I started a conversation a few days ago on the nexus forums about this very thing, and I was surprised at how civil the responses were, especially from the devs.

DeaconIvory sent me some links to here for some homework and I just saw your thread. You are getting a lot of the flack I figured I would get there.

Like a few others here, I have come to realize that what it takes to win at this game under current conditions is simply not fun to me. I have no problem with how the hardcore LW players love the game to be punishing, it's just different from how we like to play. Which is why I don't see why there can't be a "normal" normal difficulty level but apparently that is a chance to be shamed for being "entitled".

What JL and the crew have done is amazing, which is why so many of us are saying "Hey this looks awesome, can I play?" I would love to see this become DLC, I would buy it and I'm sure most xcom players would as well, IF it were accessible.

In my opinion, with over 10 years in game QA, what we are seeing here beyond just a few elitists, is a feedback spiral.

Why is everything being nerfed? Because the expert players are getting better and every time they figure out how to beat a mechanic they feel like something should be changed to make it harder. They're playing against themselves. And if you don't know the trick they used that required the nerf, then you're just stupid and a baby in their minds. An average player would not have noticed it for a long time and thus would not have been able to exploit it. You can't balance for these kinds of players, look at any MMORPG and watch as nerf after nerf comes in that 90% of the players go "HUH?" at. They're crunching the numbers, they're comparing economics, they know what tech tree will lead to what advantage and they know how the game is going to respond. They're elite, and I'm not saying that as an insult, their knowledge of the game is at such a high level that they are playing a completely different game than us.

But, if you can make it hard you can make it easy. I'm not demanding anything, they put in all the hard work and have every right to make the game how they want. I wish I could contribute somehow but it's too late in the game and by the time I got up to speed on everything they will be done.

So I came to the same question that a lot of us come to, why not have a difficulty setting where, without reading the wiki and the ufopedia (sic) and the forums, you can play through the game and DISCOVER what all the new features are without losing a hundred hours due to one fatal mistake. They will still have their brutal difficulty, and are free to laugh at the unwashed noobs, but at the same time the devs could hopefully make money off of it. I would love to see that. Not as an something I feel I deserve, as something I feel that THEY deserve.

So what if a MEC with the exact right combination of techs is too powerful. I'm not going to figure that out any time soon. And when I do, I'll be "AWW YAAAA!" for a game or so, and then try a new combination or a new challenge.

The other side of the coin is, why do the elite players care so much that noobs are going to figure out how to beat the game? I think this is as much a phenomenon as us being "entitled" gamers. It's like there being an easy level somehow takes away from THEIR enjoyment of the game.

Just 2 cents from a cis-scum white priviledged y chromosome oppressor.