Evan, if you're going to end up nerfing hard mode to please the majority, you might as well remove hard mode and normal mode. Call easy mode hard mode, and call very easy a challenge. Then finally, give players a tunic that always refills their health if they hide behind a block or duck for cover, and add a hidden warp zone in the beginning of every dungeon to skip each dungeon.
Also, if they die enough time, script an auto mode so that the game defeats itself.
Finally, write a message at the very end of the game on how much of a fantastic player they are. Make sure to not skip this, every player needs to feel like they are the best damn player on earth despite their skill level.
Hell, it works for other video game companies.
Please NJF, tell me more of your strawman and slippery slope arguments, I love them!
Fact of the matter is that Scourge was not in line with the difficulty curve of quest, that is per default a design problem if you ask me. I'd also like to point out just how misguided your strawman argument is, as you somehow seem to believe you have a better grasp of design theorem than those who have worked in the industry for years and put out high end products. What you call things in games are actually fundamentally important, and serve to either give something a negative connotation, or a positive one. For example, in early testing phases of World of Warcraft, the Rested system (Which gives you bonus EXP if you have not been logged in for a while, and stacks up to 24h of away time from the game), was introduced as "un-rested" (or similar, I can't recall the naming). That is to say, what is known as rested today was the default, and what was normal was called un-rested. This gave the un-rested state a huge negative concoction, and people hated it. In contrast, after changing how the system was presented (even though it functioned identically to before), everyone loved it, because they felt like they got a bonus from it.
While not an exact overlap, it's important to realise that what you name your difficulty settings actually matter a lot. It's seldom about people wanting to feel special just for beating a game. (In general, for most games, only 10-40% of people who start a game every complete it.) In fact, the group that is most prone to wanting to feel special about their achievements is power-players like you, who take pride in their skill. Which is why you somehow feel so offended that changes are being made. No, rather, the truth is much simpler: People don't want to feel bad about having to pick a difficulty level that suits their skill level.
And to go on an tangent, this is actually an even bigger problem in this quest, (and the system it uses), given that you can't start a game in easy or very easy, rather, you have to drop down after doing bad, which really only servers to put salt in the wound for players who might actually be better fit for those difficulty levels. The end result is probably, if I had to make an educated guess, that a large chunk of those players never drop down at all, rather they keep trying on the current difficulty level until they give up with the quest entirely.
But to get back on track, there is a reason that most games have a normal mode, and then several difficulty levels above it, rather than several below it, or an even spread. The latter of the three being the standard in the past. A difficulty structure like this (normal and several above it), even if it's in naming alone, actually better caters to everyone. The power-player crowd will feel better about themselves for being even higher above the rest, and they have several difficulty levels to choose from in regards to how steep they want to push up the difficulty per run. Where as the less skilful players don't need to feel bad about the difficulty level they take when they start the game.
And honestly, if anyone is of the opinion that people should feel bad about themselves before they even start playing a video game, an source of entertainment, then I seriously stand against that view. It's also one that is downright hurtful if you're actually in the business of selling games.
I should also point out, that truly masterfully crafted games don't need difficulty levels, for it's all accounted for in the base design of the product. (See Chrono Trigger or Super Metroid.)
I realise that I just jumped on you NJF, and it was not my intention, but I'm quite frankly sick of this elitist attitude going around on PureZC in regards to the skill level of the player base, and the slippery slope arguments they usually come with. And I needed to get this off my chest, and it was not meant specifically at you, more so it was towards the general attitude.
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