A Few Thoughts on the "Easy" Setting in Video Games

After a long day of work, it makes sense for someone to want to come back home and just unwind for a bit. Perhaps, they have themselves a tasty adult beverage, or listen to music, or (and more on topic with the title of this thing) they sit down and play some video games? This is an activity I've certainly engaged in a number of times, and it rarely involves me playing some deeply complex, technically rigorous piece, but more often something fairly straightforward (your CALL OF DUTY's, BORDERLANDS, and the like). Every so often, though, if I do take a dip into something more rigorous I may find my self playing it on the "easy" difficulty as an exercise in decompression.

For those who may not know, many games have different difficulty settings that you can choose from based on your skill level, or just how tough you want your experience to be. Something to note, however, is that most games are optimized to their "hard" settings, meaning that setting is the closest to many developers intentions for how the game should be played. Due to this, and to the desire for a greater challenge, many "hardcore gamers" gravitate towards "hard".

Yet, I think so many people neglect the real joys that can come out of "easy". As I previously stated, there is a real utility for decompression. Being able to completely plow through some monster, or what-have-you, that would have given you some difficulty on the normal setting is a remarkably cathartic feeling. There's a real sense of power that can come from that.While it's not as ultimately fulfilling as completing some truly difficult challenge, the immediate sensation is notable.

Deeper than that visceral sense is the feeling that comes from exploring the limits of the actual make-up of said games. Questions such as "Just how quickly can I clear this whole game?", "How long of a hit-combo can I string together?" can be answered and their results examined. More often than not, this leads me to somewhat of a deeper appreciation for the game in question. It should be said that it's also lead me to like some games less, as is the case of KINGDOM HEARTS, a game whose main worthwhile elements are contained in the complexity of its game play. Once those are removed, it becomes a mostly incoherent story where one just moves the camera around and does the most simple attack over and over.

I think more of us should embrace "easy" mode. There's real value there, and it would behoove some people to shed some of their oh-yes-I-am-such-a-hardcore-gamer shell. It just seems like such a limiting way to view this wide medium we call video games.