I feel compelled to bring up what I believe to be a solid counterpoint to the "if you don't like Easy Mode, then just don't play it" mantra detailed in the post:
Halo 3's Legendary Campaign vs. Halo 1 and 2's Legendary Campaigns.
For those unfamiliar with the campaign gameplay of the Halo Trilogy (and those who might need a refresher), each of the three titles had four different difficulty modes for campaign play: Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary (order representing increases in difficulty).
Keeping in mind that each of the three titles had these same names for the campaign difficulty level (and that when you play either Halo 2 or Halo 3 on Xbox Live, the highest level difficulty you've completed the entire campaign for is shown to other players in your profile), it's easy to see how the highest level of achievement might become a status symbol of sorts...
...if, that is, it's difficult to achieve.
Sure, once you got to a certain level in multiplayer gameplay on Xbox Live, the majority of players had achieved that Legendary status symbol anyway. But even then, it often simply meant those who hadn't were relegated to a lower echelon of respect.
So there's your status element for Halo's difficulty modes.
Now, getting back to the author's points on Easy Mode, I'll show why his overall argument (though perhaps quite appropriate for many other games) doesn't hold water with Halo 3, which should make the truth of his claim situational at best.
Rather than the author's example of the game developers adding an Easy Mode where there was none in previous installments, Halo 1 and 2 already had Easy Modes, so one obviously can't complain about its inclusion in Halo 3. (Well, to be fair, many have complained that EACH of the difficulty levels was made easier for Halo 3, but I've yet to see objective, rather than anecdotal, evidence for this claim. But even that isn't quite the same as adding an Easy Mode where none had existed before.)
No, rather than that, Legendary was made objectively easier to beat, thus devaluing its achievement and therefore its worth as a status symbol. Let me explain:
Legendary is of course at least as difficult-- and, the vast majority of the time, far MORE difficult-- than each of the other difficulty modes. (Duh, right? That's what a difficulty mode is.) The enemies had smarter AI, they were tougher (e.g., even a sticky bomb, an auto-kill on any other difficulty mode and in online multiplayer, couldn't kill most classes of Elites; you had to inflict even more damage than that), and there were way more of them.
In Halo 1 and Halo 2, if you played co-op campaign on any of the lower three difficulty modes and you died but your teammate stayed alive, you could just respawn back into action. If you were playing alone though, you'd respawn at the last checkpoint you passed. This is why most of the lesser-skilled players completed their campaigns playing co-op: it was WAY easier; there was no real penalty for dying. But here's the catch: the game developers wouldn't let you do that for Legendary. If you played co-op and either player died, you both respawned at the last checkpoint rather than respawning back into action immediately. Thus, completing the campaign on Heroic garnered little respect (but certainly not disrespect, necessarily), because nobody knew whether you achieved it "legitimately" (i.e., on single player, where you couldn't exploit the lack of penalty for dying) or not. Legendary, however, could ONLY be completed legitimately. It meant something concrete.
Except on Halo 3.
For the third game, the developers decided to allow players the same exploit in Legendary that had only previously existed in Easy, Normal, and Heroic-- thus robbing Legendary of its significance as an achievement. After all, the metrics for how good you are at the game in general are a) kills and b) lack of deaths. Remove the latter from the equation, and Legendary becomes...well, no longer legendary.
Prescribe whatever reasons you wish for this decision by the developers, but I'm willing to bet you'll face an uphill battle if your reasons are the same as the author's in his Mega Man X Easy Mode hypothetical.
As you pointed out, the other Halos had an easy mode. Your argument seems tangential to the author's. You just think they made hard mode too easy (perhaps another level of difficulty would have been in order, since they presumably shifted all the difficulties down because of market research).
Don't see how this conflicts with the author's point. The author stated, "Giving an Easy Mode to the people who need or want it has no effect on the play experience of those who don't use it."
However, in your example, they made Halo 3's hard mode easier. That's not the situation the author was referencing.
Halo 3's Legendary Campaign vs. Halo 1 and 2's Legendary Campaigns.
For those unfamiliar with the campaign gameplay of the Halo Trilogy (and those who might need a refresher), each of the three titles had four different difficulty modes for campaign play: Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary (order representing increases in difficulty).
Keeping in mind that each of the three titles had these same names for the campaign difficulty level (and that when you play either Halo 2 or Halo 3 on Xbox Live, the highest level difficulty you've completed the entire campaign for is shown to other players in your profile), it's easy to see how the highest level of achievement might become a status symbol of sorts...
...if, that is, it's difficult to achieve.
Sure, once you got to a certain level in multiplayer gameplay on Xbox Live, the majority of players had achieved that Legendary status symbol anyway. But even then, it often simply meant those who hadn't were relegated to a lower echelon of respect.
So there's your status element for Halo's difficulty modes.
Now, getting back to the author's points on Easy Mode, I'll show why his overall argument (though perhaps quite appropriate for many other games) doesn't hold water with Halo 3, which should make the truth of his claim situational at best.
Rather than the author's example of the game developers adding an Easy Mode where there was none in previous installments, Halo 1 and 2 already had Easy Modes, so one obviously can't complain about its inclusion in Halo 3. (Well, to be fair, many have complained that EACH of the difficulty levels was made easier for Halo 3, but I've yet to see objective, rather than anecdotal, evidence for this claim. But even that isn't quite the same as adding an Easy Mode where none had existed before.)
No, rather than that, Legendary was made objectively easier to beat, thus devaluing its achievement and therefore its worth as a status symbol. Let me explain:
Legendary is of course at least as difficult-- and, the vast majority of the time, far MORE difficult-- than each of the other difficulty modes. (Duh, right? That's what a difficulty mode is.) The enemies had smarter AI, they were tougher (e.g., even a sticky bomb, an auto-kill on any other difficulty mode and in online multiplayer, couldn't kill most classes of Elites; you had to inflict even more damage than that), and there were way more of them.
In Halo 1 and Halo 2, if you played co-op campaign on any of the lower three difficulty modes and you died but your teammate stayed alive, you could just respawn back into action. If you were playing alone though, you'd respawn at the last checkpoint you passed. This is why most of the lesser-skilled players completed their campaigns playing co-op: it was WAY easier; there was no real penalty for dying. But here's the catch: the game developers wouldn't let you do that for Legendary. If you played co-op and either player died, you both respawned at the last checkpoint rather than respawning back into action immediately. Thus, completing the campaign on Heroic garnered little respect (but certainly not disrespect, necessarily), because nobody knew whether you achieved it "legitimately" (i.e., on single player, where you couldn't exploit the lack of penalty for dying) or not. Legendary, however, could ONLY be completed legitimately. It meant something concrete.
Except on Halo 3.
For the third game, the developers decided to allow players the same exploit in Legendary that had only previously existed in Easy, Normal, and Heroic-- thus robbing Legendary of its significance as an achievement. After all, the metrics for how good you are at the game in general are a) kills and b) lack of deaths. Remove the latter from the equation, and Legendary becomes...well, no longer legendary.
Prescribe whatever reasons you wish for this decision by the developers, but I'm willing to bet you'll face an uphill battle if your reasons are the same as the author's in his Mega Man X Easy Mode hypothetical.