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[Dr.brain64]

Yes.

If I'm making a game, I want everyone to play it.

 

[SeraphJan]

Difficulty is a type of experience and aesthetic of itself within an art form, if a the developer's vision had difficulty as part of its aesthetic, then of course making an easy mode contradict that aesthetic.

So no, not every game should have an easy mode

But that doesn't mean I'm against easy mode, it all depend on the original intent of the developer when he/she creating the art

For some type of games, stress is a part of its experience, for example horror game in order to maintain its horror, resource has to be scarce, death was suppose to have huge consequences, and enemy are suppose to be intimidating, making an easy mode in certain horror game will complete destroy the games core experience.

 

[GenericUser]

It's up to the developers to decide that. There are perfect valid reasons for one or the other. Souls games (altough not being made for me) deliberately give you only one option. Given the popularity of the games, that seems to be the right choice. The devs obviously think that hardship and persistence are part of what the players should experience. Other games give you options, that is also fine. It all has to fit into the vision that the developers had in mind when they created the game.

 

[anthraticus]

(modern) AAA games is already easy mode

 

[existensmaximum]

Of course not. Not everything is for everyone. You can't expect everything to always be adapted to your own preferences and needs. It's just unreasonable.

If the developer don't want to include an easy mode, play something else.

 

[Alan Silvestro]

 

[Boneless]

They need to make the Marathon des Sables more accessible by allowing people to finish after running 1 mile, all people should be allowed to experience it!

So no, sometimes the difficulty is inherintly tied to the sense of achievement. Is a marathon too difficult for you? Then you git gut and train your ass off. Maybe your local organisation creates a half marathon to make it easier. In the end, its up to the creator to decide.

 

[Lupin3]

I find some games a lot more enjoyable when you can blast through them on easy. I lack both time and patience nowadays. But it is what it is, and I'm not counting on there being an easy mode in every game I buy.

 

[GymWolf]

Depends on the creator's intention. Not everything has to be made for everyone.

The only correct answer.

 

[baphomet]

Why stop there?

Why doesn't every game have a mode for the brain dead. Just because they can't actually play the game doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to enjoy it.

Maybe, just maybe, if you aren't good at something you should put some effort into it and get better. Then realize not everything has to be for you, or your friend who is bad at video games.

 

[ironmang]

Not everything needs to be able to be enjoyed by everyone. There's no shortage of amazing, easy games.

It's very hard to balance a game around multiple difficulties so it's just more work for already overworked devs.

 

[NightmareFarm]

Yes there are literally no disadvantages to this unless you like jerking yourself off over beating a game which forces mandatory hard mode like the soulsborne games.

 

[three_muffins]

What happend that a lot of people think choices are a bad thing. Why do people think that?

Who benefits from an absence of choice?

 

[TintoConCasera]

No. Get good or get out.

Balancing difficulty levels takes time and effort, so if the dev doesn't want to do that and spend that time on other aspects of the game, then so be it.

 

[lughnasadh123]

Yes, but not through multiple difficulty options, but rather through toggles you can change around. Reduced or increased damage. Higher or lower health. Increased or lower drop rates. All things players could choose and customize for themselves for the play experience that's best for them. Meanwhile the Devs get to implement "their vision" as the base mode for people to enjoy if that's what they want too.

 

[ironmang]

What happend that a lot of people think choices are a bad thing. Why do people think that?

Who benefits from an absence of choice?

What about the choice of the developer who wants to make a game with only 1 difficulty?

That seems to get lost in these discussions. Every time a new From game comes out go look at the people on social media or articles on game sites that try and guilt them into including an easy mode.

 

[Stitch]

Yes, more games should be like Rogue Legacy 2

Rogue Legacy 2’s house rules allow players to change enemy damage, enemy health, remove contact damage, add the ability to fly, and so on.

Rogue Legacy 2 Rewards Players for Checking Out the House Rules

Rogue Legacy 2 features a set of house rules that allow players to modify the game to their heart's content and even rewards players for doing so.

gamerant.com

 

[Maiden Voyage]

No.

 

[ungalo]

Zelda games are not hard and those are better remembered than recent souls games.
Not to mention they run circles around the competition in sales.

They don't have difficulty settings. The rest is a matter of subjectivity. What if someone find Zelda games hard for whatever reasons ? It does not bring into question how those games are designed and if they should add an easy mode because as you said, those games are liked and they sell well.

And that's exactly the same for Elden Ring and From Software games.

 

[Punished Miku]

 

[Bartski]

dead horse

 

[NahaNago]

Yes. The developers vision can simply be the normal mode and the other modes can be for those who want an easier or harder game. I do like the idea someone mentioned of just adding more hp to the character or more mp. The option to simply increase stats in a game from speed, hp, mp, attack, or defense sounds amazing, and you wouldn't need to adjust everything else in the game for those things. Story mode could simply be one shotting everything.

 

[AV]

We should definitely have this thread more often. Twice a day, that would do the trick.

 

[daveonezero]

Yes but it should destroy all satisfaction in the game.

It should be like game genie god mode. No clipping. No damage. No combat. Basically just fly through the game and see cutscenes.

 

[T4keD0wN]

If its single player: Yes. Its nobody's business if my supersoldier commander sheppard can sprint for 60 seconds instead of the default 5 before succumbing to exhaustion.
It can simply be disabled for leaderboards or multiplayer modes.
Only weirdos and EA thinks that games should deliver "a sense of pride and accomplishment", theyre just an entertainment product.

 

[winjer]

Yes, because some game journalists might want to actually play games, before reviewing them.

 

[Wildebeest]

No, but games should have "cheat codes".

 

[Roxkis_ii]

I say leave it up to the dev. Not every game has to be for everyone.

If you can't beat a game, then watch the ending on youtube, that's the real easy mode.

 

[sankt-Antonio]

Yes. I dont use it but it’s helpful in many ways.

No difficulty option is just lazy.

Nothing is lost having the option, it’s literally only a positive thing.

 

[AtomicStarving]

I think EVERY GAME should have a GOD mode (no trophies or achievements) to allow more people to play.

 

[Calling 911 Melts Beams]

only souls games need easy modes

 

[SSfox]

No

 

[FoxMcChief]

Sure.

 

[Fbh]

No, let devs make the games they want to make. If they want to make a game with tons of difficulty and accessibility option that's cool, if they want to make a game that's intended to be challenging with no workarounds then that's cool too.

 

[Rentahamster]

EVERY game? No. I don't see how an easy mode would make sense for Vampire Survivors, for example.

MANY games? Probably. Hard mode too.

Ideally, the developers and designers should make balanced gameplay loop that's both accessible and challenging and helps shitty players become good players.

 

[TrueLegend]

Absolutely yes and the highest difficulty mode should should also be open from the start. This is the stupid pillar a lot of people bring and pit it against dark souls for proxy fight. And like always also those wannabe extrahype fans who actually suck at soulsborne keep getting proven wrong by each further release.

For example no checkpoint is what makes dark souls dark souls, fuck no, we now got all kind of checkpoint in Elden Ring and guess what instead of sucking it went on to become pretty much the best AAA modern game ever. I would say that those people should not be given some achievements in Easy mode like the Nameless King achivement and that will be a great way to balance it.

At the same time Hard mode should not be about big health bars, there are people like me who grew up playing hardest mode, it's difficult for us to enjoy games in normal mode so locking hard mode or just dumb health bars ruin a lot of fun. Make it properly hard like classic God of War I, II and III or Devil may cry series DMD. Make it interesting by adding mechanics and stuff.

Currently I use self imposed permadeath on normal mode minus fall death to keep the game that do not have hard mode unlocked from start or have too dumb of a hard mode , interesting. I had to play New game plus in Sekiro to truly fall in love with the game because parrying was way too easy on normal walkthrough with kuro's charm and no bell demon.

 

[bentanchorbolt]

I believe such matters should be a developer choice. It's their game, their vision and that's how we've received some pretty incredible games over the years.

 

[Shubh_C63]

Difficuty of game is also its identity. I will always prefer one fixed difficulty BUT it sucks that my friends can't play these games at all.

Spiderman was just perfect for them in that regards. They all got addicted to it.

 

[John Bilbo]

If everything had everything then everything would be everything.

heehee

 

[ozz ex machina]

Some of my favourite games wouldn't be my favourite games if they had an easy mode because i'd have just lowered the difficulty instead of properly learning mechanics.

Nobody is "too bad" to complete modern games (even people with disabilities have lots of great tools). Plenty of people are lazy though.

If you can't be bothered to learn mechanics, have patience, just watch a playthrough on youtube.

Developers should be able to make a game however they like and the idea of anything being compulsory around the design of videogames is fucking nauseating.

And no - obviously you shouldnt get refunds. Christ.

 

[22:22:22]

I'm all for options regarding difficulty settings as long as I can chose the "intended" one I'm good.

 

[RoboFu]

I mean ... hasn't most games have difficulty settings since the inception of video games? lol

Just because one seems too difficult for you that doesn't have difficulty settings doesnt mean it is some grand new idea. It just means that game isn't for you and move on.


yeah not a new concept. lol

 

[22:22:22]

Some of my favourite games wouldn't be my favourite games if they had an easy mode because i'd have just lowered the difficulty instead of properly learning mechanics.

Yeah but that's a you problem. For example I can lower the difficulty in GT7 but because I WANT to play the game as it should I stick to no assists etc. Even though the possibility is there which casual users or whatever can choose to use and have a good time. Does that makes sense?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

In other words how we played multiplayer games in the 90s? Yea it’s fine, just add a server browser and let us figure it out.

I'm curious to see if anyone supports dev's one difficulty SP mode "I'll adjust my skills to suit the game". But for MP play, it's the opposite. They want MM so the difficulty level is skewed to their skill level "I want the game to suit me so I dont get destroyed in COD".

 

[NinjaBoiX]

100%, it allows anyone to appreciate your game no matter their skill level.

I can’t be the first person to mention the Souls games in here, but I wish they had a casual mode. I totally get that it goes against every code of their design, and they’ve put stuff like summoning in to help, but they’re often still too hard for me to properly enjoy.

Just put a really obvious disclaimer bang in the centre of the screen explaining that it’s not the way it was designed to be enjoyed if you’re so precious about your own vision, but you should allow anyone to enjoy your game on their own terms imo.

 

[Radical Dreamer]

No lmao

 

[DragoonKain]

FYI: it seems a lot of people are taking this thread to mean "Should it be mandatory?" and that is not what I meant, but rather "Do you think gaming would be better off if all games had an easy mode?"

Obviously, developers have the right to create whatever they want.

 

[Aenima]

No. but depends of the type of game.

If a game is designed around challenge and the devs dont think it should have dificuty modes, then git gud, cuz thats the game main purpose.

If a game is more narrative driven and wants to tell a story, then yes. Being engaged on the game story and then being cockblocked by a dificulty spike or a broken mechanic that makes the game way warder than it should, sucks, and should have dificulty modes for the ppl that cant get good at it and just want to enjoy the game story.

 

[Flutta]

 

[Neo_Geo]

This is where PC gaming shines. If the developers intended for the game to be only accessible to highly skilled players with more time on their hands than someone like me, then you just download a trainer and pick and choose what "easy" mode features you want to include to make the game enjoyable.