Using cheat codes has no bearing on whether or not the game was challenging, which they often were. You try beating Contra without the 30-live code; it's a nightmare. Still, games today are made with the lowest common denominator in mind. Levels are designed to be linear and straightforward, so people don't get lost actually exploring, in addition to heavily scripted design which [i]punish[/i] players who go ahead or think outside the box. RPGs are littered with map and quest markers, and NPCs have convenient exclamation points over their head, because we're apparently too stupid to figure out stuff on our own. There's regenerating health in a lot of games, because keeping track of a health meter and finding medkits is [i]too hard.[/i] And so on. P.S. Using #satire doesn't make your post satirical.