To me, if a game isn't hard, it has much less value.
RPGs are the exception to this... I usually play them a split between enjoying them with my gf and imposing restrictions to make them rediculously hard.
However, if I'm going to play a platformer/ARPG, it has to be hard. I would prefer to refine my skills as a gamer by speedrunning some games or playing on the hardest difficulty for others (whichever applies).
Ever gotten to Ganon without a sword? I have. And then I did it again in about 2:30 (terrible bomb luck, but a very good run otherwise)
I like games that have an arcade-style learning curve, from time to time. Bangai-O (DC) was probably one of the best games for learning curve and enjoyment that moved at the pace of most of the levels. Beat that, and perhaps you'll understand what I mean by shardpening of skills.
Which brings about the question that plagues gaming as a whole: What kind of gamer are you?
I'm a competition gamer, but in a less head-2-head sense. I compete against myself, increasing my skill in all games, my HEC, and the types of lateral thinking it takes to get through still other games. Yes, I kick back and enjoy RPGs with my gf or the like, but if I'm gaming for my own entertainment, I have to be doing something that makes me better at what I do: Game.
There are a ton of games that focus too much on flash and glammer, and sadly, most of them are broken to the point that completion is pathetically easy. Halo 3 fell victem to this, and H2 didn't do much better. I will give Legendary it's props, but honestly, it's easier to annihilate Legendary in a week than it is to 100% hit-rate Contra: Shattered Soldier in a month.
A fair example of this is would be my genre organization:
Platformers
TRPG (Grind)
Run'n'gun
Shmup
RPG
TRPG (stage)
Other*
Fighter
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ARPG (only because there are so few of them and only a handful of those are any good... I actually enjoy the genre a lot, but can't find enough to validate my views...)
Racer
TPS
FPS
---------
Freeroam
---------
-------
-----
Storybook
------
-------
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"Laserdisc-adventure"
* This is a slot reserved for games like Panic! that don't really fall into any other category, but they still fucking rock (I only know of two, and I couldn't tell you the title of the other because it's JPN)
the categories given above, and the order of their placement,l is only a general rule. the blanks are there to note the difference between one ground and another (for example, LDAs are the worst peices of shit ever to be called gaming...
They are fun, and when I bother to play them, I enjoy them... further, they are typically made well, but they target a different audience, so of course I won't really like them.
I wish I could get into a game that's more "fun" than "hard"... But alas, it seems tastes are something that not even I have control over ^_^
HOWEVER: In accordance with the first writ of gamer law, I will give LoZ (as well as Mario, 3D sonic, and a few others) credit for their ease of play, or difficulty curve if one can be said to exist. I do enjoy the fact that it pulls many gamers who enjoyed the more lightly-handled newer games into the harder prior games (because they wanted to know where it started). Further, I did enjoy OoT at the time, but when I found that I had just beaten the game, I was wondering "that was it?"
To be perfectly honest, I never did finish MM, but that's because 1) my N64 broke while I was playing through it and 2) I had just gotten a membership at the local arcade that gave me unlimited plays as long as I toppled one cabinet a week.
Like OoT, it was enjoyable, insofar as I played (about 8 hours, iirc)
So I take back my insults to the series, and to 3D as a whole. They are not what I prefer to better myself with, but even in my most opinionated state, I cannot dispute that OoT was "Done Right" as far as gamers of the day were concerned... if it wasn't for OoT being a game that I couldn't pick up a second time, I wouldn't presently have my best friend (long story, just accept it)
EDIT: MA, if you can't write something that offers an argument for or against the current position, please refrain from posting in topics that are engaging in debate or common exchange of information.