Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

You didn’t use that example specifically, but others have. There is simply no comparison anyone can make to an easy difficulty in a game. Nothing else exists like it in other media.

Books. You think everybody can read 'The Sound and the Fury'? Do you think everyone should be able to? And is it the Faulkner's fault for making it inscrutable? Most would say it's stream-of-consciousness writing is what gives the prose its distinct character. But you're right, Faulkner should have thought about the people who aren't literate. Only then would he have made ART.

Oh, but this is another "straw man argument" isn't it? What i'm hearing is nobody can make a comparison to you, because you don't care. You didn't even refer to my exact text when replying. Twice. No wonder you're no good at Dark Souls, you can't even bother to read my text.

Here's one final point for you to swallow: difficulty is relative. What you want is something that suits you. Just because everything has an easy mode doesnt mean it's something everybody can actually enjoy. Could my Grandpa play it? Nope! He has trouble when more than a couple buttons are involved. He doesnt think all controllers should be changed back to an NES pad, he just accepts his limitations. So unless your "giving everything an easy mode" reduces the inputs to 2 buttons and a d-pad,you've left my Grandpa, and everyone who's an inexperienced gamer like him, stuck with something relatively difficult. They should probably just git gud though, right?

@Pizzamorg and for the love of god it's a flippin analogy:

"a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification" [source - Google]

"Straw man" is just some bs internet culture nonsense.

Yes, it is quite literally a straw man. You are comparing literacy to video games. Such ludicrous lengths to try and justify why every game shouldn’t include an easy mode. Seemingly so aware of your own fallacy, you quite literally breakdown in your pointless follow up comment. We’re done.

@Pizzamorg apology accepted

A child like yourself shouldn’t try getting involved in debates.

@Zuljaras I mean, people can’t really expect every game to cater to them. It’s like if I said I don’t like Dragon Quest (which I don’t), and wanted the devs to change it into a action game. It’d alienate the fans who do love the game, and who the game is for. There are many other action games that I can go to and play anyways.

@Pizzamorg listen, setting my bad attitude aside - i'm sorry i got heated. We had a breakdown in communication and i was kinda mean. Sorry. I still dont agree with you - but no hard feelings on my part (assuming you havent blocked me yet lol).

@Pizzamorg Better comparison would be trying to get people to change a game series because said game series isn’t for you. It’s like getting Gamefreak to change pokemon into a 2D platformer with cars and guns, all because you don’t like catching virtual creatures. Or wanting Dragon Quest to be a 3D action game because you don’t enjoy traditional turn-based. This is the same situation. You want Dark Souls to be easier because you don’t want to discipline yourself and learn the game.

You should just admit Dark Souls isn’t for you, and move onto something else. These types of games are generally made for niche markets of people anyways.

@Snatcher Not really saying you were, and I wasn’t really saying in a toxic manner either.

I know I'm going to regret getting involved in this debate but I think you have to remember that what's an acceptable level of difficulty for one person might be literally impossible for another, due to disabilities or just not having the coordination, mindset or whatever to handle the difficulty of a particular game. People say hard games need to stay hard because that's the artistic intent of the developers, and I don't disagree but if difficulty modes are designed well they can preserve that intent for the majority of players. Someone who struggles with a particular genre could play on easy and still have to work as hard to finish the game as someone who's good at it and plays on normal or hard.

Celeste is the perfect example of this. It's a very difficult game and that ties into its story, but it still has a highly customisable assist mode so people can tweak the bits of the game that they feel they need to. I've never heard anyone say that ruins the game's artistic vision.

@VoidofLight Oh ok, I just was worry'd if I came off rude, Oh, but did you try the other Dragon quest spinoff's? you probably did but just wondering.

@Dogorilla well i've already knowingly alienated one person so ima limit my involvement with this. Suffice it so say - i agree that one persons idea of an acceptable difficulty may be impossible for another (hence my example with my grandpa. I'm sure we all have family members who balk at the idea of playing a game more complicated than something like tetris or pac man). And to be clear - i'm not advocating for no difficulty options. I havent played enough games to give a relevent opinion on the subject. But when it comes to Fromsoft games I disagree that it's necessary.

I can't really comment on Celeste. I havent played it. But I think the metaphor in it is "climbing the mountain" and since it's a challenge it's rewarding. I get that. I'm not sure how it's changed to make it easier. In this case, Dark Souls is about unending death. If you decrease the likelihood of failure than you're altering what the gameplay is designed around. Why use hints left by others or go online to find tips when you can move the option to easy and cruise through it? Why worry about whats around every corner when you're confident that you can take it?

I guess i also have trouble understanding the problem, because Dark Souls really isnt that hard. It's an RPG for chrissakes, you can grind yourself stupid.

@Losermagnet Well, I haven't played Dark Souls and don't really have any interest in it, so I was just talking about games in general. But again, my point is that difficulty options should allow each player to adjust the difficulty to their own level. Ideally, people who decide to play on easy wouldn't just cruise through enemies, they'd have to go through the same amount of challenge as everyone else, it would just be scaled to a level that they can realistically cope with. Sure, you could play on easy if you're an experienced player, just as you could turn on all the assist options in Celeste and blaze through the game, but you'd only be ruining it for yourself.

Also, if you can grind for levels, isn't that pretty much like difficulty options but with a really boring barrier to entry? Again, I haven't played these games so I don't really know how they work, but grinding in most RPGs is very tedious but ultimately makes the game easier than if you just level up naturally.

@Dogorilla exactly. There are ways to make the game easier that are diegetic to the game without needing a switch to be flipped. The idea is that by defeating enemies you're consuming more souls and so you grow stronger. The enemies just come back after they die. So do you. Almost everything does. The rules of entropy and decay do not apply! I think another part of the perceived difficulty is that the controls and "rules" of the game are obtuse and not very user friendly. It's ostensibly an action-rpg, but it requires you to be meditative about attacking and defending, and managing your finite healing items. It's slow. This is how the game builds tension. I actually see it as more of a survival/horror/rpg personally.

@Snatcher I like the spin-offs, just not the main series. Builders is probably my favorite.

@Losermagnet From what I know about Dark Souls I can understand the suggestion that it doesn't need an easy mode as much as most other games might, because it seems like the difficulty comes from learning patterns which is more about patience than mechanical skill. I still don't think it would be at all detrimental to have difficulty options but diegetic adjustments to the gameplay are probably better.

I'm going to add that "difficulty" levels aren't so simple to do well..... Maybe some of you are used to more modern games generally doing that? But for awhile, all the different levels did was increase enemy hp & suchlike, which isn't really a good option
So, if we're really talking about, specifically, a faithful reproduction of a game from quite a few years ago .... Since that seemed to be what prompted the discussion

@Dogorilla this reminds me of something that will, thankfully, allow me to get away from subject a little. I really appreciate when games make the effort to explain why they do "video gamey" things. It's a small detail that i usually appreciate.

For example: you can fast travel in Breath of the Wild. Not being able to would be a bit crazy right? But rather than just pulling up a menu and saying "make Link go here" it's tied to the Shieka slate, the towers, and the technology. Thats what allows Link to fast travel.

It always takes me out of it a bit when games that feature massive, articulated, open worlds just let people skip around in case they cant be bothered. And that, evidently, the protagonist just has the ability to teleport. I get it - it's a practical thing. But i do appreciate when a game goes the extra step and offers an explanation as to why that happens.

I'd like to once again post this, which I still think has the absolute best take on the whole "should Dark Souls have an easy mode" question: