Topic: Is it a Good or Bad Thing That Games Have Gotten Easier?

@Rudy_Manchego Super Meat Boy is evil, I suck at that game. Might be those initials as I seem to remember sucking at Super Monkey Ball too, then again I've never really struggled with Super Mario Bros.

@roe I think higher difficulties being good is dependent on them also being well developed, games are usually balanced for a normal difficulty with higher difficulties seemingly an after thought. Obviously the easier the game's normal mode is, the less balanced a hastily thrown together higher difficulty level will be, so it makes truly good scalable difficulty levels in games a rarity.

@WanderingBullet I agree that the internet can make things easier, especially the likes of YouTube which gives you blow by blow walkthroughs of games. Even so though, there is no denying that games, even without that boon, are generally easier. Also a little willpower makes it a non-issue

I think old games were so short that they had to be hard to live longer, both arcades and consoles.
Nowadays games can be so long or rich in content that they need to be easier to not scare casuals.
Before buying a game I always check for difficulties and I'm super happy when the devs let us customize it with on/off options related to minimaps, markers (MGS V was so much better without them), invisible walls (TLOU was way more immersive without seeing enemies silhouettes).
Even the simple "less health/more damage" thing can work when it makes you play differently: sniping, mining and drugs are just useless in Fallout 4 on Normal but are essential on Very Hard.
More options, more fun.

i think it's good that games have either become easier or have options to make them easier because it makes ALL games approachable to everyone so it has broken down barriers for some people

plus if you want ultra hard games you always have games like Dark Souls to play

@KratosMD I forgot about auto-aim...
I also turn off the automatic lock-on in Souls-like games: basically it can both hurt you (forcing you to face a second enemy you want to evade) and help you locking you to an enemy you didn't even notice...
Since Horizon is gonna be my next game, can you please tell me something about other options?

@DerMeister Dark souls is tough and vague - but its designed that way. Once you know what you should do, its fine. But that vagueness is why the souls series is great - kind of why it is difficult. Once you know what to do its pretty easy actually. what does this do? What's down here? Am I going the right way? I just got one hit killed? What happens if I kill this npc? Omg that enemy is following me back Etc etc. I got the first one on the x360 and it took me 3 hours just to beat the skeletons In the graveyard and get to the bonfire quite away from the first hub area (after you are flown by the giant bird) part of that is because I didn't know what to do or how the game worked. I deleted my save somehow with a bunch of other saves so restarted, took maybe 40 minutes to hit the same point.