The Daily Grind: How easy is too easy?
by Eliot Lefebvre 
Nov 24th 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind
Difficulty in games is a contentious issue at any point. Brian "Psychochild" Green recently had a musing on the topic of difficulty as it applies to most games, but even that discussion stops shy of discussing MMOs, where multiple difficulty levels are rarely an option. Designers can make harder events, but if the rewards are the same as something easier, no one will bother making life harder on themselves. That makes the "hard mode" more than just an increased challenge, and sets up a hardwired and sometimes arbitrary challenge-to-reward ratio. On the flip side... well, it's not fun to have the game just hand everything to you. We want to feel as if we're accomplishing something when we play.
So today, we ask you, what's too far in either direction? What sort of penalties or challenges make something so ridiculously hard it's not worth bothering? By the same token, how simple does something have to be before you're annoyed at the ease of it all? What levels of difficulty can be tinkered with without making the game unpleasant, and what elements of gameplay are best kept at a set level?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wisdomandlore said on 9:01AM 11-24-2009
That depends what "hard" is. I've seen soloers say raiding is easy because you have 10-25 other people to count on. I've seen raiders bemoan the ezmode nature most games acquire over time.
IMO, the combat and enemy AI in most MMOs is too simple to ever be hard, at least in the same way that other video games are hard. Combat (excluding critical hits) is a foregone conclusion if you pay attention. Your character can beat X enemies of Y level at once. Even grouping/raiding boils down to choreography rather than thought most of the time.
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LaughingTarget said on 8:53AM 11-24-2009
Preference likely stems from age and career level. I have a 40 hour a week job. The last thing I want when I come home is to do something difficult. I'd rather enjoy myself. This is probably why these days I just set the game down on easy and enjoy storylines. For MMOs, it's about questing a bit.
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mailhierher said on 9:37AM 11-24-2009
More important than the actual level of difficulty is that a game encourages a player to improve his players skills. For example if randomly smashing buttons is as effective as fighting tactically the whole thing becomes pointless. "Easy to learn, hard to master" is alwyas a good approach to difficulty i think.
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Happyfish said on 11:39AM 11-24-2009
One thing that bothers me about MMOs is they try to be everything for everyone and we all know the parable of what happens when you do that. I would rather have 2 or 3 niche MMOs then a bloated MMO that tried everything but did it poorly.
For example, in LotRO you can easily solo to the level cap, but once you get there progress comes to a screeching halt as content becomes more group based and difficult. So essentially you're playing 2 games, one thats super easy from 1-60, and one that becomes more cumbersome and difficult at cap. It would be nice if Turbine had a clearer vision for the game rather than this sort of bipolar leveling system which gets people all fired up.
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crsh said on 12:26PM 11-24-2009
There really doesn't seem to be any more "hard" content in MMOs, it's been completely replaced by time-consuming tasks that one cannot (technically, humanly) complete in a normal sitting to keep you playing (and paying).
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Ronix said on 1:59PM 11-24-2009
I don't find any MMORPG hard. Just like crsh said, just a bunch of time consuming things that make it "hard". Admit it, when ever you fight a mob in an MMO unless they are much higher level, it's always the same key presses and just bash until it dies. The only time you run the risk of dying is if you kill to quick and forget to watch your HP and sit down to rest OR you happen to afk in a bad spot.
The only thing I ever found challenging was working with a competent group. If all the Raids in WoW were SOLO, it'd be easy as pie.
We need monsters that trick us, ambush us, flank us, etc. Why can't enemies backstab us from the shadows more often?
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Davy said on 4:22PM 11-24-2009
I really enjoy the changes in the difficulty system in the most recent CoH issue. Being able to choose how difficult your mishes are, how many people they spawn for, whether bosses appear or not, etc, puts the tools in the players hands so we can choose on any given day whether we want an easy game or a hard game.
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Mike said on 5:30PM 11-24-2009
Ronix IMO hit the nail on the head, using the biggest one as an example, WoW got easy because theres no chance happenings. Every boss has 100% success rate as long as you have the gear and know the three or four things they will do. Theres no chance during a fight that a monster will appear from the shadows and knock out a healer, tanks are required to even have enough gear that makes a critical hit on them impossible.
But thats not easy to fix with any MMORPG, because its an RPG, unless there is an unlimited amount of content eventually you have the gear and the information to do anything PvE related with ease.
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Plastic Rat said on 9:26PM 11-24-2009
Taking WoW as an example, the furore on the forums every time they have tried to do anything even remotely like you suggest would has stopped designers doing anything like that.
Everything you do, there will be some group of people who will complain that it's unfair. Monsters materializing out of shadows and attacking healers? "OMFG BLIZZ WTF!!! CHEAP!! NOT FAIR!!!"
The kiddies would cry long, hot tears of rage about it all over the forums.
If something is challenging, the majority of players will just skip it and find something easier. It's quite possible to complete a heroic instance with 4 or even 3 players in WoW. Now you try finding a group who will actually attempt that... Even from your own guild.
The simple reason why most MMOs today are easy is not because developers can't create challenging events, it's because since MMOs became popular, the whiny, entitled keyboard turners that actually just want a chatroom with graphics have infested everything.
The same reason that MMOs are one of the biggest segments of the gaming industry is the same reason they're ridiculously easy.