Dumbing Down for the Filthy Casuals

Necuno

Necuno

The Piper
Dumbing Down for the Filthy Casuals

There are valid concerns with the "dumbing down" of our entertainment, but as with so many issues, there are just as many invalid ones. This is especially true when "inclusiveness" and "dumbing down" are seen as the same thing.
Making games more accessible while providing experienced players with experiences they're used to isn't bad. Providing a variety of modes for less skilled gamers, or optional player help, is a good idea. If you have a problem with that, you're kind of an asshole.

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That Jim guy is an idiot.
Reminds me of some bitchy teenage girl than someone to take seriously.
 
I dunno. Generally I find Jim's opinions quite hard to disagree with, and while I can't disagree with this one, it doesn't exactly address the issue of dumbing down games so much as it addresses two individual games which can be considered isolated incidents.
 
Graal said:
I dunno. Generally I find Jim's opinions quite hard to disagree with, and while I can't disagree with this one, it doesn't exactly address the issue of dumbing down games so much as it addresses two individual games which can be considered isolated incidents.
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Pretty much what I thought, because he starts to talk about the topping on the cupcake without digging deeper...
 
I also actually kinda disagree with him on Dark Souls. He's right that an easy mode wouldn't affect the normal mode, but an easy mode actually takes away the very thing that makes the game so good. If you take away the difficulty of Dark Souls, you're left with a pretty bland RPG. I don't think the game would be very enjoyable if it were any easier.
 
Graal said:
I also actually kinda disagree with him on Dark Souls. He's right that an easy mode wouldn't affect the normal mode, but an easy mode actually takes away the very thing that makes the game so good. If you take away the difficulty of Dark Souls, you're left with a pretty bland RPG. I don't think the game would be very enjoyable if it were any easier.
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I think it would break the game, people would be too tempted to change to easy if they got stuck instead struggling to figure out what to do next. I think half the greatness of the game is that sense of achievement when you finally get to the new area or figure something out.
 
All these older games that were at the height of "intelligent" game design still had easy/medium/hard settings - just like what DS is going to introduce. Most often, the medium/hard settings were a reflection of how the game was meant to be played - but the easy setting was still completely playable and the user could enjoy the game in it's entirety, albeit with less button mashing and save-game reloading.

The concept of "dumbing down" games refers to another situation all together. I'm all for inclusiveness, though. There are plenty of people out there who don't have the well developed hand-eye coordination of hardcore gamers, but who would still be able to enjoy games just as much. So long as the button mashing isn't too complicated and quick.
 
One difficulty games can work well if done right. But then you need to be really good at balancing and making games. Multiple difficulties can truly screw up the scaling of the game as can be seen in Skyrim. Instead of adding an easy/normal/hard setting you can add them as "paths" in the game. Something dark soul kinda does.

I'm against all this give monsters 200% damage, players do 50% damage crap and vice versa.

Completely linear "movie" games like Max Payne3 I see the point of sticking to the old easy/normal/hard formula.
 
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