4 ms·

The article never adequately explains how the increase in difficulty affects multiplayer gaming. Football is played beween 2 players, so the difficulty is defin

The article never adequately explains how the increase in difficulty affects multiplayer gaming. Football is played beween 2 players, so the difficulty is defined by the skill of the competitor. Does EA favor one of the players? How would that result in increased spending?

Bootvis 6y ago
It's supposed to work as follows, from the article: > A popular video titled “TOP 10 SCRIPTING PROOF! EA 100% EXPOSED! FIFA 19” purports to show 10 different clips demonstrating dynamic difficulty adjustment during gameplay, mostly near-misses, goals that should have gone in but don’t, that sort of thing. A game is just a simulation and the skill of the player doesn't influence every aspect. Any event that is not in complete control can be nudged to benefit the weaker player. For example, a ball that's just in or out.
- rhn_mk1 6y ago
  The article doesn't state it, but you indicate the game is favoring the weaker player. There's still a missing link: the article makes an assumption that the incentive to boost the weaker player is greater earnings. Otherwise it's hard to get upset about the practice. But how does it translate to increased spending? I would guess that having more matched games would lead to both players having more fun and being more satified with their current skill levels.
  - My8thAccount 6y ago
    Yes, its about keeping people playing and not rage quitting. I love halo, but after a few months of playing, I start matching against semi-pros (or koreans at night =P) that are far too good and even though I've been getting better, it reaches a point where it's more stressful than fun.
  - Bootvis 6y ago
    > unfairly increase the difficulty of multiplayer mode online matches in order to encourage players to spend real-world money to boost their chances of winning I admit it's a big leap and this technology seems like a good idea to an extend but it doesn't reward getting good at the game as much. As mentioned elsewhere, Elo-type matching is an alternative but does have the disadvantage you never get to beat down on noobs. Some gamers indeed hypothesize that the earning of more money is indeed through better engagement based on artificially balancing games: > "EA Wants to Get Rid of Fair Matchmaking to Focus on Player Spending & Engagement"
  - wsc981 6y ago
    The 10 scripting examples video in the article states that to increase your chance of winning the game, you need to have the best players on your team. Apparently there's some online market where players can be bought and sold. The theory is that EA makes players lose, so they feel more incentives to spend money to buy stronger players. I saw the video, but I have to say I am not wholly convinced of their argument. For example 1 of the "scripting examples" show a ball going through a goalkeepers' hands. In my opinion the game could have already decided that the player would shoot inside the goal (partially using RNG) and perhaps the rendering messed up a bit when the goalkeeper was jumping towards the ball. I am not sure if this is solid proof of so-called "scripting". Other examples can't really convince me either.
    - permo-w 6y ago
      http://futfacts.com/2020/06/04/fact-check-does-the-game-create-momentum-swings-around-3-2/ http://futfacts.com/2020/06/04/fact-check-does-the-game-crea... This is somewhat anecdotal, but fairly convincing
animal531 6y ago
In for example Fifa, at the start of a new release you start with a random squad of average players and usually 1 decent 83 odd rated player. Now it could be that you know all the moves, tricks and are really good overall, but in general most people are only average players. So then they adjust the odds that you are constantly faced with better players, or they adjust the odds so that when you're 70 rated striker takes a shot from x, he's going to miss. If your opponent's 70 rated striker takes a shot from the opposite x side of the pitch he's going to score, and so on. Doing this they can influence the losing player to feel as if they need to spend money buying card/player packs, so they can "increase in skill".
- smaryjerry 6y ago
  Isn’t this just normal matchmaking like in every game, getting you close to 50 percent win rate with the only way to escape that by truly reaching the top of the ladder or quiting before you win rate declines.
rozab 6y ago
There has been a recent trend of online games which actually just use bots. It took people a very long time to notice. I think the purpose in these sorts of games is to make the player feel they are more competent than they are (how often would you expect to win in a real 12 person lobby?), but they could also be used to more nefarious ends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCqnD40Q5T8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCqnD40Q5T8
dx87 6y ago
You unlock players by buying "card packs" that give you random players, some better than others. The hope is that people will see that you are more likely to win if you spend money, then spend more money themselves. Activision has a similar patent. Here's the summary of it[1]. > The system matches an experienced player with a novice player to encourage the novice player to make purchases of items used by the experienced player. A novice player may wish to emulate the marquee player by obtaining weapons or other items used by the marquee player. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563219302602 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074756321...

Bootvis 6y ago

It's supposed to work as follows, from the article: > A popular video titled “TOP 10 SCRIPTING PROOF! EA 100% EXPOSED! FIFA 19” purports to show 10 different clips demonstrating dynamic difficulty adjustment during gameplay, mostly near-misses, goals that should have gone in but don’t, that sort of thing. A game is just a simulation and the skill of the player doesn't influence every aspect. Any event that is not in complete control can be nudged to benefit the weaker player. For example, a ball that's just in or out.

rhn_mk1 6y ago
The article doesn't state it, but you indicate the game is favoring the weaker player. There's still a missing link: the article makes an assumption that the incentive to boost the weaker player is greater earnings. Otherwise it's hard to get upset about the practice. But how does it translate to increased spending? I would guess that having more matched games would lead to both players having more fun and being more satified with their current skill levels.
- My8thAccount 6y ago
  Yes, its about keeping people playing and not rage quitting. I love halo, but after a few months of playing, I start matching against semi-pros (or koreans at night =P) that are far too good and even though I've been getting better, it reaches a point where it's more stressful than fun.
- Bootvis 6y ago
  > unfairly increase the difficulty of multiplayer mode online matches in order to encourage players to spend real-world money to boost their chances of winning I admit it's a big leap and this technology seems like a good idea to an extend but it doesn't reward getting good at the game as much. As mentioned elsewhere, Elo-type matching is an alternative but does have the disadvantage you never get to beat down on noobs. Some gamers indeed hypothesize that the earning of more money is indeed through better engagement based on artificially balancing games: > "EA Wants to Get Rid of Fair Matchmaking to Focus on Player Spending & Engagement"
- wsc981 6y ago
  The 10 scripting examples video in the article states that to increase your chance of winning the game, you need to have the best players on your team. Apparently there's some online market where players can be bought and sold. The theory is that EA makes players lose, so they feel more incentives to spend money to buy stronger players. I saw the video, but I have to say I am not wholly convinced of their argument. For example 1 of the "scripting examples" show a ball going through a goalkeepers' hands. In my opinion the game could have already decided that the player would shoot inside the goal (partially using RNG) and perhaps the rendering messed up a bit when the goalkeeper was jumping towards the ball. I am not sure if this is solid proof of so-called "scripting". Other examples can't really convince me either.
  - permo-w 6y ago
    http://futfacts.com/2020/06/04/fact-check-does-the-game-create-momentum-swings-around-3-2/ http://futfacts.com/2020/06/04/fact-check-does-the-game-crea... This is somewhat anecdotal, but fairly convincing

animal531 6y ago

In for example Fifa, at the start of a new release you start with a random squad of average players and usually 1 decent 83 odd rated player. Now it could be that you know all the moves, tricks and are really good overall, but in general most people are only average players. So then they adjust the odds that you are constantly faced with better players, or they adjust the odds so that when you're 70 rated striker takes a shot from x, he's going to miss. If your opponent's 70 rated striker takes a shot from the opposite x side of the pitch he's going to score, and so on. Doing this they can influence the losing player to feel as if they need to spend money buying card/player packs, so they can "increase in skill".

smaryjerry 6y ago
Isn’t this just normal matchmaking like in every game, getting you close to 50 percent win rate with the only way to escape that by truly reaching the top of the ladder or quiting before you win rate declines.

rozab 6y ago

There has been a recent trend of online games which actually just use bots. It took people a very long time to notice. I think the purpose in these sorts of games is to make the player feel they are more competent than they are (how often would you expect to win in a real 12 person lobby?), but they could also be used to more nefarious ends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCqnD40Q5T8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCqnD40Q5T8

dx87 6y ago

You unlock players by buying "card packs" that give you random players, some better than others. The hope is that people will see that you are more likely to win if you spend money, then spend more money themselves. Activision has a similar patent. Here's the summary of it[1]. > The system matches an experienced player with a novice player to encourage the novice player to make purchases of items used by the experienced player. A novice player may wish to emulate the marquee player by obtaining weapons or other items used by the marquee player. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563219302602 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074756321...