Difficulties with Difficulty
Difficulties with Difficulty
Remember, fun takes precedence
Mike Hirst discusses choosing to enjoy the narrative over the challenge through the manipulation of the difficulty setting.
DEAR READERS, it has come to my attention that I need to get something off my chest, something which will make me seem like less of a man. You see I have a secret. I am a coward, a wuss, why? Because I play games on Easy.
Throughout my gaming life I’ve always wanted to keep pace with my friends, those with somewhat superhuman abilities for completing games on Normal or Hard – or so they say. I didn’t want to miss out on discussions at school regarding a certain narrative point in Final Fantasy 8, or Resident Evil, Starcraft and even Half-Life.
The easy way out
In the early days of the Playstation I was a PC gamer and I was very much anti-console, because I actually found it somewhat difficult to adapt to the console form. So I used one of the many varieties of cheating devices that were available at the time, although I considered it cheating – the equivalent to typing IDKFA in Doom. To combat this I started dropping the difficulty on many games, too many games. It’s a school boy habit that I haven’t been able to grow out of.
Now I’m all grown up, and care a great deal less about matching my friends’ gaming achievements. However, I have my reasons to continue playing through games on one of the difficulty settings below ‘Normal’. One of which is that I like to feel over powered, that sense of being able to crush opponents without cheating is a fantastically powerful sensation. 
I love playing through games which allow you to keep all the weapons, upgrades and abilities gained in a previous completion in order to kill enemies faster and with a great sense of satisfaction. Of course this also allows you to essentially skip the early half of the game, with it being so easy, allowing you to quickly travel to the point you want to replay. This could be for a variety of reasons. To re-watch a cinematic, fight your favourite boss, or just pick up an item you missed in your first run through.
The second reason is because of the story. Gaming is such a fantastic narrative device that I feel compelled to complete it without getting too frustrated over too many deaths or lack of ammo. By dropping the difficulty down a notch I can experience the storyline without hindrance and that is one of the many reasons I play games – to experience rich stories. When I bought Mass Effect 2 back in January I didn’t do so because I wanted a pure gaming challenge, I wanted to continue the story and to do so I would – obviously – have to be able to complete the game within my skill set.
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Good article. I tend to play a game on normal the first time – the way the developers intended generally. And then afterwards I boost up the difficulty level if i enjoyed the game and want to try again with added challenge
I have been considering this myself lately. I don’t play games on easy but lately as I age I care less about :bragging rights” and more about my enjoyment of the game.
One odd exception to this is Demons Souls. A very hard game but through its difficulty I found great enjoyment. It seemed that the difficulty in Demons Souls was part of the narrative.
I have the agree with flapersack. I play a game ( when I get chance these days!) on normal, then play again on harder settings. Sometimes cheating to get to the bits I enjoyed, so I can play them on hard!
Another good article. Keep it up.
Jamesakadamingo
I’m the same I tend to play a game on easy the first time so I can get the story and then if I liked the game play I’ll go back and play on the hardest difficulty to see how far I can get on it.
There’s a sensible viewpoint; unfortunately, I am not a sensible person. I’ve been trying to get into Dragon Age recently and I’m now completely stuck in this battle to defend Redcliffe town.
Can’t do it. I’ve tried so many times, but either my party is underpowered or the party AI just sucks. And goddammit, I refuse to go Easy; I just can’t. So, I’ve given up.
Tbh, though, I don’t like the game very much. Takes itself very seriously, uses so much lingo and requires you do a lot of background reading, and a lot of your party members are either obnoxious douchbags or boring cliches. It’s so, so bland, and life’s just too short to be putting the hours into such a dull, uninspired game.
(I guess I’m using the, even now, noticeable difficulty spikes as an excuse for not continuing – but still, with good reason, I feel.)
Looks to me like you’re scrambling to find reasons to justify that you aren’t an awful gamer. Any “gamer” who opts for easy mode over normal, well I just don’t know how you can live with yourself.
@Lord_80
Put your big balls away, fella. Some of us just can’t stand the sight of ‘em. It makes us envious.