"Aw man, just when Devin made a great play the computer...errr the colts found a way to make me fumble...stupid DDA!!"I came across a blog on destructoid.com talking about the good and bad of Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, or DDA. I have always figured something like this exists, but never have been able to put a name on it. And I've only figured this exists in sports or racing titles, but apparently developers of other games have tried to implement DDA as well.
If you don't know, DDA is supposed to compliment how the gamer is progressing through the game at a given time. If the gamer is doing worse, the game is supposed to "help" them do better, if the gamer is doing outstandingly good, the game is supposed to keep the gamer "challenged." In theory, this is an excellent idea. But there are two problems I have with this, one of which destructoid mentions, and another I came up with all by myself (aint I smart?).
The first is what destructoid mentions, how does the AI realize when it is actually borderline cheating. In some games you can be doing very well and the AI will realize it and up the ante. The problem with this is what if their ante increases ten fold every time you do well? It's almost as if you are on the hardest difficulty. In turn, what if you progress through the game by doing the bare minimum and are able to beat it no problem because you didn't conquer it, therefore the difficulty didn't increase ten fold, but actually came down to your level? The easiest example of this is the Burnout series which has it so that if someone is in first place and you are in last, you can catch up with them, but then if you get in first and start boosting to no end, somehow, they are right on your tail. And what if in an RPG, you gain level, because that's the point of an RPG, but with each level gained, the competition gets harder, not more level?
The second problem I have with this is the satisfaction of a gamer. If I end up beating Ninja Gaiden Sigma one day, I'll know it's because I'm the man. But if I found out that DDA was being used because I sucked so badly, how should I feel then?
If games can gauge how much extra "help" I need such as giving me a bit more health or ammo or things of that nature to the point where I do not even notice it, then that is a great use of DDA, but if it just keeps getting harder and harder where I never feel as if I have a grasp on the game, then that's not worth it. Nor, I would argue, is it worth it to not have a full dominating experience just for the sake of not doing as well so that in turn you are able to beat the entire game. Hopefully with new technology we'll be able to make DDA run so smooth, no one eve knows it exists anymore.
-Jeremy aka Adridius
If you want to read the blog on destructoid, here's a link:
http://www.destructoid.com/good-idea-bad-idea-dynamic-difficulty-adjustment-70591.phtml
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