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What are your thoughts on Easy Mode?

thePlinko

What’s the character limit on this? Aksnfiskwjfjsk
ZD Legend
Again, why does that matter? It has no bearing on you. If a person who is disabled has to play a super watered down version of a game to get their most out of it, then they should be able to do that without people yelling "BUT NOOO YOU HAVE TO PLAY IT THE RIGHT WAY OR IT DOESNT COUNT JUST GO PLAY SOMETHING ELSE" at them. People can play whatever they want however they want. This is ridiculous.
What’s ridiculous is that you’re now telling people with disabilities that they’re not allowed to experience an easier version of the same game. If they enjoy easy modes that revolve around changing the entire game then good for them, that doesn’t mean that it’s well designed.
 

Azure Sage

March onward forever...
Staff member
ZD Legend
Comm. Coordinator
What’s ridiculous is that you’re now telling people with disabilities that they’re not allowed to experience an easier version of the same game. If they enjoy easy modes that revolve around changing the entire game then good for them, that doesn’t mean that it’s well designed.
You are reaaaaaally confused. Nowhere did I say that it has to be poorly designed. I said its ridiculous to claim that another mode that you don't play affects your enjoyment of the game. You are stuck on the "well-designed' part as if that's even remotely the point.
 

thePlinko

What’s the character limit on this? Aksnfiskwjfjsk
ZD Legend
You are reaaaaaally confused. Nowhere did I say that it has to be poorly designed. I said its ridiculous to claim that another mode that you don't play affects your enjoyment of the game. You are stuck on the "well-designed' part as if that's even remotely the point.
I never said it does effect my enjoyment, I don’t know why you keep insisting on that point. How well designed it is was exactly the point, at least it was mine.
 

Azure Sage

March onward forever...
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I never said it does effect my enjoyment, I don’t know why you keep insisting on that point. How well designed it is was exactly the point, at least it was mine.
Maybe not enjoyment necessarily, but it still doesn't affect you unless you play that mode. That's been the whole point of this current thread direction.
 

thePlinko

What’s the character limit on this? Aksnfiskwjfjsk
ZD Legend
Maybe not enjoyment necessarily, but it still doesn't affect you unless you play that mode. That's been the whole point of this current thread direction.
No it wasnt. The point of the thread was “what are your thoughts on easy modes in games,” and I gave my thoughts. Unless of course you’re saying that because it doesn’t affect me I’m not allowed to have thoughts on easy modes, which is absurd.
 

Azure Sage

March onward forever...
Staff member
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Comm. Coordinator
No it wasnt. The point of the thread was “what are your thoughts on easy modes in games,” and I gave my thoughts. Unless of course you’re saying that because it doesn’t affect me I’m not allowed to have thoughts on easy modes, which is absurd.
I said the current direction of discussion in this thread, not the thread itself. Scroll back a couple posts and see what I was initially replying to. It was about someone saying that the existence of easy mode affects the normal mode players. That's the absurd comment that started this, like, entire previous page of this thread.
 

thePlinko

What’s the character limit on this? Aksnfiskwjfjsk
ZD Legend
I said the current direction of discussion in this thread, not the thread itself. Scroll back a couple posts and see what I was initially replying to. It was about someone saying that the existence of easy mode affects the normal mode players. That's the absurd comment that started this, like, entire previous page of this thread.
I mean, as a direct response to “having difficulty options can’t affect the developers vision” it was a perfectly reasonable reply, but the rest sure.
 

Uwu_Oocoo2

Joy is in video games and colored pencils
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Forum Volunteer
Honestly I got lost trying to figure out who is arguing what in all of this but I keep thinking about Cadence of Hyrule reading this. Cadence of Hyrule has a setting where you can turn off the rhythm and move to your own rhythm (all the enemies will follow this). It's essentially an easy mode for people who have trouble following the beat. Is this violating the entire premise of the game? Yes, technically it is. The point of rhythm games is to follow the rhythm. But does this mean it's poorly designed? No. The fighting style still works the same and you still have to think through the game in the same way even if it's a little slower. It's two completely different experiences but it's the same game, you need to get through the same trials, and both ways are completely valid.
I completely agree that some easy modes can take away from the point of the game, such as with what Plinko said about it turning into a hack and slash. That's the type of easy mode better suited for young or new players. But just because some can be poorly designed doesn't detract from the concept as a whole. If you don't like the way an easy mode is executed it sounds like you enjoy the regular settings more and so it doesn't affect you. And for games like Cadence of Hyrule while it may detract from the artist's vision if executed well it can still remain balanced with the concepts and controls of the game overall. Either way it's about what's proffered by the individual player and its a good setting to have for people who want those options.
 
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Uh, how? "Oh no this other person played the game differently than me and I don't like that"? Gatekeeping a series from people who want to play it at a different skill level is a bad look.
I’m saying this as someone who respects the soulsbourne series but doesn’t like it. The creators had a vision for theirs games, and most people clearly know that the souls games are very challenging. Companies don’t have to take away that vision to make it more accessible.

I never said that how someone else plays a game effects your enjoyment of it. But companies shouldn’t have to give up their creative vision just so Average Gamer Joe can play the game.
 
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Bowsette Plus-Ultra

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I’m saying this as someone who respects the soulsbourne series but doesn’t like it. The creators had a vision for theirs games, and most people clearly know that the souls games are very challenging. Companies don’t have to take away that vision to make it more accessible.

I never said that how someone else plays a game effects your enjoyment of it. But companies shouldn’t have to give up their creative vision just so Average Gamer Joe can play the game.
Alright. Now let's say I'm a big fan of the Soulsborne series (which I am), but my right arm was blown up from the elbow down by an IED. A lower difficulty setting would assist me in continuing to play the game without compromising the experience for people playing on normal difficulty. How is that bad?
 
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Alright. Now let's say I'm a big fan of the Soulsborne series (which I am), but my right arm was blown up from the elbow down by an IED. A lower difficulty setting would assist me in continuing to play the game without compromising the experience for people playing on normal difficulty. How is that bad?
Yes, the easy difficulty wouldn't effect the players playing on normal. But for a lot of games it would effect the creative vision of the developers. Dark Souls was designed to be a game that required a lot of trial and error, and giving players an easy mode would compromise that vision, and like I said, there are lots of games out there that have easy modes you could play instead, but demanding that every game have an easy mode is ridiculous and can sometimes hurt the creative vision of the designers.

Not every game is made for everyone, should every first person game have a 3rd person option just because a some people get motion sickness playing first person games? And thats ok, theirs lots of games out there. Hell, there even are “souls-like” games with easy mode, like fallen order.
 

Hyrulian Hero

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I think good points were made on both sides here. On one hand, Ninja Gaiden wouldn't have near the legacy it does if the game had an easy mode. On the other hand, accessibility modes (sometimes an easy mode like Funky in Tropical Freeze or one-button mode in Super Smash Bros) can allow for a wider audience to engage. It's not an issue that some people can't play some games but it would be an issue if easy mode were mandatory. Taken to extremes, I would prefer all video games were too hard for me rather than video game companies be forced to include easy modes.

In many games, it doesn't hurt my enjoyment to have an easy mode and it allows other people to enjoy them, but in some it can take away from people's enjoyment. It's a personal problem to be sure, but that doesn't make it any less of an issue if many people have the same negative experience. Back in the day, when I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I ruined several games for myself by learning cheat codes. Risk is removed from Age of Empires II if I can just drop a Furious Monkey Boy or a Gatling Cobra into the battlefield on a whim. I have no incentive to beat a really tough level of The World is not Enough if I can just look up the code to skip to the next level. And then why not just skip to the end to fight the final boss?

I'm old enough to have cultivated a little self-control now and having the option to switch to easy mode just to kill that one deathclaw doesn't ruin the game for me (because I know that if I do, I'll use it on the yao guai and then the raider and then just to travel from place to place to make it quicker and then before long, I've taken the fun out of the game) but it does damage the experience for some people. The fact that somebody isn't self-controlled doesn't mean you shouldn't make games with easy mode and the fact that somebody only has one thumb doesn't mean you shouldn't make Dark Souls.
 
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Dizzi

magical internet cat....
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Ive heard some people use easy mode to explore and then do ghe gsme on normal mode for a lil guidance...
 

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