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Caps - Odisha, 2023

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I've been thinking about the different kinds of difficulty in video games (and games generally), as well how to control how difficult situations are with the tools available. here are some categories of difficulty that I've identified: Execution Difficulty

Execution Difficulty is a measure that applies exclusively to the "thumbskill" involved in performing the actions needed to succeed. How tight is the timing involved? How many mistakes can a player make before they reach a fail state?

Strategic/Puzzle Difficulty

Strategic and Puzzle difficulty are tied to challenges where you have many options for how to execute, but not all executions provide equal resultant success. There might be more than one "right" answer (which marks the difference between a puzzle and a strategic situation, to me), but if there are, some answers are better, some tactics more effective, than others.

Commitment Difficulty

If you were inclined to be poetic about it, you might call this the "ironman factor". Commitment difficulty is about how long your choices can affect you, and how easy or hard it is either mitigate the effects of mistakes, or redo a scenario entirely. How long do I have to wait before making another attempt? How many attempts do I get? How quickly are my choices locked in? How much time do I have to decide?

Social Difficulty

Not all games have a social element, but any that do can introduce social difficulty. This isn't strictly about player actions that can harm another player's resources or goals, though it does cover that; it also encompasses clarity of communication, efficiency of team coordination and shared executional responsibility. How much do I have to rely on other players behavior to succeed? Do I need to communicate asymmetric information? what tools do I have to communicate with potential allies, enemies, or actors unknown?

This isn't a complete list, but it's my first foray into identifying where challenge lies in games. I think there is also measurable difficulty when it comes to navigation, but I'm not sure where to categorize it helpfully.

Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts about this I'd love to hear them.

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