But, but...........Cranky Kong!

OT: I only dislike easy games when there is truly no challenge whatsoever, but I also dislike hard games when the game pulls cheap bullshit on me! >:(

While I prefer tougher games, I really don't see the issue with games becoming easier. Games back in the day were played because the satisfaction gained from video games was beating them. That was it. That's not the case anymore. It's far more complex now. Now you get satisfaction from uncovering a plot or exploring a location. Things that can sometimes come in contrast with difficult gameplay.

That's why I hate it when games like Sonic try to put so much emphasis on story and why I hate it when games with a focus in plot try to be arcade like in their challenge. They don't make sense together. That's why Mario works so well without a significant plot.

For me its a mix of a game being Too Hard and also Too cheap.

Dark Souls was IMO too cheap.
There is no reason for me to play through a long level only to be killed by an unseen enemy, only to play through the entire level again, get passed that unseen enemy, only to be killed by an arrow from another off screen enemy...... Yuck.

Mega Man 8,9 was way too hard...
I love video games, but I LOVE having fun even more.

Because when they are under-performing they would rather blame the game than blame themselves.

At the end nobody cared for Cranky though...

On topic, I don't think games in the nes and snes era were hard. It's just they had unfair checkpoints forcing you to repeat over and over again. They were ok in that time, but nowadays most people want to play casually to enjoy. But anyway, is not like there aren't hard games today.

I love harder games. A lot of games nowadays are mind numbing.

Some of those older NES games were hard not because of the game but the limitations on the game made it hard. Old style gameplay like health bars etc.
This said, I don't think it's about hard/easy and all that, it's more if the game is challenging. Guacamellee was challenging, it was fantastic. Dark Soul's is challenging.

Yet in the end we are here to have fun and sometimes fun can be had by an easy button mashing game.

Lots of old games, like Super Metroid, has never been very hard... I actually think it's the easiest game in the series (although one of the best), Metroid [NES] was much harder, you hadn't a map, the controls weren't as efficient etc. Metroid II is also guilty of that. And then there's the newer titles. Fusion had much harder normal combat (enemies give you MUCH more damage) and boss battles. All three Prime games are definitely harder than Super Metroid if you play on Hard (Hypermode in MP3) but they're on par with Super Metroid on "normal" (GCN "normal", not MP3 and Trilogy "normal" which is a new easy mode). Haven't played Zero Mission but I've heard that's very easy though.

Just to put an example of old games erroneusly viewed as harder than new games. I can add that games like the first Super Mario Bros. was hard if you think about the game over where you have to start all over, but that game was very early and got that trait from arcade games, since home console "standards" weren't clearly defined yet. Like many other games I guess you think of.

So yeah the general conciousness tells ut that generally, games were harder before, but in the cases it's true, it's often because of technical advancements, but (important) not always.

Hope this made sense, I go to bed now.

I prefer "easier" games cause I value fun and/or well paced playthrough for the story over the satisfaction of beating a very hard game, which comes after a big dose of frustration. It's that simple.

There is room for both though, and after beat the game on normal or hard for the "clear run" for story, I usually beat the game on it's hardest difficulty for the trophy.

Playing through the last of us on hardest right now.. Its like an entirely different game