Scientists develop model that adjusts videogame difficulty based on player emotions

[Kane99]

Never thought I'd hear the day where video games may be able to one day adjust the difficulty based off of your mood. But I guess it's going to happen. Scientists have created a way where your emotions are estimated using in-game data. This changes the difficulty level based on your emotions at the time. I'm not 100% sure how this is done. It's better explained in the article I'm posting below, but to me, it sounds like they alter the difficulty often and study how the players interact with the different difficulty. There are other steps outlined, but I'm honestly confused by how it works haha. 

You can read more about it here - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/09/220906114213.htm

I'm all for better difficulty options to be included, if this actually works, then that will be awesome. 

[Shagger]

If this ever get's implemented into actual video games, it had better come with the ability to turn it the fuck off. If I'm playing a game because I want a challenge, I don't want the game to turn the difficulty level down because I'm getting frustrated. Likewise, if I'm playing a game more casually and just revelling the story, I don't want the game to decide I'm not being tested enough and suddenly make it harder.  I admire the technical ability to do this, I really so, but nobody wants this. It's just another pointless experiment in trying to fix something that isn't broken.

[Kane99]

31 minutes ago, Shagger said:

If this ever get's implemented into actual video games, it had better come with the ability to turn it the fuck off. If I'm playing a game because I want a challenge, I don't want the game to turn the difficulty level down because I'm getting frustrated. Likewise, if I'm playing a game more casually and just revelling the story, I don't want the game to decide I'm not being tested enough and suddenly make it harder.  I admire the technical ability to do this, I really so, but nobody wants this. It's just another pointless experiment in trying to fix something that isn't broken.

I second that. Because who's to say the feature will work good enough. It could result in the game being too easy, or making it too hard at times. Or it could just be a mess and not work at all. 

I disagree with the last part though, that nobody wants this. I do. And I can see many casual players wanting a feature like this as well. Of course I think it'd just be better with easier difficulty, but this would probably be the next best thing when a game is tough and doesn't have any other difficulty options. 

[killamch89]

On 9/11/2022 at 8:57 PM, Shagger said:

If this ever get's implemented into actual video games, it had better come with the ability to turn it the fuck off. If I'm playing a game because I want a challenge, I don't want the game to turn the difficulty level down because I'm getting frustrated. Likewise, if I'm playing a game more casually and just revelling the story, I don't want the game to decide I'm not being tested enough and suddenly make it harder.  I admire the technical ability to do this, I really so, but nobody wants this. It's just another pointless experiment in trying to fix something that isn't broken.

Agreed - The only good thing is that it probably won't gain mainstream appeal which means the gaming companies wouldn't profit from it and gaming companies only care about profit nowadays.

[Ajibusu]

This sounds hilarious. It is more like making an attempt at taking off the ability to control games from the players. I don't subscribe to it's implementation and wouldn't want to have it placed on the games that I play. Let me be in control. 

[Akun]

The implementation would certainly deprive control from gamers, as @Ajibusu has said above. On paper, the concept sounds appealing to me, someone who has never liked challenging games and gets all emotional when I hit roadblocks in obstacle games. But in execution, that means I wouldn't be able to adjust the difficulty even if I'm feeling salty about sucking as Mario. It's just all kinds of problematic.

Edited September 17, 2022 by Akun

[Empire]

I wonder how it would respond to mental illness? Like a depressed person plays it and it’s just easy cause they think they had a bad day but that’s just baseline

[Heatman]

So, if I fake my emotion, it's going to change the games difficulty level? Well, this is a complete BS!! If they don't know anything else to upgrade in games, they should get the hell out. 

[runswithspatulas]

On 9/11/2022 at 8:57 PM, Shagger said:

If this ever get's implemented into actual video games, it had better come with the ability to turn it the fuck off. If I'm playing a game because I want a challenge, I don't want the game to turn the difficulty level down because I'm getting frustrated. Likewise, if I'm playing a game more casually and just revelling the story, I don't want the game to decide I'm not being tested enough and suddenly make it harder.  I admire the technical ability to do this, I really so, but nobody wants this. It's just another pointless experiment in trying to fix something that isn't broken.

Right? I don't want it to auto plan my playtime. Maybe it's just a tactic to give them some excuse to up the price on the games.

Edited September 18, 2022 by runswithspatulas

[runswithspatulas]

Ok so I read the article and it really doesn't sound much different than the so called balanced play in Fortnite. And I hate to say it but Fortnite has me in lobbies I have no business playing in and it makes my experience so miserable that I finally had enough and I quit playing. It was causing too much stress.

[Ajibusu]

On 9/17/2022 at 10:03 AM, Akun said:

The implementation would certainly deprive control from gamers, as @Ajibusu has said above. On paper, the concept sounds appealing to me, someone who has never liked challenging games and gets all emotional when I hit roadblocks in obstacle games. But in execution, that means I wouldn't be able to adjust the difficulty even if I'm feeling salty about sucking as Mario. It's just all kinds of problematic.

This is the biggest letdown from such proposal. As long as gamers lose control of how easy or difficult a game can be, the fun is not there anymore. They should find a way to have everything balanced where the power to control is still with the players.

[Heatman]

On 9/17/2022 at 12:45 PM, Empire said:

I wonder how it would respond to mental illness? Like a depressed person plays it and it’s just easy cause they think they had a bad day but that’s just baseline

It's an upgrade that's going to fail woefully in my opinion because it's going to be very difficult to deal with human emotions and how it's going to affect how the game will be set up all the time. If it doesn't come with a option of switching it off, it's going to be a big mess. 

[killamch89]

On 9/17/2022 at 6:45 AM, Empire said:

I wonder how it would respond to mental illness? Like a depressed person plays it and it’s just easy cause they think they had a bad day but that’s just baseline

That's a very vaild question because that wasn't really covered. Either way, this would be a terrible system to implement.

[Ajibusu]

On 9/19/2022 at 2:34 PM, Heatman said:

It's an upgrade that's going to fail woefully in my opinion because it's going to be very difficult to deal with human emotions and how it's going to affect how the game will be set up all the time. If it doesn't come with a option of switching it off, it's going to be a big mess. 

Surely, there should be an option to switch it off. That kind of Feature will take long for gamers to adjust to it as it is one that has to do with our connections to the game.

[killamch89]

On 9/19/2022 at 8:34 AM, Heatman said:

It's an upgrade that's going to fail woefully in my opinion because it's going to be very difficult to deal with human emotions and how it's going to affect how the game will be set up all the time. If it doesn't come with a option of switching it off, it's going to be a big mess. 

You know something just came to me - what if you're sexually aroused for some strange reason while gaming? (there are some people who get off to all kinds of stuff). What difficulty setting will it go to then?