the difficulty with game difficulty

[sean miguel]

I usually play games one notch higher than the default difficulty when applicable. I know this is akin to "why isn't there a cure for the common cold?" but why can't higher difficulty in games mean the computer plays smarter rather than cheap as in a bullet sponge? or one shot one kill crack shots?

I think the best I've seen harder difficulty handled so far in video games has been with The Last of Us. Enemies aren't necessarily harder to kill, it's just that supplies are way more scarce. Of course that makes sense in that setting. But in most other games at the highest difficulty level, you basically have to play like a frightened mouse and hide behind cover while your AI teammates act like the heroes you're supposed to be (Call of Duty).

 

[dpantski]

Its because good AI isn't an easy thing to program (especially if a company has to meet deadlines for releases) and just changing stats for enemies or simply adding more enemies is a very simple way to do it. Its also unlikely to see a major backlash from fans since its been done this way for so long that you just expect it nowadays. It depends on the genre of course, in FPS enemies can be more accurate etc on higher difficulty settings but it still comes down to boosting some numbers to make them better. Altering behaviours for each difficulty is possible for sure, but it requires a bit of extra effort.

 

[tvstrip]

I'm playing destiny and that's a perfect eg: raising it to "epic" difficulty just means the enemies have elemental shields and more health. I guess it kind of makes sense as you can say some species developed a resistance to certain elements, but the basic ai acts the same in terms of strategy/movement.

It is odd though that we still can't get AI to mimic e-sports players levels of proficiency. We understand their strategy, AI will have superior reflexes as well as not suffering from fatigue, carelessness, etc so you'd think we could build AI that could hold their own on equal footing. For example in a fighting game literally every move has a counter, so in theory it should be possible to create an unbeatable AI, but that hasn't happened.

 

[D-rock]

What difficulty I set games on depends on how well I like the game and how long I want to play it. If it's a game where I just want to screw around and have fun for a little while once every so often then I won't bother taking it off the default difficulty. If it's a game I really like and will invest a lit of time into I will play on the highest difficulty unless that's insanely impossible than I will just crank it up as far as is reasonable. While I often like challenges sometimes I just don't want to invest gigantic portions of my life just to master a game, even if I have the ability to do so.

As for why games often have difficulty be from cheap means, well, some of the reasons are, as much as they suck, is because "fake difficulty" has been a fine traditions since video games started. Whether that's because of developer laziness, technical limitations, or tradition it ends up mostly the same. I also think as of now there is also only so many ways you can add difficulty without going to online play with human controlled opponents.

I would also say that like has been said good AI is kind of hard, but it's also how one even defines what good A.I. is in the first place is subjective. Playing a game that makes and A.I. opponent better than you because it can essentially make the opponent psychic to all your actions or have perfect aim with reflexes a human could never hope to match might make the AI appear smart and challenging, but it's also then unfair and not fun to play anymore if one is at a point there have to resort to exploits and game mechanic hackery to have any chance of winning. Even on extremely hard games at some level the computer controlled opponents have to be dumber than you or at least depend on reliably predicable behavior that can be readily foreseen and taken advantage of because that's the players only real advantage over them if their physical attributes and knowledge in the game can be much greater.

 

[~~whimsy~~]

Some games I know my way around I start off on the hardest difficulty. Collect them achievements, learn my way around and work my way down to normal or easy having fun just playing around collecting rest of achievements.

Open world games I keep on normal because I want to have fun playing the game only. Do whatever and not worry about dying a bunch.

 

[Jetpack90]

I like my video games gut wrenchingly hard. It doesn't feel rewarding if I don't have to work for it