuff like Undertale's pacifist run or Longest Journey's worlds and characters have stuck with me long after I finished them.

 

[adj_noun]

It's not so much that I "don't care about overcoming challenge" as the kind of challenge games usually provide is stuff I don't particularly care about (finger dexterity, pattern recognition, etc.)

In addition, the stuff I'm really interested in (diplomacy, persuasion...basically anything with your lips flapping) is generally harder for games to do, if they attempt it at all.

 

[JustAnotherOtaku]

As someone who frequently plays on easy, no, I don't have any issue with feeling I haven't overcome some sort of challenge. I would rather be able to play through a game, enjoying both it and the core mechanics, than feel frustrated. Even though I have been playing games for around 30 years and grew up playing some of the most difficulty games of the 80's, I am in games for the gameplay mechanics and/or artistic perspective. I don't see games as a challenge to be overcome.

Having said that, there are genres and specific games where I want to be challenged fairly and not have it easy throughout. For example racing and football games and also the likes of Cuphead.

 

[Knuckle Sandwich]

My kid plays on easy mode and uses mods to cheat in Skrim because he just wants to play and have fun. He grew up on Minecraft so that probably has something to do with it. I played Battletoads over and over and over and over and over as a kid so i'm a masochist.

 

[thekeats]

I wonder what some people on here would be doing if video games were still largely difficult?

For me? Would probably give up.

But to answer the OP question. No I don't care about overcoming that sort of challenge. First up I just don't have that sort of time. When I was a kid I could justify spending 4 or 5 hours a night just playing games. But now, 30+ years on, I get my challenges elsewhere. I work in, what can be, a fairly demanding job.

My other primary hobby is painting wargaming miniatures. But some of these can be quite demanding to paint and I am working towards being a competition painter with a view to entering comps next year. This is both time consuming and quite challenging.

But there are other factors. Again, in my 40's now, my reflexs just aren't there anymore. Where I used to be happy trying to frag people in the past on quake and other twitch based FPS''s the reflexes just aren't there any more.

 

[Metalmarc]

When I was younger I never really cared for the story cos we didnt really get it the way we do in games now, maybe basic stories, not full movie or book style stories.

I never cared why sonic was battling Dr Robotnic, sure there was a basic story but I never gave a shit all I wanted to do was whizz round the levels collcting rings and spin dashing things

Pacman - i was just a round thing chasing ghosts.

Even Mortal Kombat - playing with friends even though there was a story there all I cared was we could beat the shit of each other, and who could spill the blood and pull of the wicked fatality.

now I'm older I actually still don't care for the story because I never really had it big or epic as the can be now, so why start now?

So I dont care for how hard the game is, limited time, always tired, dont care for story, reason limited time, tired if I want story in my age now its a book, comic or film.

For that reason above I fucking loved Sonic Mania.

Doesnt mean I don't appreciate them in games now, both the challenges nor the stories, I just personally dont feel I have time for it.

 

[petethepanda]

People come to games for different reasons, just as they come to any piece of media for different reasons.

 

[Sanctuary]

People on gaf constantly say they "play games to relax", so yes? I can understand why someone might not find overcoming a challenge relaxing, even if I disagree.

Usually adrenaline rushes aren't as relaxing as they are stimulating, followed by a sense of mild euphoria after.

 

[Rayis]

Overcoming challenge is not fun to me, it just frustrates me and makes me stop playing.

 

[Sugarmonkey]

I legitimately feel bad for people who play on easy mode in games.

This is a troll attempt right? I mean it has to be. And why does it matter if someone chooses to play a game either way, in their free time after spending money to do so.

 

[outunderthestars]

I am 40. I have a job that takes up 60 hours a week, finishing an advanced degree in my spare time.


I simply don't have time to spend an extra dozen hours per game beating my head against a wall. I enjoy playing through large games for the exploration, puzzle solving, and story.

Combat is always my least favorite part of a game. So I turn down the difficulty to minimize that aspect of my experience.

 

[phant0m]

Video games are a hobby

A hobby is something one does in their free time

Whether or not one chooses to challenge themselves in their free time doesn't matter at all.

Eyyyy there it is. Play some games for challenge, others for not. Sometimes, that can be the same game (eh playing on higher difficulties, NG+ etc). I particularly enjoy when greater challenge = greater reward, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

 

[RedSwirl]

Some games the addition of a difficulty selection is frankly stupid. In STALKER the only difficulty worth playing is Master, and in Crysis the only difficulty worth playing is Delta - not because of any elitist notions about the challenge of the game, but simply because thats how the game is balanced and designed to be played, and lower difficulties actively make the game worse. But because these games present a difficulty slider without explaining that the easier difficulties are boring and unbalanced, people don't know this and just assume the Master difficulty is a bunch of aimbot AI, and end up wondering why they're so bored.

I agree that more games should probably be balanced for the higher difficulties first with the lower ones provided as options (including "story modes), but saying the "original" difficulty is the only way a game is worth playing is pushing it pretty far. Crysis is one of my top FPSs and I still haven't played it on Delta (plan to for its 10th anniversary this November). It's still extremely fun on Normal and Hard, it just feels like a different experience on each of these difficulties. Crysis is good because it feels like an action sandbox you can approach however you want. You still get that feeling on Normal and Hard.

I even made this chart to illustrate:

It's all about knowing what aspects of gaming appeal to you personally.

This is really it right here.

A weird case for me is Dragon Age Origins. I objectively consider that game's combat system to be very good, but I'm just not personally interested in it, so towards the end of the Awakening expansion I just turned it down to easy. The combat system wasn't the reason I stuck with the game, it was the characters and the decisions I was making with my character.

I'm debating the same issue with the Persona games. Good, deep, well-balanced combat system that offers great challenges in some cases, but it just isn't the reason I enjoy the games overall.

I wonder what some people on here would be doing if video games were still largely difficult?

Back in those days, when fewer games were being made, I'd start on the lowest difficulty and slowly make my way up to the hardest.

Yeah, I find people who treat the idea that there are more to games than just challenge as an alien concept kind of weird and out of touch. Those people seem to not get that immersion is an important facet. Games as a narrative medium is what I enjoy, the ability of games to immerse you in its world and let you interact with its characters. Stuff like that is something other mediums can't do as well. Challenge does nothing for me, there's very little satisfaction to me in it. But stuff like Undertale's pacifist run or Longest Journey's worlds and characters have stuck with me long after I finished them.

Undertale on pacifist run is a perfect example. It's a bit of a puzzle game on that mode, but mostly it turns into a type of interactive fiction that couldn't really be done in another medium.

 

[AudioEppa]

My enjoyment of video games breaks down like this.


I don’t play games on easy mode, but I do play story driven games with very little to zero gameplay mechanic challenge to them. It’s how I’ve always liked games. I’m happy / grateful we have developers who provide titles that fit this specific preference, despite criticism for their work not catering to the “traditional games” audience.

 

[leeh]

I'm with a lot of people in this thread.

Life is too busy to sink time into playing games on harder difficulties. I'd rather breeze through the game and complete it in good time and move onto the next.

 

[jmizzal]

Some games I dont care and dont want to spend all my time trying to get through so I play on easy.

Some games I want a challenge and play on harder difficulty.

 

[Steve.1981]

We've did this dance a hundred times already. The answer hasn't changed since last time. The answer will never change.

Different people play games for different reasons.

 

[BRocknRolla]

Story is all good and well, and I love a game with a compelling (or at least interesting) story, but there are certain things games can do that other mediums can’t, one of them being creating challenges that need to be overcome.

I would argue this isn't true. There are some books and movies that demand you attention and thought in order to appreciate them in ways that some video games don't even reach. It all depends on the product.

But beyond that, assuming your premise is correct, why is this surprising? We come to these things for all kinds of different reasons.

Let's take a football game. Some watch for the love of the mechanics of the game. Some might enjoy it for the demonstration of athletic ability. Some might like the thrill of an unknown match and how it will turn out. Some want to follow specific players as they care about them for some reason. Some might like to crunch numbers and track statistics for a team or league. Some might like that regional jingoism that comes with caring about a team. The reasons go on and on.

And we could call out any of those as not being the "essential element" of the medium because we don't personally see why you would value it so much, or that you could find it somewhere else, or that there's something unique about football that you can't get from other things. None of those things actually matter though when it comes to consumption on a person to person basis. You can apply this logic to any medium. There's no reason at all to narrowly construe what a medium should or should not be used for. Whether some mediums might accel at some things, where others might more easily falter doesn't mean you can't still achieve those experiences.

If you don't come to video games for challenge, there's nothing unusual at all about it. We all approach mediums in different ways for different reasons. It's human nature.

 

[The Futurist]

Like most things in life. Some people are good and some people are not. You can't fault someone for whatever level of ability they have.

Difficulty in games can mean something.

I feel good about beating games like super meat boy, trials, or even cuphead (even though it's not really difficult). In those games the difficulty is part of the experience. It's what makes the game worth playing. The challenge is built into the mechanics.

For pretty much all other games, I just play on the standard difficulty. I don't feel better about myself if I play COD, or BF, or pretty much any single player games on a higher difficulty because all it really means is that the sliders are notched up a bit. I tend to care more about the overall experience in most games. I don't find most games on a higher difficulty to be rewarding.

 

[mokeyjoe]

I like challenging games but not frustrating games.

I don't play games on easy, but I do play on normal (which is pretty easy).

But doing a PhD and having a job too means a limited time for playing games so I don't get very far.

If you want to play lots of games and you have limited time then easy mode is the way to go. Or if your job is challenging and stressful.

With that said, to 'relax' I generally I prefer to play games with chilled 'mechanics' (walking sims, adventure games, simulations) rather than games on easy.

 

[Zvonimir Boban]

Do people who drive not care about overcoming challenge?

 

[AlexBasch]

Everyone has their own opinion on what's fun.

Some people find playing in a group is fun and I do not, some people love to play in Very Easy just to have fun and I love selecting the most high difficulty available from the start.

Maybe they don't care about challenges and that's okay, just because I like hard games doesn't mean I have something to prove, it's just what I like.

 

[gelf]

i don't like the division often made between "fun" or "experience" and "challenge": challenge is often something that ties into these things, and people that like playing harder games don't suddenly stop caring about everything else.

the way that the difficulty of the Souls games ties into their tone and atmosphere is one of the very best things about the series, for an obvious example

Agreed. I also don't like the assumption that lack of challenge is automatically more relaxing. Sometimes if I'm stressed I need something else to occupy my mind and often a tougher game will do that for me as it forces me to focus in a way something I can get through easily often can't.

 

[Chessr]

I do always play on easy.
I dont have any fun dieing and dieing again and again. It is a waste of time for me.
When i play on easy and i beat enemies at ease i feel like a god and overpowered. There is enough challenge in the real world. Let me be a god once in a while

i ocasionally play Final Fantasy XIV.

I wont ever touch the extreme battles or the 8-man raids. To much work just to beat a boss to just get a chance for at weapon.

Hard and normal is where i can enjoy the game

 

[jonscrambler]

what's challenging about single player games anyway? higher difficulty in single player games usually just means more enemies, enemies have more health/do more damage, it's not like enemy AI gets smarter/better at the game

want a challenge go play ranked mutliplayers games against real people

 

[Artdayne]

I enjoy being challenged. It depends a lot on the game and how fair hard mode is in a particular game. I rarely play games on easy. If it's just a random game I'll usually play on medium but if its something I'm really interested in then I will play on the hardest difficulty. I really enjoy a game that forces you to learn and adapt while utilizing all the tools that they provide you.

what's challenging about single player games anyway? want a challenge go play ranked mutliplayers games against real people

Single player games can definitely be challenging but I do agree that none of them have the skill cap that some of the hardest multiplayer games have.

 

[Unaha-Closp]

I don't mind a challenge in Video Games but I am not playing video games for the Challenge. I play games I am interested in for many different reasons but overcoming a challenge is, I think, never one of the reasons. If it is for you then that is fine with me. Makes no difference to me why anyone plays a video game.

If I want to play a game I will. If I like the game I will play it all the way through. If it's challenging then I will overcome it if I like it enough to. Banging my head against something though is not fun and I am not in competition with myself to beat any game.

Maybe that is it - I am not a competitive person so it doesn't manifest in video game form either. I play single player only games and can count on 1 hand in minutes how much MP I have played. So the notion of overcoming a challenge in a video game is fine if, and only if, I am enjoying it. If it's a tedious slog....nah I'm good. Have to be enjoying myself - Rule 1.

 

[Sai-kun]

When achievements started being a thing, I definitely pushed myself more to play on the hardest difficulties, but now that I don't really give a shit about them, if a game isn't made more interesting or fun on a higher difficulty, I won't bother putting it higher for the sake of it. Especially for a lot of shooters, harder difficulty just means enemies are more like bullet sponges with crazy accuracy. I don't find it interesting or fun to have to memorize enemy layouts to overcome encounters.

I feel bad that you have anxiety attacks and don't get the rush of playing games on hard.

Its like a pump at the gym, except for your brain

Well I fell bad for those people

imagine how insecure you need to be to be spamming a topic with posts like this lmfao

 

[lazyguy]

I always play on the easiest difficulty just because I can get to see the game and to artificially lengthen games by replaying them later on a higher difficulty. I can finish most games on the second hardest difficulty and consider them fairly challenging. I do love a challenge though. As long as it's fair and not some bullshit.

 

[FiveSide]

I play story/experience-focused games on easy and gameplay-focused games on hard.

For example, I enjoyed playing the Souls games without leveling up, and have always played the Uncharted games on either Easy or the new Tourist mode (or whatever it's called, can't remember off the top of my head).

 

[CanUKlehead]

I just want to see every visual delight. Playing through the last world of Yoshi's Island on the Mini and if it wasn't for the replay, I would've given up a while ago, but I got to see the Super FX2 in action for the entire game.

Partly why I want an easy(er) mode in Cuphead that lets me see everything anyway.

 

[Zap Rowsdower]

Undertale on pacifist run is a perfect example. It's a bit of a puzzle game on that mode, but mostly it turns into a type of interactive fiction that couldn't really be done in another medium.

Gone Home is another really good example because it would be impossible as a movie and probably really boring as a book but as a game it's really engaging due to it rewarding exploration at your own pace.