When I write a bug it becomes the core gameplay.

Chapter 412 Lying and Dynamic Difficulty

Lilith was a little confused: "Reverse...dynamic difficulty?"

I have to say that the idea proposed by Qin Fengliang is really novel, and it is indeed a direction that Lilith has never thought of before.

Players of different levels do have different demands for game difficulty.

For less experienced players, if they have been suffering in the game, then their request would definitely be for the game to become simpler so that they can pass the level smoothly and not get stuck at a certain key point and unable to move forward.

For those expert players, the current game difficulty is not challenging at all, so they will want to increase the difficulty of the game and further stimulate their potential in the face of more powerful bosses or more stringent mechanisms.

The traditional dynamic difficulty mechanism is actually designed to meet these two different demands at the same time.

To put it in a nutshell, it means "always provide players with a certain level of challenge."

But this actually improves the overall gaming experience for players and is not conducive to collecting negative emotions.

If Qin Fengliang's idea can really succeed, it sounds really good.

Imagine that a player is very strong and he has already lost the challenge at the current difficulty. However, he did not expect that as the game progresses, the game becomes easier and easier, and the bosses that appear later become weaker and weaker!
It is conceivable that after easily defeating the next boss, he would inevitably burst out with extremely strong negative emotions and feel bored.

On the other hand, if a player is not very good at the game and is unable to handle the current difficulty of the game, but the difficulty continues to increase, it may even be beyond his ability!

There will undoubtedly be a lot of negative emotions.

The best thing about this mechanism is that these two types of players can see each other's mechanisms.

Suppose, a very new player tries to challenge a boss but can never defeat him. In desperation, he searches online for live broadcasts of advanced players and big names. But, he finds that the bosses those big names defeat are different from his own.

It was clearly the same boss, the only difficulty was that of the boss, but the boss's movements were slow and his damage was low, so the boss easily defeated it without using any technique at all.

It’s so simple, I can do it too, right?
But why is my boss so perverted?
After discovering this, additional negative emotions can arise.

It sounds beautiful indeed!
If this plan could really succeed, Lilith could foresee that a large amount of negative emotions would arise.

But Lilith didn't get too happy too soon, because she also realized that this approach actually had serious flaws.

That is...how to ensure that players do not quit the game?
If there is no problem of players quitting the game, then Lilith can just increase the difficulty of the game without thinking and design a lot of dung monsters. For example, the final boss is a blood cow, with permanent dominance, and full-screen unlimited aoe, and players will die immediately when they encounter it. Such difficulty is definitely enough to generate a lot of negative emotions.

But players will quit the game and run away, so this design is meaningless.

Lilith is a devil from hell with aspirations. She can differentiate between “having a full meal” and “having a full meal every time”.

If it is really designed according to Qin Fengliang's plan, this new "dynamic difficulty" will obviously seriously discourage players and it may not be sustainable.

Lilith expressed her concerns, but what she didn't expect was that Qin Fengliang had already thought of this in advance.

"Boss Li, didn't I just say that in order to prevent players from quitting the game, we have some other mechanisms to adjust the dynamic difficulty.

“What I said before was all about passive adjustment.

“For example, players are frequently injured and supplies are running low, which are all classified as passive.”

Lilith interrupted her: "However, players can also actively complete these actions. Objectively, they can still adjust the dynamic difficulty."

"No, no, no, Ms. Li, they can't."

Qin Fengliang shook his head confidently: "Compared with the previous conventional dynamic difficulty, the main difference between my dynamic difficulty is here!

"In the traditional dynamic difficulty, the difficulty is reduced for the weak and increased for the strong. So if you want to control the dynamic difficulty, you just need to deliberately take a few hits and deliberately waste some ammunition.

“After all, whether they are novice players or expert players, they only want to lower the difficulty, not increase it.

“Under the traditional dynamic difficulty mechanism, players can indeed actively adjust the dynamic difficulty.

"But with this new dynamic difficulty system I designed, they can't.

“Because we want to reduce the difficulty of the game, we need players to perform perfectly, such as being completely unharmed during a certain part of the game, or hoarding a large amount of supplies.

“And this is exactly what only a true master can do.

"The players who need to lower the difficulty the most are precisely the novice players, who can't do it anyway."

Lilith understood a little: "Oh, yes! In this case, novice players really cannot take advantage of this dynamic difficulty.

"Wait, but on the other hand, expert players can still increase the difficulty of the game by deliberately wasting supplies and deliberately getting beaten up, right?"

Qin Fengliang nodded slightly: "Yes, President Li, this is unavoidable. But it's not a big problem.

"Because for experts, they need to deliberately waste supplies and get beaten up in order to increase the difficulty of the game, which is a very troublesome and unprofitable thing, so they may not be willing to do it."

Lilith quickly understood what Qin Fengliang meant.

In the traditional dynamic difficulty mode, experts deliberately waste bullets and get beaten up in order to reduce the dynamic difficulty of the game. And reducing the difficulty is to pass the level more smoothly.

However, in this new dynamic difficulty mode, there is absolutely no benefit in deliberately getting beaten up. It only increases the difficulty to make it more challenging and increases the probability of failure, which runs counter to the goal of successfully clearing the level.

What's more, deliberately getting beaten is itself rather dull and boring.

In order to make the dynamic difficulty change significantly, the player needs to spend a lot of time getting beaten. The subconscious reaction is to dodge, but they can only stand still and be careful not to die. This is also a torture for expert players.

It is troublesome and unprofitable, so it is understandable that only a few players will choose to do this. Although most players complain, they will still quietly complete the game at the lowest difficulty.

So, although in theory players can reversely utilize this dynamic difficulty to adjust it, in reality, not many people will actually use it.

Lilith nodded: "I understand. Then let's continue to talk about how to prevent players from quitting the game."

Qin Fengliang smiled slightly and continued confidently: "Boss Li, what we talked about before were all passive difficulty changes. For example, getting beaten, wasting supplies, etc.

"In order to prevent players from quitting the game and to give novice players a little hope, we also need to introduce active difficulty changes." In response to this, I carefully designed a set of... 'lying' system.

"Lying allows players to actively adjust the dynamic difficulty."

Lilith didn't quite understand: "Lie? How? Who did you lie to?"

Qin Fengliang explained: "Of course I lied in the game.

“First of all, the ‘anti-quitting’ mechanism only applies to novice players. Because even though expert players may have negative emotions, few of them quit because the game is too easy. They at least want to quickly complete the game once or twice.

“So, we have to create an illusion for novice players, an illusion that the game difficulty can be reduced through specific operations.

"Once they become dependent on this illusion, we can... close the net and at some point, show them the real world again!
“So, the mechanism of operation of this lying system is simple:
“At some key points in the game, when players talk to key NPCs, the NPCs will ask questions and the players need to choose between two answers.

“One true and one false.

"Let's take a simple example: suppose the player's goal at this moment is to defeat a boss with two attributes. This boss has both the 'filthy' and 'holy' forms, and it can switch between these two forms freely.

"We can first tell the players this information through the plot. Then before fighting the boss, the boss will pretend to be a friendly NPC and ask the player: What is your identity?
"At this point, the player can answer that he is a clergyman, or that he is a mercenary.

"In fact, players are mercenaries, not clergy. In other words, the former is a lie, and the latter is the truth.

"But if the player truthfully answers that he is a mercenary, the boss will appear in a filthy form. Due to the lack of holy attack and defense methods, the player will be constantly corrupted, and normal combat will become extremely difficult.

“And if the player lies and says that he is a clergyman, then the boss will not dare to appear in an unclean form, but will appear in a holy form.

"In theory, the main attack method of the clergy is holy spells. Such spells have no effect on the boss in the holy state, but the boss can easily crush the clergy with its powerful strength.

"But the player's true identity is a mercenary, with flexible skills and powerful physical attack methods. The boss's sacred spells cannot cause any harm to the player.

"In this way, the player is actually making the game easier by lying.

“We can be even more daring:
"For example, if a player wants to enter a town, there are a main gate and a side gate. The main gate is heavily guarded, while the side gate requires the player's identity to be verified.

"If the player lies, then they can easily sneak in through the side door and avoid many difficult battles.

"In addition, players can lie about trivial matters, and can even choose to lie to every NPC.

"Even lying about insignificant things will actually reduce the dynamic difficulty of the game. This is definitely a huge blessing for those players who are not good at playing, and it will also give them hope to persevere."

Lilith's eyes lit up. She understood everything. "But, the so-called lying to reduce the difficulty is only temporary. At some point in the future, it will all come back to you in an even more severe way!"

Qin Fengliang smiled slightly: "That's right, President Li is really smart!
“It feels good to lie, but you may be exposed by NPCs later.

“Once it’s exposed, the game difficulty will go back to the original level, which is bad news for players who are used to the low difficulty.

“And the best thing about this kind of thing is that once the players are exposed, they will not quit the game immediately.

“They will reflect on themselves: Oh, was it because I was careless somewhere that I was exposed?
“It seems that I need to be more careful when I lie in the future, and I need to do a good job of cleaning up afterward.

“To put it simply: I was wrong, I will do it again next time.

"In the early stages, players can indeed avoid being exposed through certain means. But as time goes on, they will find that being exposed is inevitable. But by that time, they have already generated a lot of negative emotions, and even if they quit the game, we have already made enough money."

Lilith asked again: "Telling a lie will temporarily reduce the difficulty, but will telling the truth increase the difficulty?"

Qin Fengliang shook his head: "No.

“Telling the truth will only make the game as difficult as it is.

"If the difficulty can be increased, those masters will definitely choose to tell the truth without thinking, which will create a dynamic balance. This is definitely not acceptable."

Lilith nodded slightly: "Well, that makes sense!"

To summarize Qin Fengliang’s dynamic difficulty routines, there are actually only two.

For experts: The better they play, the lower the difficulty, which makes them feel bored. But even if they are bored, experts will not quit the game quickly, they will think that maybe the game difficulty will be increased later? But in the end, they find that the difficulty is getting lower and lower, which will inevitably produce negative emotions.

To noobs: The game becomes harder and harder, even harder than that of experts. Lying can temporarily reduce the difficulty and give them hope, but in the end they will get worse and give it all back.

The key is that when the novice and the expert see each other's difficulty, they can no longer hold back.

This dynamic difficulty plan is indeed promising, you can give it a try!
But then there is a new question: how to hide this mechanism cleverly?
If players see through this mechanism, they will definitely curse, give bad reviews, and try to persuade players who have not entered the game to quit. If fewer players enter, the amount of negative emotions collected by the game will inevitably decrease.

At the very least, this dynamic difficulty mechanism must have a seamless packaging in the game plot and world view, otherwise it will appear too abrupt and players will be wary.

Qin Fengliang was actually prepared for this.

“Boss Li, this is not difficult at all, I have already thought of the world view.

“This game is set in a Western fantasy setting, roughly in Victorian + Gothic style. In this world, there are humans, zombies, puppets, and some Cthulhu content.

"Because this is a cruel and dangerous world, it makes sense to lie to protect yourself, right?
“In the game, players play as ‘half-dolls’, that is, humans transformed by doll technology, and there are two different development directions.

“It can develop in the direction of pure puppets, or it can develop in the direction of pure humans.

“These two identities have their own advantages and disadvantages: humans are naturally capable of lying and are physically flexible, but their ability to withstand blows is weak, or in layman’s terms, their blood is thin;
"Dolls don't naturally have the ability to lie. They need practice. In the early stages, they are easily exposed. Only after lying a certain number of times can they deceive the other party. The puppet's body is relatively stiff, but it has strong resistance to blows and thick blood.

"The more the puppet lies, the more it becomes like a human; and the more the human lies, the more unstable their mental state becomes, and they are likely to see all kinds of dirty things."

Lilith's eyes lit up. "I see. Combining the world view, plot and dynamic difficulty is brilliant! This will confuse players to the greatest extent, making it difficult for them to distinguish the specific rules of dynamic difficulty changes in the early stages!"

As long as you can retain players in the early stages and form gaming habits, then it will be relatively less likely for them to quit the game if you torture them hard and collect their negative emotions in the later stages.

(End of this chapter)