The difficult thing about difficulty

[fastbilly1]

I hate escort and protection missions. Very rarely is one fun. Normally you're dealing with a stupid AI that can't fight its way out of a paper bag and runs headlong into danger. Occasionally you can tell your charge to stay put so you can clear a path first and it isn't so bad but I still usually dread them. Difficulty via babysitting is no good IMHO.

I don't think Agetec/From Software has learned this yet. The Armored Core series has always had an abundance of these missions, making me always avoid them if I had a choice.

For Pete's sake! When will they learn that escort missions are not fun?

This is exactly why I put Bioshock 2 on easy after the third "protect the little sister as she harvest and then get killed by the big sister event that happened to me in Ryans Amusements.

[J T]

Either of these can be fine experiences, depending on what you want. The former is more rewarding, but not always what you want after a long day at work.

This is a great cartoon and it kind of sums a lot of this up. I think if you want to have the main reward for a game be a feeling of mastery and skillfulness, then (fair) difficulty is best. If you want to role-play, explore, or live out a story, then difficulty is less important.

[jfe2]

Either of these can be fine experiences, depending on what you want. The former is more rewarding, but not always what you want after a long day at work.

This is a great cartoon and it kind of sums a lot of this up. I think if you want to have the main reward for a game be a feeling of mastery and skillfulness, then (fair) difficulty is best. If you want to role-play, explore, or live out a story, then difficulty is less important.

I agree completely. I felt like a god when I beat the super difficult games Super Meat Boy, VVVVVV, and 'Splosion Man, but I totally enjoyed Dragon Age II and Fallout: New Vegas just as much. Also, GREAT picture!

[AmishSamurai]

Difficulty things that bug me are when higher difficulties just raise enemy health and gimp your weapons, then call it a day. In higher levels of Mass Effect 2, it would take forever to even mow down a Vorcha or Varren. Enkindlers help you if you faced a Krogan. I can appreciate having enemy AI be smarter, or limiting ammo so you have to think out your assault more, but just making everything a damage sponge is annoying.

[TornadoCreator]

Difficulty is a major concern of mine actually. As a lifelong gamer I'm remarkable good at gaming. I've beated supposedly legendary difficulty games such as Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Battletoads. One of my favourite genres are the hack 'n slash brawlers of the last generation. Games like Ninja Gaiden & Sudeki on the original Xbox and Shinobi, Devil May Cry 3, God Of War and Chaos Legion on the PS2. These games are well known for their difficulty, and I like the difficulty. I also like high difficulty racing games that require split second timing, such as Burnout 3 Takedown and F-Zero GX. Difficulty is something I specifically look for and it'll probably ruin games for me in the future.

You see I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, it's quite an extensive disability but one of it's main areas of effect are joints. I am in constant pain due to my condition and my joints are severely damaged. It is an inevitable fact that my fingers will not last. My joints will seize and fuse and I will lose movement in my fingers. My knuckles already dislocate on a regular basis and my hands cramp extremely easily. I'm 25 at the moment, and over the past 2 years this condition has progressed much faster than it had previously, this is normal for my condition but it didn't make it any easier to cope with. Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is incurable, untreatable, degenerative, chronic and fatal. It's a genetic condition I was born with. I will be lucky to see my 50th birthday, and I will probably be in a wheelchair by my mid-30's. While these are things I've always been aware of as my health deteriorated, the slow degredation of my fingers and the deteriorating connective tissue in my retinas (which may blind me later in life) could mean that over the next 10 years I'll slowly loose the ability to play video games. This is the saddest thing for me to handle, it's been my main hobby and easiest escape thoughout my life, and it'll gradually be taken away from me... starting with some of my favourite games. Luckily some genres I enjoy like RPG's, especially turn based, can be played with little hand movement, so I'll still be able to enjoy them for years to come.

I'm currently playing Devil May Cry 3 again, the original with the infamous difficulty not the special edition. I'm about 1/3 of the way though it and I'm really enjoying the challenge. By the time I'm 30, I'll probably not be able to play this game again... it's a sad realisation, but this is quite possibly the last time I'll ever play through Devil May Cry 3 all the way. For me, in a few years, I'll long for the easy button-masher beat-em-ups, because at least those I'll still be able to play. People complain that games like Thor on the Xbox 360/PS3 is mindless button mashing and offers no challenge, for me that just means "I might be able to play this game in my 30's".

I guess my perspective on difficulty is different from others, but it does make me appreciate the different wants and needs of gamers. Most gamers want a challenge but what's challenging for some could be so easy it becomes mind-numbingly boring for others, so remember, in a few years time when you're playing an action game and think "why the hell did they make this, it's not challenging at all", I'm probably quite thankful they did.

[Erik_Twice]

Difficulty things that bug me are when higher difficulties just raise enemy health and gimp your weapons, then call it a day.

Exactly. When they do that, they only make all your options worse, they don't reduce the number of them. And that's boring.

Compare Doom and Doom 3. In Doom, higher levels had more monsters, who also fired faster. This meant that your increased dodging and firing capabilities was matched against an increased number of projectiles and enemies. Good difficulty levels.

However in Doom 3 they simply added more health so you needed 4 headshots to kill a zombie. Yay! Talk about fun...You spent the game facing monsters and running backwards, because they took so much damage before dying that it was the only way to advance. It didn't make the game more difficult, it made it boring, the satisfaction of shooting was gone and the way to beat enemies was walking backwards until they bite the dust. They weren't even difficult to hit on the head. Horrible.