Artificial Difficulty

[Gilthas]

It's not very hard to understand...
Something based on reflexes = not everyone is capable of doing it.
Something based on memory = potentially 99% of the people can pull it.

If everyone can do it, it's not difficult.

That's a pretty stupid way of looking at it. You act like people can't train to improve their reflexes and only the "chosen ones" like you, with a superior genetic profile are capable of completing the content.

[Melch]

If everyone can do it, it's not difficult.

So yeah it's scripted and everyone can do it. But before or after echo and nerves?
Everything could be easy or hard if you play with people who have same skill level than yours.
I don't know what you're trying to explain, but the difference you make between difficult and easy is pretty much a lot of non sense and partial view since you don't take in account the fact that some players play at 110-120 % potential while others are not at 60 % potential, also you don't seem to take in account the dps checks when you talk about difficulty. That means you assume everyone is playing at 120% potential?
Also in a lot of games you're talking about you're alone and only your own skills matter you don't have to deal with communication. It's easier to be good alone than with a group.

[Reynhart]

trial and error

Trial and Error is the most basic form of artificial difficulty.

If Icebitten and Firescorshed tooltip read "The next <debuff stack> will kill you. Cannot be applied at the same time at <other debuff>", then yes, it's real difficulty.

Another example: Marked attacks. Some of them need to be taken solo, some of them needs to be split. And you can only decide which one it is after taking it.
For the "solo" one, it rarely causes a wipe, so not a very big deal. But for the "split" one, fake difficulty. If you need to die to understand, it's fake.

[Sandpark]

Artificial difficulty is when anything detrimental happens regardless of player input.
-Lag
-One Shot mechanics
-Long fights with little to no way to shorten them much
-Enemy invincibility to all counters such as stun,silence,etc
-Unavoidable skills
-Insufficient means by design to tackle obstacles

I would label all you mentioned as "On rails" not as artificial difficulty except for RNG. Because once you learn the rotation of skills and dodging. All content afterwards can be handled the same way not requiring different performance based on specific situations other than gimmicks.

[ApolloGenX]

Maybe they mean artificial barriers- barriers that are out of player control... time gating/gear gating when gear is time/capped currency obtained?

My pet peeve is the pseudo-intellectual "hardcore" gaming term "meta". This has got to be the "synergy" of the gaming world....

[Eisenhower]

Trial and Error is the most basic form of artificial difficulty.

By this reasoning, all challenges that do not provide full information up front regarding how to overcome the challenge would fall under the label "Artificial Difficulty". Following the "Trial and error is artificial difficulty" reasoning, Super Meat Boy or Dustforce would be mainly artificially difficult since they don't provide you with all information regarding the stage, the hazards and timings within, leaving the player to have to fail in order to gain information.

This is not the case, as all challenges SMB/DF can be overcome by player skill. These games do not invalidate player effort and place them in a failure state arbitrarily.

Trial and error has nothing to do with artificial difficulty and is not an implementation of artificial difficulty. It is the way information is gathered and/or supplied. Given time, the player will be furnished with the information needed to overcome the challenge by player skill.

The Iceclaw/Firehorn tooltips provide the player with more than enough information. They clearly state that if you suffer another attack of the same type, you will take a lot more damage. It is not a leap of logic for a player to thus want to avoid taking another attack of the same kind whilst the debuff is active. Because of the timings of the two attacks, a group will quickly come upon the situation where a player marked with debuff A suffers an attack of type B, subsequently removing the A debuff. Observing and realizing the solution to this puzzle is player effort. Positioning group members to solve this puzzle is player effort and the game lets you pass on to the next phase as a reward. There is nothing artificially difficult about this.

Do not confuse artificial difficulty with the rate/severity at which the game punishes failure and the rate at which information is provided. One-shot mechanics (death wall, distributing damage etc.) are only severe punishments for failure. In addition, one-shot mechanics limit the rate at which information can be gathered since a player will need more attempts to test things.

[Gallus]

That's a pretty stupid way of looking at it. You act like people can't train to improve their reflexes and only the "chosen ones" like you, with a superior genetic profile are capable of completing the content.

So I guess we can all train to be Rafael Nadal or Lionel Messi

[DreameR7g]

So I guess we can all train to be Rafael Nadal or Lionel Messi

There's a difference between talent and skill. In truth, we could all reach that level in skill... if all of us cared to be professional sports players.

[Gallus]

There's a difference between talent and skill. In truth, we could all reach that level in skill... if all of us cared to be professional sports players.

Your name definitely suits you lol.

[DreameR7g]

Your name definitely suits you lol.

Thank you for the personal attack. Back to the debate:

Talent cannot be earned through hard work. Talent gives an edge to the people in question. However, skill is what you can earn and hone. It isn't a big secret anymore on how to train your body in order to perform at a professional level. Some merely take to it easier than others (Talent).

The HUGE difference is passion and the drive to want to perform at that high level. The reason why we have so few professionals in this world is because our mental capacity is by and large unknown to us. Hell, a portion of human kind still believes mental illness is people being lazy.