Why I Play Games on Easy / Why I Enjoy Easy Games

In a lot of forums and posts of the professional gaming press, there seems to be a bit of fetishization of playing games on hard modes and a stigma on playing games on easy mode.  I don’t really agree with that, and here are some reasons why:

• When I play a game, I am suspending reality to enter a better / more fun reality.  Is it better / more fun to slash through one guy, two guys, or three guys at a time with a sword?  Did I even need to ask?

• I work hard all day and most of my night.  Why would I want to take the precious few hours I have left and work hard then?

• When I play games, I play them to feel empowered and powerful.  I don’t play games to be frustrated over and over again.  I don’t enjoy being frustrated.  And the sense of relief at having accomplished the same thing but harder usually does not make up for the additional time lost.

• At a lot of games, I am not that good of a player.  Frankly, in a lot of games, I kind of suck.  That is not to say I can’t play them, but some games (shooters come to mind) I just don’t have the skills (twitch) to be at the top of the charts.  I can accept that about myself, and I like it when my games can accept that too.

• Sometimes I just want the experience and as many experiences as I can get.  Playing games on easy allows me to get through games faster and see other games and their other experiences. 

Counterpoint.  As with anything, there are things that aren’t as great.  Namely:

• On easy modes, I typically can beat most games without needing to learn all of the mechanics.  That is the single greatest weakness in my mind because I do love when games have some customization/complexity.  My best recent example is probably the Witcher.  Based on advice and reviews, I played that game on Easy, and unfortunately, it has allowed me to not need to get into the details as much to win fights.  I can level up skills by whatever sounds fun.  I can take or leave the potions and whichever potions.  There would be some satisfaction in being able to use all of those tricks to their fullest, but then I look and think “…or I could take the time I saved to go play Witcher 2.”

• Also, this is sort of similar, but there is also such a thing as too easy.  An obvious recent example is Civilization V.  With almost any foreknowledge of the Civilization franchise or strategy games whatsoever, it would be quite difficult indeed to find yourself on the losing end of a Civilization V game at the easiest settings.  That level of ease ceases to be a game in any real sense, but I would estimate difficulty levels that easy to be rather rare.

Obviously, these are opinions, and YMMV.