What Do You Do When A Game Is Too Easy?

[Forsaken Lover]

It's Easy So It Sucks is not exactly a common complaint with people I know and it's seldom a criticism from me. Mainly because I suck at video games. However, given how much I suck at video games, when a game is easy even for me, there must be something severely wrong.

Now I mostly play JRPG's and to narrow it down even more, I mostly play FF games. Most of these are very easy. Of course YMMV on how easy or hard some are but it's undeniable that a lot of the games are just broken and easily exploited. The champion of this is of course Final Fantasy VIII which you can dominate in the first two hours tops and never worry about dying ever again.

So what I did was I found a forum called Insane Difficulty which makes hacks/mods for people to use to make games more difficult. I loved it. Playing the difficulty mod for FFVIII made it a ton better.

But a lot of people I meet hate mods like this. "Giving enemies more HP and damage output and nerfing your stats is not real difficulty." Um, yes, that's exactly what it is. FFVIII had so many broken abilities that removing them is a good thing, as is giving enemies more health since none of them ever had enough.

Some people suggested to me to try a Challenge Run of FFVIII where I just pretend all these other abilities don't exist. That is absurd and stupid. If a mod exists to make a game more difficult, to place limits on you, why not use it instead of limiting yourself? I honestly think that's the most ludicrous idea. In what world is just running away from every random encounter so you can do a Low Level Challenge fun?

And then there is the third option - "I don't care." Some people don't care a game is too easy and they love that they can break it over their knee. I don't get this but it's a common enough viewpoint.

What about you? What is your solution when a game has no challenge? Or do you not give a crap one way or the other?

[Fynn]

It really depends on my mood, though I mostly gravitate to difficult games nowadays. If I play something for the gameplay rather than the story, well then, the gameplay had better be something challenging, right?

[CactuarKing]

Enjoy the game anyway due to the witty, well written dialogue and FMV/Action sequences.

[Pike]

Enjoy it.

[Bubba]

With me being such a natural gamer, every game I play is too easy.

[Pete for President]

I lose interest when it's too easy and go play something else.

[Karifean]

If it's too easy I make it harder for myself. If I want a certain level of difficulty I'm not so entitled as to put in no effort to obtain it.

[Mirage]

If it's an RPG, I just level up less. If it's an action game without difficulty settings, I'll probably still finish it if the story is good, but then I'm unlikely to ever touch it again.

[Vyk]

Yeah, I'm with Mirage, I would limit my upgrades or levels and hope the story and gameplay are fun and interesting. Otherwise I'd likely lose interest. But I'm curious how you survive as a gamer, just replaying the same games? You never get curious if there's more out there for you to enjoy?

[Pumpkin]

Don't care. I prefer easier games. I really don't care if I can play it one handed while making stew and doing my homework and not even have to pay attention. Just how I am, I guess

[Mirage]

that said, it is unlikely for action games to be easy for me because i suck at them

[Del Murder]

I beat it and move on.

[Labella]

Look for higher difficulty options. If none, then

I beat it and move on.

[Psychotic]

Depends on the type of game. If it's a sports game like FIFA or a roguelike such as FTL or Rogue Legacy I want a challenge. It means nothing if I lose, no progress is lost and the next game will be different. If it's too easy then I get bored and move on.

If it's a sandbox game I just want to dick about and cause mayhem and making it harder to do that isn't a good thing. If it's a story heavy game and I'm stuck in one place forced to repeat the same checkpoint over and over again that's not so much fun either.

Also it depends how the higher difficulty is implemented. Adding more health to enemies and having the player be taken out by a stiff breeze adds difficulty, but does it add fun? Not for me. I can sit behind cover plinking away at an enemy's health for 10 minutes until it drops if I want to, sure. That's more of a test of my patience than a test of my skill though.

[Wolf Kanno]

I beat it and move on.

Pretty much this. If there are other aspects I enjoy, I may still play the game in the future and likely limit myself. I've never been huge into modding a game but I don't have issues with doing so if you've exhausted other avenues.