Video games have become a joke (way too easy to finish)

[fluidistic]

I've been somewhat of a gamer when I was younger (over 20 years ago), and I have recently played a few recent video games. I feel they have become a total joke, they are so much easier than before that there is no fun anymore. Back in the days, completing a level was a real challenge (super mario bros on the NES, Contra on the NES, teenage ninja turtles, etc.), and having to restart from scratch over and over due to a game over was the norm. Completing a game was a rare feat.

Nowadays however, it is actually very rare not being able to complete a first level in a single first try (the new super marios...?! what the hell happened?! Or compare mario kart 64 with the new ones... what the hell?!)

I guess that games that are easy to complete sell better than harder games. Money seems to be the absolute driver of the "evolution" of games, and damn, what a bad turn it is, when it comes to the quality. It's as if chess from the years 1980 had slowly turned into droughts (no offense to droughts players!), or tic-tac-toes.

I guess I'll never buy a newer console, I might stick with emulators and "old" games.

 

[Hamiltonian]

Nowadays however, it is actually very rare not being able to complete a first level in a single first try (the new super marios...?! what the hell happened?! Or compare mario kart 64 with the new ones... what the hell?!)

Nowadays the battle royale genre has gained a lot of popularity(COD, Fortnite, PUBG, CSGO, apex legends, battlefront, Overwatch the list just goes on and on) where you play against other players so there are no lvls so to speak, then there are the open world type of games(minecraft, GTA, Red Dead Redemption etc.) where the games do have an end goal but you really do whatever you feel like.

Finally there are the games that have levels, but usually these are games that tell a story (like uncharted, GOD of war, COD, Jedi fallen order, Far cry,Assassin's Creed etc) and most people want just that the story and really aren't interested in struggling with levels(although you still have some what challenging games like uncharted and many "levels" of COD are pretty challenging and do take quite a few repetitions to finish). These video games tend to be more like movies where your mainly watching cutscenes and performing rudimentary tasks just for the sake of the story and the plot hence they are very easy.
(although the satisfaction you get after beating a level you have been stuck on for hours is truly something else)

I have recently played a few recent video games. I feel they have become a total joke, they are so much easier than before that there is no fun anymore

I think its wrong to say video games in general have gotten easier it really depends on what genre of video games your talking about.

 

[Bandersnatch]

I do think the trend is real for skill-based games (I don't think it generally applies to adventure, rpg, strategy).
But consider: early games for home systems were direct ports, or evolved from, arcade games. I.e. games designed with the express purpose of leeching coins out of teenagers through carefully rationed dopamine fixes. It's not that money wasn't dictating the design, it's just that the financial incentives had a different shape.

 

[Mondayman]

I think AI has come a long way since the first games.

Alien: Isolation (for Xbox One) on nightmare difficulty is pretty difficult. Near impossible I'd day.

NHL 21/22 on superstar with the gameplay slider difficulty and AI learning cranked to 10 is just stupid. Computer does everything perfectly. Bounces go their way. Suddenly small players like Torey Krug hit like Scott Stevens.

Online play against others in games like PUBG can be hard. PUBG is pretty unforgiving.

 

[Borek]

Yes, many games address casual player these days. Not all, though. Try things like Ghostrunner, Bullets per minute, Butcher, Celeste, Okinawa Rush, Eldest Souls - there is plenty of variation to choose from.

 

[Office_Shredder]

Sorry, Mario kart 8 is a pretty solid game for showing off skill. Have you tried playing 200cc online? Or watch some speed run videos and try to race the same line.

As people have said, if you want to struggle, you are supposed to play online against other humans.

 

[DaveC426913]

Nonsense. You're just playing the wrong games.

I have 880 hours in Cities: Skylines (AKA SimCity) just in the last year, and I have yet to win a game.

( )

 

[Drakkith]

Here's a random list of 'hardest games' I found after a few seconds on google. Some are old school games, but many are newer, with some having been released in the last few years. Here's a list of some of my recommendations to try:

Hollow Knight
Cuphead
Dark Souls franchise
Spelunky and Spelunky 2
XCOM: Enemy Unknown*
XCOM 2*
Dead Cells
Metroid Dread (not quite has hard as the others on this list, but much tougher than previous Metroid games)
Kerbal Space Program (added bonus for using Realism Overhaul and Real Solar System mods)
FTL
Darkest Dungeon

*Play on higher difficulties for the challenge.

I guess that games that are easy to complete sell better than harder games. Money seems to be the absolute driver of the "evolution" of games, and damn, what a bad turn it is, when it comes to the quality. It's as if chess from the years 1980 had slowly turned into droughts (no offense to droughts players!), or tic-tac-toes.

I highly, highly disagree about the quality aspect. Difficulty is not equal to quality, and I wouldn't even say that the correlation between the two is that high.

As someone pointed out above, this isn't the 1980's anymore. Game design isn't dependent on sucking every quarter out of your pocket like it was back in the big days of the arcade. The reduction of difficulty is a great thing in my opinion. I couldn't imagine having nearly every video game being punishingly difficult, often to the point of downright unfairness.

and having to restart from scratch over and over due to a game over was the norm.

And now we have games with 20+ hours of story content to enjoy. Can you imagine these games forcing you back to zero after a few deaths? They wouldn't sell and they wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable. It would be like having to watch the first half of a movie 10 times before you get to see the ending. Not. Fun.

 

[ergospherical]

Game design isn't dependent on sucking every quarter out of your pocket like it was back in the big days of the arcade.

EA has entered the chat

 

[Drakkith]

EA has entered the chat

Wargaming has sent a friend request.

 

[Mondayman]

Alien Isolation on nightmare has no saving. You have to beat the game in one go.

 

[david2]

Try this and good luck!

https://www.crazygames.com/game/worlds-hardest-game

 

[BWV]

I suck at platformers, but Cuphead is notoriously difficult and has killer music to boot


But I can hold my own in the most difficult game ever developed

 

[Bandersnatch]

Strike the earth!
There's some discussion to be had about difficulty in DF. Myself, I think I'd rather call it impenetrably obscure.

 

[BWV]

Strike the earth!
There's some discussion to be had about difficulty in DF. Myself, I think I'd rather call it impenetrably obscure.

Well eventually everyone loses

 

[Drakkith]

But I can hold my own in the most difficult game ever developed

But do you know the story of Boatmurdered?

 

[Bandersnatch]

Well eventually everyone loses

And as the adage goes, losing is fun. But do they really? Once you get a good grip on the UI and the mechanics, and providing you haven't intentionally poked the bear one way or another, it becomes an almost casual sandbox builder. You're then more likely to get bored with your current project or have the fort suffer an fps 'death'.

Btw, how come we don't have a 'gamer's corner' kind of thread on this forum?