I cheated whenever I could... Then and now, I never watched a lot of TV and I used video games as a stop gap between toys and playing outside. Once I ditched the toys and playing outside, I stuck to video games. I played games for the entertainment value of the stories or just the fun of the gameplay. I usually wasn't in it for a challenge or sense of accomplishment. I enjoy certain RPGs and grinding games to beef up my character, even if they're weak on plot or repetitive. I do appreciate the modern wonders of waypoint markers, checkpoints, auto saving and all the rest, but some games really did dial it down too much. Mass Effect 3 is a prime example. On the "tell me a story" or whatever the easy mode is called, I could literally walk into a room full of bad guys, slowly turn in a circle and shoot each one at my leisure. I actually got bored with it being that easy. There's easy and there's trivializing fights to the point of being annoying, rather than fun. I personally like the regenerating health in a lot of games. It allows the game to dish out more damage and allows the player to be more reckless, which I find fun (in cinematic games). When health is a finite resource, I have to play more conservatively and less in a way that would make Michael Bay proud. Some games should be played conservatively (Dark Souls) and others more like a bad action movie (Call of Duty). That said, some games were too hard TMNT and Battletoads on the NES come to mind. People who beat those were the legends of their day. I had a few great accomplishments myself, after using the crutch of 30 lives in Contra more times than I could count, I managed to finish the game only dying once. I'm sure I couldn't repeat that victory today, but back then I had a different set of skills. Today, I'm mildly better at aiming with my thumbs, but I'm still better at non-thumb-aiming games. I know this was a satire post, but I felt the topic at large deserved a thoughtful reply.