How important is challenge difficulty to you?

[Croconaw]

I actually like a little difficulty. I love games to be a little challenging and always have it on medium-high difficulty if given the option. I play sports games, and I try to adjust the sliders for as much realism as possible.

My dad was saying, though, that he likes it in the easiest setting because he likes to dominate in game. I would personally find it to be boring after a while if there wasn’t any challenge. I wouldn’t like it.

How about you? Do you like having a challenge in games or do you prefer to have it on the easiest setting possible? Obviously, I don’t mean things being nearly impossible, but I want to have a hard challenge.

 

[Megaroni]

Depends for me. I like easy when I need a dopamine rush or to just pass the time (like simple puzzle apps and Mahjong) and harder games most other times. I'm a huge completionist so I like taking easy games and simulators and completing all of it. Currently doing that with Stardew except now with all the new content that came out. I also have a weird obsession with the Sans battle in Undertale. I spent so long trying to beat it that I didn't wanna just end that chapter of my life and move on to a different game. I keep it open and complete it a few times while just closing the game right after so the game doesn't know that I completed it. Sometimes when I need an adrenaline rush I'll just play the Sans battle for half an hour or so. I've been doing this for a long time, when I was younger I would do the same on Little Big Planet and Diner Dash lol.

 

[Xara]

i don’t (and haven’t) played many games that have difficulty settings, but i definitely enjoy a bit of a challenge. like you, i wouldn’t want something that’s practically impossible to complete, but i wouldn’t want something too easy, either.

 

[Tao]

I used to say that I loved higher difficulty until I think about the time I completed all the Halo games at the time (everything up to and including Reach) on Legendary...And how I probably would never go back and do it again because it just wasn't that fun in retrospect. Legendary was tedious and frustrating, Normal was far too forgiving and pointless feeling, Hard was the sweet spot.

I still want difficulty, but I just want it to push me enough that the game isn't just a total domination, there's a chance I can lose or mess up and ultimately feel good that I managed to beat it despite those things, not regardless of those things. I usually go for 'hard' difficulty when I start a game and if need be go up or down from there because I just find that's usually the sweet spot for me where I'm not seeing the 'Game Over' screen every 10 seconds but I'm not moonwalking past the bosses either. 'Normal' tends to feel like 'Easy', 'Very Hard' feels like they've just maxed out all the enemies to 500% which is just frustrating and/or tedious.

Mowing down every enemy in the game with near no risk of death sounds absolutely tedious to me and I just don't see why I would bother playing when the difficulty guarantees I'm going to get to the end. I want to earn the 'congratulations' at the end, not be handed it like a participation trophy. At that point, the game really does just become a mindless waste of time.




That said, if a game only has one difficulty setting, I'll just deal with it. The one difficulty setting these types of games usually have feel like what I would call 'Easy Mode', but there'll often be another reason I've found to be enjoying the game.

 

[Livia]

I'm really bad at games, so I need an easy setting to even have a chance at it. I've had to give up on a lot of games because I got stuck at some random boss fight or something similar and I'm unable to do it. I don't mind dying a lot in games (unless it's permadeath or I lose a lot of items), but it gets very frustrating when I can't progress further in the game. Most recently I had to quit Terraria because it's still too hard on the easiest setting. It's disappointing because I was having fun and played almost 80 hours in it, but now I'm stuck.

 

[Mayor Jack]

I'm not that great at video games and most the games I play are life-sims anyway so they don't have too much challenge to them. If I do play a game that has challenge to it though it is usually quite easy. I like the Kirby games since they have a bit of challenge for me but aren't extremely difficult.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I feel like people these days take gaming way too seriously and they always want a challenge, which isn't bad for those who want a challenge, that is not the problem. The problem is that sometimes when people want a challenge they tend to call the game "Too easy" and they find it "boring" which I find pretty immature.

With all due respect I know its fine to have difficulty settings in a game, but then its like if that same person who played the game on "hard difficulty" will somehow brag to others how "easy" the game is and then tell them to "git good" which was the advice that many people have gotten around the mid 2010s.

For me personally I don't really care about a game's difficulty. I prefer games that are fun and sure if its hard then I might get frustrated, but when I finally beat it, its a good feeling inside. I guess it just depends on personal preference and what you expect in a game. Its a pretty touchy subject in the gaming community, but thats how I feel about it.

 

[Croconaw]

-snip-

Well, I do agree, and unfortunately have come across some of those people. They’ll brag about how they play on the most difficult setting. I feel that this is most common in sports games and shooting games. I think most people who play those genres take video games a bit too seriously. I don’t specify what difficulty I have games on, nor do I post videos on YouTube of my gameplay. I just play for fun, which I believe more people should do.

Editing to add this is in. I absolutely hate how when people do post their accomplishments because they’re proud, people always have something negative to say. It’s always “do you play on easy?” …or worse, they just assume you have it on rookie. So much importance is put on what difficulty you use. We should all just play the game.

 

[Romaki]

It really depends on the game, but usually I don't think it's more honorable to have to kill an enemy with 5 hits instead of 3. If there's a setting, I just go with Normal to experience the game as intended. There are games where I had to change the difficulty because the game was too easy to enjoy, the South Park games for example. Then there were games that were too precise for me too enjoy on normal. Like, games on easy are still challenging, especially going in blind.

And playing loads of games on easy as a new PC gamer still made me better at games and I don't feel lesser about my experience. The whole difficulty snobbery makes me cringe a lot. Games are pieces of entertainment, it's not that deep. Like learn how to sew or something practical idk. xD

 

[Midoriya]

I’d say a game being challenging is fairly important to me, but not to the point of it’s literally impossible for me to beat. If a game is too difficult for me to beat the first couple times, however, I usually put it down for awhile and come back to it later.

 

[ChocoPie22]

The first run through I usually have the difficulty on normal, if I play it again I might bump the difficulty up once more.