Slow day?

Yes they should, it's the persons choice and if you felt it were easy and ruined it then it's your own fault. Everyone knows the normal difficulties are the best if you have no idea what you are doing.

I hate restrictions on anything gaming.

Yes, all games should have a "go back and get all the collectibles" mode!

Easy/Medium/Hard should be the standard across the board. I applaud games which go above and beyond in allowing customization of one's experience, however. Bravely Default went as far as to allow battles to be turned off, and Street Fighter has many difficulty settings. This is how it should be done. Crank the difficulty up if you want a challenge, or bring it to a crawl if you don't. Play on medium if you want the developer's intentions.

Why is this even a debate?

Here we go again

Depends on the game and the vision the devs have for it. Part of a games experience is the difficulty. And a game like Dark Souls is set up for people to progressively get better at it.

I don't see why it should be forced. Games like Super Mario Galaxy do it right, by making 60 stars give you the ending and leaving you to tackle harder levels if you want 100% completion, or simply leave it at that. Plus, difficulty is subjective. Even "easy" mode will be too hard for some gamers and sometimes "hard" mode is still really really easy for others. And as for "tailor your entire experience" type games... I hate them. It ruined Project Cars' campaign for me, and I was extremely happy when Dirt Rally offered a more traditional progression system with some necessary restrictions.

I also think that if a game is easy enough that you can get through it without understanding any of the mechanics and simply button mash your way through, then that works against the game's success. There should be some barrier of entry so that you are at least required to have an understanding of the game to progress, otherwise the experience is ruined without the player even realising it.

I say let devs do what they want. If they think more difficulty modes are appropriate, that's fine. But if they think one mode is what's best, that's fine too. Games like Ico and Tearaway are meant to be serene and not very difficult because it fits the nature of the games.

How is this discussion still going? I get that the article is on the side of not forcing difficulty options, but at this point it just loops empty in my head.

Can you imagine something like Ico having "easy" difficulty, where Yorda just goes out and finishes the puzzle if the player doesnt manage to solve it in under few minutes? Or in Shadow of the Colossus if in easy mode you had twice the stamina and the Colossi shaked considerably less?

Fk that. Difficulty is often used to get you more emotionally involved into the game narrative and its characters (like in Ico, SotC and Soulsbornes).

Though I dont think that a dynamic difficulty tuning system wouldnt be bad, like in God Hand :P
For anyone not familiar, it tunes the enemy damage, agressiveness and tactics depending on how well you perform, and its tough as balls even if you are quite experienced. My second playthrough (where I rated at averange over twice as well as my first) was still as satisfying and hard as my first one. It was almost like re-living the first time again.

Modern games are too easy. If a game is too hard for you, then dont play it. I dont play games that are too easy because there is not challenge in them. I love games like simon the sorcerer or dark souls. Games you have to figure out for your self what you have to do. Games with tutorials and easy mode, i think its for babies. i played metroid and castlevania when i was 8 and thought if was heaven. every game i played was hard then, its supposed to be hard to play games. Like, play me if you dare, i challenge you.

Simple Yes..
If a Game only can score with the dificullt level something is broken...

no, especially games that have online play such as the souls games.

there should be a trophy called baby mode as my friend always play the easy mode all the time.

remember deadpool the video game where it has a baby mode dont hurt me lol

NOOOOOO! Some games are built with a setting in mind. It is the heart and soul of some games. For the rest, go ahead, be my guest.

The soul series is a series that will either get the casuals traumatised or make them get gud over time and patiences. And when people get gud, all other AAA games become an easy cat walkk.

Dark Souls 3 has an easy mode, just summon 2 other players... instant easy mode!

how can people have a problem with having the OPTION of difficulty levels?
you like games hard, put the game on hard, let other players play on the level they feel suits them best.

No games should not, if you suck then you suck and need to git gud son. Either practice, farm like hell, look for special items or coop with someone good. Pretty much every game starts easy and gets harder as you progress that's how it is and difficulty options shouldn't exist anymore

Videogames are the only medium that you might not be able to experience due to the difficulty level. If a movie came out that you would not be able to watch until you passed a 27 point dexterity test, I guarantee you that movie would be a total flop. I buy a lot of games and I respect the Souls series, but after Demon's Souls, I could not handle the difficulty. There were 4 games made after Demon's Souls that I would have bought, but didn't. So ultimately, From Software lost 240.00 from me because they decided to make their games difficult. Yes, there should be an easy mode on ALL games.

all games should be as they are developed by ppl, there shouldn't be any kind of game comunism,

Casuals need to stop crying over Dark Souls, there are plenty of other games for you to play with easy modes.

No, normal mode is easy enough, playing on normal is how a game is suppose to be. Like my friend said he always start the game on the hardest difficulty level so it can be challenging. Also how can you get good at a game when your playing on easy. Lol probably when someone says a game is boring it's probably because they're playing on easy or very easy.

Hell yes xD
Can't stand difficult games (and I grew up on the NES back in the day)

I think games should be focused on accessibility above difficulty. A game can be challenging by design, but if not all gamers are able to enjoy that experience on a level playing field, then the designers are letting a loyal portion of the gaming audience down.

Having an easy mode compromises from software's creative vision. They dont want an easy mode in their games necause that is simply not how the game is meant to be played. It's supposed to be challenging, and I wholeheartedly agree with the author. Part of what makes these games so memorable is the difficulty. Playing it on an easy mode takes away a fundamental part of the game. Also, if they had separate match making, good players would definitely make easy mode characters so they could invade people that aren't good at the game.

When casuals cry, FROM software hears it. Anyone else want to explain why PvP gets worse? Molded in favor of the casual. All that crying in DS1 finally paid off. Went from good old fashion 1v1s, to the invader being greeted by 4-6 phantoms damn near every time.

I don't think I've ever seen an argument revolving around video games before that has attracted such a large population of idiots.

The same tired, old arguments given by people who hate the idea of adding options is getting tiring. They feel so emotion driven, and clearly arn't thought through in the slightest. Either that, or they just don't care about being reasonable, only rolling in their own "git gud" vanity.

To all Souls idiots who don't think the games should have difficulty options:

Stop being idiots and grow up

anyone who wants to throw their generic, shitty argument as to why the Souls games can't have difficulty options at me, would LOVE to hear it.......... Again.........

Yes, because I only want to get a good story presented. I don't have the time anymore to play a game for weeks. I'm happy if I can play one evening of the week.

Should all games have a easy mode? Well I believe that's up to the developers and their vision of the game. Every developers have a vision for a game and if a easy mode is a problem then they don't include one and/or vice versa. If you don't like a game due to it's difficulty being easy or hard, then don't buy it, there as a vast amount of other games you can play and enjoy.

Dark souls 3 isn't even hard.. I beat it twice

Most should, some are not aimed at the 'easy' gamer.