Are Modern Games Being Dumbed Down?

My thoughts are that while there are more easy games out there, games themselves have not necessarily gotten "easier" in the simplest sense of the word. There are certainly more options for difficulty out there, as games rarely have a difficult (and DEFAULT) mode with no other options. Many games have a very easy "Normal" mode (which is likely called that because people find it emasculating to play on "easy", but those same games often have much more difficult modes as well.  The other important evolution is that the difficulty in games has often gotten more "fair" than it has been in the past. Games that have good difficult modes draw their difficulty from smart enemies and challenging situation- while many hard classic games are difficult because they either don't control very responsively, have very few checkpoints that are far apart, or limit the player's ability to experiment by giving you a limited number of lives/continues. Playing your first Halo game on legendary may be a bit of an exercise in trial and error, but no two encounters unfold exactly the same because of the dynamic AI, and you are never TOTALLY screwed by being barred from trying a segment again 

I hope GoW never dies

If I had been the person that I was three years ago, I would say "yes".

Now, I would say that this is up to the beholder, after having become wiser to know that everyone has a different, figurative cup of tea.

Anyone who says "yes" or "no" may want to consider whether they are being self-righteous, or just love having the opportunity to speak their opinions out loud and claim themselves as being "right" on the subject issue.

The short answer is: Yes.

Games today are being developed for a console, or at least a "console-like" experience, and at worst a "facebook-like" experience. Compare current X-Com vs. older versions. Compare Civ 5 vs. Civ 4. Skyrim vs. ES1 or 2.

Note to developers: Gamers that play PC games want a game scale suitable to a PC!!! Surprise!!! If we wanted a console scale game, we'll buy a console game. 

People aways say "Ah, Dark Souls is very hard!". No! It isn't, demon's souls was way more harder than dark souls (if one has not used mage as his class). I've done the first playthrough in less than 1 week. And even being easy there are a lot of noobs using bow backstab glitch (a hit kill glitch even with the worst bow of the game). Most of the people who say that dark souls is hard didn't even play the game.

You want a hard game? Go play The Elder Scrolls 1 or 2, it was so hard that ppl wasn't even able to finish the starting dungeon. 

The best solution I think is to be able to change dificulty. I remember the first time two dragons appeard in Skyrim. One was hard enough, but two? I tried a few times but it was imposible for my character at that moment, so I just went to the options menu, and lower the dificulty a little... a couple of tries more and they where dead. If I hadn't the posibility of changing the dificulty, I would probably stoped playing or something..

i wouldn't say they are dumbed down, just made less ridiculous for people with less time to spend on puzzle games....

at least the games Ive played never got hard enough with the exception of old Tomb-raider games (especially when u wanted to get all the secrets ). illd just never go for a puzzle game though, sometimes they just feel too boring...............and talking about boring, i think i have enough of it at work

I think Valve isn't dumbing down games. Diablo III was definitely watered down. Nintendo hasn't made a challenging videogame for a long long time, in fact I can't name any challenging videogames on the Wii at all! Fable III was another one that felt very dumbed down. That's not how I'd describe titles like Halo Reach or Battlefield 3. Although you're lead through all of the campaign and you never really have to think hard or master your skills to beat any given level in the campaigns, that's been consistent within both of those series. I would like to see developers hiding more secrets in their worlds though since the sense of discovery and reward of learning how to do something by yourself is highly gratifying.. If only there was a way to have both! haha

Dark Souls sold like 2m copies.  There is a market for hard games.

Games are definitely being dumbed down. Lazy devs, smartphones, and "addiction gamers" are to blame. Not very many companies make games for true gamers anymore.

??? ofcourse there dumbed down how is this a question? games were alot harder back in the day because they had to be. otherwise you could beat them in 5 minutes. you cant make a 10 - 11 hour game or games like MGS hard as hell or you it'd take you year to beat it and who the hell wants to do that.

The Witcher 2 was incredibly difficult on dark mode; and wasn't all that easy on default. The story also progressed in a way that really made both playthroughs different.

Honestly, games have been dumbing down for years.

Way before the wii even came out.

There is a difference between an entire game from the ground up being easy (that's called making an easy wide-demographic game) than a game that is supposed to be "hardcore" is actually really easy.

The wii is not to blame. Nintendo doesn't dumb down their "hardcore" games, they just make a lot of family games. Halo, however, implemented the regenerating health, but the game was still hard because of how far the checkpoints were in between.

Games now have soooo many checkpoints, regenerating health, and waaaay too many wannabe quick-time-events, that the game is like playing a an on the rails shooter that shoots for you and you don't have to aim.

Well, Diablo3 pissed me off because of the lame first difficulty level. As nightmare is pretty much the same game again with same powers, it loses any interest. Dark Souls was far too difficult and I wish I had not bought it. It is equally ridiculous to let a player go through lvl 1 50 times and not enjoying any change in gameplay or anything.

People always talk about difficulty in games as if developers are intentionally trying to make games easy. Maybe some are, but even if they weren't, it wouldn't make a difference. The major problem is how formulaic game design has become, sticking to the assured sales model. If you played one FPS, you've played them all, so of course they get easier. Back in the days games were growing, so there was a lot of variety, Mario and Sonic were two very different games, being good at one doesn't transfer to the other.

But if you good at CoD, your good at BF, MoH, Halo, Far Cry, Crysis and just about any other FPS. I think if games were offering varying experiences, no one would complain their too easy. Tough to challenge someone when they are an expert the moment they pick up the controller and can anticipate your level design.

this website is utter rubbish these days the videos hardly ever load...but the adverts always do! they make sure of that..and yes my setting are right for video, every other website works. you are now wank gamespot. sort it

This is what "DIEING" generation looks like. Take a hint.

Videogames are going downhill, because X720, PS4 and Wii U aren't out.  Gamespot was like this in 2000 and again in 2005. Everybody forgot (except me)

Yes.20 years ago you had 3 life's, with luck you'd find a couple of more on the way, lose them all, start all over again from the very beginning.Today people think veteran in CoD makes them hardcore gamers...The health restores if you take cover for half a second and even if you get killed you go back 5 feet and you can try again again and again and again.Reason is simple, idiots >>>> clever folks.Companies wanna make money, they aim for the masses.

I like to play games casually, and no, I'm not talking about "grandpa consoles" like Wii; I like to play shooters, RPGs, Dungeon Crawlers, TPS, RTS, etc, but I play to releave myself from daily stress, not to prove anyone that I'm better than someone. I like to play games as games, not as my life is at stake and I'm in a urge to prove myself... I'm not going to earn a medal nor money if I beat a game like Dark Souls, so I don't give a damn if I beat a game in 8, 3, or 50 hours, I just wanna have fun. If the game has a gameplay time of 10 hours, but it's so hard that I take my whole life to beat it, because of too many replayed levels due to deaths, excuse me, but I will never touch a game like this. I have more things to do with my life, and mostly, I have a lot more games to play.

This video is spot on. This trend is what has generally led to my disinterest with gaming in the past couple years

I don't understand what they mean by letting you choose a difficulty in Diablo 3 from the start?   That's not the idea, it follows Diablo 2 in you beat the lower levels to get to the higher difficulty.  Nothing new....

This girl should brush her hair

I feel that game difficulty is fine where it is for me anyway. I dont have much time for games most days, usually a couple hours at night during the week and some time on weekends, though at times I do overindulge and I pay for it later in lost productivity, ie house resposibilities. I feel that games should have an adaptable level of difficulty, which games do have. If you want a fair experience where both you and the ai have equal amounts of damage and health, then normal should be the all around fair game, easy should be for newbs and players who are not good at games. Hard and up should be for those players who want to get the max they can from their experience, alot of the game awards are given for hard or harder playthroughs and completing certain events. I play for the fun most times and if I complete something yay for me.

how can we vote with our cash when there is not very much to choose from

The regenerating health bar was the death of challenging gameplay in my opinion. So integrated into modern gaming now that it has become mandatory and cause for scrutiny when not implemented.

I actually buy a lot less games now, than I did 10+ years ago, so maybe it's a good thing that most games aren't worth it. Saved a lot of money and time ;)

Tell me more stories about video games news caster lady and I wouldn't be able to help myself and I would just kiss you.Kiss me too news caster lady! Kiss me on nightmare difficulty !!! :D

I present Dark Souls and Super Meat Boy.

Fable123, GTA4, Diablo 3, Skyrim, Dishonored, Rage, SR 3,COD,

All these games are SOOOO easy ist just not worth playing.

I remember oblivian witch was difficult on a normal setting. Skyrim was easy on the hardest setting. Even after they changed it i good kill a dragon with a few swing of my axe. I had more problems with deer and not because they where strong but they just kept running away.