First off, I should say sorry. I'm "That guy". The guy who plays things on easy mode when its a single player experience.

It was December 2010 and in the campaign for CoD:Black Ops. I was on rooftops in China, playing on the second hardest difficulty. Failure after failure led to frustration and stepping away. Knowing that a friend wanted to talk details about the story, I entered into a screw it mode, cranked down the difficulty to its easiest, and ran around like a mad man...

...and I was having fun doing it.

For me, difficulty comes in hunting the most dangerous animal of all: The Zookepper, oh wait! I mean man. Battlefield 3 is my bread and butter, as well as games like Guild Wars 2. Games where I can't adjust the difficulty, but its easy enough to contribute to the overall victory with friends.

When it comes to single player though, eff it.

This started years earlier when Halo 3 came out. I was chatting with a guy about playing through with friends when I used the phrase "I beat the game". He scoffed, and asked me if I had finished it solo on legendary mode. I told him no, that if Bungie bothered to put in 4 player co op thats how I was going to play it. According to him, I still have never beaten Halo 3.

Years later the same person (A friend of a friend) would vent his bitter hatred towards the Mass Effect series. How much he hated 2, how horrible it was and how much he wasn't looking forward to playing it on the hardest difficulty. Yes, you read that right, and he was playing it for the achievement points.

I'm 29 years old, and I love games. In a few months my palm will glow red to signify 30 (Logan's Run reference kids) and yet another year will be lost to jobs, times with friends and family and of course, video games. This whole rant started because I bought Dragon's Dogma yesterday, and while at work today, before I've even fired it up, I was reading about them patching in a new Easy Mode, as well as Hard Mode. When the easy mode was added back in August, the internet cried out with "WHY?!" and the answer in short, is for people like me. I play games because they're fun, and one day years ago I got sick of breaking my controllers on the table, or going to be angry at that undefeated boss. That is simply because I do not want to, or can not handle the stress. Some people thrive on it, and to you I say godpseed. Play the hardest of the hard modes, and stand triumphant on your day of victory. For me, I simply set it aside because I game for 2 hours a night, 3 nights a week. Honestly, I don't want to spend that time on the same section over and over again, and I'm looking forward to the time I'll spend in easy land.

So once again, sorry guys, and I would love to know your thoughts on difficulty in games.