There are many different schools of thought on what it means to be a gamer, and all of it is subjective.
You have those that are masochistic enough to try every single game they come across on the most brutal, gut-wrenching difficulty they can muster. I guess they figure their machismo is measured by how stressed out they can get twitching their controllers in a frantic pace trying to outwit the enemy that is put there by the developers to best them. Some of those games get downright sadsistic – even to the point of proclaiming how hard it is on the box art (yes, we see you, Dark Souls). Granted, there is a sense of accomplishment that comes from beating a game set as hard as the programmers and developers can possibly make it, but it depends on how much of your sanity you want to have left once you have finished. For myself, I have tried hard difficulties, and it just ends up stressing me out way too much to even enjoy a game most of the time.
There is another option that most overlook – “easy” mode.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I must be some kind of wimp or “casual gamer” because I don’t want to agonize over how long it’s going to take to get plowed under by the enemies in the game. Actually, I play games to relax – to enjoy the story, and stare in wonder at how gorgeous the game environment is that the programmers and developers have placed me into during the stay in their worlds of imagination. Now, granted, there are some games that will not let you explore everything unless you go to at least “normal” mode, so there are some pros and cons to each one. I played through “Alice: Madness Returns” on easy and really enjoyed the story, and it didn’t diminish the experience in my opinion, and even gave me a “New Game +” option for the next game, so i don’t lose any of the weapons and powers I got the first time. Some games don’t even have that for easy mode (I see you, Batman: Arkham Origins), so……….take away from that what you will.
With each successive generation of games, the graphics get prettier, the worlds get bigger, and the stories get more complex – this is why I play games! Have you ever stopped in the middle of an area in a game and just slowly rotated the camera around to take in your surroundings? I’ve done this plenty of times – most recently, while playing Batman: Arkham Knight, Watch Dogs, and Grand Theft Auto V. You should try it sometime when you’re in between missions – just wander around some and soak it in. Give the game teams the credit for painstakingly constructing this environment that you have decided to dive headlong into. One of the other things that I have enjoyed over recent years, is the change from text dialogue to spoken interactions. That just breathes so much more life into the game than before, because you get to hear the emotions that go along with the different characters, instead of just thinking about how you perceive what they are saying.
So if a game is beating your butt raw, and you are thinking that this is not what you plunked down 60 bones for, try a different approach – start over, knock down the difficulty, and just enjoy the immersive story that has been crafted for you, and relax in the world you have entered on a rainy afternoon while the real world will be waiting for when you get back.