For online games, do you prefer easy to Nintendo Hard, or a Nintendo Hard to easy?

I'll elaborate in my post.

When it comes to playing anything that's online, whether be it an MMORPG, an FPS, or just the latest Facebook App game that everybody seems to be enjoying, do you prefer a game that gets easier as the developers have more ideas on improving it by removing or lessening inconveniences, or do you prefer what's essentially your good ole progressive difficulty?

By this, here are some examples. Maplestory can be considered Nintendo Hard to easy type of game. At first, potion money was the main meso sink for us. Expect the majority of all the money you pick up to simply fund your potions so you can train more. What's more, there were really horrible training spots as well as plain gear. You'd be happy to kill monsters 30-40 levels below you just because it's the "best" place to train in. Then New Leaf City came out, Leafre came out, Time Temple came out, and all kinds of new equipment that when clean, is already superior to what most people had..

Now here, people are complaining that the newer players didn't have to suffer through their 1-2m EXP/hour when the newest places grant them 8-10m EXP/hour or even more. People complain their "godly" level 70 equipment are useless. HOWEVER, why can't these people simply take advantage of the new changes?






On the flip side, there aren't many online games that go from easy to Nintendo hard in terms of changes, although I can easily list Battletoads as a console game that just gets harder and harder. However, but let's use Maplestory as an example again, since it's the easiest to relate to. Let's say that the higher level monsters not only gave more EXP, but say their HP:EXP ratio becomes more horrible than even lower level monsters. Say Skeles have twice the HP they have now (~160k HP instead of 80-85k) but give 12k EXP. That's worse than the previous Skeles of ~80k HP for ~4-4.5k EXP. Say potions actually cost more to heal for the same amount. Say the good classic Reindeer Milk cost ~9k HP to heal 5k instead of the 5.6k it cost now; you can choose the more "efficient" Ice Cream Pop which heals 2k HP for 2.2k mesos, or use the potion that will keep you alive, but drain your wallet dry. Say monsters are extremely brutal, 2 shotting even the toughest warriors, and 1 shotting everybody else. Even more, 4th job skills are not significantly more powerful than 2nd and 3rd job skills, but marginally better (~5-10% better).

Which way do you prefer more?

I'd prefer Nintendo Hard to easy, but that's because I find the logic of old players whining about the game becoming more casually rather silly. Also, players will see the easy to Nintendo Hard changes as worse, since it could be seen as not caring for the game.

I would rather prefer something that stays tough or gets progressively tougher

Easy to hard. In MMOs at least, once you've gone through early levels (they rarely give much in the way of resistance), pimped out your character's equips and learned the ins and out, strengths and weaknesses of your class, you'd naturally want something that would test said skills to the absolute limit, just so you know that your character is capable of participating in the game itself after all the effort you put into it. One of the biggest downfalls of Maple in this respect is the lack of non-ridiculous high level PQs/boss fights/content in general. Your choices are HT or PB, area-wise it's chief oblivion guardians/Lyka. One is now considered 'easy', the other is so unbelievably difficult and has such high HP requirements that no-one even wants to try it. The area is just lol-worthy past 14x.

If a game just gets easier the longer you play, where's the sense of achievement and character growth in that? Rather than my skills just getting better and better, mowing down everything in their path, there should be things that actually provide some sort of resistance for high level skills. Once I start 1hkoing skeles (COGs after the updates) with my AMs Ult it's pretty much game over as of current. Once I can 2 Bstep + taunt COGs with my shadower, it's pretty much game over for that too (only thing I'd consider past that point is soloing BF, but even that's just a case of HP). For a game with a level cap of 200, this shouldn't be the case. I continue to play Maple in the hope that some content that actually tests my characters and their skills comes out.

Easy to hard. In MMOs at least, once you've gone through early levels (they rarely give much in the way of resistance), pimped out your character's equips and learned the ins and out, strengths and weaknesses of your class, you'd naturally want something that would test said skills to the absolute limit, just so you know that your character is capable of participating in the game itself after all the effort you put into it. One of the biggest downfalls of Maple in this respect is the lack of non-ridiculous high level PQs/boss fights/content in general. Your choices are HT or PB, area-wise it's chief oblivion guardians/Lyka. One is now considered 'easy', the other is so unbelievably difficult and has such high HP requirements that no-one even wants to try it. The area is just lol-worthy past 14x.

If a game just gets easier the longer you play, where's the sense of achievement and character growth in that? Rather than my skills just getting better and better, mowing down everything in their path, there should be things that actually provide some sort of resistance for high level skills. Once I start 1hkoing skeles (COGs after the updates) with my AMs Ult it's pretty much game over as of current. Once I can 2 Bstep + taunt COGs with my shadower, it's pretty much game over for that too (only thing I'd consider past that point is soloing BF, but even that's just a case of HP). For a game with a level cap of 200, this shouldn't be the case. I continue to play Maple in the hope that some content that actually tests my characters and their skills comes out.

What about when the game adds new content/stuff that incidentally makes acquiring good equipment/training/earning money easier? Example for Maple would be Item maker, lowered EXP curve, and New Leaf City (easier to make good equipment, easier to train, and easier to train with more efficient potions). I can give WoW examples, such as the implementation of daily quests for earning easy money, as well as releasing stronger equipment that can be bought with badges (that's for clearing Hard mode dungeons) that wasn't previously there before; there's also their version of an EXP curve reduction. Then there's the argument that WoW is too easy since everything can be obtained with time, instead of how before it took being in the top guilds, or having a bundle of money to shell out for the most powerful equipment. Now even your worst noob can have similiary strong equipment if he/she plays long enough. Of course it takes longer than actually raiding, but the fact anyone can have equipment of top quality is possible. Maple comparison would be a noob spending say 10-20 hours of game time to get a Zakum Helmet-like hat for free. It's NOT a Zakum Helmet, but the stats say otherwise.

Does feeling like your work is for nothing when in the future there's more powerful equipment released count as making the game go from Nintendo hard to easy, or is it just implementing necessary upgrades to keep the game fresh? Again I'll use a Maple example. Zakum Helmets that used to cost a fortune is now very easily distributable. Some people feel that it diminishes the feeling of accomplishment, since THEY were the first generation or whatever people who took down Zakum when it used to take hours and before Onyx Apples came out. There's then the complaint that Maple is too easy because it's too easy to power up your character: just slap on Weapon Attack everything.

I like Maples progression. Each job has its on sort of "wave" of difficulty. Some classes start out easy, then become slower, and then somewhat easier again. And others will start out slow for most of their time, and then become progressively easier.

Also, things like the NLC pots and other additions like the EXP curve change seem more like a balancing to me, as it allows you to not have to stick in a level bracket for as long as it was, and or it allows you to save more while training (most beneficial to mages as they basically have 5k MP pots that were really expensive when their skills could use more than that, or close to it).


On the flip side, people can choose to play a challenging game. To complain that a game is getting easier to play is kinda dumb (though, free 10 att whatever you want, and easy to get it is pretty dumb too). No one is holding a gun to your head making you play, if you want more of a challenge, take your time else where then.

I don't mind increasing the power of players by making it easier to upgrade your character if content is released accordingly to accommodate such power. I mean naturally I'll use these game upgrades to achieve goals I've set myself easier, but in terms of the game itself it seems redundant without something *in-game* to use all this extra power on. The only example of such a boss is PB, which automatically excludes virtually every player in maple straight away due to damage alone.

The fact that new items are being released all the time doesn't bother me at all. If Kaede Castle comes out in gMS, the frogboss would most likely drop Estaves 5-8. This will undoubtedly impact the worth of the Estaff 7 and 8 I have already and will obviously increase the number of people willing to get the LUK to equip it, seeing as they'd be more readily available and not everyone wants to "restart as LUKless cuz it r bettar". These players wouldn't have had to scrounge the MTS/FM for hours on end in the *vague* hope that one of these ridiculously rare staves appears at an even remotely reasonable price like I did. I don't really mind because the increased availability and inevitable price crash of them would give me an opportunity to scroll a better one should I want to.