Simple solution is to just keep the 2 communities completely separate online play wise. If someone wants to enjoy the story and play with the enemies doing less damage and their attacks doing more then why not let them? It doesn't effect your regular mode playthroughs at all. You'd never see them and your game would be just as hard. It would keep the balance for the hard mode. Trophies would tell you who was the wusses and who was the hardcore players.








