To create five different game levels of difficulty, we used data from a previous experiment [33] and used a regression model to manipulate factors predicted to vary in difficulty from very easy to very hard. We varied several design factors, including Error Tolerance (target size), Time Limit (amount of time players have to make their selection) and Item Sets (items presented).
This seems like a problem… I think the experiment would carry more weight if they varied one ‘difficulty’ parameter at a time. It’s pretty obvious (to me) that varying the success rate by any available means isn’t going to get useful results, since they could have a pirate pop up randomly every fixed fraction of games saying, “Ha Ha, You Lose, play again”.
In fact, maybe they should do that experiment as well!
At the risk of hardcore gamers telling me to “GIT GUD,” modern games are way too hard for me. I have unfinished copies of XCOM2, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, God of War, and Celeste to name a few. All because I found them too hard and eventually grew bored at being stuck in the same spot.
I think we’ve overcompensated for a vocal minority of hardcore gamers after a peak of easy games in the mid-aughties.
This seems like a problem… I think the experiment would carry more weight if they varied one ‘difficulty’ parameter at a time. It’s pretty obvious (to me) that varying the success rate by any available means isn’t going to get useful results, since they could have a pirate pop up randomly every fixed fraction of games saying, “Ha Ha, You Lose, play again”.
In fact, maybe they should do that experiment as well!
At the risk of hardcore gamers telling me to “GIT GUD,” modern games are way too hard for me. I have unfinished copies of XCOM2, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, God of War, and Celeste to name a few. All because I found them too hard and eventually grew bored at being stuck in the same spot.
I think we’ve overcompensated for a vocal minority of hardcore gamers after a peak of easy games in the mid-aughties.