but wouldn't most of the easy mode players be new guys?  That means the old audience or roughly the amount of guys that bought Demon and Dark would be on their hard setting anyway.  I think it would broaden the audience and your community would stay intact.  I look at it like Ninja Gaiden Sigma.  The game still has its reputation but there is an easy setting where you wear a flower or something.  The only bad thing I can see coming from this is really good players playing on easy and trolling the new guys who want an easy experience by becoming black phantoms.  I think that would be rare and I also don't think it would effect you or any other person playing on hard since they would be on your skill level if you faced them and it would be just like the last 2 online.  Maybe there's some cause for concern but I don't see it.

The guy who helped me out and me were talking on Skype while playing and he basically said a bunch of fans were planning to boycott it if it had an easy mode.  I told him everything I told you and he basically said he just wanted to be able to say he beat DS2 and not have anyone else around him say it.  To me that's really narrow minded and narcisstic especially considering that I really didn't have that hard of a time with it (except when the damn targetting system either wouldn't target on steps or was blocking my view in tunnels) and I never play that type of game.  It really is a fun game once you get the feel down and I think a lot of people would start on easy and work their way up like any game.  I used to play Uncharted on easy then before 3 came out I decided to do 1 and 2 on hard and crushing and it was rewarding and now I try almost every game on hard.

I agree, it would expand the community too.