Difficulty in games.

[gaylolis]

i consider myself a casual gamer, so i prefer ones that aren't that challenging in difficulty and doesn't require a lot of time investment every day.

i just want to have a good time without having to learn a lot of difficult mechanics, esp since i had a lot other hobbies.

 

[ElijahRyne]

What is your favorite\preferred difficulty in games? To add to that question, do you like more challenging, hard games or more relaxing ones?

I play 4 games.
1. Go - Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent. The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to the present day. Difficulty varies depending on your rank and opponent.
2. Chess- Chess is a board game between two players. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games, such as xiangqi and shogi. Difficulty varies due to your rank and your opponent.
3. Clash Royale- Clash Royale is a free-to-play real-time strategy video game developed and published by Supercell. The game combines elements from collectible card games, tower defense, and multiplayer online battle arena. Difficulty varies depending on your rank and your opponent.
4. Minecraft Pocket Edition- I play on Peaceful-Medium difficulty.

All this talk about RTS made me remember the good old days of my childhood, back when I played a lot of Age of Empires 2 and 3, Age of Mythology and Warcraft 3~

I was sooooooooo bad! xD

I remember I always played Age of Empires/Mythology on the lowest difficulty and stomped the AI, but I was scared of moving the difficulty from "Easiest" to "Very Easy", because I thought I might lose then... Child me was really scared of the most pointless things~

I also remember struggling a lot with the campaign of Warcraft 3 and needing to use cheats in a bunch of stages to be able to clear it, because I thought it was so hard! >.<

... Then I tried playing the game again as a teenager/adult (I don't remember anymore when it was. It was too many years ago) and I had a much easier time on the campaign, so I changed it to Hard... It was still easy enough, so I changed it to Very Hard, and I was still managing, though I dropped it at some point and never picked it up again, so I never played the last stages on the hardest difficulties to see if I could manage them.

Overall, I had lots and lots of fun with RTS back in the day, especially playing Warcraft 3 mods online. I spent loads and loads of time playing that in my teen years... I miss playing RTS.

Guess I should buy the Definitive Edition of Age of Mythology later. It would be a nice return to my childhood... Though I hope it has the Portuguese dub. The Extended Edition currently on Steam doesn't have it, and I know that the game had a Portuguese dub back in the day... Sure, I do know English now, so I could play it in English just fine, but it doesn't tick my nostalgia senses if it's not in Portuguese. I want that dub back!

I used to play age of empires while listening to creepypastas & horror stories when I was a kid….I would play for like 3-6 hours every weekend on my old s***y laptop. Back then we didn’t have internet so I had to push myself next to a wall and ‘borrow’ the neighbors internet. I think we did that maneuver for 2 years.

 

[AliceShiki]

I used to play age of empires while listening to creepypastas & horror stories when I was a kid….I would play for like 3-6 hours every weekend on my old s***y laptop. Back then we didn’t have internet so I had to push myself next to a wall and ‘borrow’ the neighbors internet. I think we did that maneuver for 2 years.

Oh wow, that's one way of going about it... Though I would never do it while listening to horror stories! xD

 

[melchi]

I was all stoked when they made another age of empires. I played it through a little bit but gave up. They added a lot more complexity and active abilities for stuff and it made the game a lot more of a pain to stay on top of. I also wasn't all that invested in the plot.

Oh well, a bit of a waste of money but sometimes grasping at nostalgia doesn't yield the results expected.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

If the gameplay is fun then I become a mashochist and want everything to rip me apart.

If it's story rich, then fuck the gameplay. Give me that dopamine feels instead on easy or normal if easy is game journalist easy.

 

[AliceShiki]

I was all stoked when they made another age of empires. I played it through a little bit but gave up. They added a lot more complexity and active abilities for stuff and it made the game a lot more of a pain to stay on top of. I also wasn't all that invested in the plot.

Oh well, a bit of a waste of money but sometimes grasping at nostalgia doesn't yield the results expected.

Ah, yeah, the devs of Age of Empires 4 were really dedicated modders of Age of Empires 2 AFAIK, so they try appealing more to the dedicated playerbase.

I never tried being a top player for those games, so I can't relate to the feeling, but I think it's fun to have more things to play with~

 

[J_Chemist]

I play all FPS Shooters on the hardest difficulty available at the start. No matter the game, but I only play it once. So games like DOOM where you have to beat it on the hardest mode to play a harder mode get abandoned. I really hate that forced-replay crap.

Ace Combat and any Air Sim games are also on the hardest difficulty. I've played these games since I was a youngin' so I have to do it or it's not fun or challenging.

RTS games I put on the lower difficulties. I'm a gorilla brain and strategy isn't my strong suit. While I do play the games a lot (I have as many hours on CIV5 as I do in Skyrim at 500), I get very anxious and hate that feeling when I'm usually trying to just relax.

And speaking of Skyrim; RPGs, Open-Worlds, and Survival games tend to get put on Medium-Hard difficulty settings. It really fluctuates based on the parameters of the game and how much crap I'm really willing to put up with. The games can be kind of stupid with difficulty spikes at times and I'm not tryna deal with any of that when I'm usually drinking behind the controller with these. I am not afraid to momentarily smack the meter down to Easy to bypass something if I need to. Game Devs will say it's cheating but there's no need to put a near impossible task into a game because you feel like it and just to spite the gamer. I'm playing the game to enjoy it, mostly.

If I'm playing the game for the challenge, of course the difficulty stays and I figure it out. Otherwise, the difficulty is optional.

 

[Gryphon]

I don't care about difficulty in games. My preference boils down to this. Is the game fun? If yes, play it. If no, don't play it.

 

[Aiyoki]

The difficulty of "They are Billions" dropped significantly upon release. Most of my playtime so far has been clocked "Before" the game actually released. I'm not usually one for cranking up the difficulty to max but this particular game had me hooked as one simple mistake, one missed zombie, could easily spell disaster for your entire colony. It forced me to think about everything I was doing and I really like that.

It's still like that but you have to crank the difficulty up to max to get a comparable difficulty to the pre-release.

Games I'm familiar with I might crank the difficulty up if normal becomes too easy. Other times I just want to play casually and enjoy the game so then I typically leave the game at normal settings.

I Played 7d2d with a friend and with all the settings cranked up and it was quite entertaining. Obviously to avoid being too frustrated with the difficulty I left the keep inventory setting enabled.

This said I'd say it really depends on what you're looking to get out of a game. If a game is bonecrunchingly difficult or needlessly grindy (I'm looking at you Life is Feudal) then I likely won't play it for long.

 

[SirDogeTheFirst]

On most games normal is alright, but I prefer souls type difficulty where difficulty (most of the time) don't come from bullet sponges or enemies with ridiculously high stats.

 

[Omnifarious]

What is your favorite\preferred difficulty in games?

Whatever the designer intended the game to be, usually Normal

To add to that question, do you like more challenging, hard games or more relaxing ones?

Dun know.
Whatever the mood takes me
I like what I like,
they do be all sorts.

 

[Lloyd]

Depends on the game.

 

[gogo7966]

i think my thoughts on difficulty should be made clear by the fact i thought dark souls 3 was getting too easy and decided to play it at level one

 

[Paul_Tromba]

I like relaxing games with the max difficulty.

 

[SailusGebel]

I like relaxing games with the max difficulty.

Graveyard Keeper?

 

[Paul_Tromba]

Graveyard Keeper?

Halo, Skyrim, oblivion, doom, etc. They're relaxing and simple to play but can be a challenge on the highest difficulty.

 

[SailusGebel]

Halo, Skyrim, oblivion, doom, etc. They're relaxing and simple to play but can be a challenge on the highest difficulty.

I don't know about Halo and Doom, but Skyrim and Oblivion can't be a challenge.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

I don't know about Halo and Doom, but Skyrim and Oblivion can't be a challenge.

Level 5 entering the shivering isles with only basic armor, two swords that can break, and a bow is terribly hard. Skyrim, eh, depends on the mods.

 

[SailusGebel]

Level 5 entering the shivering isles with only basic armor, two swords that can break, and a bow is terribly hard. Skyrim, eh, depends on the mods.

The only thing I remember about Oblivion in terms of difficulty is me making a Redguard warrior and obliterating everyone on level 1 in main city. Anyway, if you slightly abuse game mechanics. TES games aren't that hard.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

The only thing I remember about Oblivion in terms of difficulty is me making a Redguard warrior and obliterating everyone on level 1 in main city. Anyway, if you slightly abuse game mechanics. TES games aren't that hard.

True, but I don't want to abuse the system. I want to have fun. There's no payoff if you abuse the mechanics... Except acrobatics. Jumping across the map on skooma is fun