Artificial Difficulty

[Hix]

Looking at the OP list, artificial difficulty is when you can't beat something and the fault obviously can't lie with you, so it must be because of artificial difficulty.

[adn]

Actual artificial difficulty is basically when you jack up the health and damage an enemy does without actually making it any more difficult to fight, or possible to defeat using tactics/intelligent play. A good example of this is what they did to the HW overworld where every mob really isn't that different from the mobs you fight from 1-50, they just have massively inflated health pools.

The term "artificial difficulty" has been thrown around since Dark Souls became popular, and basically people just use it to mean "I don't like this mechanic" now.

[seorin]

imo, artificial difficulty is when player ability has little to no influence on the task, but it's still "difficult". In most cases, this is RNG, such as getting a Terra Branford card. It can also be something that's pointlessly grindy, like getting a fenrir mount (or mobs with too much hp). These things don't require any special player ability other than hitting your head against a wall until done. Sadly, this describes the vast majority of the non-combat parts of the game. :/

[Fenwick]

Based on the original post, this is how I would describe what is listed.

• DPS checks aka performing perfect rotations (Difficulty)
• RNG (Need to be more specific, random boss rotations are difficulty)
• Twitch Mechanics (It depends)
• Scripted mechanics aka memorization (Difficulty, but not preferred)
• Team jump rope aka finding 8 people who know the fight (Neither, this is just proper preparation)
• Content gates or lockouts (Neither, just a restriction)

Things I am against, overuse (not all) of one shot mechanics. RNG that makes something impossible based on uncontrolled circumstances, haven't seen too much of this in this game thankfully. Memorization can be tedious, I prefer mechanics that are based more so on adaptability.

[Yukiko]

well... in general its easy to programm a good system.

You have on one side the input (how many players, which level, which class, and so on...)
Based on that input data you can calculate the outcome with formulas (more life, other mechanics, and so on...)
Then on the other side we have a nice dynamic and challenging encounter where players can choose the difficult by changing "input"...

4 man too hard? go in with 5
cant get a second tank? boss will not do the tankswap mechanics
and so on...

RNG does not make static programming into a dynamic!
Players ask for more dynamic? oh, then just lets add RNG on top of RNG... thats the wrong direction!
The problem we have is in the core code: I do not think the game is collecting enough input to calculate the output because its easier to have a static programming with less data to handle.

Edit: For the example with tankswap: Sometimes removing a mechanic will result to make it too easy, thats why you can replace it with another mechanic for solotanks, you get the idea? It was just an example anyway, there the job for the balancing team begins!

Edit2: The more input you have, the better the output gets!

[Mikedizzy]

Artificial difficulty to me is locking content behind gear, even if you have the skill to be it...that is crap.

[Iromi]

Artificial difficulty to me is locking content behind gear, even if you have the skill to be it...that is crap.

This. Player skill should ALWAYS come before gear. Gear should make a difference..but not to the point where its more important then the skill...

[hagare]

Artificial difficulty to me is locking content behind gear, even if you have the skill to be it...that is crap.

yea! Why can't I beat T13 naked!

[Khalithar]

• DPS checks aka performing perfect rotations
• RNG
• Twitch Mechanics
• Scripted mechanics aka memorization
• Team jump rope aka finding 8 people who know the fight
• Content gates or lockouts

DPS checks- They test whether someone actually knows their rotation or just button mashes. It's also done as a way to prevent people from overpowering content with extra healers to trivialize mechanics.

RNG- I wouldn't call RNG artificial difficulty, I will call it frustrating though. Cheap deaths where there was nothing you could do are lame. I've yet to see this in XIV though, a death where there was absolutely nothing you could have done to prevent it through better play or preparation. TERA actually did the best by largely taking RNG out of it's combat, every monster has a distinct behavior with patterns, tells, and things to watch out for. Every death in that game is legitimately your fault as pretty much every attack in that game can be avoided if you are good enough. It really empowers the player and puts control of whether you live or die in your hands.

Twitch mechanics- Feel more like a test of latency than anything else.

Memorization- That's really all raiding comes down to, scripted mechanics where you know what to expect. XIV actually moves away from this slightly as there are scripted mechanics but you can never know who it will target. Not always the case though, I am reminded of the Ravana phase where he always targets the other tank unless that tank is dead.

Getting people- That's always been part of the raiding challenge.

Content gates- Not difficult, but it can be frustrating. The worst part about content gating though is player attrition. When you have to beat one thing to get to the good stuff, what happens when a good player leaves or quits the game? Either you have to hope to find someone that's completed the first step or you have to go back and re-clear content you don't need to get a person in to the content where you do need them. Then players burn out and the cycle perpetuates itself.

[Scruffyx]

[*]Scripted mechanics aka memorization
[*]Team jump rope aka finding 8 people who know the fight

These are the ones I mean when I talk about "artificial difficulty". If you can put on a blindfold and still clear the content, that's not the difficulty I personally want. Adding a bit more RNG forcing one to react to situations is more of the difficulty I'd like to see.