There was a time when most games didn't hold your hand, picked you up and patted you on your bottom. Where you actually had to figure things out for yourself without an in game hint scrolling on the bottom of your screen or blatantly just told to you by a supporting character within the game itself. Games that when you were shot you were dead. Gather round kiddies as we reminisce about a time when games were challenging and when beating a game actually meant a big deal.

Is it just me or are games nowadays just being too much of a cakewalk?? Look around at most of the games out now and I'll bet you that you would be hard pressed to find one where you actually die before beating it. Think about that for a minute. That's crazy sounding. There has been a significant trend of simplifying our favorite pastime to the point of the games practically playing themselves. I know that sounds like an exaggeration of the ludicrous kind but I wonder where we will be at a few years from now.

It's not just that the games are easier, which they are, it's that even when they pose a degree of difficulty out comes the prompt from the game itself telling you how to beat it or what to look for. Or ten feet before you meet a boss, magically there appears a depot, filled to the brim with health items and other assorted goodies to ensure that you survive and ultimately beat it without the messy thing called work or skill. It's getting to the point where whatever gaming skills we possessed are shrinking due to atrophy.

I remember as a kid beating a game and it was like winning the Super Bowl. Back then an act like that was a stepping stone towards entry into your imagined Hardcore Gamers' Hall of Fame. Not so now. Games are being dumbed down to the point that everything is tailored for you to see it to the end. You will beat it. The game camera will show you where to go. The bullet lodged in your chest will miraculously disappear if you stay behind cover and remain prone. And if by chance you find yourself in a rough spot of the game and you keep having to do it more than twice, the game will adjust the difficulty on the fly to send you on your way.

Ever catch yourself playing a retro game and thinking to yourself: Damn this game is hard!? Chances are it's not that it's that hard, It's that it's not stacking the deck in your favor like most games are now. It's requiring you to actually play it yourself. When you got game developers and companies starting to cater to an "everyman" or " casual " demographic and the masses are accepting it, don't be surprised for games to become even more simpler forgettable affairs. In the race for more of the almighty buck, it seems games are being distilled for a more level playing field for all involved.

Lately there has been quite a few debates about hardcore gamers , casual gamers and what that means. Whatever you may think about these labels, one thing is certain: The game industry is molding what kind of gamers we are now. Through simplification processes, the dumbing down of games, ultimately it wont matter what we think we are. Hardcore or casual. We're all going to be the same.

Soft.