Cross-post from Half-KIA over on Reddit, reposting here for a signal boost:
With Psychonauts 2 having an invincibility toggle, the debate about video game difficulty has resurfaced, with at least one games journalist proving how incompetent she is by saying she refuses to play on anything other than easy mode. Other topics covered this episode include the new lawsuit against Blizzard, updates on the Chris Avellone allegations, Kotaku embarrassing itself in more than a couple ways yet again, a game developer’s very bizarre Twitter thread about making female characters look less feminine, and plenty more.
You can download or stream the episode here or on your favorite app.
Also, as we mentioned last episode, we launched a Patreon! If you like our show and want to support us, please consider donating. Income will allow us to make the show even better. If not, no worries; we plan to keep making it, and I plan to continue writing articles and making videos as well. Thank you so much for your support!
The average difficulty has changed quite drastically over the years. Games now commonly have a normal mode that would have been "easy" in 2010. And games in 2010 the normal mode would have been the easy mode back in 2000.
In 2000 the "normal" mode was still quite challenging, and hard was usually something close to impossible if you didn't already know the normal mode inside and out.
My reflexes have reduced quite dramatically as I get older, and I can't quite keep up with some of the older games now, but I play anything recent on the highest difficulty or it ends up being a cakewalk.
I can barely manage the first level of Halo 2 on Heroic mode anymore, and I used to play through on Legendary and thought it was fun. The only challenge to be found in most modern games is in broken or intentionally gimped mechanics.