I never understood the obsession with stupid difficult games at all. It’s like, let me bang my head on a coffee table for 3 hours trying to make 5 minutes of progress. No thanks
Edit: Wow, this blew up, quite a controversial take, and not a hint of irony from all the people commenting about how I don’t get it.
Edit 2: For what it’s worth, I have played Dark Souls 1 all the way through, some of Dark Souls 2, got to the end of
Bloodborne, played about 3 hours of Elden Ring, and a bit of Lies of P. These games just aren’t for me. I played them bcz my friend loves them, and I was trying to make a soulslike bcz that seems to be all the rage right now.
Everyone experiences fun in their own ways. You’re allowed to not want to play hard games just like other people are allowed to want to play hard games. It doesn’t have to be an argument about which is “better.”
Very game dependant for me. I enjoy metro/stalker on their highest difficulties and play CS2 sometimes but most other singleplayer games yeah no thanks. It’s mostly just a flat increase to health and damage anyway
On the flip side, I don’t understand why people like playing video games that just tell a story and pretty much spoon feed every victory to the player. It feels hollow and incredibly boring.
You know there’s a middle ground, right? There exist games that manage to balance difficulty in a way that gives players a consistent challenge that they’re just able to overcome. The best games have these things called “difficulty settings” that let you customize that challenge so that you can decide how hard you want it to be
On the flip side, I don’t understand why people like playing video games that just tell a story and pretty much spoon feed every victory to the player. It feels hollow and incredibly boring.
Do you feel that way about movies? Because what you’re essentially describing there is an interactive movie. Maybe they’re selling it as a game, but that’s because there’s no market for a product that calls itself an interactive movie.
There was a company that actually put out two “games” which they came right out at front and called interactive movies. They were called Quantum Gate and The Vortex.
The first one was, in my opinion, really good. There was no game at all. It was basically a choose-your-own-adventure where you walked around and encountered people and there were short video clip interactions with them in a first person perspective. With the second one, they tried to do too much and it was nowhere near as good, but the concept was sound and I wish it was more common.
Did I say I dislike people who like those things, or something? I just said I don’t understand it. You have a choice of an active or a passive medium; why would you insist on turning the active medium into a passive one instead of just sticking to the passive medium in the first place?
Must’ve struck a nerve here because dude who says “I don’t understand hard games” gets people explaining why people would like a hard game; but I say I don’t understand extremely easy games and everyone treats it like a gotcha moment.
It’s me, the target audience for “walking simulators.” Sometimes I just like experiencing stories that stick with me, be it as a movie, book or game. On the other hand, I can’t stand games that try to have a story but it’s just not a good story (or only good by video game standards).
For me it was great challenge. Sure it was not easy but it’s doable and the feeling of overcoming a fight you thought to be impossible gives a great feeling of growth and succes.
Maybe stop and think that it isn’t that difficult to everyone? I don’t want to sound elitist, but people have different level of skills at video games (or anything really).
Saying no games should be hard is like saying no books should be difficult to read. To take the book analogy further, at some point after reading a lot of books you want to read more and more complex books. To say we shouldn’t have difficult books would be a disservice to those who want them.
Both easy and hard games should exist. And everything in between. Not every game needs to be played by everyone, which I think really is the issue. People feeling left out or pressured into games that aren’t their play style.
Complaining that the game is too hard , or the opposite, that the player is too bad. Both of these are the wrong approach. The best approach is “I’m not the intended audience for this game”
See, there are many soulslike games that have attempted this; make the base game play normally, but also add invincibility options or low-difficulty modes for those who prefer it. BUT, those games don’t work, and utterly fail, because --TODO: INSERT BULLSHIT MADE UP REASON BEFORE POSTING–
I’d recommend looking up guides to help griding up to level 150 and do a guided build. Then you can take on every boss pretty easily with 20min of practice.
Since when is grinding fun? The word itself, grinding isn’t even fun.
Elden ring is my most played most hated game. I come back for the vistas, the art. But there is no story and if there is it’s stupidly well hidden. Some story quests are so very easily missed and other things just impossible to do without a guide. Also the fact that there is no quest log (do this for that guy) makes returning to elden ring after a hiatus almost impossible.
Choosing a fighter class makes the game way too hard. But if you choose a caster the difficulty drops like 400% or even more.
No guidance. Nothing. Fuck you if you chose a samurai because he looked cool on your first playthrough.
Everything is hidden behind a grind wall. And so many quests are so very buggy. In my current playthrough I should meet blaidd the half wolf down below looking up to whats the cities name. But he isnt there. Doesn’t spawn. Apparently i went of on another quest and it conflicts or something. Now im stuck.
Do bushes talk? Here they do. Because one of them isn’t a bush.
A voice says: over here! But what is that, exactly? Here? Where is here? Im on a computer, directional audio doesn’t really work. It took me hours to find that useless guy.
Jellyfish. Just kill them, they are inconsequential and do not really interact with the player. They cant talk. Untill… You’re far into the game and suddenly you hear a voice. Talking about his/her lost spouse. Who? Where? You just slay that jellyfish because they cant talk, that cant be it. Or… It could? Fuck it was. Important item forever locked to you.
If you like that kind of foolery in a game i seriously recommend the 80s/90s sierra online games. Police quest, kings quest, the larry games. But i thought we where way past those kind of stupid game mechanics. Ken sent me. Flush the toilet. But not too many times because then you drown. Go to the hooker but if you forgot to buy a condom you die. Dont give a too big tip to the cabbie. He will buy liquor, get drunk and kill you both. The dialog made that fun. The first time.
The difference was, in those ganes i could save scum. Here I can’t.
I fucking love AC6. that’s a masterpiece by from software. But ER? ER shouldn’t be easier, it should explain more. Not much but a little. I see you chose a fighter. Are you sure? We recommend a caster class for beginners. Give me a quest log. Unbug those quests. Give a warning if something breaks something else.
And thats the problem with ER. It could be fantastic
I never understood the obsession with stupid difficult games at all. It’s like, let me bang my head on a coffee table for 3 hours trying to make 5 minutes of progress. No thanks
Edit: Wow, this blew up, quite a controversial take, and not a hint of irony from all the people commenting about how I don’t get it.
Edit 2: For what it’s worth, I have played Dark Souls 1 all the way through, some of Dark Souls 2, got to the end of Bloodborne, played about 3 hours of Elden Ring, and a bit of Lies of P. These games just aren’t for me. I played them bcz my friend loves them, and I was trying to make a soulslike bcz that seems to be all the rage right now.
ER is not even difficult unless you specifically want it to be
I played it for 3 hours. Unless I’m missing something, it’s incredibly difficult.
Here’s 2 tips:
Level up Vigor. Health is how you make early game easier.
Skip bosses. There isn’t a hard linear progression path and different builds struggle with different parts of the game.
Counter-point: No.
I rather play something fun.
Everyone experiences fun in their own ways. You’re allowed to not want to play hard games just like other people are allowed to want to play hard games. It doesn’t have to be an argument about which is “better.”
Fun is subjective. For me, challenge is fun.
Very game dependant for me. I enjoy metro/stalker on their highest difficulties and play CS2 sometimes but most other singleplayer games yeah no thanks. It’s mostly just a flat increase to health and damage anyway
On the flip side, I don’t understand why people like playing video games that just tell a story and pretty much spoon feed every victory to the player. It feels hollow and incredibly boring.
like movies?
You know there’s a middle ground, right? There exist games that manage to balance difficulty in a way that gives players a consistent challenge that they’re just able to overcome. The best games have these things called “difficulty settings” that let you customize that challenge so that you can decide how hard you want it to be
Do you feel that way about movies? Because what you’re essentially describing there is an interactive movie. Maybe they’re selling it as a game, but that’s because there’s no market for a product that calls itself an interactive movie.
This is my viewpoint as well.
From immediate memory I feel Mass Effect, and Ratchet and Clank, fit this category.
Both are still very fun despite the fact.
There was a company that actually put out two “games” which they came right out at front and called interactive movies. They were called Quantum Gate and The Vortex.
The first one was, in my opinion, really good. There was no game at all. It was basically a choose-your-own-adventure where you walked around and encountered people and there were short video clip interactions with them in a first person perspective. With the second one, they tried to do too much and it was nowhere near as good, but the concept was sound and I wish it was more common.
I don’t expect a movie to have gameplay. I don’t expect a video game to be a movie.
If I want to watch a movie, I watch a movie. When I want to play a game, I want to actually play something. Not just sit back and watch.
Well I guess it’s too bad for you that other people have other tastes and those tastes are also catered to. 🤷
Did I say I dislike people who like those things, or something? I just said I don’t understand it. You have a choice of an active or a passive medium; why would you insist on turning the active medium into a passive one instead of just sticking to the passive medium in the first place?
Must’ve struck a nerve here because dude who says “I don’t understand hard games” gets people explaining why people would like a hard game; but I say I don’t understand extremely easy games and everyone treats it like a gotcha moment.
It’s me, the target audience for “walking simulators.” Sometimes I just like experiencing stories that stick with me, be it as a movie, book or game. On the other hand, I can’t stand games that try to have a story but it’s just not a good story (or only good by video game standards).
For me it was great challenge. Sure it was not easy but it’s doable and the feeling of overcoming a fight you thought to be impossible gives a great feeling of growth and succes.
I get that, that’s what my friend says too. He really enjoys Souls games. I just don’t feel the same way.
Maybe stop and think that it isn’t that difficult to everyone? I don’t want to sound elitist, but people have different level of skills at video games (or anything really).
Saying no games should be hard is like saying no books should be difficult to read. To take the book analogy further, at some point after reading a lot of books you want to read more and more complex books. To say we shouldn’t have difficult books would be a disservice to those who want them.
Both easy and hard games should exist. And everything in between. Not every game needs to be played by everyone, which I think really is the issue. People feeling left out or pressured into games that aren’t their play style.
Complaining that the game is too hard , or the opposite, that the player is too bad. Both of these are the wrong approach. The best approach is “I’m not the intended audience for this game”
But what if I want to play ER for the story that everyone keeps gushing about?
Then watch someone on YouTube do the suffering for you. At that point it’s just a movie.
See, there are many soulslike games that have attempted this; make the base game play normally, but also add invincibility options or low-difficulty modes for those who prefer it. BUT, those games don’t work, and utterly fail, because --TODO: INSERT BULLSHIT MADE UP REASON BEFORE POSTING–
I’d recommend looking up guides to help griding up to level 150 and do a guided build. Then you can take on every boss pretty easily with 20min of practice.
And here is the problem with elden ring.
Grinding.
Since when is grinding fun? The word itself, grinding isn’t even fun.
Elden ring is my most played most hated game. I come back for the vistas, the art. But there is no story and if there is it’s stupidly well hidden. Some story quests are so very easily missed and other things just impossible to do without a guide. Also the fact that there is no quest log (do this for that guy) makes returning to elden ring after a hiatus almost impossible.
Choosing a fighter class makes the game way too hard. But if you choose a caster the difficulty drops like 400% or even more.
No guidance. Nothing. Fuck you if you chose a samurai because he looked cool on your first playthrough.
Everything is hidden behind a grind wall. And so many quests are so very buggy. In my current playthrough I should meet blaidd the half wolf down below looking up to whats the cities name. But he isnt there. Doesn’t spawn. Apparently i went of on another quest and it conflicts or something. Now im stuck.
Do bushes talk? Here they do. Because one of them isn’t a bush. A voice says: over here! But what is that, exactly? Here? Where is here? Im on a computer, directional audio doesn’t really work. It took me hours to find that useless guy.
Jellyfish. Just kill them, they are inconsequential and do not really interact with the player. They cant talk. Untill… You’re far into the game and suddenly you hear a voice. Talking about his/her lost spouse. Who? Where? You just slay that jellyfish because they cant talk, that cant be it. Or… It could? Fuck it was. Important item forever locked to you.
If you like that kind of foolery in a game i seriously recommend the 80s/90s sierra online games. Police quest, kings quest, the larry games. But i thought we where way past those kind of stupid game mechanics. Ken sent me. Flush the toilet. But not too many times because then you drown. Go to the hooker but if you forgot to buy a condom you die. Dont give a too big tip to the cabbie. He will buy liquor, get drunk and kill you both. The dialog made that fun. The first time.
The difference was, in those ganes i could save scum. Here I can’t.
I fucking love AC6. that’s a masterpiece by from software. But ER? ER shouldn’t be easier, it should explain more. Not much but a little. I see you chose a fighter. Are you sure? We recommend a caster class for beginners. Give me a quest log. Unbug those quests. Give a warning if something breaks something else.
And thats the problem with ER. It could be fantastic