| abstract | - Video games attract all kinds of people, from the casual gamer to the hardcore tournament champion. But a game that provides a satisfying play experience for one may be frustratingly difficult or yawningly easy for another. Thus, some games adjust their difficulty level behind the scenes to match the player (ignoring the fact people can just adjust difficulty levels). When this is invoked, it's important to implement a ranking system so the better players can feel special. That way, casual players feel good about beating the game, and veterans still feel challenged trying to get the SSS-level and beating the True Final Boss. On the other hand, some players inevitably prefer kicking ass on Easy and will get annoyed that the game won't let them, while others would rather play on Hard even if if means repeating That One Boss 20 times and will feel cheated if the game "lets them win." More opportunistic players will quickly learn to intentionally play just well enough to continue but no better to keep the difficulty down. This is very similar to Rubber Band AI. Can cause problems such as Empty Levels. The opposite of Unstable Equilibrium, where the game gets harder if the player is doing badly. Not to be confused with Schizophrenic Difficulty, where the difficulty goes up and down at random, regardless of the player's performance. Level Scaling and Difficulty by Acceleration are subtropes. Examples of Dynamic Difficulty include:
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