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This is something I've been thinking about for a while and have talked about it with other gamers who seem to agree with me. Do you think games that have been released since say..the year 2000..are becoming easier and simpler than games that were released in the 90's?

I seem to think they are. I'm not sure if it's the same in every genre but adventure games in particular, and maybe some first person action/shooting games too, are definately becoming easier. They seem shorter, don't require much mental agility to beat and are alot less complex. You can argue that next-gen consoles provide us with better gaming environments and more realistic graphics, and with levels and gameplay that are more diverse and complex than the games of the past...but is this deteriorating from the actual gameplay itself?

I believe that game designers today believe that people who play games do not want to play something which will challenge them...they want a simple game that is fun and requires little effort. Could this be because of a rise in family friendly games, such as those on the Wii? If you look around, there are hardly any adventure/detective/point and click games anymore because people are just not interested in them even though I adored them as a kid. If you compare the length of an older Tomb Raider game with the length of the latest ones in the series they took many more hours to complete than they do now. Is this just because I'm older and not a kid so find it easier or are games becoming easier??? One of the developers of the latest Tomb Raider games who works for Crystal Dynamics responded to complaints that the game was too easy by saying that they can't make a game as challenging as the Tomb Raider series used to be because not enough people would buy it and that because of the costs in making a game they need to get as many buyers as possible and so need to target an audience that wants easy games. Do you think this is a credible argument?

I can think of several titles that have become easier:
Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Alone in the Dark, Devil May Cry...anyone got any more they can think of? Any games that are in a different genre??

Or do you disagree and think that games are better or more fun because they are easier??

I've not been stuck on a game for years. I personally think that they are getting easier, and higher difficulties often don't reflect there name. Often, it's a case of artificial difficulty, making thigs unfair rather than challenging.
Last game I was truly stuck on was Shadow of the Beast II on the mega drive...

I agree, I think that's probably the main reason why games are easier: that you don't have lives or particular checkpoints anymore. And also like you said, in alot of games you just have to hide and wait for your life to fill back up rather than having a life bar so to speak.
I agree with what you said about them being technically better so that it's not faults in the game anymore that make it frustrating.
But besides that, I still think that they are easier. Mostly because of checkpoints or having to manually save your game. In the Ps2 versions of Prince of Persia there was quite a large distance between check points which made the game challenging but not frustrating. I mean, no-one likes a frustrating game but I don't enjoy games that are as easier as they are today. Especially when it comes to puzzles too...in adventure games puzzles are one main element of the game yet they make them so easy I'm sure a monkey could solve them...if puzzles are a main part of the game then surely people who play adventure games like puzzles, so why make them so easy that you're basically told how to solve them?? It's like they're trying to make people who usually play other genres pick up an adventure game...

I think that even if they don't want to make games harder then they should at leats solve the issue of what Martial Spirit talked about, that difficulty settings don't reflect the actual difficulty. I know thati n Uncharted 2 and Tomb Raider Underworld, Hard setting is still unbelievably easy. I don't understand why they still have to make "hard" easy...if a game has a choice of difficulty that people who want an easy game will pick easy, they don't have to play it on hard, so why not make hard ACTUALLY hard...?

I'm not saying they should make games DIFFICULT....there use to be a lot of hardcore gamers out there that likes really hard difficulties and I usually played most games on easy...but they need to make them challenging...I don't see the fun in picking up a game and finishing it in a few hours without having any difficulty. Surely the enjoyment of a game comes from winning...success...but how can you feel like you've achieved that if you hardly lost any lives throughout the whole game?

Bad Company is realy easy due to the infinite lives and it doesn't even reset what you've done. It just sets you off and all you've done is the same, but you are fully healed and set to do further damage.

hmmm..I don't think it's "ridiculously" easy but I still think it's "considerably" easy.

Yeah, I have noticed that lately. Back in the days of PS1 and Ps2, I regularly received cheat books free with my magazines, and they were great. Often, there were lots of humurous cheats, and ones such as 'unlock all weapons' were great fun after you'd completed the game. But so few games seem to feature cheat codes these days, and it's a shame.
Perhaps related to Trophies and Achievements?

Resident Evil 4 doesn't have safe boxes. And it gives you plenty of ammo. Are you sure you're not talking about another Resident Evil?

Either way, I don't really give a crap about Trophies and achievments at all, so they do nothing for me. If I could have a trophy for giving out all my trophies, I would.

I just miss the good ol days of, "On the main menu, press X, Circle, Triangle, Square, Circle, X, Left, Right, Left, Right, Select"

I think games are getting easier all-round, but this isn't a no-hope situation.
Recently I've began starting games on hard mode instead of normal mode when I first play them (Mostly because I'm a trophy hoarder) and notice that I have the same struggle I'd have with a game I started on medium, a handful of deaths but nothing too OTT. I think games allowing the curve to drop so most gamers can complete games and not only the real amazing ones. However I do also feel that this is also down to the player to understand their own gamer level and start their game on the appropriate difficulty.