{"id":125192,"date":"2022-05-26T15:02:51","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T13:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=125192"},"modified":"2022-05-26T15:02:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T13:02:51","slug":"the-difference-between-challenge-and-artificial-difficulty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/pc\/125192-the-difference-between-challenge-and-artificial-difficulty","title":{"rendered":"The difference between challenge and artificial difficulty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the years and while playing various challenging games – usually of the Souls genre – I\u2019ve had many conversations with friends about difficulty.<\/p>\n

Saying the Souls games are challenging and difficult is a redundant statement, to say the least, as they are well known to be difficult.<\/p>\n

However, there is something to be said about the type of difficulty – more specifically, the difference between artificial difficulty and a genuine challenge.<\/p>\n

Challenge vs artificial difficulty<\/h3>\n

At first glance, most hard games all seem the same – they all have enemies that can take one or two-shot you, areas that are hard to navigate and a steep learning curve.<\/p>\n

While this is true, there are differences between challenging games and games with artificial difficulty that determine whether the difficulty of the game enhances the experience or detracts from it.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s first start with a challenge.<\/p>\n

Challenge refers to an experience that tests your skills and abilities to adapt and learn, but never feels like it\u2019s unfair or imbalanced.<\/p>\n

An excellent example of this is the Nameless King in Dark Souls 3 during his second phase after you\u2019ve defeated the King of the Storms and the King battles you on foot.<\/p>\n

The fight is hard – the Nameless King hits hard, has a fast move-set, and one mistake can quickly lead to you getting slaughtered on the edge of his swordspear.<\/p>\n

However, this fight never feels unfair. At no point during the fight, though irritated and annoyed you may be at dying, does it feel like the game cheated you.<\/p>\n

You died because you rolled the wrong way, got greedy, or weren\u2019t paying attention.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an organic experience that requires you to learn the boss, and when you have and eventually defeat him, the satisfaction you feel is second to none.<\/p>\n

Artificial difficulty is entirely different.<\/p>\n

Rather than creating a fair and challenging situation, the artificial difficulty relies upon numerical and direct methods of increasing the challenge.<\/p>\n

For example, artificial difficulty wouldn\u2019t make a boss\u2019s move set more complex and rewarding, but would instead increase its health or damage.<\/p>\n

Likewise, rather than creating an exciting area with unique features that make it challenging to traverse, artificial difficulty would instead fill the area with more enemies.<\/p>\n

It makes the game harder, but not in a way that makes it more satisfying to beat.<\/p>\n

When you die to artificial difficulty, it usually feels unfair and unsatisfying as you may have done everything correctly, yet still died.<\/p>\n

An excellent example of these two different types of difficulty can be found when comparing Dark Souls 1 and 2.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dark Souls 1 vs 2<\/h3>\n

Dark Souls 1 and 2 are quite old, so their graphics are outdated compared to the current standard, and their controls feel sluggish.<\/p>\n

However, even when compared to more fluid modern games, Dark Souls 1 never feels unfair.<\/p>\n

You may grow angry when you die or lose souls, but for the most part, the game presents a manageable challenge where enemies and areas have been carefully crafted to test you but never leave you feeling cheated.<\/p>\n

Dark Souls 2, however, took a different approach to creating difficulty and, rather than crafting more balanced encounters, favoured quantity.<\/p>\n

Each area is filled with enemies, often of the same type and with little variety or complimentary move sets, and the challenge comes from dealing with a horde of opponents.<\/p>\n

Even when you manage to make your way through the area successfully, it isn\u2019t satisfying as much as a relief to put it behind you.<\/p>\n

Artificial difficulty is lazy<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that artificial difficulty is far easier to include in a game than a genuine challenge, as its creation requires significantly less nuance.<\/p>\n

It is therefore far rarer to experience a challenging game, and you should be picky about the challenging games you play to ensure you\u2019re getting this superior experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Read:<\/strong> Sony expects R4.7 billion in revenue from PC games in 2022<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s what you need to know about difficulty in games. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":119035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11681,4],"tags":[26227,22779],"class_list":["post-125192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc","category-playstation","category-xbox","tag-difficulty","tag-souls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}