This one kind of blew my mind a little today. My friend played the demo for Left 4 Dead last night and was disppointed because it was too easy and not scary. I told him to turn up the difficulty level (he played on Normal, from the choices of Easy, Normal, Advanced, and Expert). He said that's just a fake way of cranking up the difficulty by assigning higher values to the damage you take. I argued that the difficulty setting was an arbitrary distinction and that you should play on the level that provides the experience you want.

Now, I think we are both 'right' here. Definitely me more so (of course!), but I'm not going to tell him he's wrong. Here's how I look at it: if the difficulty choices were numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4, he wouldn't complain about it being too easy, he would just raise the difficulty level until content. That's because we as players would have no baseline for what to expect with this representation of difficulty. What level should someone play if he is experienced with games but not a 'hardcore' player? 2? 3? Either would be a reasonable starting point but I don't think anyone would say they felt misled if they had to bump the setting up or down. I think his perception is that since he knows games but is not hardcore that Normal should provide the experience he is seeking (which is to be occasionally scared by a demanding but manageable level of threat). However, I've found that for players with that skill background, myself included, one has to play this game on the Advanced setting.

I understand his perspective, but find myself frustrated that instead of notching the game's difficulty up, he simply gave up on it. I understand to a degree the complaint that games tend to simply ratchet up damage incurred on higher difficulty settings, but what he is ignoring is that by its very nature a game's mechanistic assignment of things like hit points and damage et al is an illusion. Higher values are no less valid because there are no 'right' values in a system that is a simplified representation of a theoretical situation.

Long story short: the game's assumption of what Normal difficulty should be for the majority players was incorrect for this particular player, and I don't think it is wholly fair of him to disregard the game based on that. On the other hand, as a developer you have to deal with these preconceptions and blaming the player doesn't get you more sales.

I also want to add that if any game has taken steps to provide a more difficult experience beyond merely raising the damage levels dealt, it's Left 4 Dead. The game's AI Director is constantly at work to modulate the experience so that it's more hectic if you are doing well (on any difficulty setting), and eases up if you aren't. It pains me to see this game being chastised for something its developers have taken great effort to avoid (and succesfully so, in my opinion).

-Jason

 

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