Poll of the Day > Game difficulty preference

(+) Yeah! (+)

I prefer playing normal difficulty and not being very challenged by the games I play. A little in some places is fine.
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Hard
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If we're getting toward extremes that cause me to stop playing, I'd prefer too easy. I'd rather lose interest and drift away out of boredom than drop the game out of frustration. If we're just talking about being a little bit too easy or too hard, then I'd prefer too hard, because I'd rather feel rewarded for overcoming a slightly excessive challenge than feel disappointed by something that just wasn't hard enough to be interesting.
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I'd rather a game be too easy than too hard.
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I prefer very difficult over too easy. Nothing worse than being able to beat a game without even trying.
When I play games, I'm more of a strategic / calculating person so games that cater to that style as opposed easy wins regardless of the strategy (or lack of) employed are more fun to me.
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Peterass posted...

I prefer very difficult over too easy. Nothing worse than being able to beat a game without even trying.

RPG's that use RNG for death aka Hama/Mudo in SMT
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Difficult > Easy > Too Easy > Too Difficult

I like to be challenged but I also would like to see more than 3% of a game so I don't want it to be hair-tearingly difficult.

adjl posted...

I'd rather lose interest and drift away out of boredom than drop the game out of frustration.

SilentSeph posted...

I like to be challenged but I also would like to see more than 3% of a game so I don't want it to be hair-tearingly difficult.

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This topic seems like a pretty good way to tell who's played Super Mario Maker XD

Too easy is better than too challenging.
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Golden Road posted...

This topic seems like a pretty good way to tell who's played Super Mario Maker XD

For that game in particular, I feel part of the fun is playing with friends and laughing at the mistakes everyone makes. My sister, brother-in-law, and some of their friends were having Super Mario Maker session once at home and it sounded like they were having a blast watching each other fail or cheering on when someone finally finish a level.
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I like story-based games so I prefer easy over hard.

Worst thing ever is to play a game for its story and stop because the game is too challenging due to sudden difficulty spikes.
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I want it to be well designed. Too difficult usually just means cheap.
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If it's challenging in terms of mechanics, level design, or skill level, than I definitely enjoy challenging games. I don't mind dying and/or restarting if I can acknowledge that better and more particular play could have changed the outcome.

However, lots of games increase the difficulty by inflating the damage and health of enemies to a large degree. Damage Sponges aren't fun, they're just annoying.

Since we're talking extremes though, probably too easy. I'd prefer to blitz through multiple games rather than smash my head against one.
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SilentSeph posted...

Difficult > Easy > Too Easy > Too Difficult

I like to be challenged but I also would like to see more than 3% of a game so I don't want it to be hair-tearingly difficult.

This.

Although it's not a lot of fun to be able to beat a game while hardly trying, it's also not a lot of fun when a game is so hard you can't beat it. And since beating a game is basically a compulsion for me now, I'd choose too easy over too hard.

Extra medium
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Question: is it a fair challenge (so something like dark souls but harder) or would it be artificial difficulty?

If the former, I'll take the fair challenge. If the latter, I would want easy mode

I love me a challenging game, so it has to be downright unfair for me to consider it "too challenging".

That said, given those two extremes, I'd prefer a game be too easy than too challenging. A game that's too challenging causes me to stop playing; a game that's too easy will still usually get finished by me and still has a chance to redeem itself in other ways (like having a great story).
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Depends.

If I haven't played it before, I'd prefer too easy. I'd rather plow through it the first time, then up the difficulty the subsequent playthroughs.
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I like more of a challenge then I do a game being too easy if I had to choose. With that said I don't like games that are "challenging" just for the sake of it. Still I always play games on normal for my first run through as that's the way the game is supposed to be.
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I'd prefer too easy because at least then you get to see the whole game, and there might be some surprising enemies and puzzles even if they're relatively quickly figured out (like in the easier Zelda games). Of course, if you can beat the game literally by just repeatedly pressing A, it'll probably feel like work even if it's short.

I want to see all that a game has to offer, and if it's too hard I'll likely rage-quit.

So I'd prefer too easy.
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Depends on the game. Fighting games I usually want easy so I can spend 15 - 30 minutes beating on an AI character then get on with my life. Strategy games will completely kick my ass if they are any kind of difficult. Platformers and FPS games though I want as hard as the developers are willing to make them.
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A lot of people are saying that if a game is too hard they would just quit playing.. Just curious, what games are people considering to be too hard?
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Katon posted...

I'd rather a game be too easy than too hard.

This, but I'd prefer a balanced challenge.

When I was younger and had more free time, I'd throw myself against all the "insane" and "hardcore" difficulties I could. Nowadays I don't have time to repeat the same stage or boss over and over, so I tend not to play anything above normal/default.
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Peterass posted...

A lot of people are saying that if a game is too hard they would just quit playing.. Just curious, what games are people considering to be too hard?

I don't people are saying that with an explicit game in mind. The question is about extremes, so people are simply stating what they would prefer if they had no other options.
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123pizza2 posted...

Peterass posted...

A lot of people are saying that if a game is too hard they would just quit playing.. Just curious, what games are people considering to be too hard?

I don't people are saying that with an explicit game in mind. The question is about extremes, so people are simply stating what they would prefer if they had no other options.

Pretty much. I can't think of any specific examples off-hand, but I can definitely imagine the scenario of trying something repeatedly with no sense of progress, feeling too stuck to continue, and just not going back to the game after that.
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123pizza2 posted...

Peterass posted...

A lot of people are saying that if a game is too hard they would just quit playing.. Just curious, what games are people considering to be too hard?

I don't people are saying that with an explicit game in mind. The question is about extremes, so people are simply stating what they would prefer if they had no other options.

when someone mentions a game that is too hard that they'll want to quit, i instantly think of those kaizo mario world modded levels. Yeah, they aren't official, but they're meant to be annoying hard

Peterass posted...

A lot of people are saying that if a game is too hard they would just quit playing.. Just curious, what games are people considering to be too hard?

As mentioned earlier, I like my games hard, so I don't have too many that immediately jump to mind as "too hard". That being said, one that absolutely turned me off was Lunatic+-mode in Fire Emblem Awakening.

Fire Emblem games, as befit SRPGs, are supposed to be primarily about strategy. Lunatic+ mode isn't - at least, not in the first few chapters. There is precisely one viable strategy - abusing the shit out Frederick, your overlevelled Oifey-archetype Paladin, and pairing him up with Chrom so he has enough speed to double - and (and this is the real kicker) even that requires no small amount of luck. In Chapter 2, the only way you can win without one of your squishier characters dying is to run everybody that isn't Frederick to the corner of the map, while he charges into the enemy ranks and draws aggro, slaughtering everyone. In Chapters 3 and 4, your ability to succeed depends entirely on how many enemies spawn with Luna+ (which halves your unit's defence - too many of those, or too many in one location, and even Frederick dies). And, of course, it's Fire Emblem so you're always one unlucky crit away from having to restart a chapter on top of all the bullshit this difficulty mode already throws at you.

When I face a hard game I want to be challenged - if it's a fighting game, I want my reflexes challenged; if it's a strategy game, I want my tactics challenged; if it's a puzzle game, I want my ability to think quickly challenged. What I don't want is for a game to be so hard that it literally becomes dependent on luck to get through.
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Too easy.

Too difficult too often involves cheap difficulty.
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When I was still in school (not so much college) it was hardest difficulty all the time, but nowadays I rarely play games so I just go with whatever Normal or Default is.

If a game is too easy then I just stop playing, because it's basically a bad movie at that point.
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