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Is there any shame in playing on Easy Mode?

No shame what so ever.

Who gives a shit what anyone else is doing? If you play games on easy, cool. If you play them on hard, great. The first post pretty much summed it up though...

If you're having fun, what does it matter?

Edit:

I actually find it kinda sad at how much games have become a dick waving activity.

I love you Billy Mitchell. Ron & Fez 11:00AM-3:00PM XM 202
 
I've been doing this a lot lately and have felt a bit weird. Sometimes games on Easy are too easy. I like some challenge but a lot of the time i just want to be absorbed in the games world and not peeved from cheap deaths and enemies who have such incredible accuracy from miles away.......like in Infamous, which wasn't so much a game as it was an annoyance simulator. Even on easy the game was a chore to playthrough with enemies. I wish all games would let you change the difficulty during the game instead of only from the beginning so i could start at Normal and lower it if i'm having problems. That should be the standard.
 
In reality, no. But I (almost) always force myself to play on normal or higher for fear of imagined ridicule :lol
 
sturmdogg said:
Well, for me playing video games is supposed to be fun. So if you're having fun playing on Easy Mode, then who's to say you're doing it wrong?
Click to expand...


THIS. Exactly how I feel, I usually play on normal or easy because I'm gaming for fun, not for a challenge.
 
If a game slips into my backlog far enough, I will fire it up on easy mode just to get through it a little quicker. My gaming time is limited so sometimes you have to make compromises to get more games finished.
 
who cares.

but 1 thing i am pissed about with difficulty modes is the "unlocking" of the hardest difficulty. im badass and i expect to have immediate privilege to the hell mode.
 
Dacvak said:
When I was younger, I was admittedly bad at video games. Since then, a half-decade gaming journalism and competitive Smash has strengthened my ability to crush games even at their hardest, but that's not to say I haven't taken the easy way out a few times. As I start up Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes for the first time since its launch, I recall playing the game on Very Easy the first time through. Now I'm trying something harder, but I wonder, had I never played this game again, should I feel ashamed that the only time I beat it was on a simple difficulty?

Does anyone here feel less of a gamer by playing through on Easy Mode, and conversely are there people here who will only play on the hardest difficulty to feel like more of a badass?
Click to expand...

While there are plenty of games I tend to tone down the difficulty on, Metal Gear is rarely one of them....
 
Hell yes I play on Easy mode, except for sports games (must be the highest level). Now I would never want an online game to be easier, you get the fun out of the game for the difficulty you face. A story driven game, give me the content on easy mode, so I may enjoy.
 
I play way too many games. The only way I can hope to get through all the games I play, is to tone some of them down. When I want something challenging, I'll play multiplayer.

I feel that Mirror's Edge is a game that benefits first time players to run through on Easy. Not because the game is unbeatable, but because the only thing it effected to any real degree was combat. It took away the tedious and frustrating nature of trying to navigate levels while being murdered over and over.

And I'm certainly not ashamed of playing Dragon Age: Origins, a game in a genre I have never experienced, on easy. It made the game tolerable, and it still provided a challenge because I was new to the game's mechanics. Though by the end of the game I did feel I was overpowering the baddies.
 
Nope. I don't play games for a challenge so I usually either hit up Easy or Normal Mode. Now I don't necessarily want to breeze through a game, so I usually stick to Normal if I can play it through without it getting frustrating. I find games with the blood splatter regen health systems are usually straightforward enough to beat on Normal, but otherwise it depends.
 
It always depends on the game. For example, a good difficulty affects enemy AI and requires you to play more tactically while bad difficulty increases enemy life bars while reducing yours.

And yeah, as said above, Metal Gear games fall into the "they're better becaues they make you play better" category. Mass Effect 2 is another game that is better on a higher difficulty.
 
All games are really meant to be played on the hardest level. No exceptions. It's what separates the hardcore players from the casual players. I'm not one of the hardcore players by the way.
 
Dacvak said:
Is there any shame in playing on Easy Mode?
Click to expand...
nope, i do it all the time. sometimes i just want to experience the game from start to finish and have no concern for being "challenged".

i usually do this on tense games like Resident Evil.

i also do it because game playing time is at a premium, so i want to finish a game as quickly as i can.
 
RPG = Easy
RTS = Hard (Skirmish)/ Normal (Story)
Racing = Normal
Shooters = Normal

I will play ANY game on Easy if I'm pressed for time however. Which, in recent years, is almost always the case :(
 
It depends on the game, but I'd rather play on easy and have fun than play on normal and be frustrated.

That being said I always start the games on normal.
 
I usually play games on normal. Only recent exception was Uncharted 2 which I finished on hard, because a lot of people told me it was not that difficult.

But sometimes I also play games on easy. It depends on what I want out of the game. If I just want to know the story, or am getting stuck at a section I lower the difficulty (after a couple of tries of course).
 
There should never be shame involved in enjoying one of your hobbies differently than someone else... what the choice should come down to is how you can best enjoy the game. If you really love playing around with the core mechanics of a game and want to test your skills, turn the difficulty up. If you want to get through a game relatively quickly and focus on enjoying the atmosphere and story instead of mastering the mechanics, play "normal," "easy," "casual," or whatever works.
 
I always play on Easy, at least the first time.

I play games to have fun and relax. I don't want to be frustrated, or overly challenged. Just let me chill out and get some easy rewards, maaan.

Although I often find even Easy mode is too tough for me on many games. I can't do GRID at all, even on the easiest settings.
 
I play on easy when I want to just follow a game's story and not have to bother with leveling up a lot, or when I'm just sick of a game and can't bother to play it anymore.
 
The only time i'll play on easy if there is are harder difficulty to unlock later on. i might even skip story segments and such just to breeze through the game quickly and play it on a lvl more suited to my tastes.

To answer your question though, there's no shame in playing easy if you are going to play the game more than once. If that will be your ONLY playthrough of the game at least step it up to medium. I won't mock you for it, but i think you'll get more of a challenge and therefore more bang for your $60.

Though a lot of people live stressful lives and games can be a way of relieving that. If you live a very stressful life, then sit back turn down the difficulty and enjoy the game.

Speaking of this right now i'm at a part in Uncharted where i'm almost tempted to put it on easy just because i've died one too many times, because either
A.) I couldn't shake my controller fast enough or B.) I couldn't see them. I going to fucking HATE this part on crushing...
 
I never play my games on easy, these are my rules:

2 difficulty levels, I choose the second
3, the third
4, the forth
5, the forth

I feel like I'm missing something if I play in easy or normal... yeah
 
If you have fun playing on Easy than everything is fine. I nowadys start the most games on a harder difficult. Since games are (espiacially FPS) are kind of short i want the satisfaction of beating it on hard/veteran. But i would never play something like Anno, Civilization etc. on a higher difficulty.
I can see that it is sometimes a time issue to retry a level for the 30th time on veteran if you have only little gaming time besides work, familiy and friends.
 
No shame when I just wanna experience as much of the game in as little time (because there's millions of great games to play) because I am not expecting much from the game or I know the game uses cheap tricks

Otherwise I'll play on normal, and if I like the hard a lot, I'll play on HARD
 
Depends on the game. I don't have the time or patience any more for frustrating repetition in games, so if I end up playing the same level or boss too many times I'll drop the difficulty down. I have limited time and a huge backlog. As some others have said I play for the experience, not to test my abilities. Work does that just fine, thanks.
 
Nah, none at all. I do it with lots of games if I just want to the game to completely pull me in to the experience without making me retry lots of sections due to dying.

For example, I played Uncharted 2 on easy, just because I wanted to experience the story in a fluid way.
 
No shame. I play some games on easy, for reasons already covered (time constraints, enjoyment of narrative, avoidance of annoying crap in certain games). If it's rewarding, I'll take it up a notch for the next playthrough. There aren't many games that make me want to play through again though, to be honest.

Now for some tiresome nostalgia. Sometimes I wish that more games did it Goldeneye style. Rather than choose Easy, you worked your way up the rankings by starting as an Agent. It made me want to beat the game on each difficulty, and I did. Seeing Easy/Medium/Hard in menus these days just doesn't have the same attraction.
 
I have to play the AoE games in Easy otherwise the AI ends up kicking my arse most of the time (skirmish) if not all the time (campaign mode).
 
I always start on easy and work my way up through the difficulties. I have zero patience for being stuck in a game on the first playthrough.
 
None at all. I've probably only played two or three games on hard mode.
 
Lately, to clear out my backlog, I've been playing harder games (and games I'm not in love with but want to finish) on easy. With a backlog like mine, I see no shame in it. I would consider it shameful to beat a game in God mode, but I shouldn't talk because there are probably even good reasons to do that. Like for games with terrible sections that you just want to skip.
 
It depends on whether the game features some form of level scaling, or there's some backtracking required to make yourself powerful enough to advance.
 
Dragon Age doesn't require playing on easy, and this is coming from one of the worst players of everything in the history of gamerdom.

What it does require is that you do the quests in a certain order. Once you do that it's cake.
 
No shame at all. I usually start with Normal, but if the game is good enough I'll play through Hard and Easy as well.
 
Nuclear Muffin said:
What about games that are changed in Easy Mode? Like how Megaman 10's level designs actually change in easy mode?
Click to expand...

Is that anything like Contra 4, where playing on easy means you're a pussy and shouldn't be allowed to play the "real" game/finish the rest of the levels?

'cause that was bullshit. :p
 
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