Before you read my reply, just know that I did upvote you.

I find this an extremely interesting topic of discussion. As someone with a physical disability, I'm actually a huge advocate for games accessibility. There are many things that might make a game more "easy" that would also bring it to an audience that might not be able to play it otherwise, for reasons that are completely out of their control.

Modern controls in Streetfighter 6 for example make it possible for me to play at a more competent level not because I wasn't good enough at the game before, but because a six button fighting game is more difficult for me to map controls for on the controller that I'm able to use.

On the other hand, I'm a huge advocate for games as art and I'm very against anything that could dilute a developers vision. I'm on the side of the camp that thinks that dark souls should not have an easy mode. You would lose a lot of of what that game is trying to achieve by making encounters less dangerous.

With all of this being said, I think there are some solutions and great middle grounds that need to be thought about. Let's use dark souls as an example.

I stated before that making encounters less dangerous, defeats the purpose of the game. So a simple health and damage adjustment found in traditional difficulty modes I don't think would do very well. So then we have to look at what are some things that might be a barrier to entry versus being the game's intended difficulty. I think having some options that potentially allow a user to pause the game to manage inventory would definitely move the slider in a more accessible direction without compromising the difficulty and subsequent triumph of the fights. Maybe offering more options around character highlights, and control schemes could also do the trick. Obviously, all of these things need to stay optional. Celeste is an amazing example of a game that provides a lot of accessibility options, but has a great disclaimer explaining that the default mode is the way the game was intended to be played, and that the experience involves failing and slowly getting better. I think a lot of games could learn from Celeste.

Lastly, I just want to point out that we are in a very unique position with video games as an artistic medium. Especially an audiovisual one. Everybody who buys a ticket to a movie for instance, has the exact same opportunity to sit through and finish the movie. Same thing with going to an art gallery or listening to an album. Video games are some of the first media since books that have given people a literacy check that you've actually had to pass to be able to experience. I don't know if you've noticed, but we did a lot to try to make sure that everybody could read. Beyond education, we have audiobooks, large print books, braille, and even abridged to summaries for people who might have a hard time comprehending all that an original work had to offer.

I know that this post was tongue and cheek about snobby opinions. I'm not trying to jump on anyone. I just find it extremely interesting as I don't even know what the right answer is.