Absolutely not.

I will.

I don't think it should be a matter of pride.
If a game is too hard, or not a challenge any more, I adjust the difficulty.

I think so, it's not going to be like Oblivion with everything set to your level, and it's supposed to be more dark and gritty. I'm playing Fallout: New Vegas now and it has much better difficulty, especially the AI, than Oblivion did without being tedious, so I'm sure Skyrim will also have a lot of improvement.


I think it just breaks the immersion, at least for open world type of games. For linear games I might do it, that let you choose the difficulty at the beginning of the game.

I don't change the difficulty because it's copping out. I keep playing through until I finish the game on that difficulty. Then I start the game over if it was good and had replay value and then I bump up the difficulty level. I think Bioshock was one of the few games I really wanted to lower the difficulty because the last boss was such a pain in the ass but I didn't lower it and I eventually killed Atlas. He is such a pain on highest difficulty.

No.

Only if gets frustratingly hard I am not one of those people who are a glutton for punishment plus I don't want my attention to be diverted from the game to another because I am irritated by it, lol. It's rare I change the level of difficulty though.

Probably not. Classic RPG's and JRPG's would have you grind it out until you could come back to the place you got your ass handed to you, and completely level it.

Morrowind was like this, Diablo was like this, Final Fantasy is like this, even the old Pokemons are like this.

I turn the difficulty down sometimes, but only for linear games. Skyrim seems a game that i would always keep on Normal, just because theres nothing in the game your forced to bash your skull against in order to move on. Same with fallout, oblivion, and morrowind. I will admit that i did it with other games that are nothing like this though. Tbh, im not that good at playing videogames, but i still lov ethem.

I always play at a harder/hardest difficulty, usually with a ton of mods to amp it up more. Sometimes I end up deliberately gimping my characters with sub-optimal weapons and armor to add a little more challenge on top of that.

No disrespect to console players, but I have a theory that console controllers introduce difficulty versus a mouse/keyboard setup, so that PC players get an "easy bonus" that game developers don't factor in. I don't think it's a skill issue at all, it's just easier (in FPS style games) to play with a mouse and keyboard.

I never change the difficulty until FNV, I put it to very hard, first time I think I played ANY game and up the difficulty(In almost 20 years of gaming). FNV made me completely abandon the idea that you can go static(I know it was not totally static) in open world rpgs. You need scaling(not OB type, but FO3 type).
As for lowering it, I also did that for the first time ever(in one of Beths games) in FNV during my first main quest playthrough, were I just try to rush through the main quest, basically a test run for my real play through with mods. I did this a few times when randonmly the difficulty spiked big time, 97-99% of the fights were a joke, but here and there I encounter some random very hard encounter, again poorly implemented scaling system(as in not enough scaling). I don't plan on messing with the diff for SR because it uses the FO3 level ranged scaling system. On my 2nd(real playthough) I will use mods that will most likekly make the game a harder, but I won't use the slider to make things easier I will just do something else.

In theory though I see no issue with changing the diff if it makes the game more fun for you, a lot of games these days have "bypass" options if you get stuck in a level,etc which I think is great. I think quest markers should be the same way, in FNV there was usually enough info to complete the quest without them, but they were there as a "bypass option" if you got stuck. Unlike OB were there was not enough info to complete the quests without the markers, don't recall how it was in FO3.

There are just some fights I won't go into if the difficulty setting is hard. I am not ashamed to admit that *sometimes* I will turn it down.

Only if I get into a stupidly impossible situation with no way around it. See: Ameobas in Metro 2033 on Ranger hardcoe.

I would sooner start over with a new character than reduce the difficulty

The harder the difficulty the more experience you get for doing things. I will pump it up to where it is at it's sweet spot and then I won't touch it.

I agree, and I don't see why anybody cares if someone turns down difficulty. It's a game, it's meant to be fun.

But I like to be forced into tense situations that require thinking and strategy. If you can headshot everything in 1-2 hits, than you just waltz through the game, and combat is just a cosmetic accessory rather than a feature. I played FNV on Very Hard/hardcoe with Arwen's Realism mod which made it harder, and still did 90% or more of the game without headgear, wearing leather armor that I chose because I thought it looked cool. But there were times where I had to withdraw and plan, and times that I didn't have enough ammo to finish a fight, or where I switched armor and put on headgear, and had to assess everything in my inventory because I needed every edge available. I love those moments.

I usually just leave it at the default setting but I have turned it down a bit when a fight is taking too long. Mankar Camoran took forever (somebody else mentioned this same problem earlier and I can empathize). If I am not having fun then I see no shame in making it easier.

Too hard? Games nowadays are waay to easy.

I make my difficulty decision at the start of a game and don't waver, no matter how frustrating it gets.

For me, TES has never been about the combat. In fact if I want some good combat I play a shooter. So I turn it down right away or at least I did in Oblivion. Not because it was too difficult but because I just wanted to get the combat done and go about my exploration or the next quest or the next story.

So yeah, long drown out combat in TES just irritates me. I'll never forget when I decided to turn it down. I was fighting someone who had so many arrows stuck in him he looked freaky. Like a pin cushion and I was thinking how silly that was.but knowing he was just that much higher a level than me made me wonder why I was wasting my time since I knew in the end I would beat him anyway. So I turned it down and went merrily on my way.

Yeah, if I want difficult and engrossing combat, I don't play TES. :shrug:

Not in Skyrim. I heard that every enemy will always stay at one power level, and there will be no level scaling. That way, if you come across a hard fight, you can leave, train, and come back later.

No I don't, my pride won't let me. If I choose a normal, or hard difficulty I stick to it no matter how hard it gets. If I lowered the difficulty for any encounter it would make the victory feel hollow, and meaningless.

..or a really enjoyable experience if you like role-playing a sniper, no?

Thinking and strategy is one thing... waiting for reloads over, and over, and over, and over, and over again, especially in those games which play QTEs before you get to the action, VERY annoying.

Hahaha, the word "difficult" isn't even in my dictionary!

Tally ho!

nope i will (if possible) come back and do it when im stronger.... if not possible to come back later i will probably spend 3+ days trying over and over, if i still have not past my obstacle i will then turn the difficulty down.

I doubt it will be that "hard" on default. If there is any spot that I cannot pass or even get out of due to like 6 mobs I will fight as hard as I can and if I fail at that down to 1hp ~ and kill is my friend...