Be honest, and no bullying other anons. Do you prefer games to be on the easier or more difficult side? Why?

what does it matter faggot? a game is good based on its contents, difficulty is a part of that. if the game is easy and still good then thats good. if its only easy so it can sell more copies to retards then it should be gassed along with the publishers that pushed it, the devs that allowed it, and the retards that bought it and sing its praises.

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this is also the case for games that are hard and are good. games that are hard for the sake of being hard just for memes sake.

Depends, if I expect the game to be good I play on a high difficulty, if I play it without expectations I play on easy to go trough it fast.

It depends on the game. Sometimes I just want to play something like animal crossing or something equally relaxing. Sometimes I want to be really intense.

If anons play a game on the easiest difficulty because they are too scared or cannot beat the game on a harder difficulty, they deserve to get bullied.

No, if I want to play a game with "story" then I would just read a fucking book. The only time a game should be easy is if it's a educational game that actually has gameplay. Fuck you OP, you should know the answer to this.

Difficult, for two reasons: Because, simply put, I enjoy the feel of pulling off something challenging, and because I prefer my video games to be more of an active form of entertainment. To me, easy video games are incredibly passive feeling, and there's just other forms of entertainment that do that better.

Shit, I was going to post that. I've beaten it multiple times and it still gives me heaps of trouble.

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But I already played a shit ton of mario games. :^)

Games being hard for the sake of it is just bollocks. I love a good challenge but a game should be rewarding and satisfying above difficulty. It being rewarding and satisfying will make you want to do the challenge again which becomes more rewarding the more sucessful you become at it.

And if the game is so braindead easy then why bother replaying it again if it doesn't engage you at all? See the problem with games being hard or easy just for the sake of being hard or easy?
It's like moderation has been lost to the new generation. What a shame.

Harder
Because every game these days is made up of repetitive easy shit

I like both and for differing reasons/moods. Easy is great either for relaxing or for learning a game at my own pace (because I don't trust tutorials to teach me shit compared to just dicking around in the Controls screen and pressing buttons). Hard is for when I want a challenge or a struggle and nothing else.

Difficulty should basically mean "How much lube do you want before you get fucked in the ass?" and not "Do you want to get fucked in the ass or do you want a sticker that says "I tried very hard!"?"

I would prefer a challenge.

shit taste tbh fam

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Depends on my mood, user. Like, if I'm in a great mood, I sorta want to be challenged, but if I;m in a shitty downer ass mood I want to literally just read a VN.

harder side. Ain't no fun if there is no challenge.

in between

My favorite thing is this:
The game has one difficulty setting. The game is not particularly difficult, and at the beginning, can be called somewhat easy. You have no tutorial area, and a lot of mechanics are not available at the beginning. As you continue to advance through the game, more mechanics make themselves available to the player. Because of the skills you acquire, by the time you reach the end-game, you can do things that would be impossible at the beginning. There would also be spin-off and side areas with greater challenges, so if you want to make a detour, you can go ahead and do so for the greater challenge.

Once you've completed the initial game, you can go back and do some sort of New Game Plus or Hard Mode variant. Unlike the initial setting, which was designed to be more about experiencing the story and familiarizing yourself with the game, this Hard Mode is a sort of challenge mode that actually tests you out.

Not enough games do this, unfortunately.

This is a dumb fucking black and white "question". Easy games are fun and dandy, but the reward you get from finishing them is lackluster, more difficult games provide you with a sense of accomplishment. You could continue this rhetoric to many other things in life, the irony being that easier and less difficult work, for example, will give you more time to play vidya.

I worked to years until December in babby mode tier work, and while it was not fulfilling at all to my potential, I watched tons of movies, read tons of manga, played tons of games and read many books during my workhours without any affect on my work results. Now moving on to a more demanding and stressful position, feels like I'm too tired to leave the work behind and stress about it even in my dreams. So in some cases, easy modo is better, but that is only if the reward for beating the more demanding shit is good enough (i.e. monetary compensation matches).

Depends on the type of difficulty.
Even if the game is brutally difficult I would prefer if it actually has some mechanics to master instead of just reloading your save till you get through.

I'll say this, Holla Forums obsesses over games needing to be challenging. The number of times I've seen a genuinely enjoyable game become popular and Holla Forums's attempt to take it down a notch involves focusing on how casual or easy it is instead of explaining why the game is not enjoyable.

This is why the souls games spawned serious cancer. The fanbase of those games had a huge "hardcore games for hardcore gamers such as myself" circlejerk going and focused far too much on how hard the games were instead of why they were good. The result was all the "souls-likes" where loads of devs got this idea that all they had to game a good game was make it hard.

difficult, because that makes it engaging.

It matters in how the difficulty scales.
If hard mode is just more HP than hard mode is just slightly more time consuming.
If hard mode is more challenging enemy types or better behavior than it is a good hard mode and something I would be inclined to try.

My normal pick is normal though because of the idea

Easy mode is for game journos who want to mow though a game without really playing it and then give it a 7/10 unless its by a popular brand name.

I prefer game modes that limit the player.
Like trying to go for The One Free Bullet in HL2:EP2 or the Factory Zero achievement in DE:HR Missing Link.
Katana only mode in Superhot.
Last month I did a self imposed run of Skyrim without dragon shouts, improved the game exponentially.

Difficulty for the right reasons, either deep gameplay or forcing me to play better, is great.

If a game doesn't have a steep learning curve, and I don't need to get better while I play it… what's the fucking point?

Plenty much of what you said is right - Hard mode should be more than just 'bullet sponges' but better behaviour/AI/more surprises. Bonus points if hard mode even gives you more goodies like a extra cutscene/ending and more if you complete it perhaps.

It depends on the game

/thread

If there's an option to choose difficulty I usually go for hardest or one before that if hardest sounds like absolute bullshit. If there are unlockable difficulties I'll probably never see them because if I've completed it once I'm done. Sadly harder difficulty very often just means enemies are more spongey.

For games themselves, I lean towards hard, but I want room to goof around. Above all I need to master different skills. The one genre where I prefer easy is graphic adventures but not really a fan anyways, fuck that shit about finding the exact pixel.

Is it because I'm PC only or has this year been real fucking shit?

The best ones are those where the difficulty comes from trying to achieve a high rating, and if it kicks your ass too much, just settle for completing the level. Such as Hitman.

I want them hard like a cock no homo

I like my games to have a reasonable progression of difficulty. Difficulty spikes and enemies/you do more/less damage are poor game design. I don't care if it's insanely difficult at the end of the game, but if there is one level/area/room that suddenly gets impossibly difficult for no reason… I'm likely to rage quit.

I enjoy figure out about game mechanic and possible skillsets/strategy/planing then game itself.

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More difficult, getting mentally challenged and having to constantly mind what you're doing is fun and makes you busy.
An easy game that you can just go through with one hand without giving it much thought is just boring

My games can be though of as two. Serious and casual. I spend most of my time on a single serious game. I never play more than one serious game at a time. It would be unreasonably difficult to do so, especially with responsibilities. These games are typically special and can be played indefinitely. Then there are the casual games which I play only to take a break from the serious game. They come in a higher quantity and are not played for a long time. Often they are discarded when completed. I have played countless casual games but only 2 or 3 serious games. My current special game I have been playing actively for close to a decade. It's a life changing experience to discover a new serious game, but it doesn't happen often.

it really depends on the game. but in general i will enjoy it more if i have to pay attention and learn.
what i dont enjoy is when its hard to figure out what i need to learn or do better. if a mechanic takes effort to figure out it should come with a good explanation.

I like a nice medium. I don't want to breeze through, but I don't want to get raped every six seconds either.

What are you, a casual?

Depends on what the difficulty does.
If it's just stat-padding artificial difficulty bullshit (like Witcher 3, most FPSes, etc) I just play the "middle" difficulty settings and be done with it.
If it changes the difficulty of the game in ways other than stat padding, I'd play on the one that makes things the most challenging but no risk of getting myself BTFO after one hit. LDK on DMC4 for example.

Easy to learn, hard to master!™©®

I prefer easy games because I'm enough of a failure IRL i don't need to be one in a game.

i feel you bruh

The game can be as hard as tits, as long as the rules of the game world are first shown in an easy setting. Look at the design philosophy of Super Mario 3D world. Every level has a gimmick to it, and the key to getting the player to deal with that gimmick is to introduce it in a safe area, then in a difficult area with twists and challenges. If the game gives you zero hints as to how the world works and what you can interact with, it's bullshit. Blurry visuals and stiff, unhelpful controls also make it bullshit. Super Mario World is an excellent example of an old game that's not too difficult (save function) and plenty of challenge.

To clarify:

Super Mario Bros: only bullshit part is the lack of a save feature.
Secret of Monkey Island: bullshit solutions with no indicator of what you can interact with and how.
Alone in the Dark: low resolution and slow controls make the gameplay frustrating
Doom: no bullshit anywhere except a few opening door puzzles in episode 3.
Quake: Zero Bullshit.

It's okay if there's surprise attacks as long as it's not too far away from a save point.

Absolutely more difficult, because I fucking hate myself.

I prefer to get my ass kicked

Why would you need a save system with such abundant warps?

high quality post

Depends on the game and my mood at the time, though the Ys series strikes a wonderful balance.

What pisses me off is "Difficult" games. Like Dark Souls. That game isn't hard once you master the clunky as fuck controls and learn every enemy's exploitable opening. I prefer games be more about execution puzzles than just, whatever the hell Souls games are.

Ninja Gaiden II on the NES is my gold standard for "Hard". The path to the goal is plainly visible, it's up to you to get there.No stupid metagame, no bullshit forced PVP shit against your will. You, the level, the hazards, and no bullshit.

You mean Mega Man. That is the design philosophy from the Mega Man games on the NES.