Difficulty levels of computer games

[Antroid]

Touchdown said:

Get rid of that bloated ego and enjoy the experience.

It has nothing to do with ego.

[Touchdown]

If the highest difficulty setting is too hard but you still decide to trudge through it then what else is the cause? Is it fun replaying the same section a hundred times or being forced to search for loopholes in the mechanics to progress? No.* Being stubborn about pushing through this at the cost of pacing and immersion is stupid.

I'm talking from personal experience here. I enjoy the body of work that a game is a lot more when I'm not murdered by the difficulty. I can always replay it later, if I feel like I want to 'conquer' it fully.

* If you like the game, it's ok to do whatever the hell you want and play it however the hell you want. But I believe the first playthrough should be a special one, where it's more about appreciating the big picture and, gameplay-wise, getting to know the feel and pace of the game. And this is very important. It's no fun learning to swim by being dropped in the middle of an ocean. But if you go through a medium sized challenge first, you'll not only perform better later on but also enjoy it more, in an intended way.

[Antroid]

Touchdown said:

If the highest difficulty setting is too hard but you still decide to trudge through it then what else is the cause?

Because you are convinced that the highest difficulty is the most complete challenge and you want to get the full experience? That's the reason in my case.

[Devalaous]

I hate overly difficult games. I buy these and play these to enjoy myself, not get stuck on something and get stressed out by endless deaths, much lost time, annoying repetition etc. If a game has to be like that, make it optional ffs.

[Touchdown]

Antroid said:

Because you are convinced that the highest difficulty is the most complete challenge and you want to get the full experience? That's the reason in my case.

Except the highest setting is almost never properly balanced and experience shows it. There's a difference between 'challenge' and 'bullshit'. As someone who has been for a long time insisting on choosing the highest difficulty right off the bat I can say that in most games pacing falls apart completely on those settings. Very often you pretty much have to know what's coming in order to survive. And this is NOT the challenge one would desire.

Besides, even if that setting is balanced, lack of experience with this particular game means you're learning to walk and jumping on thin pillars over the pit of lava at the same time. You're not learning when the game punishes you for the tiniest mistake.

I also don't understand why one would want to 'max out' the game on the first playthrough. If you like the game, you'll probably replay it, no? A perfect opportunity to try out a higher difficulty level. If you don't like the game, it's probably not worth playing at all, let alone pushing through an unfair difficulty.

Finally, why is it important to have the 'complete challenge' anyway? When I play the game for the first time, I'm not doing this to challenge myself. I'm doing this to appreciate the gameworld, story, art and intended gameplay balance. I want to 'experience the game', not 'beat the system'. I can always try the latter on future playthroughs. And honestly, I'd rather play a tame version of the game, but get the full experience in every other aspect (on the first playthrough), rather than push through hard difficulty and have my overall impression overshadowed by it.

[188DarkRevived]

Touchdown said:

If the highest difficulty setting is too hard but you still decide to trudge through it then what else is the cause?

The cause is the worry that a lower difficulty setting would be so drastically easier that it would feel like an insult to one's competence in general, and that it would thus take away the amusement and enthusiasm of playing, due to the knowledge that the gameplay has been dumbed down so much that death is utterly impossible.

[Belial]

Touchdown said:

I also don't understand why one would want to 'max out' the game on the first playthrough. If you like the game, you'll probably replay it, no? A perfect opportunity to try out a higher difficulty level. If you don't like the game, it's probably not worth playing at all, let alone pushing through an unfair difficulty.

Playing lower difficulties is a waste of my precious gaming time. I rarely touch games for a second time even when I like them. Besides, you could die of a heart attack the moment the credits roll on your first casual playthrough.

[Touchdown]

188DarkRevived said:

The cause is the worry that a lower difficulty setting would be so drastically easier that it would feel like an insult to one's competence in general, and that it would thus take away the amusement and enthusiasm of playing, due to the knowledge that the gameplay has been dumbed down so much that death is utterly impossible.

So, like I said: ego. 'I need my game super hard! I will not accept anything easy because I'M A REEEAL MAN!' Not only that, most of those reasons are things you make up in your mind without any experience with the game itself. Besides, if difficulty is such an important thing that it will utterly destroy your enjoyment if it's too easy then you probably haven't noticed games today are more than a set of increasingly tougher challenges like they were twenty something years ago.

Most games these days allow you to change difficulty during the game. You don't even have to guess before starting because you can always adjust it. But apparently the basic concept of difficulty levels as something you adjust to fit your personal needs is too hard to grasp.

Also the remark about difficulty 'insulting one's competence', wow. Many games insult my competence and treat me like an idiot but it has NOTHING to do with the 'challenge'.