I honestly don't think there's fun in a game without challenge.

I would never fork out cash to play an easier version - I might do it for a harder version though. 

I remember playing games on my ZX Spectrum with no saves and busting my ass to beat a platformer with a perfect run. We don't often encounter challenges like that nowadays (Demon Souls notwithstanding), but I still love them.

Maybe it's a generational thing, but I think there's more reward in the sense of accomplishment you get when you meet a challenge and best it than just being given a medal for pressing play (a lot of games seem to do this nowadays, it's like participation medals at school sports meets imo- pointless and empty). 

So, the OP's idea baffles me, but to each their own. If you pay $10 for EZ-mode and it doesn't affect my experience, then I don't care one way or the other. Tiered rewards for challenge levels would be a must though (think normal, hard and nightmare mode raids). 

Originally posted by Creslin321

Okay okay...

I see that many people disagree with this idea.  And maybe the problem is that it would be that a difficulty slider would make it so "easy" for a player to complete content that it would cheapen the game.

So how about this instead...

The dev charges a modest fee to allow players to slide the difficulty slider to easier modes.  So you have to pay like $10 for easy mode, or $20 for very easy.  This way, not everyone could do easy mode...but you could pay for it if you really wanted it.

Wow ! This is even worse than your previous idea ! P2W much ? :p

Originally posted by aesperus
Maybe it's just me, but I have yet to find an MMO that's difficult enough to warrant a difficulty slider.

Have you finished all WOW hard mode raids?

Have you finished D3 inferno in hard core mode?

It can and does work well for heavily instanced games like City of Heroes or Vindictus. In a persistent world game though...i'm not sure. Seems very exploitable.

I do like the idea of there being some kind of option for players who find the game to easy. Like someone else mentioned, some kind of hardcore server with buffed up mobs would be neat.

Originally posted by Vinterkrig

no, like the guy above you said.. he doesn't want a time sink, but he still wants to play a mmo so he can have online friends

So a social virtual world with no progression ... does it have to be an MMO?  What about second life?  Does it have to be a world?  There are matchmaking services for linking up with random people in non-MMO games.

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by aesperus
Maybe it's just me, but I have yet to find an MMO that's difficult enough to warrant a difficulty slider.

Have you finished all WOW hard mode raids?

Have you finished D3 inferno in hard core mode?

the hell wants to play that crappy old game? o_O

using Blizzard as your difficulty scale is garbage <3

Originally posted by Vinterkrig

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by aesperus
Maybe it's just me, but I have yet to find an MMO that's difficult enough to warrant a difficulty slider.

Have you finished all WOW hard mode raids?

Have you finished D3 inferno in hard core mode?

 

the hell wants to play that crappy old game? o_O

using Blizzard as your difficulty scale is garbage <3

I doubt you have the skills to do it since there are so few.

It is a good yardstick when it is difficult. You have no credibility unless you have done it. You can yell all you want that it is easy .. but that does not make it so.

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Originally posted by nariusseldon

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Originally posted by Vinterkrig

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Originally posted by nariusseldon

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Originally posted by aesperus
Maybe it's just me, but I have yet to find an MMO that's difficult enough to warrant a difficulty slider.

---

Have you finished all WOW hard mode raids?
Have you finished D3 inferno in hard core mode?

---

 
the hell wants to play that crappy old game? o_O using Blizzard as your difficulty scale is garbage <3

---

I doubt you have the skills to do it since there are so few.

It is a good yardstick when it is difficult. You have no credibility unless you have done it. You can yell all you want that it is easy .. but that does not make it so.

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Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by Vinterkrig

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by aesperus
Maybe it's just me, but I have yet to find an MMO that's difficult enough to warrant a difficulty slider.

Have you finished all WOW hard mode raids?

Have you finished D3 inferno in hard core mode?

 

the hell wants to play that crappy old game? o_O

using Blizzard as your difficulty scale is garbage <3

I doubt you have the skills to do it since there are so few.

It is a good yardstick when it is difficult. You have no credibility unless you have done it. You can yell all you want that it is easy .. but that does not make it so.

 

play pvp, then you'll get your challenge.. just saying

I've been thinking about difficulty 'thing' in mmorpg's multiple times from 'diffrent angles'.

Only way it would have worked for me = separate diffrent difficulty servers.

that's what "heroic" setting on dungeons is.

AoC had the option to play the entire zone in Heroic mode for extra special challenge and loot. it's been done already.

first of all - if your mindset is like this - dont play (MMO)RPGs. go play (mmo)fps or something like that, because you are more or less taking away one of the (imo) most important parts of computer rpgs - achievment of character progression.

second - while it is possible to use it in single player game, it would completely ruin any character interaction in mmorpg. from obvious unfair advantage in pvp (more easily achieved stronger character) to ruining trade (faster/easier access to better items) to less obvious things like you are ruining even basic monster killing for other players cause you are able to "clear" areas where others are trying to kill mobs.

i have to say tho that i really like the idea of different difficulty servers. you could even go further - it could solve whole solo/group problem if you had server where everything is soloable + server where almost nothing is soloable TOGETHER with cross-server communication - while you would wait for you buddies to log in, you could play a solo char on "easy" server and then just relog to group one.

Originally posted by eyelolled
I've thought about this before. It would have to be appropriately balanced or people would level on easy then farm lower level zones for drops. I think it would be better to have different difficulty servers.

I said he** no to the difficulty sliders, but the server difficulty idea I would get behind in a heartbeat.

Originally posted by Creslin321

Hey Guys, I was playing Skyrim and it gave me an idea...

I don't like to spend hours and hours having to grind in MMORPGs to move on to the next area.  But I'm often forced to do this because there is no way to make the content easy enough so that I don't have to grind.  In Skyrim and games like it, I can get around this by just setting the difficulty slider to an easier setting.

So I thought...why not have this in MMORPGs!  Except obviously it can't affect the monsters around you...but a difficulty slider could affect your character.  It would work to where if you set it to "easy" it would apply a positive multiplier to your stats.  And if you set it to "hard" it would apply a negative multiplier.

This would allow players like me who just want to play the game and not grind to go through content at a much quicker pace.

What do you guys think of this idea?

 

This has been done in case you were not aware of it.  CIty of Heroes did it long ago:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Notoriety

Originally posted by waynejr2

Originally posted by Creslin321

Hey Guys, I was playing Skyrim and it gave me an idea...

I don't like to spend hours and hours having to grind in MMORPGs to move on to the next area.  But I'm often forced to do this because there is no way to make the content easy enough so that I don't have to grind.  In Skyrim and games like it, I can get around this by just setting the difficulty slider to an easier setting.

So I thought...why not have this in MMORPGs!  Except obviously it can't affect the monsters around you...but a difficulty slider could affect your character.  It would work to where if you set it to "easy" it would apply a positive multiplier to your stats.  And if you set it to "hard" it would apply a negative multiplier.

This would allow players like me who just want to play the game and not grind to go through content at a much quicker pace.

What do you guys think of this idea?

 

This has been done in case you were not aware of it.  CIty of Heroes did it long ago:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Notoriety

 

 

Ah but that only lets you change the difficulty level of instanced areas.  I'm talking about allowing players to change the difficulty leve of everywhere in the game, including the open world.