Worst Gameplay Mechanic Ever

[SvennoJ]

kitler53 said:

Hamister said:
To me, the ability to change difficulty level in games, is the worst gameplay mechanic. I see no logic in having Hard, Medium and Easy versions of the same game. Virtualy all games should have a progressive difficulty level based on the vision the developer has for the game.

i gotta disagree here.

no all gamers have the same skill level.  not all gamers have the same lust for challange. 

what i think is silly is that in this day and age of technology i, as a user, have to pick that level from a list.  there has got to be some solid science on how many times i can die in a row before i become frustrated and start to hate the game.  i would think difficultly level could be silently adjusted behind the scenes to ensure there is just enough dificulty to make the game fun but not frustrating. 

Toy story 3 does that, in the opening level anyway. Watching my 4 year old play that, the game kept making it easier until his health bar wasn't depleting at all anymore. Mario 3D world offers the invulnerable upgrade too after a couple of deaths.
Unreal tournament had a cool mode to try to balance multipplayer, by making you thicker every time you kill someone, and thinner when you die.

Many more games could use adaptive difficulty, not everyone is good at everything and it sucks to remember a game by 'that part you got stuck on and almost smashed the controller to bits'

Back on topic, Ice and water levels don't bother me at all. My achilles heel is turrets, I hated Jak 2 and Jak 3 for those unskippable turret sections.