Are video games becoming easier or are we just wiser?

[GreenKirby]

From time to time I've complaints from gamers that video games are easier now then they were during say the fourth generation of the gaming era. But often, I can't help but wonder that our maturing is part of the reason?

Think about it, say you got a game at a fairly young age, played it, and had a difficult time beating it. You would think that it was hard if not just challenging.

And then, you got the sequel for that game and that game is from the same generation. Now with sequels, the basic gameplay usually remains. And of course, you're a bit (or in some cases much) older afterwards. You probably thought to yourself "Hey, the sequel is easier for some reason."

Nevertheless, you liked the sequel. Soon the game becomes a hit series. And as you grow older, you continue to buy the hits. Now by this time, unless series changed considerably at some point, you know the heroes, villains, basic plot of series, supporting cast, usual controls, items to grab, and the whole nine yards. And because of that, you basically know what will happen as far as gameplay goes.

Of course, I could be totally wrong though. So what are your thoughts

 

[SuperRacoon]

Nope, games are definitly easier now than they were back then. Go download all the Legeng of Zeldas or Mario games on your Wii and play through them. Any order you like, you'll have a harder time beating the older stuff.

 

[Crimson King]

I've never been stumped by many games, even as a kid, but games are definitely easier than they used to be. I can't think of any good examples, but I used to fear starting an FPS on medium when I was younger because Medium was pretty much instant death. Hell, I remember dying so fast in Doom when I put it up slightly. Now, I play on the hardest difficulties with only a slight hindrance every now and then. The reason for this trend? Multiplayer games. It's a lot easier to make the single player game a cake walk and get people playing online against players who are never the same than it is to create a competent enemy.

 

[Mediocre]

Honestly, I think a lot of it has to do with one thing - saving.

In a lot of the older games, there was no way you could save your progress. So usually, if you died, you had to replay the entire thing from the beginning. In current games, if you screw up, it might send you back at most half a stage. Often, not even that. This makes finishing a game a lot easier than it would be otherwise.

 

[Johnthegalactic]

The original Super Mario Bros is alot harder than Super Mario World.

 

[Cubemario]

My thoughts on the matter.

Half-Life on medium mode is harder than half-life 2 on hard mode. Though there is such a thing as unfair hard and fair hard.

Half-life has vortigaunts that hack and use auto aim. When they fire that beam they will hit you unless you take cover, no question. Many of the other enemies in the game were the same really, they never really missed unless you moved out of the way.

Half-Life 2 has enemies that use 'aim hacks' as well such as the gunships, APC's, snipers, and striders. Those being the hardest enemies in the game actually.

I'm not sure where i'm going with this, but I thought it was an interesting observation. Perhaps what I mean is that these days that unfair hardness of games (which no player can adapt to, and kind of have to sit there and take it) has been eliminated and as a result games are just easier.

Also save points are another factor. With a lot of games 'checkpoints' are often or you can just save any time you want. Examples..

Resistance fall of man, one tough game. Why? Pretty much every enemy uses aim hacks, enemies have tons of health, and about half way through the game checkpoints are rare and often times if you die, you lost 20-30 minutes of progress.

Compare that with half-life where you can save any time you want and be put right back where you saved. The game can still be hard, but you also can get away with being a lot less careful because you can take risks and not be punished for them.

Then there are other kinds of ways games can be harder that I haven't touched on. More examples.

Old games like mario and donkey kong country require very good timing to get across several platforms. In other words, you needed skill and reflexes.

AI can make a game harder, FEAR is a good example of this, often times the AI will constantly change strategies and take you on in ways that might surprise you. One time they may use a grenade, other times they may rush you with shotguns. So not knowing what the AI will do, means that one strategy will not always work, making the game harder.

Making games too realistic will cause deaths in games to be unfair. Unreal tournament 2004, if you go up behind someone with a weapon and start shooting them, you won't kill that person right away. This gives the person being attacked time to grab a health pack, shoot back, and defend themselves.

In counter-strike or call of duty 4, if someone is in that situation, you know the outcome, that person is dead meat. Within 1-3 seconds that person will be dead, giving them no opportunity to react. This is why snipers and campers are a common thing in these games. Hiding somewhere and waiting for someone unawares to come around the corner and get a free kill is a lot safer than being the guy around the corner.

Overall, I believe what i'm getting at is it depends on what your definition of hard is. From my observations, most games that are 'hard' are only that way because the developer gives someone or something a big unfair advantage over you. Some games can be genuinely hard and still be fair, but very few exist.

 

[Johnthegalactic]

CoD4 is a difficult game, but I love how it feels realistic, I enjoy being able to shoot someone and they actually drop dead, or shoot through a wooden plank and the enemy behind it actually be hit.
Realism makes games much more impressive.

 

[Mediocre]

Cubemario, I think you're confusing fairness with... giving players large health bars.

Just because a game favors a certain playstyle does not make it unfair. An unfair game would be one that inherently advantaged one player over another, and COD4 doesn't do that. If a player won't have time to react to a surprise attack from behind, that doesn't mean they should be given a larger health bar so that they will have time. It means they need to be more alert, and watch their backs.

Also, I think you're wrong about COD4. With the exception of the Search and Destroy mode, I consistently find that the players who do the best are the players who actively search for enemies, and have the skills to kill them. Not the players who just sit back and take shots with a sniper rifle.

 

[m0rdin]

Todays games are more casual than the ones from some 15 years ago. That means, that the games are off course easier and somehow became comparable to movies. You play through the story of a game, are entertained and have no big obstacles to overcome.

If you look at games that are obviously built around oldschool mechanics like Team Fortress 2 for example you see, that those games simply are harder to learn than games like Call of Duty 4...

 

[Mic_128]

Compare Legend of Zelda and Ocarina of time. Oot is hugely easier than the original Zelda.

 

[XavantTheEnigma]

It doesn't seem like games last that long anymore.
I look at Final Fantasy 7, 8 and 9. Then... I look at Crisis Core or Final Fantasy X.

 

[Best101]

Compare
Mario Galaxy to Super Mario Bros.
Twilight Princess to Legend of Zelda
Sonic Adventure to Sonic the hedgehog

See the difference in difficulty?

 

[#HBC | marshy]

I'd say it has to do with the popularity of game genres as well. Obviously, you don't see shmups and adventure games as much today as you did during the 80's/90's, both of which are harder than popular genres today like FPS and RPGs, when it comes to offline play anyway.

 

[F8AL]

Games are getting easier because the developers like to give you hints on how to beat bosses (i.e. glowing or flashing parts).

 

[Raider 88]

Games are definitely easier now. I've probably beaten every game I own from the Gamecube era onwards, but there are a ton of games for SNES and Genesis and Master System that I haven't come close to beating. It isn't that we are wiser, because I occasionally go back and try to beat it again, and still fail miserably.

 

[IWontGetOverTheDam]

The original LoZ is hard as ****.

 

[gorgon.]

^No kidding. Games are way easier today.

 

[Johnthegalactic]

Usually snipers are easy kills, they usually(definately not meaning always), lack the situational awareness that a FPS requires, they stare down a tunnel, and won't stop staring down it.
While my playstyle on FPS is the most dangerous, adrenalene rushing as can be, I pick up close quarters weapons, preferibly a SMG or light assault rifle, and move in for kills at near point blank.
I get much enjoyement out of this, and find hiding behind a trash can waiting for a kill to prance by somewhat tedious, and boring.

 

[The Dinkoman]

Games are getting easier.

one day I played Kirby Nightmare In Dreamland and I beat it in 4 hours and the next day I played Kirby Squeak Squad and I beat it in 1 hour.

 

[Fenrir]

Games are getting easier. I`m playing through LoZ: Phantom Hourglass right now and it`s fun, though it`s pretty easy. When I think back to Ocarina of Time, I see how that game was harder. Thinking further back to, say, Link`s Awakening, it`s even harder.

And that`s just a very small example.

 

[SkylerOcon]

Of course games are getting easier. Why wouldn't they be?

Games now appeal to a larger market of people, and not all of them have the time or the ability to beat the challenging games of yesteryear.

 

[Problem2]

Legend of Zelda, the Adventures of Link is by far the hardest Zelda game ever. I've only found one palace (equivalent of dungeons) in the game so far, and just traveling around is extremely hard and can get you killed.

Twilight Princess has nothing on AoL difficulty wise.

Mario Bros is also harder than Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World and definitely New Super Mario Bros. This is because unlike all the other Mario games, the first Super Mario Bros doesn't hand you hundreds of extra lives. (unless you use the infinite 1-up trick, but I don't do that during speed runs)

 

[Kros]

tl;dr
We're just getting older and smarter about what we do in games.

 

[IWontGetOverTheDam]

Did anyone see the newest AVGN? (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/35049.html)

That is some proof that games are getting easier.

 

[Golem the Stern Father]

Nintendo is dumbing down thier games, other consols will eventually do the same. (say it ain't so!)

 

[Spire]

Not only are they getting easier, but they're conforming to a certain standard. You don't see many unique games nowadays (not saying there aren't any).

 

[majora_787]

I don't think it's that they're getting easier. IMO, we're getting experience on the series from early games and using that knowledge on what to expect in later games. In LoZ: Ocarina of Time, I remember being afraid of the super huge dungeons for a while. No idea why, think it was the redead accident. When I played Twilight Princess, I beat it in two weeks.

Same thing applies to SSB. I sucked at super smash bros. 64, but I started at that level in melee. I started as a bad player, not a newb. So then I improved from bad player to average. Then I went from average to okay player in brawl. The old games just made us wiser for the later games.

 

[Darkslash]

I still haven't beat super Contra to this day. I need to beat it but my NES is broken

 

[Creo]

[Edit: Nevermind]

 

[~Krystal~]

"Are video games becoming easier?"

If you're a Wii owner, then thats a yes.

I miss the days where Nintendo would provide truly challenging games like The Lost Levels or Link's Awakening.

 

[Chris Lionheart]

I would agree games have gotten easier.

It makes since, games have gone from only being played by the "nerds" to being a casual thing for everyone. And since when can the average stupid teenager beat a hard video game.

Not that I have a problem with it. I liked Twilight Princess. It was pretty stress-free so there was more room for fun.

 

[I.iZ.nO.1]

Games are getting easier, i think as we get older and wiser to the play style of games it makes them a lot easier, but overall they are made easier. Recently i discovered virtualnes.com and all i can say is those games a hard. When i was young i used to love those games, but now that i look back and them and play again, i realize that they were really difficult. I think part of it may be the lack of technology, without all the understanding and ability to make games as comprehensive as we have them now games were made with such limitation that it ultimately made the games a lot more difficult.

 

[Star Ryan]

Fact is, few people want to stress over videogames nowadays; Videogames that let the player win seem much more accepted than those that don't.

It's nice now and then to see a difficult game on the radar; I'll usually snap up treasure's titles on release.

 

[Pef7]

I think that its both that gamers are evolving and that games are getting easier. Of course looking back on older games compared to now you'll see differences in even difficulties. Back in the day of NES you might have gotten normal or hard...now you get like 7 different levels of difficulty.

I agree that ability to save more frequently is also making games easier since you don't lose even close to as much as you did back in the day.

I also think that games are getting shorter and shorter. Many RPGs that I have played will maybe last 40-50 hours. I remember clocking a good 60+ hours because I had to level build to beat some secret boss or just beat the **** game.

It doesn't help that most games are starting to play alike with minor differences...like how most FPS's follow in Halo's footsteps with maybe a new power instead. If you condition in one game, and another game plays exactly the same then you've already had your work done in conditioning for that game.

 

[Pluvia's other account]

Games that are too hard are boring. And games that are to easy are boring.

I've never beat OoT, but I find that game boring. It gives you no direction where to go, I got lost in the fire temple and got stumped, but I had no motivation to keep playing it due to the fact that none of the game beforehand had interested me.

Twilight Princess was also crap, I completed that game in 3 days, the bosses may aswell have done nothing at all, it was like trying to kill a spider with a bowling ball.

For me, Wind Waker was the best one. I think it's the story that makes it, and the fact that it immerses you into game. If they made Ganon slightly harder, and changed that bit where you had to go and find the trifore pieces, then that game would be almost perfect I think.

 

[notftomearth7]

I...really don't know. Maybe it's both in some cases.

 

[Its The Jinks]

I've never been stumped by many games, even as a kid, but games are definitely easier than they used to be. I can't think of any good examples, but I used to fear starting an FPS on medium when I was younger because Medium was pretty much instant death. Hell, I remember dying so fast in Doom when I put it up slightly. Now, I play on the hardest difficulties with only a slight hindrance every now and then. The reason for this trend? Multiplayer games. It's a lot easier to make the single player game a cake walk and get people playing online against players who are never the same than it is to create a competent enemy.

So true games are easier because now the world is focused on online multiplayer games. Game makers don't feel the need to make the one player mode anything challenging because they know all the money is going to go to the online play anyways

 

[Plazma]

an example of a challenging game from the past would be gradius/r-type games. Those were always a challenge. An even better example would be donkey kong for the nes, a very challenging game. another would be the contra series. any of you play contra 4 for the ds? That is a challenge right there, and thats a newer game

 

[Cubemario]

Online is the focus, why bother with AI when you can just use human opponents. Saves a whole lot of trouble and money.

Problem with that concept is you get less epic games like MGS4. I enjoy online games to an extent, but they are really starting to tire me in general. I've got really good in a lot of those games and i'm not willing to get into a clan, so pubs get boring and I reach my limits.

Single player has a lot more to offer me. Though if left 4 dead is ever released, that might get me interested in online games again.

 

[Firus]

I've never beat OoT, but I find that game boring. It gives you no direction where to go, I got lost in the fire temple and got stumped, but I had no motivation to keep playing it due to the fact that none of the game beforehand had interested me.

I second this. Everyone always tells me "OoT is the best game ever!" and then when they find out I've not even gotten to the third dungeon yet, they INSIST that I beat the game. While that's great, the game just does NOT interest me all that much. It's difficult (as are all Zelda games), and I have no motivation to play it because it doesn't interest me. Also, after playing the 5 minute demo of the game on Brawl where you start as Adult Link and running into ReDeads and having no clue where to go, I'm not necessarily inclined to get to that point, which is where I think the game might actually get remotely interesting. The only incentive I have to play the game is to be able to say I've beaten the game and so people will stop bugging me.

But yeah, on topic, I'd have to say it's a little of both, but more of games getting easier. While yes, with more experience, we'll see something and say "Oh, that was in such-and-such game. I remember, you have to do this.", games are definitely getting easier. Heck, it wasn't until I retried Jurassic Park for the Sega Genesis about a week ago that I figured out how to beat Grant in the Raptor's story. I've had that game for at least 15 years now, and just recently, after jumping around clawing at things randomly, I figured it out. I wasn't playing it constantly or even regularly throughout, but it still took forever. Also, I just beat Sonic 2 for the first time (regular Sonic 2; I’ve beaten Sonic 2 & Knuckles once before, but still only once) about two days ago. Again, not constant attempts, but SHEESH, that final boss is hard. Metal Sonic and giant Robotnik robot in a row without a checkpoint, and no Rings either? Meanwhile, you've got games like Super Mario Galaxy which, after about 3 times spread over a long time sitting down with the game for a few hours, I've beaten it. I got stuck in one or two places because I had to move fast for a timed level or something, got lazy or bored, and kept doing something stupid. After the final boss battle, I kept saying "Was that it?" and then when ominous music started playing and you saw Bowser again, I was like "Ah, I knew it wasn't over." But it never started up again. That was it.

As some people have said, games are being dumbed down for casual gamers. The geeks that used to consist of the gaming community are no longer important to gaming companies, because the real money is going to come from casual gamers now. So any video game fans that still recognize old games and want the good ol' days to return are left to relive those days through our old games. Since casual gamers are not huge on video games, they're going to want to play games that aren't even real video games, they test how fit you are or how sharp your brain is (which obviously won't apply to the general population of gamers who should be too young to have to sharpen their brain). Even the ones that are real are easy. Metroid Prime Hunters was not only a poor game, but it was easy. The focus is on multiplayer. That's not what the Metroid series is. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass was uber easy too. I usually have a very hard time with Zelda games. That one I beat in like, a week or two after I got it, and I wasn't playing it that intensely. Dungeons took about 15 minutes and were, again, easy, and bosses took about 2 and were even easier. That's not Zelda. They threw what makes the games Zelda games out the window so they could have their godforsaken "innovation" with the touch screen.

I could go on, but for the sake of ending my rant sometime in the next 10 years, I'll conclude.

We may be getting somewhat wiser with games, but games have certainly gotten more easy. A combination of multiplayer focus and casual gamer appealing has led to this.