I was looking around the blizzard forums the other day and came across this thread in one of the more recent topics created. While as of now WoW is the only game that I know of that this is effected by I thought it could be interesting to see what everyone else thought of it and how they would react to it if this were done to one of your games.

To sum up the thread and what has been happening in patch 4.3, Blizzard has recently created a new feature called Looking For Raid or LFR. The lfr lets you que yourself for the new raid that is out and allows you to more easily find a group of members who also want to down the content. So think of it like as selecting online coop and randomally getting 24 other people to play with. While that alone sounds like a very good thing, there is however one major change it has done to raid as well. Every boss inside the raid has been considerably nerfed (or in other words put on easy mode). Mechanics that under regular circumstances would kill everyone in the group are now unimportant and many times go ignored.

So something that once took time, effort, and some dedication to see is now reduced to click a button and in less than an hour you have killed all 8 bosses in the first week. Keeping in mind that prior to this unless you were a really hard core top of the line guild you would not achieve such a thing. You would take several weeks learning the fights and over the course of time (varying on how long you raid) you had it cleared in a month or two.

Now lets translate this into the world of xbox or some other online gaming platform. Imagine if you will those guns/armor you have worked so hard to unlock, or the secret boss you went and killed that took hours or trial and error to defeat for his treasure now anyone who starts up the game can get it with 1/10 of the effort you put into it. How would your reaction to the game be and why?

Keep in mind that there are still the harder settings for people who want them. The raiders still have their regular and heroic mode raids to go do, which do give slightly better gear. So it's not as if those who do raid have been robbed of the challenges that they enjoy. Now you can just play on easy mode anytime you want

I completely agree with the OP in that thread you linked. I play games to have fun and experience something new/an interesting story/world/content, not get stuck on the same ridiculous challenge for days, weeks, or longer. I see no problem with it if there's still harder modes for the more dedicated players.

If a game I played and did something really challenging in to get some rare loot had an update that made it easier, I'd be fine with it. Like adding an easy mode to a game with only normal and hard. It may just be a symptom of me having an impossibly large backlog of games, but it feels like a waste of time to get stuck on any one thing for too long. But I hate when being able to see the rest of a game is barred by one overwhelming challenge that I don't care to spend hours on end on.

Similarly I hate grinding unless I'm actually experiencing something new. (sidequesting and seeing new quests while gaining experience - good; loitering around the same forest genociding an entire population of wolves to level up, doing the same thing for hours - bad).

It just depends on the type of gamer you are. I respect that others like to be challenged, but I myself just like to enjoy my games. I mean I do play hard modes if they aren't too crazy (hack'n'slashes usually aren't fun below hard mode), but it depends on the game.

That really stinks. I love games that challenge me. If it's not a challenge, why even play?

That really stinks. I love games that challenge me. If it's not a challenge, why even play?

But is it really a challenge of skill, or a challenge of how much free time your wiling to put into to kill the same things over and over again to get to the level you need to be?

Stealthy!

That does suck.

That being said, I might check out WoW now that I know I can level up by nerfing my way through some raids and grabbing some cheap xp...

@ Kevin - The hard time i have with agreeing with him is the game is not the grind fest it use to be in vanilla. Grinds are now just put a tabbard one and do dungeons for rep instead of 4 daily quest for 3 months. The bosses weren't hard just required focus. Sometimes rng would kill you, other times its one of the people your relying on making a mistake. . Its really the "i bought the game, i better be able to beat it even if im bad" mentality that gets me. Just cause you bought a game do you think that you should automatically be on the last lvl because you couldn't apply the effort to get their yourself?

@ Em - Thats a great question and way to think. I thought more people in the wow community thought that way until i went onto the forums. Its seems to be a dying breed

@ Pan - Its kinda both. Each new boss you encounter requires different strategies to kill him. None of them are hard really, just require you knowing what you are doing and the people around you to know what they are doing. Personally I know what im doing to perfection within half a dozen attempts. You have guilds that can clear on the first week because they are good and are raid aware. You have others that clear in the first week because they are in there for 10 hours or more learning.

Also hi Pogre!

@Stealthy There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to experience all of the main content of a game you spent money on, even if you aren't the greatest player. That's why there are difficulty settings.

It should be noted that my opinions are aimed at games in general, not MMOs. I don't care for MMOs, which is what your original question seems more directed at.

@Em It depends. Some games have a really good story you want to see, not all games are about a difficult challenge.

@Stealthy There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to experience all of the main content of a game you spent money on, even if you aren't the greatest player. That's why there are difficulty settings.

It should be noted that my opinions are aimed at games in general, not MMOs. I don't care for MMOs, which is what your original question seems more directed at.

lol its cool dude, everyone has their own opinion and i did ask what everyone thinks about this in general. I just think that just because you buy something it makes you entitled to everything. Like when i buy a game when i see the end of it its because i sat down and fought my way through whatever stood in my way. If i never made it to the end (which sadly is the case for more than a handful of games) its because i was unable to match the challenge given to me. I feel like its cheating putting it on easy and walking all over it, when before it was stomping your face in

Yeah different strokes for different folks, not everyone plays games the same way or wants the same things out of them. It's not like I don't like to be challenged sometimes though, I never use easy mode unless I'm just messing around. Games like Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 and Super Meat Boy can be great fun in a masochistic sort of way lol.

I think a good game should balance rewards and challenges. It shouldn't be incessantly hard without letting you get something out of it, nor should you be able to breeze through it unless you're on a low difficulty. Depends on the style of game really.

Sorry if I'm ranting lol. From a place called Gamercide you're going to have to expect some strong opinions on the nature of games if you make a thread like this.

I think it would be a feeling of lost achievement. I lean towards the side that I don't care one bit about difficulty. I want a good story in a game while interacting with the environment. Challenge has its place in certain genres, but for the most part I fully believe difficulty settings need to be there to please everyone.

I think the problem I would have, and Stealthy probably has is that the rules changed mid game. Being an MMO this will happen. Stealthy and plenty others know they beat certain bosses and did certain things before the game became easy. However, as time goes by and everyone and their brother can do the same thing it will lessen everyone's accomplishment. Which is crappy.

In a normal game I can play it on easy and someone else can play it on hard. They know they beat it on a higher difficulty than me and can feel accomplished, and I can know they did and not care because I still enjoyed the game. Being an MMO you can't please everyone, and the nerfed fights tend to displease people who actually had to work for it.

I always play shooters on the hardest difficulty. 3D FPS is my realm. Sports and racing games, I have to put on easy or normal. MMO's, I wouldn't put it on hard unless I'm playing with a group of other players. I can see where Stealthy is coming from, with WoW being his realm, especially being an MMO and seing other people fighting the same battles getting to his level without having to put much effort into it. I see this happening more often with gaming becoming as popular as it is.