Are Games Becoming Easier and Easier to Beat?

[Dragon]

This is just from an article that I read, but, I'd love to hear some opinions on the matter. Are video games getting easier, and easier than before? For instance, from what the article I've read about, take a look at the video games from a couple of years ago. Some of them don't have that extensive 'tutorial' from the first moments of the game, so, you'd basically have to figure out everything yourself if you didn't have a manual. But, that's only one opinion.

But what do you think - do you think video games nowadays (like the ones on the Wii U, the Xbox 360, the PS3, the 3ds etc.) are much easier to beat than the video games before (like the ones on the NES, the Genisis, etc).

Feel free to post all thoughts!~

 

[Sandslash Fan]

2D games remain the hardest games I've ever had to play - yet they were still awesome!

When games started letting you run around in realistic directions, it did tend to get easier. It might be due to video game producers not wanting to alienate players by making a game too difficult.

Fighting games tend to still be tricky. To this day, I've never activated Zangief's spinning pile-driver on purpose.

 

[TY]

They have for at least the RTS genre. Looking at the really old RTS games they were a pain to beat since the missions didn't save (you always had to save a mission or you had to redo everything you didn't save) and the pathing was awful. Nowadays there is better pathing and autosave which makes these games a lot easier. Also the tutorial which was nowhere to be found in the older games may make the game slightly easier, but mostly they are optional and getting skipped. Just the development for games in general make things easier cause there are better mechanics and more things you can do which you couldn't in the old games.

 

[Elements1]

It might be due to video game producers not wanting to alienate players by making a game too difficult.

I think with younger and younger people playing games, I think it's needed that games are becoming easier. It helps with business, the wider age group playing the more money that's coming in. I do think that games are becoming easier, but with most games your can change difficulty settings and such to make it harder or easier to your liking.

 

[Nah]

I like to think that games aren't getting easier; we're just getting better at them. You have to agree, you're probably a much better gamer now than when you were a kid. But I could be wrong....


And I have to agree with the 3 people below me.

 

[Luck]

They're definitely getting easier as a whole, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of 3rd generation games are difficult but only through poor design and archaic mechanics.

 

[maccrash]

as improvements to game engines are made, they're gonna get easier. not being able to save throughout an entire game does not make a game hard, it merely makes it annoying, so as improvements to mechanics such as that to made, the game's gonna become less annoying which makes it, in turn, easier.

at least that's my thought.

 

[Kameken]

I think a large part of the problem is that the people who talk about how easy new games are have been playing for so long, they're just used to the difficulty. Plus, there's always a need of people who grew up playing older games to feel inherently superior to those who didn't.

 

[Cerberus87]

When Super Mario 3D Land literally throws lives at you, in comparison with the old Mario games, there's a case for gaming being made easier. However, it was already hard to get a game over in Super Mario World, because the open world allowed you to abuse stages which gave you lives and powerups.

I personally think there's too much focus on "story" and "graphics" these days. Pokémon BW did have a better story than XY, but what made it better to me was its gameplay, since the Exp. Share broke the latter game, making it less fun.

Games are basically becoming interactive movies. When I heard of a project about a The Last of Us movie, I asked myself "why?", because there's no need. There wasn't any need for a Need for Speed movie either. I think a game only needs a little bit of storytelling to give you a general idea, then the rest of the story is told by its gameplay. The first FPS games did this very well. It's "show don't tell" at its best.

 

[El Héroe Oscuro]

Yes, they definitely are. That's why I'm loving the challenge of Dark Souls/Dark Souls 2 right now. Games don't really get much harder than those games, which makes beating them all the more satisfactory.

 

[BrandoSheriff]

I most certainly believe they are. Up until last summer, I couldn't beat Super Mario Bros for the life of me, and resorted to using the infinite lives glitch to win. I still haven't beaten Pokemon Stadium to this day.

 

[Spinosaurus]

I have no say on the subject because it's awful generalization and the only reason anyone would think older games are somehow hard is because they're letting their memories when they weren't as good cloud their judgement, or the games they played are just designed in a very archaic way.

But one thing I have to comment on is...

When Super Mario 3D Land literally throws lives at you, in comparison with the old Mario games, there's a case for gaming being made easier. However, it was already hard to get a game over in Super Mario World, because the open world allowed you to abuse stages which gave you lives and powerups.

Can we please stop determining a platformer's difficulty from how many lives you can get?

Are Rayman Origins or Super Meat Boy easier than any other platformer because they don't have lives?

Platformers should be difficult for their level design, not their lives system. That's effectively, a fake difficulty. Otherwise you get games like SMB Lost Levels or Mega Man 2 where lives are the biggest reason they're even difficult to beat, and not the level design itself.

 

[Cerberus87]

Can we please stop determining a platformer's difficulty from how many lives you can get?

Are Rayman Origins or Super Meat Boy easier than any other platformer because they don't have lives?

Platformers should be difficult for their level design, not their lives system. That's effectively, a fake difficulty. Otherwise you get games like SMB Lost Levels or Mega Man 2 where lives are the biggest reason they're even difficult to beat, and not the level design itself.

It's one of the factors, whether you want it or not. The same reason difficulty can be trivialized in old shooters because of saves which effectively give you an infinite amount of chances to beat a level until you get it "right".

Lives aren't the only reason SMB is hard, in fact I would say the jerky physics and the punishing level design are as effective in determining difficulty as lives. On top of that, the game gives you only three lives to finish eight worlds, and 1-ups are scarce. It may not be the determining factor, but it IS a factor. If you have infinite chances, one time you'll get it right, and there goes the difficulty.

Super Mario 3D Land throws an absurd amount of lives at you, which helps trivialize its difficulty.

 

[Brane]

Super Mario 3D Land throws an absurd amount of lives at you, which helps trivialize its difficulty.

Until you attempt Champions Road.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

Some do, some not.
But yea, I think it's trendy to simplify games so they can be sold even to not so hardcore gamers (and moar monezzz can go to companies).
But that's why most games have difficulty options so hardcore gamers can experience it on hard and feel the nostalgia from that hardcore past games =D

 

[Homura Akemi]

Games are becoming easier due to controls being easier to understand, learn and use. Tutorials give a bigger push into the game nowadays, as technology improves, so do playability. Ease of access is essential these days, as developers know that newcomers will try out their games...what use is a game when you don't know how to do tricks?

 

[Drayton]

Games are not easier and we're experience enough to master the whole level and concepts. and it's depends how skillful is the player to beat the whole game.

If the players know what to do, then making progress much smoother
Otherwise, it might take time to complete if they don't have a clue.

_{PS: People can just read walk-through on any gaming community}

 

[Raine]

Yes, they definitely are. That's why I'm loving the challenge of Dark Souls/Dark Souls 2 right now. Games don't really get much harder than those games, which makes beating them all the more satisfactory.

That's probably why everyone rage quits when they die so often in the game. The standard of "easy" and "difficult" have probably changed from years ago thus why people would think video games have gotten relatively easier to beat.

_{PS: People can just read walk-through on any gaming community}

I don't read walk-throughs to make the game easier for myself; they're there as reference to collecting items and not miss anything because I'm the type of person who would prefer not to replay games simply due to the fact that I may have missed something important.

 

[Fernbutter]

Most games get easier usually because it seems everyone just need to look up some walkthroughs and use some cheats and viola!~ Game is easier. But if you were to remove all outside factors from this discussion, then just the games themselves, some games are so easy to the point where you don't even need to try, there are hints everywhere and bots blahblahblah... But there are those games where they get so hard that you get so confused and frustrated you won't progress at all. At least that's what I think.

 

[Eevee3]

I feel that they are getting easier but I still don't know if that's the case, or it's because I'm older. Thing is is that, sometimes a game is still hard even though you're older. So I'm still not sure.

What I'm thinking is that the games are getting better with controls and such, therefore making them easier to play.

I think with younger and younger people playing games, I think it's needed that games are becoming easier.

A lot of young kids played video games "in the old days" as well.