A Difficult Subject (The Jimquisition)

<i>[lets try this AGAIN Patreon - my comment has had anything even remotely conceivably offensive removed from it - third times a charm, I guess!]</i> The sheer amount sass in this one was magnificent, Jim. It reminded me of your Jimquisition episode about the Digital Homicide litigation, gave me that same feeling of "stickin' it too 'em" and offered the tiniest shred of hope that maybe, just maybe, gaming as a medium isn't totally bereft of dignity or meaning. But on a much more serious and reverent note your video did give me a lot to think about. Particularly in regards to my own tastes in many things. I've progressively noticed over the years, particularly from my late teens to my present age of thirty-one, that many of things I love are marred by toxic communities and bad reputations. Many of my favourite music genres, my interest in fantasy/sci-fi (d20 and DnD in particular), my interest in art, my interest in literature, my interest in Fortean subjects, etc. - are all too often perceived as hostile and unapproachable, and far too many people involved in those things often confirm "outsiders" suspicions with their conduct. I have a chin-stroking armchair psychoanalyst theory, at which I'm sure you'll hoot. At the risk of sounding like a living breathing "old man yells at cloud" trope, perhaps this elitism arises because folks with niche interests who grew up before the 00's (which gaming arguably was, or at least perceived to be by mainstream culture) got burned once too often for sharing something about themselves, only for it to be mocked, dismissed out-of-hand, or even have their subjective taste invalidated and questioned. When I "discovered" the wonders of modern art near the end of my high school years I learned pretty quickly that the working class environment I grew up in was overwhelmingly and aggressively closed to any discussion of the topic. Before I ramble on for another twenty to thirty paragraphs, I'll get to my point. I'm mortified by the idea of being mistaken for an elitist. In an online context I've found that even when you find someone who shares your interests, they betray all the signs of small mindedness and unwillingness to step out of their comfort zone engendered by elitism. Elitism is, in affect, an open admittance of fear and insecurity without actually stating those fears and insecurities out loud. I hate that!

Freakish Uproar

"I have a job, I don't want to work for my enjoyment, I want to be entertained and have a few hours where I'm not dealing with stupid people by killing pixels." ^ Give this post a like, people. It's easy to "GIT GUD" when mom and dad tend to your every need.

Freakish Uproar

I do think it's important though, the way the easier mode(s) are communicated. I really enjoy when games tell me "this is the way it is meant to be played"

Tommy Laukkanen

I can relate with Team Ninja's Ninja Gaiden II. That game initially kicked my ass on normal difficulty (Path of the Warrior) that I switched to easy mode (Path of the Acolyte) so I can understand how the game works and have room for more mistakes. After a few chapters, I went back to normal and was able to beat the game from there. Cover shooters become more fun if you are on easy because one spends less time in cover and more time guns blazing.<br><br>I just never understood the existence of this debate in general.

noxamillion

And then the people who DO 'git gud' don't do it right. "You grinded. You statted babymode! YOU USED THE EASY-MODE BUILD/EQUIPMENT!!!!!" These people aren't arguing anything real.

Dr. Judge, Private Eye

Only possible downside to including an easy mode is if enough programming and development time was needed for balance that it negatively affected the quality of other content. But then the solution is just giving players something completely unbalanced! Invincibility; infinite lives, ammo, or respawning; or just level skips. There are tons of options out there if someone chooses to use them. You know. Cheat codes.

JT

Fromsoftware game: Armored Core 2. Awesome game... but if you lose too much money in any not-instant-game-over level, you start over and get a 'human plus enhancement', including your generator overheating slower, the power drain going down, and the ability to fire your shoulder weapons without kneeling and holding still. You want to guess what every single AC in the tournament mode's later half have? ALL of the Human Plus enhancements. And why on earth should I WASTE my time beating my head against a wall to 'git gud' at something utterly inconsequential to real life? The Git Gud crowd can officially take a hike. Some of us have to earn a living and get a good night's sleep once in a while. I want to enjoy the game, and typically that means either enjoying a compelling story I can advance at my own pace, or faffing about for half an hour and shutting it off. Do I mind games not having easy mode? Not at all, if that's the game that's the game. But I don't play games like Sekiro because my job and my life have enough challenges for me. I play games to relax and I don't have the time to invest in them if I can't make progress, especially since I might go a week or longer between picking up the controller. Hazards of having a life outside of pixels on a screen.

Trevor Bond

Brilliant and well thought out piece as usual Jim. I have never understood the raging torrent of noise (mixed metaphor) over difficulty settings given that difficulty settings as a thing were discovered by accident in the original Space Invaders - fewer invaders on screen meant the consoles had fewer images to place on screen, they got faster, and so the final invader was always super fast. It was a total accident. I’ve rarely beaten a space invaders game - my reflexes aren’t fast enough for the final invader - but I always enjoy the first waves. Does this mean I only enjoy ‘easy’ mode? It just strikes me as nonsensical arbitrary line-drawing. Also - what is ‘difficult’? If a game has a difficulty mode that rises because the AI is improved and you have to respond to a different type of challenge based on experience of game mechanics then Ok - that’s an ‘improved’ difficulty. But most difficulty levels aren’t adjusted like that - they are lazily created by adding additional hitpoints to enemies, reducing your own hit points, reducing resource availability, reducing or removing save points, adding faster recharges to abilities for enemies or reducing your own. This isn’t adjusting difficulty - this is changing a number on a spreadsheet. Sometimes difficulty can be incorporated into the game and I can enjoy that - the section in Deus Ex HR when you could have your augs de-activated if you went to get a medical check-up and had to fight a boss on your base level. That was fun, if annoying. But in Assassins Creed if you up the difficulty level all you are doing is saying ‘I want to play the exact same game but take ages longer to complete because there are fewer resources and the enemies are literally indestructible until I achieve an arbitrary level number. They aren’t smarter - you are literally just fighting a bit of programming which has arbitrarily classified an enemy as being unassailable until a chosen time, and the amount of time between now and you being able to beat that enemy has been arbitrarily lengthened.

Any medium that is consumed for entertainment ought to be capable of serving more than one purpose. It should be fine to have games that make you think, that spike your adrenalin, that make you sad, that help you relax, that allow you to experience meditative "flow" states... and/or, challenge you. Or any of a hundred other things. Not all games are good for all people, any more than all music, or all food. You don't get genuine diversity by insisting everything has to be good for everyone- at best you get mediocrity that doesn't serve anyone's needs. Or something that rolls its eyes and spitefully says that, well, it served all the "important" people.

Kraken

The speech at the end was beautiful. Thank you for your work.

The stupid thing about the 'git gud' argument being used to argue against easy modes is that easy modes allow a lot of us to git gud. I play games for fun, not as work, &amp; while I like a bit of a challenge, being frustrated is not fun. So I start with easy, get some practice down, &amp; work my way up until I hit my limit. I did actually start out with easy mode on DMC5, had some fun, practiced, figured out which weapons/characters/combos worked best for me, mopped up a few trophies, &amp; moved on to normal. I've worked my way up to DMD mode (very hard) on DMC4, starting from easy &amp; practicing &amp; improving as I went. If it had thrown me in at that level from the get-go though? I'd have become demoralised very quickly &amp; not wanted to work at 'gitting gud' because it would not have been fun.

The heart of the problem is the lack of game experience diversity, introduced by the modern AAA Industry. People like to play games tailored towards their own desires. Games have different approaches towards difficulty, each own fitting the games intentions. Sekiro, a game that is meant to be difficult by intention, wanted to be easier, shows that there is a lack of similar high budget quality games, which are intended to be easier. An easy mode for Sekiro would be okay, more game diversity would be BETTER.

Please forgive my foul language (or not) but this, git good concept, is total bullshit. It is my money, it is my entertainment and it should be my choice and a mode of difficulty. Which means that if someone makes a game that I want to play but has such a hard curve (because of my deteriorating hand eye coordination due to age and arthritis) I'll put my 60 dollars elsewhere. I have a job, I don't want to work for my enjoyment, I want to be entertained and have a few hours where I'm not dealing with stupid people by killing pixels. But again, that is my opinion. And it is my money and I'll put it to games where I will be entertained. Until they monetize a sixty dollar game... oh... Until they lootbox a sixty dollar game... oh... I'm going back to playing My Time in Portia.

Alex

The reason these people (and I'm not saying I agree with them) think that easy modes will ruin the games they like is because they think it will diminish their "accomplishments". If someone that isn't anywhere near as skilled as they are can beat the same games it makes beating said game less significant (in their minds).

The Silver Socialist

I appreciate this video. Incidentally, I am what seems like a beneficiary of this system that doesn't always get mentioned--I preferentially like moderate difficulty modes. I like to be challenged but I hate being frustrated, so I actually like the balance that a difficulty system allows for. A difficulty system can benefit more than just "bad" and "excellent" gamers but those in between as well.

Alex Bajcz

I just had to say this was one of my favorite outtros I've seen on one of your videos. High quality as always, keep up the good work Jim!

"I don't play video games to be challenged." A-FUCKING-MEN! I actually stood up and clapped at that part. I can respect that some people play video games for a challenge, but I just want to have fun and maybe learn something. Thank god for you, Jim.

I've gotta say, if Dark Souls had an easy mode I definitely would have played on the easiest setting and probably missed out on a lot of the rewarding fun that comes from ramping up your skill level to be able to succeed. Also the DS community would be less interesting because people would have highly varying experiences. I shudder to imagine the DS games being made focus-group-tested and bland so they can appeal to everyone, the way many AAA games are. In short, I'm glad most games have difficulty modes since I usually play on Normal, but the DS series provides a good case study for why sometimes it's better when games provide a universal experience that isn't entirely accessible, but as a result is much more interesting to the people who do complete it.

BJams

Nice to see the Duke returning. I wonder when we're gonna see him again for Commentocracy

Absolutely worth the 26+ minutes. I used to be one of those people. I used to not understand the purpose of an "easy mode". To me, I thought games had to be enjoyed only as the developers intended and to do otherwise was invalidating the experience. Hell, I didn't even use Mods in Elder Scrolls games. Thankfully, that was years ago and my attitude has shifted to something more in line with yours: games are experienced differently by everyone. Even the git gudders won't experience a game the same way. So long as a person's idea of having fun isn't ruining someone else's experience then let that person have all the fun they want, however they want. I write my boss guides how I do for a reason: my experience was mine alone. I play games differently from a lot of other people. So if someone beat a boss with "cheese" tactics, so be it. Good for them for getting through that boss. I see the derision leveled at some within the Hollow Knight community and I lose my shit. (Yes, I've written this from my personal experience because, hey, write what you know.) I'm sad this debate has been brought up again through another FromSoft game. It's a dumb debate. Let people play games how they want. I loved that you brought up the financial aspect. That was brilliant. I enjoyed the hell out of this video and it was wonderful to see the True Gamer TM return. It's frustrating to see how many people can't look past their own lives and realize not everyone is made exactly the same. Anyway, brilliant job working in that positivity too. And thank god for you and all that. Ramble done.

Perpetual Noob

Knock 'em out the box, Jim.

Bah. I play most games I buy on high difficulty levels and, if possible, on Iron Man. And I'm SHIT at games. There've been games where I spent tens or hundreds of hours and never completed the game, because I refuse to dial down the difficulty. I'm stubborn and I also can't play games well. Why do I mention this? Because, shock and surprise, I can do that. The games have easier difficulty settings, some have pretty good customization. And crazy idiots like me can still do their thing. I don't get annoyed that others play the games on low difficulties. Why would I? I can play the games my way, other people can play their way. It's fine. Everyone is having fun. My version of "fun" is kinda stupid, but that's beside the point. And guess what. I am never tempted to play in easy mode. It's just not my kind of fun. People who say including easy modes would "tempt" people not to get better are just trying to keep games away from other, less skilled people. It's that simple.

Michał Sporzyński

The first time I saw this debate spark on Twitter, I was just in awe for a moment. Definitely gonna check this out.

Matt Ahn