How challenging do you like your video games?

[albionmoonlight]

Relative to your skill level.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Challenging ... enough?

I mean, I'm willing to deal with a little frustration but not a ton of it. I'll Google up a tip, walkthrough, explanation, whatever without any real hesitation once I hit the point of "screw this shit"

[albionmoonlight]

If it's a longer game, I tend to shoot for EASY. I hate investing a ton of time and then losing.

If it's a one-off game of Madden, I like anything from EASY to HARD depending on my mood.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I mean, I'm willing to deal with a little frustration but not a ton of it. I'll Google up a tip, walkthrough, explanation, whatever without any real hesitation once I hit the point of "screw this shit"

If it's a puzzle game where the point is to figure it out, then I really try to avoid hints, etc..

But if it's a situation where either bad design or user-stupidity on my part is keeping me from seeing how to get to the next area, I have no problem going to walkthroughs early and often.

[thesloppy]

I think I prefer a game that gives me the appearance that I'm being challenged, but is actually easy.

I've certainly played and enjoyed games that are generally accepted as hard/punishing, but too much re-loading/re-trying is something that will rub me the wrong way real quick.

I think for me the best example of my preferences & limits is the difference between Dark Souls I & II. Both are notorious for being hard games that require re-trying the same scenes/battles over and over again. The first one made the process enough of a thankless chore that I gave up after a couple hours, no matter how many chances I gave it.....whereas the second one added just enough slack & conveniences to keep my interest piqued through the whole game, even though it was still a lot of repetitive work.

[Kodos]

I avoid games (like Mario) where I'm forced to go through the exact same scene again and again until I do it perfectly. I don't find that fun. Save points go a long way toward solving that problem.

I do like a challenge, but not one that just kicks my ass with no hope of me eventually winning.

[spleen1015]

Depends on the game.

[AlexB]

I like a challenge somewhere between Avarage and Hard: e.g. in FOF I want to be able to at least challenge for the playoffs most years, but I don’t want to win the SB too often

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Depends on the game.

Yup. Genre, too, for me.

A rhythm game like Rock Band, I want challenge, but I also want the challenge to be something I can aspire to clear.

Gran Turismo, as a racing game, never occupied my attention for long because the AI was decently easy to game. It just turned into "get out in front and don't crash."

OOTP, as a text sim, I go in spurts with because sometimes I need my baseball fix, but after a while it nags at me that my minor leaguers' development is artificially held back (or the AI's boosted) to provide me with the challenge and my path to competitiveness is "go buy the players who actually developed."

Anything story-driven, I want a challenge, but it should be organic - something I can overcome through regular play. I CAN grind for 20 hours above and beyond 'normal' play to beat a boss, but if I have to do that, something is probably broken somewhere.

[albionmoonlight]

Oh, and if I've had a shitty day at work, sometimes I just want to put on a game on Rookie level and just, like, have LeBron put up a 50 point triple double or something.

[Edward64]

Average to me. Don't want to get too frustrated but don't mind losing and restarting games occasionally.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Challenging ... enough?

I mean, I'm willing to deal with a little frustration but not a ton of it. I'll Google up a tip, walkthrough, explanation, whatever without any real hesitation once I hit the point of "screw this shit"

This is me these days too. As my available gaming time decreases as I get older, my tolerance for randomly wandering around trying to find things in games also decreases.

[RainMaker]

I'd say in the middle. I think Fallout games are kind of where I like my difficulty level. Definitely doable for a casual player like myself, but has it's areas that require leveling up a bunch first or require some additional strategy.

I know games like Dark Souls are popular, but to me they're just more frustrating than anything to me. Fighting the same boss 50 times isn't fun.

[Radii]

Dark Souls is one of my favorite video game series of all time. I usually look up items along the way but I usually won't look up boss strats until I've spent at least 2 hours on a boss, often times more if I feel like its something I'm making progress on.

I streamed all of Dark Souls 3 in this manner, never raised my voice once. Loved it.

The next most difficult game I've played in the last year was probably Cuphead.


Games that feel artificially hard b/c of randomness or shitty design or bad controls, I have no patience for that.

For sports games I just want a realistic challenge, which I've pretty much given up on actually seeing in my lifetime.

[cuervo72]

Easy. And really for most games, I'd say I'm probably more content to just watch others play.

The only thing I'm really playing right now is Overwatch, on console (XBox). I am well aware that I am old and my reactions are not going to match those under 30 (or, under 20). I knew this about a decade ago when my son beat the snot out of me in Metroid Prime (like, five kills of mine for every 50 of his).

The game has a goal of making matches relatively even, so most players will win roughly 50% of the time. I am fine with that, as long as those losses are well-fought. If I am against players/teams who are obviously superior/oppressive, not so much.

Civ/EU/CK type games, I like to have a few setbacks here and there but ultimately I want to either win or build large enough to feel like I fared reasonably well.

edit: I still miss being able to spin up City of Heroes and just mindlessly beat up on hapless mobs for a half hour.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Radii

Games that feel artificially hard b/c of randomness or shitty design or bad controls, I have no patience for that.

For sports games I just want a realistic challenge, which I've pretty much given up on actually seeing in my lifetime.

This is where I fall. My favorite genre is ARPGs. My favorite is Grim Dawn, which I play hardcore. I enjoy games to have some challenge, and to know why I died. If I get one shot because I am a glass cannon, fair enough, but I hate games where you invest in a character and get one shot just because...

Torchlight 2 fell out of favor with me due to this. After a certain point, traps would one shot a character that fully built for defense, and if a lot of stuff was happening, you might not see the trap. Suddenly the 10 hours you spent on that character was gone.

PoE is another game I am playing a bit right now. It got rave reviews, but it seems a lot of the difficulty is due to the way the passive tree is set up. If you attack it right, its not hard. If you do not get it because of how intimidating it is, its hard. I definitely do not agree with that sort of difficulty in a game.

[EagleFan]

Depends on the type of game. Overall my challenge level has dropped as I don't have the time to dedicate.

[Drake]

I'm on the record in the Fallout 76 thread stating that I will (and do) cheat my balls off in pretty much every game I play. If I can't mod it, I hack it. I literally make purchase decisions on how difficult I think the cheating curve is going to be.

The only exception is, of course, online gaming...which I don't do, minus however many years in the FOBL. And anybody who managed against me in that league will tell you that I probably should have tried cheating, because nothing else worked. I was pretty much the NY Mets without all the playoff appearances.

[finketr]

an Easy-ish level to pick up and learn the game and its mechanics and then more difficult for that feeling of accomplishment.