Difficulty in gaming is rooted in established methods of presentation which haven't changed and don't look likely to either. Here's five reasons why difficulty in games is ultimately broken.
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It is interesting how this basic mechanic has remained largely unchanged over the years. I prefer games which auto tailor the difficulty based on how well you are playing.
it maybe from an Xbox-centric site, but since the topic is universal, maybe add the tags for the other systems/companies? let's have others read it...
You know what this site normally does a massive amount of flamebait but this is honestly a really good article.
Inconsistency
I get this a bit, I mean sometimes you're accustomed to playing games on hard but then come across that one game that just ramps up the difficulty and forces you to play on an easier setting. But its not the developers fault, nor is it really broken, I mean its not everyone's idea of difficulty is the same and one game I struggle on may be a cakewalk for someone else. So its not really something thats solvable as we all play differently.
Focus
Again like above its different for different people. I for one love a good story but I don't want a easy game that is just to pass time while watching the story play out. I like a challenge as well, so again its never one way or the other and other persons will think differently than me so again not really a broken difficulty system but a best try for a very diverse audience.
Strength and Weaknesses
This one is actually a point to why game difficulty levels are essential and works. Take for instance Devil May Cry, I am terrible at the game so I usually take easy difficulty as my choice to play, but others are really good at the game and will choose the higher levels. So in fact having variety of choices in difficulty helps the variety of players.
Deciding Before You Should
Again this not a real problem. I mean if there were no difficulty sliders like in some games you will still have to deal with all the mechanics that it throws at you, just this time you wouldn't have the option of reducing/increasing the difficulty(even if you have to restart the game). I mean who wants to play a game when you know everything to expect, defeats the whole purpose, at least with difficulty sliders you get options. Also when would you like to choose difficulty at the middle? at the end? Many games give you the option to change difficulty at any time, what more can you ask.
Being Trapped by Challenge
"Even the games that allow players to change the level of challenge without penalty encounter problems. While doing so may make some elements as challenging as the player wants, it may decrease the difficulty of other parts too much. There's no fine-control to difficulty in most games."
Except you can just change it back to the more challenging difficulty after you complete that difficult segment. But this point again is flawed, the writer is talking like games should be fine tuned to suit every player and pander to every player's needs. This is not only unrealistic but not as fun. The point of a challenging game or difficulty is partly the actual challenge and variable difficulty never works well for 90% of games as it doesn't give the person a true feeling of accomplishment as it either lowers the challenge or just keeps raising it not allowing you to feel you actually surpassed anything.
This article itself is flawed. Not only does it not make a very compelling argument to why the game difficulty is broken but it also does not even make any suggestion on how to fix it. How does this help anyone?
Yeah Amy look good and i can't wait to play on xbox 360