It is not a secret that the gaming community can get too competitive at times, making it hard for new or casual players to get involved in the community. Recently, Twitch streamer Ashley Roboto shared her opinions about gatekeeping the gaming community and her thoughts got a lot of support in social media. In particular, Ashley decided to talk about the discrimination against casual players or people who do not play in hard mode.
A good example of the phenomenon is the backlash some people started receiving after suggesting Dark Souls could use an easy mode. Even the game's creator, Hidetaka Miyazaki, expressed that he contemplated adding an easy mode to the game. It seems like Miyazaki was disappointed to think that players who were interested in getting into the game, or inexperienced players in general, would be discouraged to play his game because it is too hard.
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Miyazaki and Ashley Roboto seem to share the idea that it is a shame that gamers would miss the opportunity to play a game with a great narrative like Kingdom Hearts, just because it is too hard for them and the community lowkey requires everyone to play in hard mode. It seems like many members of the gaming community also agree with Ashley as the video she uploaded to Twitter has already amassed almost 60 thousand likes, over 16 thousand retweets, and more than 2 thousand comments.
In the video, Ashley Roboto addresses people who try to shame others for just trying to enjoy the game and its narrative instead of stressing out with the game because of its difficulty. She takes Kingdom Hearts as a case study and argues how it has very complex lore and narrative so it should not be a requirement for players to go through a game in the hardest difficulty for them to enjoy a title. This has even caused some games like Witcher 3 to add a narrative mode in which players can focus more on following the game's story than on surviving the game.
Plenty of the comments in Ashley's Twitter video seem to agree with her stance. For instance, one user claimed that a game's normal mode is the way developers intended for the game to be played. However, there are many other users who still consider that playing a game in hard mode makes them superior to casual players. Hopefully, Ashley's video will help new gamers feel more confident about trying out big titles, even if it is known for being complex. At least, it seems games like Metroid Prime 4 will take into account casual players, so maybe new players will give it a chance.
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