Are Games Getting too Easy?
Commonly in Video Game culture there comes a discussion of how games today are just far too easy and they’ve developed this way to make it easier for the masses to play games. This idea perpetuates the notion that gaming has only gotten bigger because it has dumbed down so that non-gamers(Whoever they are) can get excited about playing games.
There are two main reasons why these types of ideas are just plain stupid. Firstly it’s actually offensive to gamers to say that more people play now because games have gotten “stupid” enough for the majority of “stupid” society to play along.
Believe it or not, Pokemon, Paperboy, and Super Street fighter were never hard games. It’s true that there are a number of series early on in gaming that were extremely challenging but looking at the “Golden” era of gaming shows a plethora of games you could consider laughably easy.
IF ANYTHING there are MORE challenging games on the market from 2000-2012, then there were from 1988-2000. As gamers grew up, game designers were forced to keep their audience and code for better and better games more centered toward growing audiences. This has lead to more challenge over time rather than more games like Asteroids.
So just to clarify my first point, there were tons of easy games back when Gaming was developing in the golden era which people seem to so greatly cling to. Ignoring them and saying we have too many easy games today is just ignorance about Gaming history.
Secondly, games have gotten more efficient over time and game designers have been working their butts off trying to makes games more approachable and easier to understand for decades. To ignore their hard work in how they seamlessly integrate tutorials into the game or provide subtle hints to push the player forward CAN lead to someone THINKING a game is more easy. In reality it’s Game designers who have become incredibly good at their jobs.
Games that used to stop and teach you a new game mechanic and then force you into the fire may have seemed harder than the current games which slowly ease you into a new game mechanic and only make it necessary once you’ve had time to master it.
This just means games are less frustrating and are fairer, rather than throwing you into the fire randomly or improperly setting up the game. Why would we want to go back to games that were badly designed?
Now pointing all this out isn’t to say that hard games didn’t exist, they definitely did and the hard ones in the 1990’s are probably harder than the hard ones we have today. But to say that we don’t have games that are difficult now, or to say that people only love gaming because it’s dumbed down is insulting to all gamers. We’re not imbeciles and society as a whole isn’t filled with droves of idiots that like to randomly mash buttons.
Button mashing games exist, as do correctly designed games like Pokemon. Pokemon, just given as an example, is a game that has depth, but can also be easily played by most children. The game design is supurb and explains why it has gone on to sell millions of copies.
Similarly, most current day games have learned the mistakes of the passed, become the wiser, and are more approachable and easier to get into than games of the past. This doesn’t make them easier, only better built, and this increased efficiency of play is a boon that has lead to many millions more people getting addicted to the gaming bug.
Our Games are as great as they’ve always been, we should recognize that, praise the talents of game designers, and acknowledge that we’ve learned from the past’s mistakes. To simply throw that all away and say games are “easier” is essentially a slap in the face to all gamers; especially when you follow it up by saying gaming only has mass appeal if it’s dumbed down.
Don’t let their ignorance about Gaming’s history taint the hard work of countless game production studios, designers, programmers, and the community at large.
Daniel Flatt
December 23, 2012 @ 6:46 pm
I agree with this post in the majority, though you’ll certainly have the detractors. Most of them would argue and rail against things like the Mario games that play themselves or certain games allowing you to skip difficult parts altogether.
My take has always been that YOU don’t have to use it. Unless you are forced to use the mechanic I don’t see the problem. Making games more accessible is a VERY good thing, because it doesn’t lead to the dumbing down of our games as a whole at all. In fact, quite the opposite. Without the droves of new players and dollars in revenue gaming would still be a much more niche hobby than it is now and with the production costs being what they are we probably would be seeing a decline of the industry at this moment.
Overall, I’ve always been a little annoyed by those retro gamers that can only focus on what was great back in the day and can never appreciate current games. Certainly a healthy respect for the greats is in order, but to ignore or deride current games chasing a nostalgic dream is silly. There are plenty of hard games out there and just about every game has a super punishing difficulty level. Personally I have no idea why someone would want to play on a difficulty level with just one life before deleting hundreds of hours of progress, but it’s certainly out there if you want it.
ImmortalPhoenix
December 24, 2012 @ 11:13 am
Yea, I really think it’s the nostalgia junkies that are giving gaming a hard time.
It’s hard trying to get them to realize the great amount of gaming content that’s out there now. They’re missing out on hundreds of hours of fun. All this because they can’t look forward and only look back.
Those games were great, but now, there are new greats being made.
Thanks for the awesome insight Daniel π Great points! The difficulty level can always go higher, if they want it to.
bleachorange
December 25, 2012 @ 6:09 am
Spelling errors.
:3
ImmortalPhoenix
December 25, 2012 @ 11:23 pm
Where at so i can fix them!! π
Thanks Bleach!
bleachorange
December 27, 2012 @ 9:17 am
Can you just paste the thing into word or google docs and spell check it? I kinda forgot by now. :3
ImmortalPhoenix
December 27, 2012 @ 3:50 pm
What did you think of the article btw?
bleachorange
January 2, 2013 @ 8:34 pm
I support the easy to play, hard to master type of games. overall, good plot improves any game trying to immerse you in a world. then there are the games who aren’t trying to immerse you in a world, and plot clearly has no place in them beyond simplistic goals to explain a basic motivation to play. rescue the princess – mario. win the wish – magical drop. feed the monster – cut the rope. revenge on the piggies – angry birds.
Taylor Parolini
December 27, 2012 @ 7:14 pm
Many modern games just feel patronizing at this point. Awwww…poor thing, you didn’t wait long enough for the red jelly to drip off your screen! Don’t worry I’ll respawn you two steps back from where you died! Oh boy you won! Great job, you’re such a pro oh boy look at my little hero.
No sense of accomplishment.
Alex
December 29, 2012 @ 10:37 am
You are not entirely wrong in that aspect there are games that are more than “easily accessible” and are quite pathetic in terms of difficulty. Although the majority of those games were made to be sold to the more incompetent/younger community. But the gaming community as a whole has not at all gotten less difficult or less rewarding as you see new games coming out such as Hitman absolution. Yes you can play this on easy or normal difficulty and realize that you can be blind and still beat the game. but if you play on more challenging difficulties then the reward from beating a level is substantial and you feel like your playing an entirely different game.
So essentially what i am trying to say is you are not wrong to think that games are becoming more accessible but you are forgetting the idea that, the game was made to not only be accessible to younger or less competent gamers, but also to have the ability to turn sed game into a challenge where you feel as though the reward is in fact there and the game has an enticing and frustrating difficulty
Kelsey Miller
December 29, 2012 @ 8:40 pm
I agree with this article for the most part.
Yet, first of all, I’m not entirely sure “dumbing down” should be used synonymously with “lowering difficulty.” Sometimes artificial difficulty doesn’t require a genius to complete it, but rather trial and error, or deft fingers. No cleverness is necessary in these places, and the changes have nothing to do with intelligence.
Secondly, people play games for different things. If I want a challenge on certain strategy games, I’ll up the difficulty. But, for the most part, I love great stories and worlds, and so I don’t care about overly much about difficulty.
And really, that seems to me to be the dumbing-down part that ought to be worried about: the dumbing down of storylines. You can see it in mainstream media at times. The latest James Bond is a great example. All that action and mindless reliance on killing to tell a story, and a story that never really makes you think. I like me a good ol’ action/fight scene, but really… I miss clever twists and situations that make me think. Not to say they’re totally gone, but a lot of things that lack them still get way too popular π
ImmortalPhoenix
December 29, 2012 @ 9:50 pm
I completely agree with Alex’s point. Accessibility is the key word.
As for Kelsey, the best stories in gaming came towards the end of the 90’s and 2000 era, so old classic gaming really didn’t have that many great stories to begin with.
It’s true that a lot of games lack good stories, but we have more good stories now than we did in 1992. So we should keep that in mind.
Overall more games means more content that isn’t as good. But that also means more amazing content as well! π
Kelsey Miller
January 2, 2013 @ 5:32 pm
You’re totally right. Mario vs Mass Effect? Big difference! I was angling more at movie media. Like the new Resident Evil movie. (*cringes*). Gah, I loved them so hard core, but that last one was all about action and killing… Beautifully done, but just no brain required, and even some unintelligent plot development.
ImmortalPhoenix
January 2, 2013 @ 7:17 pm
Oooh yea, in that point you make a perfect pont! π
Sadly they’ve killed the Resident evil series π It started out soo well in the theatres with the first couple installments…
It’s such a great plot, a shame they can’t add more in the movies. π
Thanks Kelsey :).
Daniel Flatt
January 2, 2013 @ 7:15 pm
I’m the same way. I play games for the worlds, the stories, and the characters. Of course I enjoy solid gameplay just as much as the next guy also, but difficulty has never been a huge pressing point for me. There are times when I will up the difficulty if I feel I’m waltzing through a game, but for the most part I play on Normal or one step up and am happy with the experience.