The author closes using another Nerd Culture favorite of Firefly as his example. I watched an bad cam of the Firefly movie on my netbook and the video and audio both kept dropping out. Anyway, I thought it was a terrible movie. But wait a second, you say, I was watching a bad cam on a tiny screen. Well, yeah, but the story's the same, no? My total experience of the movie, (arg! wtf? stupid half-broken rar files stupi…
You describe a frustrating experience in which you had to work very hard to experience the content, and as a result you didn't care much for it, and posit another experience in which the content is far more accessible and the experience is shared with a wide audience, and assume you'd enjoy this better. I'm with you that far.
And then - if I'm reading correctly - you suggest that the frustrating experience is Easy Mode, and the accessible one is Hard Mode? This is where you lose me.
If I'm trying to play a game I've heard good things about, my experience can certainly be soured by a high level of frustration. And I'd probably like a game more if I can share the experience with other people who like it. To me, these are both arguments in favor of Easy Mode.