A framework of Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment in competitive multiplayer video games

Abstract

The balance between player competence and the challenge presented by a task has been acknowledged as a major factor in providing optimal experience in video games. While Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) presents methods for adjusting difficulty in real-time during singleplayer games, little research has explored its application in competitive multiplayer games where challenge is dictated by the competence of human opponents. By conducting a formal review of 180 existing competitive multiplayer games, it was found that a large number of modern games are utilizing DDA techniques to balance challenge between human opponents. From this data, we propose a preliminary framework for classifying Multiplayer Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (mDDA) instances.