Current Events > C/D: As you've gotten older you play on lower difficulty modes in games

(+) Yeah! (+)

C

When I was young, I used to play most games on normal/medium (with some exceptions) but now it's almost always on the lowest possible difficulty settings. Lower than easy, if available. The only exception is racing games, where I use the highest difficulty setting that still results in me winning all races, usually the second or third highest difficulty.

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Normal was always my standard but I occasionally played on higher. Now its always normal

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Normal for me

My instinct is still almost always to start a new game in hard mode, what's changed is games holding my interest enough to actually play through and beat them.

Always normal for me. Then if I really like the game I might go back and do a harder thing.

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Reverse for me. As a kid I wasn't confident enough to start a game on normal so i'd always do easy first. Then if i beat it id try normal.

Now i just always do normal.

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reverse. i've started playing hard more now more than ever, because i always think i won't invest enough time in it anyway so i might as well play it as its most brutal

most often a mistake and it makes me hate the game more because it's usually frustrating. i need to stop doing that.

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Normal

The one exception is Tony Hawk where I always play Sick difficulty

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Normal difficulty is my default option except in rare cases.

I found myself getting more skillfull in games with age, but now I have less patience and tolerance for tedious stuff like grinding or objectively badly designed sections and bosses.
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C, since I hit 30, I've played hard modes less because I just don't have the time.

That said, the only game I've ever completed on easy is Bravely Default 2, and only because I felt obligated to finish it but didnt want to devote more time than necessary to it because it's trash.

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D. When I was a kid, I was a sore loser who couldnt stand failing, so I would always make games as easy as I could for myself.

Nowadays, I default to whatever is the default setting, or higher if its an easy game or something Im good at. I still get pretty frustrated if I lose a lot tho >_>

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SothaSil posted...

Normal was always my standard but I occasionally played on higher. Now its always normal

Exactly this

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yes
now that i'm old i have enough real challenges that i just want to recreate when i've got a screen in my face

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I beat RE8 on VoS difficulty recently, so hard D.

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No I haven't, feels like playing games on easy mode would be a waste of time without a challenge. Might as well not even turn on the PlayStation.

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I usually play on normal because I felt like that was what the developer designed and balanced the game for. Harder than that usually makes the game feel cheesy, and easier makes it not even a game.

Exception is when the description says normal is for "new players" of a series I already know or for just enjoying the story.

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depends on the options. if it's three-tiered (easy, normal, hard), i choose normal.

if it's five-tiered (very easy, easy, normal, hard, very hard), i choose hard.

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Used to play on the hardest difficulty. Then I played the second new Wolfenstein game on the hardest difficulty and wondered why tf I do this to myself. Wasn't even a fun, rewarding challenge it was just miserable throughout lol
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D. I've always preferred easier game modes, and nowadays I tend to start on normal. If I really like a game, and it offers reasonable rewards, I'll play the harder modes for the sake of completion.

The last game I did that with was A Robot Named Fight. There were two limited run challenges: complete a run in 35 minutes, and complete a run with a 15% collection rate. I'm not a speedrunner, and my favorite part of metroidvanias is getting OP as fuck, so I really had to modify my playstyle to get those challenges done.

Like, the average run takes about 50+ minutes for me. Getting through the entire map and back up to the final boss in half an hour? Shit's fucked.

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Ryven posted...

Reverse for me. As a kid I wasn't confident enough to start a game on normal so i'd always do easy first. Then if i beat it id try normal.

Now i just always do normal.

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d, i choose the highest difficulty to see what i've mostly been avoiding

but i kinda cheat if cheat is available (like having the best weapons and challenging secret bosses in the first playthrough or just minimizing the grind) don't have enough time to replay from the very start

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Nope, still hard. I like it because I learn fastest and better when I'm thrown in the deep end.

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at this point there are certain genres of games i cant even play anymore, pretty much anything really fast paced or twitchy is off the table for me

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ArianaGrandSlam posted...

No, as its always been forever, its a game-by-game basis. If a higher difficulty actually offers a more interesting experience, Ill check it out. If a higher difficulty is just damage numbers are bigger and thats it I probably wont check it out

but how do you know until you've played it? Especially in the case of less popular games where it's difficult or impossible to find actual information about difficulty levels

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Romulox28 posted...

at this point there are certain genres of games i cant even play anymore, pretty much anything really fast paced or twitchy is off the table for me

Same. I've moved away from FPS for a similar reason. And I see no point in playing roguelikes or soulslikes.

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Ive always started on hard. Its just not fun to me if there isnt some challenge. I usually dont go above that though

Some games are an exception though. Bayonetta for example was crazy brutal on hard for me just starting out. Getting demolished like that just isnt fun so I played through normal to learn the ropes and went through again on hard and had much more fun

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games that are heavily story based I'll be much more inclined to play at lower difficulties, because dying every ten minutes when you go through a tough gameplay moment, and it can kinda hurt the actual enjoyment if you die all the time and nothing of consequence happens (this is especially an issue in horror games IMO)

at first i played God of War ps4 on Normal. i thought i was in for a nice story but i can see the series really focused on the combat. i struggled with it so i put it on easy. then it was TOO easy. so easy that it got boring.

so i quit.

HZD was similiar, but after being able to 2 shot pretty much any enemy i had a blast lol.

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D.

I used to play on Easy when I was a kid. I didn't keep it on Medium until I was in my late teens or 20s or so. I think Castlevania 64 was what made me stop because you couldn't even finish the game on the Easy difficulty.

I've never really had an issue with difficulty since then, and even if I do, I adjust and adapt to it really quickly.

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Definitely confirm.

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D

I typically play on the default difficulty setting and ramp it up if it's too easy. But I can certainly say that my oldest son has eclipsed my skill level. I can't determine whether or not my younger has as well because he plays drastically different games.

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Normal difficulty but once my character gets all the skills, armor, weapons, I sometimes get overpowered and bump it up to highest difficulty.

example skyrim, horizon zero dawn, and Witcher 3 just to name a few

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I play whatever gives me a fair challenge. Sometimes that's normal. Sometimes that's Hard.

Rarely will I play on Easy unless the game is designed to start on easy and work your way to very hard, like in Fallout.

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d. depends on why I'm playing the game

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Literally the reverse

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i usually play games on the hardest setting 1 time only and then never normal
in games like last of us or uncharted i really get invested in the story so i play on easy so i dont have a bunch of deaths slowing the pace of the narrative

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Ill play SMT on Hard on a second play through.
But Fire Emblem? Its either Normal or Hard/Casual. Three Houses throws swarms of super pegs at you on Hard.

D.

I still prefer to play on Hard mode.

Granted, there are limits. Like, I'll play Fire Emblem on Hard Classic Mode, but I'm not going to waste my time on Lunatic.

though now a days when i go back and play old rpgs im more likely to use cheat codes to speed things up like turn off random encounters and or give myself max gold so i can quickly upgrade equipment instead of having to grind for gold

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D
Always hardest difficulty since I was little.

C

Used to start on hardest mode, but now go for normal or easy on first playthrough. Not enough time to continuously die and retry. If I really enjoy the game then I'll attempt more challenging runs.

I usually just play on Normal mode if offered.

Though if a mainline Pokemon game ever offered a legit Hard mode, I would play on that instead.

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D.

I got out of gaming in the early 90's because they were becoming too easy. Souls games brought me back and that's about all I play.

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D. I've always played on the highest difficulty setting I can handle.

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Normal

D

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