[lotusofro]

Are games easier?

Yes for the most part. I don't think we'll ever return to the times of companies like Infocom. The games Infocom made could be amazingly difficult. The problem as mentioned before is that there is too much competition for games to give you the proper time to adjust to the style and skill level of a good game. There are of course many different exceptions, but for the most part games are easy.

Someone mentioned you have around 5 minutes to get a players attention and this is most definitely true. You have 5 minutes to get the Player to empathize with their character. That's about it. Now I firmly believe in EASY early levels on my mud. Then move towards increased difficulty. Until at the end there are a lot of options for the player since the world is big. They can go to "easy," areas , "hard," areas or many in between.

I believe games should for the most part follow this line of thought. "Bioware," seems to be particularly good at getting your attention in 5 minutes, creating an indepth world (for those willing to read books lying about or to find out all they can about planet histories in their space sagas), and offering different levels of difficulty with one thing in common: they all start easy, and you always gain power quickly and then at some point the difficulty doesn't exist anymore and your PC becomes a Super PC able to handle waves of enemies. This to me is fun. I get to enjoy the early levels and feel like I accomplished something during the tedious and more difficult levels, then as a reward you become a badass.

I think there are psychological reasons for the way that Bioware and many, many, many companies go about their designs. The reason the companies use that route? It works.

We live in a day where HYPE is what sells games. The new games are hyped MONTHS before they are released to the public and are generally judged within a day of release as living up to the hype or not. There are games that are ignored in the development cycle and sometimes come out and surprise. These sometimes gain popularity but sometimes don't. Generally those games are more difficult than others.

Plus you have to consider the fact that we've become GOOD GAMERS. We know the tricks. It's incredibly difficult for a First Person Shooter to surprise me with increased difficulty. I've been playing these games since Castle Wolfenstien! So when games like BIOSHOCK come out and I play it at moderate difficulty the first time through and never die, was I challenged? I'd say yes, there were definitely spots that got my adrenaline going.

Generally "Hard," in game levels now means "The computer cheats," and you've got to really outplay the system. In FPS games this generally means they take more shots to kill, and you take less. In RTS games it means they build faster than you (generally instantly) and your chances of winning are severely reduced. In RPG games it means they get bonuses to their die rolls.

What "Hard," doesn't appear to ever mean is "We've added more difficult puzzles and force you to use your noggin."

Remember too, people are dumb. Games are made for people.