Marduk: Why do I care you ask? I care because I've been there. I don't play on easy mode because I have the experience and skill that hard mode is a challenge not an impossibility. I've had Castlevania: SOTN for as long as I've had a PS1 and yet I've spent very little time playing it. As a child I simply could not beat it (got stuck at the first boss actually). Going back and playing it as an adult, I beat Richter with such ease that I almost felt cheated considering how difficult the game used to seem. The shock of the change was so much that even though I had unlocked the upside down castle, I stopped playing for a few days.

It's no accomplishment to beat a game on easy mode but that doesn't make the experience less fun. Games aren't just about constant action and big explosions, there's a story that often means more to the quality of the game than any other aspect. Let's use a more modern example. I personally love the story of Halo Reach. Soldiers facing an unknown enemy as best they can before ultimately sacrificing themselves for the greater good. There's enough character development that each time a Spartan dies I felt like I lost someone. All that said, the difficulty settings were horrible. Normal mode provided almost no challenge and everything above that turns the Elite into bullet sponges. It takes big balls and severe head trauma to play through that game alone on Legendary (something I was crazy enough to try and stupid enough to finish) and the worst mental illness I've ever heard of to do the same on Mythic (something even I won't try) but doing so is an accomplishment. Not just because you can get trophy for it but because it's a major challenge.

I'm proud of the fact that I was able to get through Reach on Legendary, especially with how difficult that final level is, but that doesn't mean the people who played on easy deserve a lesser game. Some people just don't have the time to challenge themselves that way and others are too inexperienced or unskilled to play even on normal difficulty. I have no intention of holding that fact against them. I'm not going to tell a six year old that their lack of coordination and experience means that they should go eat shit and die until they're good enough to avoid doing so. At the same time though, I'm not going to pat them on the head and congratulate them for beating a game on easy mode. If you want kudos you can actually accomplish something, otherwise shut up and enjoy your game.