A round-up of last month’s community musings
As a testament to how far removed I am from the contemporary gaming news hype trends, I had no idea about how Sekiro inspired an intense discussion on the nature of difficulty in video games and questions of accessibility and inclusion, until I read an article in The Guardian titled: “Sekiro, Baba Is You and the Politics of Video Game Difficulty”.
So, let’s step back and discuss this issue in this month’s Community Blogs Recap.
This month, one blog, by Dwavenhobble have touched on the issue. It seems that the high difficulty of Sekiro has inspired some to call not only for an easier option in that game but for developers to rethink the difficulty of their game in general in order to provide options to keep the games more accessible to a wider range of people.
Generally, from what I saw online, the argument for reduced game difficulty focuses on three things. First, the fact that an “easy” option would be optional, and as such will not affect the experience of those who want to experience a more difficult game. Second, the fact that difficult games may push some people away from enjoying otherwise great games. Third, there is also a call for in-game options to disabled gamers, which we have fortunately seen some games try to address (such as measures to support colorblind gamers, measures for one-armed control, and many others).
The counter-argument depends mostly on the developer’s vision. If From Software wanted Sekiro to be balls hard, then they have all the right to make it so, and you have the right not to buy it. It’s basically a free-market principle, where the developer and the customer have the right to choose what to make and what to buy. Note that this argument does not negate the reasoning behind requesting a reduced challenge, but simply relegates it as a non-question in the face of the developer’s vision.
Ironically, I remember a time when this discussion was reversed.
Remember the outrage associated with the White Tanooki Suit
When Nintendo first started adding optional accessibility elements in their games, such as the super suits in the New Super Mario Bros. games, some gamers objected that such options would “dumb” down the games. Without fail, I saw people complaining against every reduced difficulty option in games such as Fire Emblem, and Mario Kart among others.
At that time, the argument against such an option mainly followed two trends. First, is that these options reduced the difficulty of the game to such a point as to cheapen the experience. Basically, you didn’t really finish a Mario level if you needed a Super Tanooki Suit to do so. Second, is that these options ruin the balance of the game, as a reduced difficulty option may be a crutch that developers know to exist for the player, and as such do not balance the normal difficulty well and may make it stupidly hard or not pay much attention to it.
The counter-argument at the time went into the same vein as the argument for difficulty options today, but also invoked the developer’s vision argument. Since Nintendo wanted to put these options in their games, it was their vision and their right to put them in.
In both cases, I empathized with the arguments from all sides, but I end up in a position that is firmly within the developer’s right to make their games the way they want to make them.
Personally, I’m worried about the trend of the game getting easier and less challenging. It was certainly the case that the market has adjusted to overall decrease the difficulty of games. However, often there is the option for increased difficulty, which is sometimes well-balanced and sometimes not-so-much. So, I understand the desire for difficulty options at both ends of the spectrum.
Yet, many games are designed with an optimal difficulty level in mind. Games like Dark Souls were sold based on the premise of their difficulty, and the fact that your greatest enjoyment and sense of accomplishment is in surmounting that difficulty. As such, it frankly defeats the purpose of the games to decrease their difficulty. Not, when in fact, you have many options to decrease the difficulty significantly.
Hard truth is, none of these games are truly “difficult”
This may be a controversial view for some, but I am going to say it. The Souls games are not at all difficult or hard. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze with one heart is hard. Getting Platinum ranks in Bayonetta is hard. Finishing a Souls game is more a matter of time.
These are games with obvious sets of rules (that you must figure out), and repetitive mechanics that are easy to figure out. The fact that one boss can kill you in three moves is immaterial if you can upgrade yourself to meet them, summon reinforcements, and/or fight five or ten times until evasion becomes muscle memory.
A friend of mine, who played and finished only 10 games in his life, has played and finished Bloodborne just because it looked cool. He enjoyed getting over the initial difficulty and then figuring out how much resources the game actually gives you to defeat it. His own verdict is that Crash Bandicoot is the harder game.
I sincerely think that developers know what they are doing when making a game’s difficulty curve. When that curve is messed-up, a majority of players would figure that out. Maybe it is the developer’s vision to provide a difficulty option, and maybe it is not. Maybe providing these options reduces the enjoyment of the game, or stops players from really grasping the game’s systems.
Regardless, I think there is nothing “political” or controversial about this topic. All games are an open restaurant, and it depends on you whether you like the food or not. If all restaurant offered the same menu, that would be a truly boring world.
- It is fitting that the first BoB blog is written by dephoenix, the prompt creator, who shares with us a number of games outside of his favored genres that ended up making a hugely favorable impression.
- LaTerry wrote a blog here that I liked so much that I put it in the Topsauce section.
- A genre that may be out of the comfort zone for many people is the “Walking Simulator” genre, and Boxman214 confronts that genre by playing Firewatch which he ended up enjoying very much.
- Shmups are hard and sometimes unforgivable, so it is no surprise that they are out of someone’s comfort zone. That’s the case for Sharukurusu who takes on not one, but two Shmups and does an awesome job at reviewing them.
No one expected Sekiro to launch such a “controversy”
Maybe every game needs a funky mode
T- Kumasimc shares these thoughts about the Action Adventure Sci-Fi game, Echo.
We got it easy today
R- LastKingofHearts is back with his short(ish) reviews of older (and sometimes current) games:
- The first review for this month was a review of the first Dishonored game, which he gives a strong score.
- I am not sure what this game is about, but Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero comes highly recommended dood.
M- Continuing from the months before, PhilsPhindings is continuing to scour some famous video game tunes and trying to find the music that may have inspired them:
- The first blog in the month covers what appears to be a Blues Brothers-inspired track in Sega release Beat ’em Up, Dynamite Dux.
- Diving deep into Nintendo’s history, we look at the work of Koji Kondo’s teacher, Yukio Kaneoka whose theme of Popeye has a stark resemblance to a song by Peggy March.
- The theme song (and title font) for the original A Boy and his Blob are very similar to that of The Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- In some level, the original Rygar’s theme song does sound similar to some notes in Superman’s theme song.
- It surely makes sense that music in Doom is inspired by death metal music by Megadeath.
- Check out how the title them of Turrican is similar to the “Escape” them from The Transformers Movie released four years earlier.
- It was only a matter of time until a Street Fighter them was featured here, and it is, of course, Guile’s Theme.
Seriously though, would Cuphead have been as good a game if not for its challenging but fair gameplay?
F- The Marvel Cinematic Universe simply steamrolled itself into the popular public conscience of today. Turning stories that were in the domain of a niche of American cultural group and propelling them to a worldwide mainstream. A total of 21 movies directly connected to the MCU have been released, and here you can see how Boxman214 have ranked all of them:
- Check out the movies from number 21 to number 11.
- Check out the top 10, and voice your disagreements.
R- I have no idea what these blogs by Aurachad are about. Something related to a Project Ranger thing:
- Huh?!
- Okaaaaay!!
- I still have no idea what these blogs are about, but I am getting there.
- Finally, Aurachad lets us know what these blogs are about. They are a telling of his adventures playing the space MMO game, Elite Dangerous which tasks players with charting the unknown reaches of space.
- Now that we know what is happening, we can wish you good luck in your planning Ranger.
- And the journey continues.
- And continues.
R- I have no idea what Shades of Greg is on about.
Ultimately, everyone is entitled to their own opinion
Two final notes:
One, the issue of “game accessibility” when it comes to disabled gamers is more complex. Disabilities come in widely different forms, and a solution for one player may not be a solution for another. Developers who attempt to provide accessibility options should be commended, but not everyone will succeed in providing all necessary options for all situations.
Two, it that reviewers should reflect the difficulty of the game as well as the difficulty options when making their reviews. For example, a reviewer complaining about the difficulty of an action game when they are playing it on normal instead of the provided easy option is unfair. Similarly, a reviewer saying a game is too easy when there is an available hard mode that they have not attempted is also unfair. Reviewers should know their own level and play the games accordingly.
For instance, I remember The Wonderful 101 getting slammed for its difficulty by reviewers who played it on normal. Admittedly, the game was difficult at first when I played it on normal difficulty, so I played it on easy. It became much easier, and I had the time to get better at it, before eventually mastering it at hard. This is a case where a game gave a variety of difficulty options but was slammed because of it.
To celebrate the recap of the entire month, give a hand to the following bloggers:
Topsauced Bloggers:
Comments of the Week and Band of Bloggers Team:
Most Prolific Bloggers (Not counting reposts and fails):
Be Lucky
Blog Count: 58
