Gaming

I know this is satire but I would definitely play a mode like this. I may only be 20 but a 10 hour shift plus nearly 2 hour train rides kill me

I don't think it's the difficulty of games that makes them take so long for me. Just that everything is so bloated now. There's so much to do, but so little of it actually adds to the experience.

I appreciate that a lot of games have realised this and let you differentiate between "go this way to see the end of the game" and "here is some bullshit if you're not getting another game until Christmas".

Like sure, I could deliver every parcel in Death Stranding, and really get into the class fantasy of being a post apocalyptic Deliveroo driver, but I'm just mainlining the story quests at this point. Which is taking long enough on its own.

I would absolutely choose this mode without any shame. I already spend plenty of time in "Story Mode" difficulty; I don't care to spend hours of frustration trying to hit just the right dodge pattern for a boss because I no longer have the finger dexterity that I did when I was 20.

Real talk: I'd rather kill my hour bashing my head against something challenging then progress actively through something not challenging. "Beating the game" just isn't a drive for me. I play while it's fun, which often (but not always) involves the game being challenging, and often, unless the story has particularly gripped me, I don't care to "finish" it.

But that is me. A lot of people derive their enjoyment from progressing in games. Good, adaptable difficulty settings are so important for games, and the sooner we recognize that instead of shaming people for wanting things the be accessible, the better.

I feel like a time wizard because I'm like 40, date several people, have a full time job, and still play games and read books. Where is everyone else's time going??

Is it kids? I don't have a kid. That might do it.

Main reason games like Deathloop, Outer Wilds, Gunfire Reborn, Slay the Spire, Vampire Survivors, etc. got their hooks in me so deep - something I can sit down, fire up to play solo (it's tough as hell to get friends together to squad in games when all your friends are also 35 and busy), knock out a 30min - 2hr play session, and put down without feeling like I'm in the middle of something.

Love how many games there are these days who play like this. Seems like rogue-lites do it best, but it's nice to see other genres making it work, too.

I play an awful lot of games on easy mode now anyway, unless I'm going in specifically to learn the game (Fromsoft games for example). If I'm playing a random open world game or a FPS I'm gonna knock that difficulty down to make life a little easier.

Time. I'd rather not do this, but I get like maybe five hours a week to play. The days where I can sit down on weekends and just...game are long gone, and likely won't return until the kids are much older.

I'm 55 and I hate this. Yeah, I know, it's satire. So is mine. Kinda.

Yes please. I have a kid. I can't die 20 times to a boss just so I can learn its moves and defeat it.

really like the implementation. I remember playing the Witcher 3 on easy mode just to be able to go through the story and enjoy the fantastic scenery. One of the best gaming experiences of my life. especially on an ultra wide monitor

"We’re here for you and we know that being 35 is really really really old, whether you’re willing to admit it or not."

I feel seen.

Do you know how defeated I feel having to select easy mode every time now?

Sorry I can't devote 8 hours on Saturday and Sunday to bruise my way through. I have yard work to do, dogs to entertain and a lady to woo

As a 40yr old developer of a FOSS RTS game (not released yet), I generally aim at games taking from 20 - 30 minutes. This is because I usually have only about 1 or 2 hours to play games with the bois after work. Additionally, I am usually extremely tired, so I try to implement a lot of QOL features that make the game less arduous to play.

Recently a popular RTS game that uses the same engine as mine has had a lot of sweats complaining about widgets (Long story, but they are unsynced bits of lua code that can extend things. They have limited access to the synced state, but are still pretty powerful). Basically people complaining about a specific widget that will make your units try to stay at max range when in a fight. While this sounds pretty useful, in the case of players who are relatively decent with rts gameplay, it's more of an irritation to deal with than anything else.

But as a developer of this type of game, I have a vested interest in making players who aren't as good be able to compete with players like myself who are really good. If that means some (very) rudimentary AI will try to make your units behave somewhat intelligently when you aren't paying attention, I'm totally down for that. I find that as I get older, even though I am extremely experienced and good in rts games, I appreciate such tools existing for the players who simply aren't that great. I don't get my dopamine hits from steamrolling another player, I get my hits from good fights and satisfying battles. A lot of people I talk to make me feel like an outlier, but I know good and goddamn well that there are a lot of lesser skilled players that just wouldn't bother with speaking up.

I have a very large problem with games that don't respect my time. Elite Dangerous is a perfect example. I avoided it for a very long time because people went on and on about how hard it was to fly. Turns out, anyone who played descent 1 and descent 2 (And now Overload on steam (seriously, buy this shit, it's modern descent built by the original devs and it's amazing)) can fly the crafts with ease. The space combat is pretty shit tier. However, it's gorgeous, and super cool, BUT, the developers refuse to implement any sort of fast travel. The sheer amount of time that it takes to get anywhere is mind boggling. I would spent 6 hours flying on a day off, and still not manage to really get anything done. This is the perfect example of a game that does not respect my time. I HATE games like this. I try to understand that time literally is money. That isn't only a cliche. As you get older, you realize that time is a resource, and as you get older, you find that you have so little free time, that any time lost can be a really heavy blow.

Make this but for real, though

Pretty sure a lot of people will embrace this mode if it exists. When you are an adult with responsibilities, beating a "challenging" game simply isn't a priority.