Ive always thought this though.
If I was a developer Id offer you your difficulty settings. For all you freaks Id challenge the shit out of you in my 1 and only Hard Mode to shut you all up. I dont need multiple levels of hard. Id only have on that would demand more than you could handle.=)
(Stupid that all games dont offer difficulty settings)

Funny thing is when you got Ninja Gaiden you bitched it was too hard.
(I found it normal)

"You" means anyone who loves uber-hard games not anyone in general. So yea have to clear that up.

Yeah true... those games were so much harder though too... which is kinda my real point.  I mean, i suck at those games now too...

games just in general aren't as hard as they once were despite the fact that your threshold for error has GREATLY increased.

What's better:

- A hard game that's hard from start to finish, so you know what you're expecting (lots of rape, that's for sure!)

- A quite easy game (mostly a RPG) that suddenly turns hard because of one certain part that is unbalanced?

I'd pick the former, because starting to train intensively at disc 4 of a RPG just for a fricking boss battle (yeah, I'm talking about Ultimecia in FFVIII, damn bitch) is quite boring and tedious. Repetition sucks. There's no skills involved when it's all about luck (apart from item/skill management). Memorizing patterns is way more fun in my opinion.

maybe it's just the fact i'm an unskilled gamer....but i like that most any game can be beaten eventually.

...but i can see your point. it's disappointing that more games don't have several difficultly modes or maybe an intelligent difficulty AI.

I remember when I was in my early teens I could kick the snot out of some of the older games like Megaman, Tiger Heli, etc...

Then I started playing tons and tons of RPG's.

Now I suck at everything else except for the occasional speedy shooters like UT.

 I agree completely. I couldn't have said it petter myself, well I'd have taken out the cursing anyway, but that doesn't really matter.

Edit: I could indeed not have said it petter myself :B

I do miss those days god damn Super Ghost n Ghouls is still kicking my ass can get to second last boss with bracelet but :P arjawoenoanfawefaf

I think the shift started in the 16-bit era and games have become considerably easier ever since. I mean, look at Fable 2. It's a great game, but I think that it is physically impossible to not beat it. A glowing trail lights your path so you can't ever get lost, and even if you die in combat you wake up exactly where you fall. Games today are more like interactive movies. I'm actually okay with that, though. I play games to relieve stress, not add to it.

I do kinda miss making maps on graph paper for hard games, or spending a whole day at school trying to come up with a solution to that one puzzle in Shadowgate.

That happens to me in EVERY Final Fantasy... i've ever played.  I quit FF4 one time beceause I was on the final boss... got my ass kicked... like super fast a few times... then checked a FAQ for level requirements... and found out i was somehow like 10-15 levels too low... at the final save point with limited items.

FFVIII is a bad example. That game was too easy to level up in. I think there was this one tiny island where each battles gets your 2-3 level ups. Even if you take the time to go down to Ultima weapon you should have 5+ characters maxed out by the time you get there.

Now FFIX, leveling up to fight Ozma (I think that is the name)... that's a bitch.