Nothing Wrong With Easy

Hello everyone! It is I, Kristin, back again with another post for all of you to mock mercilessly. These days, it seems like a lot of people spend a majority of their time making fun of others. Some believe they’re truly greater than thou, some are bored and trying to find a way to pass the time, and some are magnificent bridge trolls… Either way, people do get a kick out of it. And one of the more common things you see spread like wildfire is discussions about difficulty in video games. Some people will swear, until their face is red, that the only true way to game is by playing on the hardest difficulty. To them, gaming is a challenge that is meant to be a frustrating battle from start to finish. If you are playing on anything less than Super Mega Ultimate Permadeath mode, you’re nothing but a filthy casual and can never be a “true gamer”. And while I understand the desire to aim for the highest hurdle imaginable in order to overcome a ridiculous challenge and feel like an absolute King after beating it, I have never understood the odd competitiveness in difficulty of single-player games. It has never made sense that you, the person who purchased this game, and is experiencing it as the consumer and as a fan, are not “allowed” to do so on lower difficulties. Why does gaming always have to be seen as a challenge that’s meant to test your abilities at every turn? Why are people mocked for playing a game on a difficulty that allows them to experience the story, art, soundtrack, and mechanics without ripping their hair out in frustration? Why do people perceive those who play on Easy mode wrong? Well I’m here to share with you why that makes no sense and shouldn’t be the norm in this community, Strap yourselves in, because I’m discussing reasons it’s okay to play on Easy difficulty.

It can be extremely frustrating to feel excluded from games due to their high difficulty. We’re all familiar with Dark Souls, Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, and the like. These games are intentionally aimed at people who want a challenge so difficult, their fingers will be bleeding and they will have died a dozen times over by the time they’ve beaten their first enemy. They want controllers thrown across rooms and they exist on the tears of their player base. This is really cool, if you’re someone who thrives on hard games. However, as someone who has absolutely no skill at games, but loves gothic horror, it’s alienating. I love looking at these games’ art and mythology. The environments are so dark and dreary. The bosses are grotesque and magnificent. The soundtrack sends shivers up my spine. I was a naiive little thing when Bloodborne was released. I didn’t know how From Software was or how they created their games. I just saw a 3rd person gothic horror game with horrible creatures and crazy looking melee weapons and was excited to give it a try. I got the game, played it for an entire hour, and never left the starting area. That’s right. A full hour, and I kept repeatedly dying to the first enemies you come across after leaving the first building. I was annoyed and angry, and I wasn’t having any fun. Games are supposed to be fun, and I had spent the last hour dying over and over again. After my dozenth failed attempt, I deleted the game from my PlayStation and never played it again. It looked so good, but it wasn’t made for people like me in mind. Which, again, I understand the developers targeting a specific demographic, but it is horrible to know you’ll never be able to experience a game from them because you’re just not skilled like that. Most games nowadays have the ability to change your difficulty so that it better matches with the challenge you were wanting. So it has always seemed unfair to me that you can make it so much harder for yourselves willingly, but I’m not able to lower the difficulty on impossible games. Exclude trophies from achievements. Lock off some optional bosses, the true ending, or legendary gear unless you’re playing on harder difficulties. But don’t exclude a majority of gamers just because we can’t GeT gUd SoN.

Like I have said before: I play games for their story, their characters, their spectacular environments and score. I like to feel feelings when I play. I’m not here to struggle and fight and challenge myself to beat it on the hardest difficulty. I’m too busy watching my character struggle and fight to survive, cope with love and loss, and triumph against all odds. Playing on Easy difficulty does not alter any of those experiences. I don’t enjoy the game any less by having less of a challenge. In fact, playing on the easiest difficulties allows me to immerse myself in the story. When I play on harder modes, I am too distracted with timing, strategy, combos, and resource management. The immersion is completely gone as I am taken out of the experience and reminded, constantly, that I am playing a video game. I don’t want to be reminded that I’m controlling some pixels on a console through some coding every five seconds. This is why, every time I get a new game, I always do the first playthrough on the easiest difficulty. I want to truly, truly experience it as a piece of interactive art without worrying about getting backed into a corner and being unable to progress. After I have beaten it for the first time, I look through the trophy list, see what I want to achieve, then raise the difficulty for subsequent playthroughs if required. If there’s not a trophy to beat it on the hardest difficulty, I’m not going to do it. Let me just play the game how I want to play. Let me enjoy all of the work, love, and care that went into the project. You like to play for the challenge. I like to play for the immersion. What’s so wrong with that?

While we are discussing single-player games … Why so much hate for people who use cheat codes? Who cares if they beat the game using an unlimited ammo cheat? Obviously, cheating in multiplayer games is the absolute worst, but why do you care what someone else is doing in their own game that doesn’t affect you? I guess they feel conned because they both beat the game while one took the “easy way”. But that leaves the question of why you are comparing the two. Just shut up and enjoy your games over there while I give myself legendary armour and flying god powers over here. Hell, most games of the last generation punished people for using cheats by locking the ability to earn trophies while mods were active. So if you want to compare yourself so badly and prove that you beat the game without cheating, just show people your trophy list. Congratulations, you played honestly and beat Alduin with nothing but an iron helm and an old wooden spoon. I spent sixty hours running around as a naked vampire lord terrorizing every town. You had your fun. I had mine. What does it matter? Some games reward people with cheat codes after they beat the game. I ran around Ratchet and Clank with invincibility and unlimited ammo turned on to gather some collectibles I’d missed on my first playthrough. I earned those cheats. They’re still cheats. People should be allowed to enjoy their game however they want. They paid for it, damn it.

I’m beating a dead horse at this point, so I’ll just summarize everything in the most TLDR way possible: If you’re into beating a game on Super Mega Ultimate Permadeath mode with nothing but a rusty sword and your birthday suit, go for it! You bought it! If you’re into beating a game on Beginner’s mode using all the cheats you can find, go for it! You bought it! I’m not here to poke fun at either of you, and you should all stop poking fun at each other. Just have fun! Let’s all be kind to each other, yeah?