140°

Should Games Become More Difficult Again?

There are very few people left that would argue—without intent to troll anyway—against the notion that the videogames of 21st century are easier to play and finish than the videogames of the 20th.

The quarter munching mentality of the 80s arcade dictated that arcade owners only wanted customers to get in a few minutes of playtime before their lack of Uber Skill sent them reaching for more money as the “Game Over” screen hit them in the face. Games had to be hard because an entire afternoon’s worth of entertainment for just 25₵ is not profitable.

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cgmagazine.ca
Chuk54160d ago

There's a smart of doing difficulty and an outdated way. One of the reasons games use to be so brutally difficult, is because they were so obtuse and didn't explain themselves clearly. there was no precedent for clear explanation, and most relied the gamer to through themselves into the grinder and learn. That's before anyone knew any better, but now we know that isn't good game design.

Doing difficulty right in a modern context is hard, but examples like Demon's Souls and XCOM: EU are examples of games that require you to pay attention. Your hand isn't held, but things are explained to those with a willing attention span. Doing difficulty right just requires Devs to set a clear pace for the game and explain the systems along it, and hold the design to its own rules.

After that, they have done their job correctly. Unless it's broken, people that have a problem with the game just don't have the gaming capacity or skill to play it.

jukins4160d ago

Well said good sir well said.

Hasanhastam4160d ago

If harder difficulty be confusing = no

chasegarcia4160d ago

I hate difficult games that have cheating AI.

DragonKnight4160d ago

Depends on what you mean by difficulty. Demon's Souls has difficulty right. Relentless enemies, stage traps, and forcing the player to learn as they go through the game. But "difficulty" meaning AI that just have more HP, or Defense, and hit harder is not difficulty. That's just cheap programming masquerading as difficulty. Make the enemy more aggressive, make more of them, or make them spawn randomly in each playthrough so you never have the same thing happening twice.

But things like giving the enemy a dodge move and not the players (i've seen that in Skyrim) or anything cheap like that isn't difficulty.

Games are too easy these days. Thanks to the casual audience and this damned accessibility phase developers are on.

Dovahkiin4160d ago

I agree entirely, just changing a few parameters shouldn't always be the way difficulty is handled.

BitbyDeath4159d ago (Edited 4159d ago )

Games should be fun and i did not find Demons Souls to be. Playing for an hour or more and messing up once means you have to start from the beginning all over again is not my idea of fun. So i traded it in.

Difficulty should come in smarter AI like what 'The Last of Us' is doing. Not cheap tricks that make you start all over again or have no idea what you are doing like some of the older final fantasy games that make you reach for a walkthrough every few hours cause it doesn't explain where you are to go next yet you have a giant open world to explore.

DragonKnight4159d ago (Edited 4159d ago )

Demon's Souls doesn't have any cheap tricks, and if you think that it does then clearly you just don't get Demon's Souls. The point of dying and starting at the beginning is to teach you to be methodical instead of the ol' CoD mentality of "run and gun." The game is meant to punish you for being stupid and thinking you're invincible. And as for the older FF games, the only one that I remember doesn't explain to you where you're supposed to go is the very first FF game. Any of the other games you have to actually play the game and talk to NPC's.

Man, some people just want to have their hands held in the game all the time.

ApolloTheBoss4160d ago (Edited 4160d ago )

It depends for me. If it's a story-driven game I like to keep it as easy as possible, because I hate having to start over the same sequences if it's too hard. On the other hand if i'm playing something like a FPS or any multiplayer game I like a little challenge.

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200°

Players claim Fortnite ruined Call of Duty by letting in more corporate greed

Do you remember what gaming was like before Fortnite entered the gaming space? One of the biggest arguments was about loot boxes. Now we have conversations about crossovers, battle passes, and community outreach.

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gamesandwich.com
GoodGuy097d ago (Edited 7d ago )

Idk. Loot boxes did disappear and battle passes and in game purchases are all cosmetic. We get free weapons and maps post launch, any gameplay affecting content. I could care less about all the cosmetics.
I absolutely hated the days where weapons were locked behind a less than 1% chance lootbox pull where it'd take 5+ hours to have enough tokens to do a single pull and lazy remastered/remake maps cost you $15 each wave or $50 for the season pass that you didn't know what you'd get and these maps were only available to those that bought it so you get a smaller pool of players match with.

Tacoboto6d ago

The "good ole days" are actually what drove me away from COD and Halo 3/Reach. Halo 4 becoming a COD-like drove me away from that only a week or so after it launched and I beat its campaign.

It sucked way back then, going a month or two without playing online-shooter-of-the-moment, and then needing to buy a $15 map pack to play with the majority of the population or your favorite playlist. The "community" rejecting Spartan Points in MCC killed that game's support, too. No revenue = no support, plain and simple.

Cacabunga6d ago

That headline could easily be something Spencer could have said 😅 I had to check if it was really an opinion piece

KyRo6d ago

As times gone on, the COD battle pass has got ALOT worse so they can push people to buy the more premium battle pass which itself is a huge rip off and nearly half the price of the base game.

The cosmetics can be fine but they've taken it to far to the point of no return. Why make a military themed game then have rabbits, dinosaurs, cats, rats & z list rappers as skins? You wouldn't add a Lamborghini to a fantasy RPG to replace a horse and you would never see Mario have limb dismemberment because they know what they are. COD is having identity crisis but kids and streamer but then all

franwex6d ago (Edited 6d ago )

Call of duty can simply not copy the bad aspects of Fortnite? Or is that too out of this world? Like COD, a realistic shooter-just HAD to have Nicki Minaj running around? Or super heroes?

Inverno6d ago (Edited 6d ago )

Exactly! Trends don't all need to be followed. Plus where Fortnite got somewhat better with it's monetization, Acti got worse. Or at least Fortnite has lended itself more to the wacky stuff, and has put more effort and quality into that stuff.

jjb19816d ago

I prefer the battle passes with free maps than the $50 season pass that divided the community. I definitely feel that Fortnite had some influence on CoD having loot boxes with Blackout being introduced in 2018 with Black Ops 4.

PRIMORDUS6d ago (Edited 6d ago )

Actually Fortnite bullshit ruined Unreal Tournament. Epic are sellouts and I will never have that shitty store on my PC, fuck them and that shit bag Tim Sweeney. At least the community keeps the games alive, I still play UT2004.

StoneTitan6d ago

I mean cant really blame them for supporting the game that made them the most money and the most people player...ever?

Psychonaut856d ago

Call of Duty ruined Call of Duty. They needed no outside assistance.

Ra30305d ago

100% correct! The makers of Call of Duty ran out of ideas long, long ago so they take ideas from other games like Ghost Recon, Fortnite and any other FPS game hat had success hell CoD remasters maps that they've remastered several times already then charge you again for it. Call of Duty is simply a cut, copy and paste and then put the $70 price on it every year. Activision and now Microsoft has been essentially remastering Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare every year since it was released in 2007 its to the point it's worse than the sports game like the Madden, NBA and others yearly sports franchises.
@Psychonaut85 is spot on "Call of Duty ruined Call of Duty. They needed no outside assistance"!

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100°

Massive new COD Black Ops Gulf War leak lifts the lid on loadouts

The Black Ops Gulf War leaks continue with a list of weapon descriptions giving more info on what you can expect from new and returning weapons.

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theloadout.com
80°

Call of Duty Players Disappointed by $80 B.E.A.S.T. Glove Bundle Deal

Recently, players of Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone were met with a new bundle featuring the B.E.A.S.T. Glove, inspired by King Kong's armament in the Godzilla x Kong movie. However, the $80 price tag attached to this themed accessory left many Call of Duty fans feeling underwhelmed.

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xpgained.co.uk
Kaii14d ago

Morons that allow themselves to be milked continuously by this company is the definition of irony.
Spend more $$ and you'll end up In easier lobbies so you win both ways when ya spend that cash

melons14d ago

Controversy in the COD community feels like it happens within an alternate timeline. Activision will take the piss with something, there will be a momentary fuss about it, and then they will forget about it and carry on anyway. Repeat this cycle literally every year for the rest of time.

Gridknac13d ago

They call that a crack head! Thats what this is really about, its an addiction. People who dont smoke cigarettes look and laugh at the addicts that spend $8-$10 a pack, but they cant help themselves, they are addicted. That same analogy applies perfectly to the whole MT industry. Only an addict that was not thinking clearly would spend this kind of money on something so frivolous. A round of multiplayer provides the same high a person gets from scratching a lotto ticket, or putting money on a sports bet. MT in general need to really be regulated because you have a generation of kids becoming adults who grew up only knowing the MT era of gaming. Its normal to them and they will in turn teach their kids the same by just being a gaming parent and getting their kids involved with them in gaming. Thats why no matter how ridiculous the headlines keep getting out of the MT industry, it never seems to fade or go away.

X-2312d ago

I'm so tired of hearing about what they're doing with this game, its never going to change and it's never going to value the consumer over money, furthermore the people who engage so heavily in the microtransactions I guess allegedly are having a blast and can't wait to do it some more this year when the new version of the game drops.