When friends around me recommended "Eldon's Law Ring" to the handicapped me, the most common saying was: "This game looks difficult, in fact, it is really not difficult, and it is played like a handicapped."
Of course, this is only the first half of the sentence. The second half of the sentence is, "The key is to understand how the game is played." In this way, those difficulties that make people suffer are the essence of the game, and they are enjoyed.
Play Eldon's Ring of Law and review the writing of "YOU DIED"
The friend further explained that since this experience is the "essence" of the game, it cannot and should not provide a "simple mode" in the traditional sense. Because in that case, even if you pass the level recklessly, it is equivalent to swallowing the date, and you have not played this game at all.
If it weren't for that afternoon that changed my game life many years ago, I would probably have accepted this statement.
Escape shameful but useful
The gorgeous attack animation in "King of Fighters 97" was not annoying to me how many times I saw at the time
Back at the end of the last century, the most popular game around me was "King of Fighters 97", and the gorgeous moves of the characters in the screen were combined with the gradually larger number of combo strokes "14 HITS" next to it, which made people more and more excited. Although there was no such thing as "hand cripple" at the time, it was clear to me and a few other friends who could only click blindly that this game that did not exist in "easy mode" when fighting people did not belong to us.
Until we rented an hourly PS1 version of "King of Fighters 97" in a mall due to an accident, everything was different.
The difference is that in addition to its surprisingly long reading time, it actually comes with its own "combo shortcut". On the arcade, players need to use the directional joystick with only four fist and foot buttons to combine various consecutive segments, and behind each set of consecutive segments is the hard work of an unknown number of game coins. On the PS, the four shoulder buttons of the handle correspond to four sets of combos, of which the fourth set is fixed as the character's "super kill".
The super killer "+ punch" can be achieved by tapping "L2" on the PS
We were thrilled to discover this "cheats". For us, the "playability" of this game has been greatly improved. But at the same time, a few of us fart children immediately divided into two camps, advocating the enjoyment of using shortcuts and the "original pie" that rejected shortcuts. The latter statement is similar to many soul gamers today - practicing hard and rubbing moves, facing difficulties is the essence of the king of fighters, and players who evade cultivation are shameful.
Thankfully, that afternoon, the easy enjoyment pie prevailed. Surprisingly, while enjoying the joy of "everyone can make a combo", we found something new in the game. For example, the game preset several sets of combo moves for each character cover multiple functions such as wave, burst, and air, each of which has its own advantage range, and there is a certain restraint relationship between each other, which requires seeing tricks and dismantling moves. "Everyone can make a combo" is not the same as "brainless combo", even if it is a super killer skill, once it is blocked by the opponent, what awaits you will only be "a whole set of counterattacks". What gives you the upper hand in a fighting game is not the continuum, but the understanding and judgment of the situation. I couldn't take these shortcuts to the arcade, but the inspiration they taught me completely changed the way I thought about fighting games.
The street fighter V's official tutorial clearly states the character's strengths
I learned many years later that these hazy perceptions corresponded to several core concepts of the fighting game, and that there were terms such as "stand back, multiple choices, true opposition, and eye pledge" in the mouths of old players. And all this stems from the "simple mode" provided by the "shortcut key" in that year. To this day, in Street Fighter V, those few shoulder buttons on the controller are still valid, allowing controller players to easily enter the "multi-key press" command like arcade joystick players.
I still miss that afternoon to this day. I get as much fun out of those few shortcuts as I do today when I hit the ladder. Evasion may be shameful, but it really helps.
So, should the game have a simple mode?
When we talk about the difference between the simplicity of the game and the hardmode, it's essentially a more basic question: "Why do games give different difficulties?" For those who design games, the dilemma behind designing games is: God knows who the player with the handle is. A player who grew up playing arcades may want the game to move into a maneuverable combat session as soon as possible, without too much cutscenes and plot foreshadowing. Another player may be just the opposite, hoping that the battle will not be difficult to reach the level, so that he cannot enjoy the plot smoothly.
Kingdom Hearts 3 allows players to skip cutscenes and provides a "theater mode" of back-to-shows
Even indie games full of designer personal temperament are basically not customized for a specific player. As a result, most game designers will need to think, "What kind of people do I want to make this game fun?" After all, the game is difficult enough to level the card, and the player will abandon the pit. Simple to boring, the same will abandon the pit.
So, if there are places in the game that are difficult but the player is not willing to give up, and other places that are simple but do not make the player bored, what should be called? Psychologically, this state can be called "flow." The word comes from the psychologist Zixon Mihari, who originally only explored why some people would waste their sleep and eat into their work, but his theory has influenced countless game designers. In his view, in order for a person to fall into "addiction", three conditions need to be met:
1. Must know their own goals and be able to participate in them;
2. Every time a small goal is completed, timely and clear feedback can be obtained to adjust the subsequent behavior;
3. The goal should not be too simple or difficult, and the scale is just the best for participants to use their own skills to overcome the challenge.
Chen Xinghan is one of the designers who advocates the concept of "flow". His master's thesis was on the application of flow theory to game design. He argues that the standard for a game's quality lies in whether it can keep players immersed in the flow. If you want to set up a challenge in the game, you should bring the player the excitement of facing the difficulties, rather than the anxiety of not being able to pass the level; simple paragraphs are used to give the player a proper rest after completing the challenge in order to meet the next challenge.
Schematic diagram of the player's mood changes in the flow zone
The difference between Simple and Hardmode is not limited to the damage of the enemy's attack, it can also be a more accurate auxiliary aiming system, an arrow that shows the correct route in the maze, or a dialogue option that highlights the story.
Even Bloodborne Curse, which is known for its high difficulty, contains various mechanisms to adjust the difficulty in games that do not allow players to choose the difficulty mode. There is an item called "Knowledge of the Madman" in the game, which the player can actively use to obtain "Psychic Vision". The nominal function is to give the player more "knowledge", but the actual embodiment is that the more the game character "knows", the closer it is to "crazy" (or the closer to the truth of the world, depending on how the player understands).
In Bloodborne Curse, players with higher psychic vision may see something amazing...
On the one hand, players will be exposed to more in-depth content about the plot in the game, and on the other hand, players will also have to face more powerful enemies. This prop is a mechanism for players who intend to seek challenges - whether it is to interpret the plot or combat level challenges - to adjust the difficulty of the game independently, which not only plays a certain adjustment role, but also fits the overall setting of the game, which is a very clever design.
That is to say, to set different difficulty options for a game, the goal is to allow players with different habits to find their own appropriate flow range in the same game, so that players can overcome the difficulties they want to overcome to gain a sense of achievement, and find a balance between difficulty and players' personal abilities.
Skipping class or dropping out of school?
The simple difficulty offered by Neil: Age of Machinery covers multiple options including "One Click Combo", "Auto Dodge", and "Auto Blood Replenishment"
While some games with high difficulty ceilings have a super simple mode that says "you can pass a level by pressing a key repeatedly", there are also some games that are not low in difficulty that do not directly offer simpler options. Players who are really difficult to pass but are reluctant to give up have thrown themselves into a game that is jokingly called "skipping class".
For example, in "The Ring of Eldon", the player will encounter a powerful enemy outside Stoneville, who is wearing a red armor and is both offensive and defensive, which is difficult for the player to defeat. However, some players have found that if they stand behind a large pit, then the warrior who does not know how to take a detour will fall into the pit and fall to his death in the process of rushing straight to the player. The player doesn't need to shoot at all, let alone master the enemy's attack habits and think about ways to defeat it head-on.
After falling into the pit, the knight's props will automatically enter the player's pocket
However, truancy often implies another meaning, that is, to hide from the first year of the first year, but not to hide from the fifteenth. I skipped class today and had to make up class sooner or later. Today, you can use a big pit to defeat an enemy that can be skipped without knowing how to play, what if the same enemy appears in the scene without a pit in the subsequent main storyline? It's not about learning to play honestly. Therefore, "skipping class" in the narrow sense refers to the challenges that can be skipped temporarily, but will eventually be faced. As for those "truancy" methods that have been tried and tested until the clearance, they can simply be called "dropping out of school".
The ultimate answer to all game difficulties is custom mode
Are "dropouts" students still students? In other words, are the players who skip class from start to finish still "playing" the game? On the other hand, when playing "Eldon's Ring of Law", the routines of all enemies are well-cooked, and even if they can not upgrade from beginning to end, do not summon NPCs to help, and do not drink medicine to pass the level, they are exemplary good students, should send a small red flower, and call on other players and classmates to learn from him?
If "a perfect score is a good student" still makes sense for students who are "learning-oriented", then in the matter of playing games, it may not be necessary to argue for right and wrong. Players who worship the "Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect", break through the level with a modifier, and enjoy weaving together the broken story of the game, and players who go out naked and play in the four directions have their own fun. Even if the game itself does not have invincible mode, limited-time challenge mode, and no damage challenge mode, players can add "custom mode" to it themselves. The key is whether you really enjoy playing the game.
After all, living a good life is already so difficult, since it is rare to have time and heart to play games, whether it is to suffer in Hardmode against your intentions, or to choose a simple mode but play boringly, all... Why bother.