Easy Mode: A Crutch or A Helping Hand

For those of you that haven't played Dark Souls you have yet to experience the most difficult game of this current generation, trust me it meets all the requirements of controller throwing, smashing, and yelling obscenities at fictional character that come with true frustration from gaming.  Lots of gamers have turned away after less than an hour of playtime, including myself.  I have noticed that the older I get the lower my difficulty settings need to be set in order for enjoyment, this is something that is quite alarming considering you have games like Dark Souls that do not offer different difficulty levels and games like Halo in which the developers express a difficulty the game is intended to be played on which happens to be Heroic a step above normal.  For me trying to play through Dark Souls normal difficulty is like beating Halo on Legendary, something I will never do because I do not possess the skill and patience to do so.  Does this mean I should just never be given the chance to complete Dark Souls?  Should I never be allowed to have an enjoyable experience with the game?  

Not all hope is lost though after the recent release of Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, yes that is the official title, the games direct has talked about creating an easier mode for the game.  Now the talks of this have of course upset some fans who like the challenge and the notoriety for beating such a difficult game but really no one is forcing them to play it on easy, just because other people would be able to experience the game does not take away from the fact that some went through the gauntlet of frustration that is beating Dark Souls on its normal difficulty setting.  Some fans have argued that it would ruin the balance of the games enemies, this is the call of the ridiculous fan who just assumes that there is a slider developers would just move back and make everything easier for players.  News flash gamers a lot of balance goes into difficulty scaling, hours upon hours of play testing to get things just right as to not ruin the pacing of story elements of the game and really the entire flow of the game.  Walking with a crutch is an up and down walk, very bumpy but a helping hand is a smooth walk up to the gates of death that is Dark Souls, I look forward to this helping hand as I am sure many other gamers do as well.  All in all, easier modes build your audience and if they can be done without sacrificing the vision of the game then the more the merrier!