My decision to play Mass
Effect on the highest
difficulty setting destroyed
my immersion.
7
highest difficulty setting
destroyed my immersion. And if you’re not
immersed in Mass Effect’s world then you’re
not going to get the
most out the game.
Despite what I believed at the time I
clearly didn’t know
what was best for me
and I’m certain that
if Bioware didn’t offer me the chance to
choose how difficult I
wanted their game to
be I would’ve enjoyed
it a lot more.
You could say it’s pedantic to be complaining about something
as harmless as letting
players choose their
own difficulty in games
but I think it says something more significant
about modern culture
as a whole.
Giving the player
the power to choose a
game’s difficulty is just
one example of creators pandering to consumers instead of making something unique
and personal that
consumers can learn
to love and come to
understand over time.
Making the creative
process a compromise
and crafting your work
to suit the expectations
of your audience in-
stead of challenging
their sensibility, their
intelligence, their expectations results in
stagnation, both on a
personal level and for
the industry.
I know this isn’t a
very popular opinion
opers to dictate their
game’s difficulty since
I can’t possibly know
before I’ve played
a game how hard it
should be. Devs should
make their games as
difficult or as easy as
they need to be and
"the power to choose a game’s
difficulty is just one example
of creators pandering to
consumers"
to have these days but
I think I’d rather place
my faith in the creators.
I’d prefer for the devel-
players should accept
this design choice just
as they accept all others.
We do not always
know what’s best for
us. Sometimes it takes
someone else to say
‘hey, try this. It might
not be the sort of thing
you’re used to but once
you come to terms with
it, it will completely
change your life.’