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you're messing stuff up here.
a 'hard' game doesn't get any easier by some random in-game purchase stuff. if you suck, you suck. easy as that.

but you can use the in-game purchases to skip some of the eternal grinding for random loot and resources.
which is in fact only made so tedious and lenghty to make you actually want to buy the in-game shit in the first place.
it's just another way to get a hand in your pocket after you've payed for the game already.

i suggest you take a look at some of jim sterlings videos. you don't need to like hin but he certainly has a point with what he has to say about the current plague of loot crates, in-game purchases and all that stuff that oozes developers' greed all over the place.

The argument can still be valid. Like certain puzzle games that require luck instead of skill.

This generation of gamers grew up on hard as nails games that would chew you up and spit you out. But we grew up, got jobs, families, kids, etc. We no longer have the time to spend hours on repeating the same part over and over again - we want to sit down, play a game, and relax. And, for their part, developers have greatly improved, and have realized that previous difficulty was often due to poor design or an arcade cabinet mentality, and not appropriate for the home video game market.

That's not to say that games can't be hard. Dark Souls and Cuphead are but two examples of hard games that have critical and user acclaim. But they feel fair, that death is the player's mistake - and even they still get (rightfully) criticized for not being as accessible as they could be.

So what is a developer to do when they want to make a hard game but still have it accessible to the time constrained masses? Difficulty options and cheat codes.

As a kid, I played through the original Doom with god mode on, and I had a blast. I'd never do that now, but at that point, it was perfect, and served to help get me into gaming and instilled a lifelong love of first person shooters. Hell, I remember using a cheat code to skip a level of the original Warcraft - I just couldn't beat that level, but being able to skip it I was then able to continue and beat the rest of the game.

Likewise, difficulty levels can make games more accessible - and I don't mean stuff like Cuphead's Simple difficulty that cuts out content, but just making the same game easier. Just because a game is just right for you, doesn't mean it's just right for someone else, and difficulty levels let the player adjust the game to their liking.

For example, I struggled at Demon's Souls, while my friend cleared the first boss Demon's Souls without dying once - the game felt too hard for me, and too easy for him, so a difficulty setting would make both of us happier. But hand us an FPS, and the roles are completely reversed. People have different strengths and abilities. And sometimes and easier setting makes the game more enjoyable - Mass Effect 1 isn't a hard game, but I find the combat boring and tedious, so playing it on Easy lets me enjoy the story and characters that I like while minimizing the boring combat.

And I recently helped an indie developer with testing their game, and on release they were hit with many negative reviews from people who found the game too hard. Now, the game was designed to be a struggle, but people weren't enjoying that, and were reviewing the game negatively. So the developers added new, easier, difficulty modes - they still said that the default difficulty was the intended way to play the game, but allowed people who wanted an easier time to have it. And, as a result, their reviews immediately improved. Now, maybe people weren't playing and failing the way the devs originally intended, but they were playing the game and having fun - and at the end of the day, I think that's the most important part, and the part that the developer is most proud of.

So rather than blaming this generation of gamers (what does that even mean?), or blaming any gamers, why not look for solutions to for including all gamers and appealing to all gamers. Because while I haven't played Sundered, I'd love for people who have to have enjoyed it as much as you do - and if making the game easier for them is the solution, then so be it.

I m just at your side!
And i can probably give a pretty good example for all the people who cry "BUT WE NEED AN EASY MODE BECAUSE 'snowflake'"

Do you remember playing SuperMarioLand on Gameboy?
Anyone that won on the first playthrough? Yes, congrats. No? Well, i guess your in good company for the average of 7+ trys to get it done. (www.gamefaqs.com but also a wild guess)
Did back then anyone cry it was hard? Yes. Did that keep anyone? No. Did you get a freaking "I did it guys!!!"-feeling at the end and could you rub your "Sure, shall i play that part for you?"-skill into everyones face. ('ofc i couldnt do it now you didnt play it right before..')

What i want to say is.. i guess alot of gamers won so much that they forgot that loosing is a part of gaming! You dont need the game to guide you by the hand. If you need guidance, go on the internet or ask a friend :) You can beat it. None of the "hard" games is unbeatable :) Alot of people did it. Trust yourself :)!!

waitingforblacklists ^^

Devs sucks even harder, its money era