I learned that they made a secret place you can get to in the first zone that lets you get a pair of boots that makes the game much more difficult. While this is neat I feel like it partially defeats the purpose of the hard mode.
If they are just an item that you can equip or unequip at will there is no way to judge someones accomplishments because they could claim to use them and in reality they are taking them off whenever they fight a boss or anything else challenging.
There is no glory in claiming you did anything in hard mode if you can turn it on and off at will. I don’t see why you don’t just enable it as a permanent choice during character creation.
The point of the way they did difficulty is that it’s not about your e-Peen, it’s just about the challenge. If you think the game is too easy and want a challenge, you can have that challenge. And if halfway through you decide you don’t want to, you just take them off.
Not everything is about bragging.
It makes no difference, the way it is now people can falsely brag about something they didn’t actually accomplish. There are no downsides to it being a mode you choose at creation as opposed to being something you can turn on and off at will.
It also goes against human nature, if you have the option to make things easier it is always tempting to take the easy way out. If you are stuck with your choice you will more than likely be motivated to push through because you don’t have the option to just turn it off at will.