Games are definitely getting too easy and pandering toward the casual crowd of facebook and angry bird "gamers" and forgetting the people who actually want a decent challenge. Here are some quotes from the cancelled AMBROV X kickstarter project to give an example of what the industry thinks of gamers' abilities today:
Over the past decade or two, games have already made great strides on number one. Many (possibly most?) games now offer different difficulty levels, and many (most?) of those allow you to change difficulty on the fly. In Bioware games, there are often load screen hints suggesting that if a fight is too difficult, you reduce the difficulty level so you can get through it. But for people already struggling on the lowest difficulty, those hints don’t help, since there is no lower difficulty to bounce to. It seems like an obvious next step to allow a “skip combat” or “press to win” option that players can select when a particular fight is too tough for them. This way, when you buy a game, you will always know that there is a way to complete it and have a satisfying experience regardless of your skill level.
And:
But the two thirds of players who never finish most games are obviously not willing or able to get to the triumph – for them, the game is remembered only as frustrating and eventually games in general become too associated with frustration to keep playing.
I find this really sad and pathetic that the industry considers gamers so bad at games that they even
thought of an option to skip combat or "press to win" in a game. Or the fact that apparently two thirds of "gamers" don't even finish the games because they are "too hard" when they are easier than ever nowadays. I play games because I want a challenge, I don't want an interactive movie where I can press a button and win the game. Games these days do
so much handholding, helping out, checkpoints, guides, etc... that almost all of the challenge is gone. And yet, people still struggle with these types of games. I haven't seen many recent games that are actually fun, but geniunely challenging and difficult.
One game that I was happily delighted with the difficulty was
Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone. It was a really fun and entertaining game, and looked very simple and easy. It was HARD. The enemies were not only fast and strong, they were
smart. They would dodge your attacks, and quickly retaliate. You could not button mash, as your attacks have delays, and you would quickly die.
Some might think that the people who were playing games for a long time have nostalgia goggles on in regards to the difficulty, but then I start playing some of my older games and realize that the old games are still very tough and the games nowadays are a lot easier. True, the games may seem to be easier because of your gained skill and reflexes, but the new games primarily don't have that same level of difficulty. I liked it when games would beat your a** so many times that you lost count, so that when you finally beat the game, you have an immense feeling of satisfaction of crushing the enemies. You just don't get that with most games today.
Anyway, that's my two cents on that topic.
Also, everyone should try out Fortune Summoners. It is a fantastic game.
