Are Games Getting Easier?

An anonymous reader writes "I can't help feeling that this generation of games for both consoles and PCs are getting increasingly dumbed down and easier to complete. There's no challenge in today's games, most of which can be completed on the day of purchase. Triple A titles such as Halo, Modern Warfare 2 are the worst of the lot. The whole reason for this article is Medal of Honor, this can be completed within hours of purchase. Where's the fun in that?"

Comments

Where is the fun?

[weachiod]

In multiplayer.

Re:Where is the fun?

[jaymz666]

Yep, there's nothing more fun than being teabagged by some jerk who has no life or job so they spend 24/7 practising so they can feel their life has meaning when some wage slave logs on to go find some fun for a few hours.

Re:Where is the fun?

[mark72005]

This.

I hate how game companies today are shoving everyone toward online play - though I understand, because it frees them from having to... you know... create content for the game.

Some of us want to be able to play single player in exchange for our $60... it's not too much to ask.

Re:Where is the fun?

[Nemyst]

I wish I had mod points now. I'd often rather not have MP at all, for I barely ever do multiplayer. There isn't a whole lot of fun to getting shot at by people you don't know who'll rub it in your face in the typical well-mannered way a 14-year old can.

Re:Where is the fun?

[Ephemeriis]

got it... jerks don't deserve fun.

Sure they do. I'd just prefer it if their fun wasn't had at my expense.

why don't you make your own games?

Because I already have a job. I don't want to spend my few leisure hours trying to code up a video game. I want to relax and enjoy myself.

Re:Where is the fun?

[AstrumPreliator]

I don't know. My all time favorite multiplayer FPS is Starsiege: Tribes. It was only multiplayer and it was hard as hell to play. I was never one of the greats, or even really good but I always found it fun. Thing is the game is absolutely full of content. The multiplayer was amazingly complex for its day. Even though it had no multiplayer it was still seeped in Starsiege lore. You don't need to know any of it to play the game, but they did put a lot of time into it. So it's not like content and multiplayer are mutually exclusive.

Re:Where is the fun?

[Darkness404]

Except for the fact there is a difference between simply losing and being told you suck repeatedly from people who have no life other than the game.

The problem is, unless you are part of the "community" and can devote a lot of time to a game, you aren't going to have fun because the majority of people online are assholes.

There is a line between simply being bad at a game and 14 year old kids cursing you out because you can't devote 8 hours a day to the game.

Re:Where is the fun?

[b4dc0d3r]

So how do you get better if you die every few seconds? Does every multiplyaer game have segmented ability-based collections? If I'm awesome at one weapon, can I go to the n00b leagues and try getting better with another one?

I letigimately don't know. what I do know is I played COD 2 for about 10 minutes at a friend's house and got shot a milliion times, and had no desire to ever play the game again. How do I get better? Just walk around and hopefully someone misses so I can fire my weapon once?

Re:Where is the fun?

[Moryath]

I'm really sorry to say this. But you are completely full of shit.

Two things need to happen. First up, matchmaking desperately needs a better way to match players of similar skill.

Second, whoever came up with the "play for X hours, get 'experience points' to unlock all the uber fucking gear" for Call of Duty, that every other goddamn FPS-multiplayer has been mimicking ever since, needs to fucking die. It's already bad enough that the lifeless basement-dwellers ruin the game for anyone else coming on to play for fun, now they get an extra advantage in more body armor and deadlier weapons too?

No. Thank. You.

I gave up on playing anything multiplayer on Xbox Live for one simple reason: I can't go on to anywhere, find a "new players" server, and get comfortable in the game. No, all that's available are the deathmatch and ctf-playing 14-year-old fatsos who live in their parents' basement, never see natural light, and scream "faggot" into their headset constantly if you don't do everything picture perfect and have a goddamn photographic memory for every little fucking nook and cranny and weapon respawn time so that you're standing right on the rocket launcher the moment it comes back up from their using the ammo up and dropping the last spawn.

Re:Where is the fun?

[davev2.0]

What gets me is that they are making gaming into a social event. If I wanted to be social, I would not be at home on a computer. I would be at a LAN party. I would play golf, or softball, or just go to a gym. I would go to a restaurant, bar, or club. I would go to a bookstore or coffee shop. I would take a class. I would do something, anything other than sit in a room alone and "socialize" on my computer while playing a game.

When I want to be social, I go be with other people and socialize. I really don't want to be forced to socialize with others in order to play a computer game at home.

Re:Where is the fun?

[demonlapin]

I suck at FPS. So what? I don't have time to become good at the genre or memorize the maps. Just put me on a server with a bunch of other guys who don't know the maps and suck. We'll all have fun, while you guys who are good at it compete for the real glory.

Re:Where is the fun?

[Ephemeriis]

I'm really sorry to say this. Most games are competitive.

These days that's largely true. Which is part of my complaint. Cooperative and/or single-player games are getting harder to find. Which is a problem, if I don't feel like playing something competitive.

If you're not having fun, you probably suck.

I'm very willing to accept that I suck. I don't have hours to devote to practicing enough to become good. And I'm ok with that. You aren't going to insult me by telling me that I suck. I know this already.

But simply losing at a game can still be enjoyable - if the people you're playing with are not jerks.

There's a difference between playing a friendly match and losing to somebody who is a good sport, and playing with somebody who is screaming random obscenities and insulting you every time you die.

Re:Where is the fun?

[parlancex]

This is compounded by the new fad of including permanent progression in almost every online game now, so I can go online in Red Dead Redemption or Call Of Duty and get killed instantly by people like that who have 10 times more health and do 10 times more damage. What kind of sane adult has the patience to suffer through it for countless hours just to cancel that out?

Profit!

[aapold]

Just like planned obsolescence in other products, there's less money to be made in something that will keep a customer challenged and occupied for months. Better to let them finish it quickly and back to purchase another game (or some DLC to extend it).

It's adult gamers

[Derkec]

Hey we're busy. We really don't necessarily all want to struggle with games. We want something fun, that's a little challenging that we can get through. 12 hours of content for 60 bucks? That's about even with a movie.

Personally, I gravitate to the games I can play over and over again, rather than big story games, but I get it.

And the games we do play a lot are usually more social these days. The author complains about a short story in Halo or Modern Warfare. Well duh. Most people are paying for the multiplayer experience which infinitely re playable. The single player parts are a sideline. Is a 5 hour single player worth the money there? No. But that's not what people are buying anyway. It's like complaining about hugely expensive veg and potatoes while ignoring the steak that came alongside.

Hate the mind numbing "Boss Battles"

[cruff]

I really enjoy games with interesting puzzles and goals, until I get to those damn boss battles at the end of a segment. Who finds that any fun after the second time around? Really, do I need to die 30 times before I manage to hang on long enough to get past it?

A Rather Terrible Analogy, There

[damn_registrars]

From the article:

Imagine if Tiger Woods just gave up the first time he swung a golf club because he didnt get a hole in one? What if Michael Jordan gave up because he couldnt dunk straight away? Both Golf and Basketball are games just like any other game, you play because its fun and in time you learn to play better and improve.

Well, if Tiger Woods had to play his first ever game of golf against Jack Nicklaus, he probably would have been so frustrated with the experience that he might have considered not bothering. That is how multiplayer (your favorite FPS here) is for many people. That is exactly why I only played the first Quake for about an hour - and the rest of the series not at all. People who are new to the games end up in multiplayer games against people who play it 16 hours a day and hence find themselves annihilated faster than they can even figure out which button opens a door and which button changes weapons.

People aren't giving up games quickly because they are hard - more often they are giving up because there is no point in trying to compete when there are no new players around. It would be as it there was no such thing as amateur boxing, everyone had to get started by fighting Mike Tyson; many people wouldn't even consider it out of fear of immediate death.

Re:*yawn*

[tool462]

There's a cheat code:
Unix Unix Dem Dem Linux Repub Linux Repub Broadcom Apple Sun Start

Instant +5, Insightful and positive Karma.

Starting above your 1 rep max

[tepples]

The same way you build muscle by lifting weights until exhaustion.

But you don't start with a weight that you can't lift for even one repetition.