Easy, Normal, and Hard. For years, games have come packaged with three distinct difficulty levels to appeal to a wide range of different gamers. Typically, you play games on Medium/ Normal mode, and depending on various factors such as your skill at the game, the number of real-life commitments you have, even the people you talk to will dictate whether you move the difficulty to either Easy or Hard.

If you've primarily gamed on Medium or Hard, you may be wondering why anybody would game on Easy. There are many reasons to have Easy as your default gaming difficulty, and here they are.

Collectible Searching

Many games these days have a plethora of collectibles for you to uncover. You can collect these while roaming around the map and completing the main story, or you can save these for after you complete the game. Often, it can be much easier and less time-consuming to whack the difficulty down to Easy while you search for collectibles.

This is best advised in games where you can handle Normal or Hard difficulties, but only with intense concentration. In these situations, you may not have the skill or the time in-game to dodge enemies or deal with them while also trying to obtain a collectible.

For example, if you were looking for Riddler Trophies in Arkham Knight where puzzles are often incorporated, you could easily die to a back stab. Or searching an area highly populated with machines that can fire projectiles in Horizon Zero Dawn.

Yes, you could search for collectibles while dealing with the villains, but it would be much less stressful to simply turn the difficulty down to Easy and focus on searching.

Busy Schedules

You may not have as much time for gaming as you used to. As work commitments take over, or family life, or maybe a new hobby that requires you to dedicate time to them each week. Whatever the reason, it's entirely reasonable that your busy schedule may prevent you from having the time to play a game on Normal or Hard difficulty.

With Easy difficulty, you'll have much less of a required time investment to learn the mechanics of the game. Often, Easy mode allows you to get through a game quicker and with much less mental effort; allowing you to relax and enjoy gaming rather than seeing it as another commitment on top of an already full list of commitments.

Lack of Gaming Skill

Not everybody's good at games. That's nothing to feel ashamed about, and you shouldn't feel that you need to play a game on Normal or Hard if your skill is lacking.

How video game difficulty works is by helping you enjoy a game no matter what your personal skill level is. We promise, your ego CAN take the hit of playing a game on Easy mode, and you may just find that you have much more fun doing so (after all, fun is the whole point of gaming).

Often, players continue struggling with Normal or Hard—even if they're not having fun—just because their friends do, or they don't like the idea that they can't play something on its intended (Normal) difficulty.

Consider the fact that you will improve by just playing more of games, which is more likely to happen if you're having fun and not getting wrecked by AI because you bit off more than you could chew difficulty-wise.

Easy Mode Allows You to Get Through a Backlog Quicker

There are so many games coming out, the gaming industry fills with new titles almost every single day. Even the triple-A caliber of games is increasing in frequency. If you hold down a job or are busy with school, have a family, or basically do anything other than gaming for a long period, you WILL end up with a backlog. It's pretty much inevitable at this point.

In which case, playing on Easy mode as your default difficulty for a while will allow you to get through your backlog of games much quicker. You can always up the difficulty on certain games if it's too easy, and go back to trying games on Normal or Hard once you've 'caught up'.

But if you're someone who wants to get through your list of games and feel up to date, then playing games on Easy mode will get you there much quicker.

Easy Mode Can Be More Fun

Even if Easy isn't your default difficulty, you can have fun by whacking a difficulty down to Easy after the fact. Say you've got a good grip on the mechanics of a game, such as Call of Duty. By playing against bots on Easy mode, you can have a lot of fun racking up kills without dying and calling in killstreaks to experiment with different ways of dominating a map.

If you just want to mess around on a game and really push the mechanics of it, then often switching to Easy can be a good way to do this, or even starting on Easy.

Use Easy Mode With Limited PC Specs

This obviously doesn't apply if you're a console gamer or if you have a strong PC. However, there are many games that will add in more enemies that use more explosives depending on the corresponding difficulty you choose. In games like this, you may find that the problem with Hard mode isn't that you can't handle it, but simply that your PC is unable to keep up pace.

In these cases, switching to Easy mode can be the best way to stop the game from being too difficult for your PC to run the game well. It's annoying, but if you're not able to upgrade your PC or get a Steam refund, then it may be the only way to keep the gaming running smoothly. As developers improve video game difficulty, there will be less need to do this in the future.

Focus on the Narrative

While playing on Normal or Hard, you may miss parts of the game's narrative elements if you're focused on not dying. By playing on Easy mode, you can have a much easier time focusing on the story behind the game and not being bogged down in trying to survive.

This is particularly present if you struggle at the game. There's no need to let the difficulty of the game take you out of your immersion.

Playing With Easy Difficulty

There are many reasons playing on Easy as your default difficulty is the better option, and hopefully, these points have resonated with you and helped you to see that.

Often, playing on Normal or Hard is something we do as players for a sense of accomplishment and challenge. Just remember that games are meant to be more fun than a challenge.