That whole video is especially stupid cause invading someone who rolls with 3 other phantoms isn't fun at all. Trying to fight 4 other players at once? No thanks, fam. It's all dumb, but I digress.
Moving on to the issue of an easier difficulty in a souls game, they've had...what, 3 games to consider that option? And Bloodborne had a stealth version of it, where if you took too long to get past a certain area, that particular boss was substantially weaker and has much less health. I don't have a problem with that because difficulty shouldn't get in the way of progression to a point where you can't enjoy the game. But again, the souls games have been known for difficulty, and as much as I don't really want to say this, if people waited until Dark Souls 3 to give a damn about the souls games anyway, that's their own faults, and they're the only ones who want the difficulty to be lower in the first place. The thing to note is that most of these games are simply learning and using knowledge gained to advance where you couldn't before. Only a few bosses are actually problematic, and most enemies are manageable as long as you use your brain. None of it is unfair enough to warrant wanting an easy mode. Scholar of the First Sin made the game HARDER. No complaints from anyone. DKS3 comes out and suddenly people want to ask for an Easy mode? Where were you guys at when Dark Souls came out? (I'll leave out Demon's Souls cause that was a PS3 exclusive)
I don't think the whole problem is even the games having an Easy mode, a lot of the problem for me is that people who legit don't play the game/have never had enough interest in the games until 3 lack competence, and want something that the games never had. And when there isn't an accommodating option for said people, they want to cry "THIS GAME ISN'T ACCESSIBLE I JUST WANT TO ENJOY IT AND HAVE FUN". And if we want to use the lore as an argument, then uh...wouldn't it make sense to start with the earlier games in the series? You're going to have to anyway, unless you just go on youtube and watch lore videos, and at that point you should just do the same for 3 and NOT BUY IT. If you bought a game known for its difficulty and expected anything else, that's your own fault, Yes, the point of games is to have fun, but if the game was designed from the jump to be a certain way and have been that way, you can't come in and be like "MUH FUN" when you knew what you were walking into. You don't jump into an MMO game and be like "Well I just wanted to have fun". If you don't learn how to play, you won't get any enjoyment, cause you actually won't be able to do the content of the game. And if you're getting carried, you aren't even really playing. Same with this. What's the point of buying a game and you summon your friends to do all the work? You aren't even playing the game at that point. You're playing a mini-game in a Blu-Ray movie. You could have....WATCHED VIDEOS ON THE LORE. Where's the fun in that?
But if I go on a tirade about how the game is partially established by the difficulty itself and the idea of getting good at a game and the sense of accomplishment provided by surpassing the trials that the game lays out to me, there's a problem? If the guys at FromSoft actually didn't believe in the "Git gud" thing we would have had an Easy mode long time ago, in DKS3 and in Armored Core. Which, btw, are ALL pretty damn tough. There's Easy mode in any of the Armored Core games whatsoever.
EDIT: Seeing as the summoning thing is pretty free anyway, I'll retract a bit on the sole fact that I can't tell someone else how to enjoy their game. If you want to summon people, go ahead. But don't go asking for an easy mode when summoning people makes the game easy enough to get through it anyway.
There is nothing wrong with getting a feeling of pride or accomplishment from beating something challenging; I never said that. For a lot of people that IS their way of having fun in games, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. It's great you can get that kind of satisfaction from a game. There IS, however, something wrong with
acting as though you should be the only person who should be entitled to that. Acting as though your sense of accomplishment will be somehow diminished just because others might get that same sense of accomplishment if they can enjoy it too by playing on easy. Acting as though you can't possibly enjoy the game if it caters to the "filthy casuals" as well. Explain to me, if you can, how and why someone else's - someone less experienced with these titles who wants to try them - enjoyment of these games would affect yours. Would you USE an easy mode if it were included? No? So how would it possibly affect you if it was included? It wouldn't. So why are you so dead set against it? I honestly can't understand the objection to the idea.
The whole "git gud" thing is pathetic and entirely unnecessary trolling, and it originated more from the fandom than it did the developers, so I'm not going to dwell on it. Sure, they haven't done anything to discourage it openly, but at the same time, they've done a lot to address it - you've already pointed out examples of ways they've done that in later titles yourself. An easy mode at this point, I will admit and agree,
would seem out of place, because if they were going to include one it really should have been in the first Dark Souls (well, maybe in the inevitable remaster/trilogy collection we'll probably get once DS3's DLC is all out, hm?) to set a precedent for it, but it would only be confirming what we all already know in this game: the games have gotten easier since Demon's Souls.
Substantially easier. The games have ridiculous difficulty spikes at certain bosses and that is it. In some ways it would be BETTER for these so-called "hardcore" fans, because then things like Scholar of the First Sin's difficulty modifications could be incorporated and expanded upon, and these things that have annoyed the fans so much would be consigned to Easy Mode. Ever consider that?
I wasn't using the lore as an argument for making the games easier, either. It was a point to illustrate that there is more to Dark Souls than it's difficulty level, and that people shouldn't get so focused on it, or use it as a justification for not having an easy mode. That there is lore at all that spans three games shows this; they're not standalone titles, and it's not an afterthought. It's a story all of its own, and it's just as much of a reason to play as anything else. I ask you though, why people who want to experience it should have to watch videos. Why shouldn't they be able to play the games and enjoy them the same as you or other so-called "hardcore" fans? Why should you be the only ones allowed to play and enjoy these titles? Making a suggestion to not buy the game is only harming the franchise as well; the whole point of its creation is to sell.
Also, I think you'll find different people play games in different ways. Maybe you don't think it's really playing if you're carried through it, but plenty of people would disagree with you. In MMOs you have guilds designed solely for this, and people frequently join their friends until they're confident enough to stand on their own two feet, if ever. They shouldn't be able to do this in Dark Souls...why? They should play as you think they should...why? A lot of people don't really want to learn the finer points of games, either - they just want to go in and have a good time and not get flayed for every little mistake they make. I think, where this is scope for that to happen, it should - the more who can play, the better. I don't agree with that attitude personally, but I don't think people should be excluded from playing because of it. I know I've been impatient enough to get stuck into games sometimes, and if something is TOO hard then it's extremely off-putting sometimes. You want to learn, but you have no viable way of doing so other than frustrating repeated failure. Some people don't have the patience for it. Some do. Why should those that don't miss out when they could have a great time on an easier difficulty setting?
I think it should have happened with Dark Souls from the beginning; I'm not making a case for DS3 being an exception here. My argument, and my irritation, lies with the reaction that the very idea that other people less skilled might be able to play the games too generates. It's ridiculous. Elitist. Exclusionary. Toxic, even.
But the fandom object to the very idea of an option for an easier difficulty setting purely because it isn't what they want. It's selfish, plain and simple. I fail to see how an easy mode would damage any part of the experience if it was clearly labelled as such and was entirely optional. If anything, I think it would be beneficial, because if there is an easy mode, there will be a hard mode as well, which could go above and beyond what the games already offer and offer a REAL challenge for experienced players who can just blaze through these things.
At this point it's just self-righteous fans not wanting other people to enjoy the experience, and nothing more.
From my own personal view, I wouldn't use an easy mode, because outside of certain bosses I have never really struggled with a Souls game; they're not the type of games I find difficult...although I have yet to finish Bloodborne, but plan on going back to it. It came out at a bad time and I haven't really adjusted to the faster combat flow yet. But I digress. It saddens me that people get so angry at the idea of people less skilled than they are enjoying the games they do. As a fan, shouldn't you WANT the fandom to get bigger, so it continues into the future? Haven't you ever considered the positives that could come from an easy mode - the possibility of a hard mode, an end to artificial difficulty and exploits, etc? Is the perceived difficulty REALLY the only reason people play these games? It's disheartening.
In any case, I've said my piece. It's up to you how you enjoy your game, and if that is so dependant on others not being able to enjoy it as well...well, whatever, I guess. I suppose I can understand the idea that pride in an accomplishment is diminished if others can do it too, but...eh. I suppose my personal philosophy is incompatible with the idea, which is why I struggle so much to understand it, and I have an automatic bias against fandoms, so there's that. I just thought it was an interesting point to raise is all.
