I'm not entirely sure about the rest of you, but I started gaming when I was three. I grew up with the NES and GameBoy, and besides the obvious graphic and sound differences, today's game just aren't the same breed. What I mean by this is simple: today's games, for the most part, are quite easy. Even a lot of games with "expert" or "hardcore" modes really are not that difficult. There are some gems for sure like Ninja Gaiden (which really makes me want to replay the original... well, mainly, the third one).
Now, some games I can really get into and want to utterly dominate the hardest settings. God of War I and II being the most recently I've finished that provided a very difficult challenge. Left 4 Dead is next on my list but is proving to be very much dependent on specific play throughs and partners rather than mastering section by section. Anyway. What I would like to know is:
Do you think gaming has gone soft? If so, why? What is the most recent game you absolute had to dominate even though it was so hard you wanted to destroy your TV? Any games you wish you had beaten completely but had to give up? What about a game that wasn't necessarily hard but you made it hard by giving yourself your own challenges?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think we've talked about this before, but I'm one who doesn't really do the masochistic gaming thing anymore...I just don't have time for it. I personally like that games have "gone soft" and have become easier than they were, say, 15 or 20 years ago. For me, if the frustration I'm having outweighs the fun factor, I'm not going to play that game anymore. I just don't have time to do anything but have fun when I'm playing games now.
ReplyDeleteI understand why you guys do stuff like play God of War on Titan Mode or play ANY Ninja Gaiden...the sense of fulfillment is exceptional when you finally beat it or overcome a particularly tough spot. Personally though, I find enough fulfillment in simply beating a game or finishing the story or playing until I'm bored with it...on the normal difficulty.
I'd say the only games I still sometimes act as a "masochistic gamer" are RPGs. I still find myself going out of my way to do sidequests, grinding to level up, and so on. I'm playing though Final Fantasy Tactics on PSP right now, and I'm still taking tons of time out to level up, learn a bunch of new abilities, and so on. I even hope to unlock the new Dark Knight class even though it's really difficult to get.
I think my secret masochistic difficulty desires lie mainly in the multiplayer shooter world. This sort of goes back to the Battlefield 1943 thing with the dumbing-down of online shooters. I enjoy exploring the intricate landscape of a good shooter like the first Battlefields or Call of Duty or Halo where you can die in a split second upon the whim of a skilled player, or, with your intimate knowledge of the game's idiosyncrasies and pure skill you will survive that intimate encounter. Usually games with simple rules and mechanics do this the best. Complexity can blur the lines between skill and luck (COD4 perks, for instance), but it can also open the player up to more options (Battlefield). The schism there occurs when the developer decides to allow the player to supplant skill for a game mechanic like perks, thus creating an illusion of complexity where no skill really matters. I guess what I'm describing here is the difference between "player skill" and "character skill." I prefer the game that embraces the former.
ReplyDeleteI finally got around to commenting on that Sony thread, btw.
Ok. After thinking for awhile the two games that I continually try and retry at harder and harder levels are - Civ IV and Medieval Total War II. Trying with a worse starting position or with more powerful opponents is so frustrating but addicting at the same time.
ReplyDeleteLinear gameplay puts such a dampener on difficult games. If there is only one way to complete an objective it forces one to develop muscle memory that won't help later in life. Knowing how to conquer medieval europe starting with a lone Scottish raiding party will always be useful.
I'm such a softie it's pathetic. I pretty much get super frustrated and mad at a game if i'm not going well in it. That doesn't mean that i haven't perfected some of my favorite games. Tenchu and Tactics come to mind for me. While those games aren't super hard i made them hard in my own way. I wanted to get perfects on all the levels in Tenchu and did so after a long long time, part of that was cause all the fucking bugs in that game, but still i made it a personal goal. Tactics i just went wild on and leveled all my characters to 99 and got pretty much every item you can in the game. Other than a few of those types of examples with games i really fall in love with, i'm a softie. If i'm getting too frustrated with a game i either quit it or go look up a solution online rather than keep doing it until i get it.
ReplyDeleteI guess i wish i was more hardcore but part of me doesn't care that much and just wants to have fun/beat the game/win all the time. I've always thought that Vagrant Story was a really hard game and beat that last year which i thought was quite an achievement and a little masochistic cause it really is a difficult game in a lot of parts.
As for shooters, i think i have a little bit of the streak in multi-player online shooters. Even in something like halo, i know i'm not all that good but i really love to play. If i'm pitted against people that are constantly better than me, i get frustrated but all i want is another chance at them, even if they keep killing me. So that's my stance.
You guys should get ready for an awesome football post coming up soon!
Gareth, that was a top-class explanation of why you like which shooters and why...and interestingly enough, I find that we have a significant difference of opinion. Call of Duty 4 is perhaps my favorite online shooter of all time exactly because of the character skills and RPG-like complexity behind the actual shooting. For me, it opened up such a wide variety of different ways to play the game, and I had more fun as a result. I felt the same way about different classes in Battlefield 1942 and BF2. Of course, I can see your side of it as well, and unfortunately games like CoD4 were exploited to the point where almost everybody uses the same weapon set and 'nade-spamming is as rampant as the common cold on a college campus.
ReplyDeleteI can attest to Mark getting frustrated...me and my broken Gamecube controller, not to mention the many many times growing up where we played something against each other and it would end in him beating up on me. We eventually decided to exclusively play games WITH each other (co-op) rather than AGAINST each other. It's a big reason why we played so much goddamn Twisted Metal 2 instead of Tekken or something like that.
Interesting takes by everyone. I guess, I'm the only one who lose every drop of blood in my body as long as it meant I beat _________. I with Mark though: if I don't enjoy the game in the first place, forget it. I cannot stand to play games with glitches that won't necessarily break a game but can make the game more difficult than required.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was king of FPS games. Goldeneye, Counterstrike... I used to be so good. Then the Halo generation hit, and I just never got used to the pacing. Meh.
Matt, RPGs and action games are my downfalls. I have to get every item, every level, beat every boss, perform every combo, find every secret area, etc. I don't really know why. But I've also been doing that as long as I can remember. For instance, I can't watch someone play Super Mario 3 because I want to kill them if they are doing it "wrong" even if they aren't dying. I rarely get mad at people I play against or with. Mostly, I punish myself.