REMINDER: ARTIFICIAL DIFFICULTY DOESN'T EXIST

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>memorization isn't a skill
>its not about skill i just don't have the time
>the game "wastes your time" by expecting you to play it

Tom "Inflated Ego" Preston, everyone.

IT WAS ONLY COOL WHEN THEY TOOK MY QUARTERS.

Fuck off back to Woody Woodchucks.

Does he still proclaim to not be a furry despite his "alternate personality" being a fucking bear?

Artificial difficulty exists, but Cuphead isn't an example.

If the challenges can be overcome with sufficient reflexes, planning, or other skills, it's not artificial, it's just difficulty.

>hardness

Honestly, the one situation so far in the game that came across as unfair was the dragon, because the clouds make the whole thing a dice roll.

It's true that the game bases itself in repeating the levels and learning them, but that's not a fucking negative aspect. Not everyone will like it, but then you can just not play the fucker.

I agree but I still hate dobson

Isn't this the dude who did an lp of skyrim at 8 fps?

Agreed. A good example of artificial difficulty in my opinion is Borderlands, where the harder enemies tend to just have more health. Instead of testing your reflexes / memorization / smarts, the game just becomes a test of patience.

You are Dobson.

Still not artificial. Stop being a shitter.

He's right though. Instead of memeing try to argue if you disagree. Bed of Chaos was artificial difficulty and a shitty boss because dying didn't have anything to do with skill and everything to do with playing enough times to memorize what it does

People are so fucking stupid. The difficulty comes in memorization, learning patterns, game knowledge. That is skill that is difficulty.

I don't think so. Even bullet sponge enemies in Borderlands can be overcome if you know what you are doing.

Artificial difficulty to me is stuff like RNG-based attacks that can't be countered or dodged unless you get lucky.

Unless its something like a framerate drop or invisible projectiles from too much on the screen, there is no artificial difficulty.

>Tom Preston (Andrew Dobson)

HAVE I BEEN LIVING A LIE???

Where's the twitter link
I wanna see how many people shit on him for this post

"Artificial difficulty" is a nonsensical concept that does not describe anything that exists.

I've always thought of artificial difficulty as meaning things that cannot be calculated for in a fair way
i.e. RNG

>stop being a shitter
But I'm not saying it's difficult, in fact I'm saying the opposite. Borderlands on the higher difficulties is easy as shit, but it's not fun - you just end up playing the game for longer. I haven't played it in a few years now but I remember getting bored and calling it halfway through my true vault hunter playthrough. It's artificial because it's not more difficult, it just takes longer which gives you the illusion of having to put in more effort.

RNG can be mitigated to some degree. It depends on the game. There's nothing artificial about playing the odds, though I agree some games put the player into coin flips of winning/losing, but not that many exist to the point where it's an issue.

The other user is more correct. Artificial difficulty does not mean it can't be overcome, it just means there is no increase in skill required (except maybe consistency to not get bored enough to fuck up) and instead the game wastes your time while offering no real difference. Borderlands doesn't actually require anything different out of the player except investment of time

for me a good example is the late game in all those monster hunter-esque games.

they just throw 3 different bosses at you at the same time which turns "knowing the moves of the boss" into a pure rng shitfest

But that's wrong, user.

"Difficulty" is what we use to measure how much skill is required to overcome a challenge. If bad things in a game can't be overcome by the player with skill alone, they are not challenges, just random punishment.

If a game describes itself as "hard" because it fills itself with these fake challenges, then its difficulty is "artificial". It's that simple.

Challenges that require perfect reflexes or memorization are definitely NOT artificial. Cuphead is just a hard game.

Games with random numbers test your averages. If you lose to "rng", that means your averages were poor. Which, in turn, means you are bad at the game in 100% skill-based games like XCOM or Darkest Dungeon (uf either kills you, it's always your fault for not being prepared and hoping for rolls that are actually unlikely, e.g. negative criticals to never happen, which is unrealistic) or didn't grind enough in mmos.

What the fuck is Dobson on about anymore? All he does is obsess over Cuphead and he hasn't played it.

He's not, but he IS an inflation fetishist. Not even the good kind, i.e. pumped full of cum.

>games should be easy because I'm too lazy to actually play them
What a fat fucking faggot, why hasn't he killed himself yet

What a dumbass. It's just because he's old and and his mind and hands are slower.

Artifical difficulty:
>RNG


Good design difficulty:
>different types, amounts and patterns/spacing, and speed of enemies
>limited ammo, guns, skills
>increased enemy damage/health
>enemies have new abilities

There are badly designed challenges that aren't fun, but there is no need for a new term, especially a misnomer like "artificial difficulty". All difficulty in games is artificial. Some cgallenges are rewarding and fair and some aren't, which is called "bad design".

He's right that "artificial difficulty" is when you can only beat something through luck or memorization. IWBTG is the perfect example of this
Cuphead isn't artificial difficulty though. It would be very possible for a player to beat the entire game on their first try by being cautious, as everything that deals damage is clearly broadcasted

How do you memorize random bosses?

This guy is so retarded.

>dobson thinking he knows anything about talent

Dobson is more deluded than fucking CWC.

For me, artificial difficulty would be something like if you walked through a door and a boulder fell on you without warning. Sure, you could avoid it if you knew about it, but if you didn't, you probably would've gotten hit and died and got sent back to your last checkpoint or save, artificially lengthening the game.
Or like in some RPGs where the main character is the only one who isn't allowed to die when your teammates can die as much as they want.

I've always thought of it like things you just toss into the game for difficulty because the designer was too lazy to make the fight interesting.

>Boss isn't hard enough by itself
>Just add more mobs

If you're not ready for bad rolls, it's your fault, not some "artificial difficulty RNG's". Estimate the danger, don'thooe fir unrealistic rolls, prepare for criticals. Get fucking good.

>Does he still proclaim to not be a furry despite his "alternate personality" being a fucking bear?
cartoon animals are a pillar of western civilization you fucking philistine

git gud

>Sup Forums now thinks bullet sponge enemies and bed of chaos are difficulty done right
wew

That's called "bad game design", dipshit. Not need to call it "artificial" or other words you don't seem to quite understand.

So you're saying that cuphead is artificial difficulty, right? Because it's got plenty of random elements in the game

Well from a literary sense 'bad game design' and 'artificial difficulty' aren't exactly mutually exclusive.

mike matei approves this post

you're really mad about this term people have been using for years, aren't you? Why is there a bee in your bonnet, user?

Is there a person on earth who doesn't hate this man?

You cant even blame it on memorization because the game has awful lot of rng. If you cannot "memorize" 5 attacks per boss you might aswell kill yourself.