The formula for difficulty in a game can be expressed as:
1 - ( A * K ) / 10,000 where A and K are bounded between 0 and 100. A is for action, the things the player has to do in order to interface with the game, and K is for knowledge, the things the player has to know in order to interface with the game.
A practical example would be Falling Swords introduced in S11.
It was new so even though you had the same ability to play the game, let’s say it’s 100, you had no knowledge of what the attack did so it was 0. We do a little math and come to 1 - 0 = 1 or Falling Swords had as much difficulty as it was going to ever have when it was new, 100%. You got killed by Falling Swords and instantly your knowledge went from 0 to 100. 100 x 100 = 10,000 and 10,000 / 10,000 = 1 and 1 - 1 = 0. 0 Difficulty. You “mastered” Falling Swords by having the ability required to evade it already and now the knowledge to know what it did and what the Executioner Affix is so how it was triggered.
Many games have different thresholds for Action and Knowledge. Diablo 4 (and the entire genre) is heavily weighted to K, not A, because in order to play effectively you need to be able to read at a relatively simple level, type or press keys or buttons, see, etc. Nothing crazy. So it’s knowledge that drives the game.
Knowledge based games typically never stay hard for long. Once you know the answer to the riddle you can’t unknow it and the game falls into complete simplicity. However this equation is just a gateway into the bigger issue which needs to be understood when we discuss games in general which is The Player. Players are human, mostly, so they have two tendencies that are typical of humans in general:
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They avoid pain. Difficulty in a game is actually stressful and stress is painful and humans tend to avoid stressful and painful experiences if they can. This means that games are played specifically in ways that avoid stress and pain, i.e. losing or failure, which means that humans have a natural aversion to difficulty.
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They avoid complexity. High degrees of complex interactions are not desirable by humans in any capacity. The more intelligent a human is the higher the threshold, sure, but even at the upper echelons of human cognitive ability avoidance is seen when things get too hard or too hot to handle up there. Frustration is uncomfortable and players seek games that are not frustrating to them*.
Why does that matter? Well, it’s how humans play games. So knowledge games have two ways to win: The first is to acquire knowledge before you play. In D4 this is MaxRoll etc. and build guides but every game with a wiki has this. It’s as old as those Prima Guide magazines with cheat codes and walkthroughs. The second way is to gain knowledge through gameplay by cautious advancement; in Diablo 4 this means fighting enemies that die quickly and slowly moving up (or down?) The Pit testing your limits and retracing when you either are not capable or the feedback is negative from the experience.
Both of these result in player behaviors that are adverse to difficulty in design. For example testing you way down leads to over leveling and overpreparation. This means that the new difficulty you experience is conquered before you experience it by virtue of ensuring that you’ve conquered it while remaining in a safe space to do so. This happens in many ways in games in general so it’s not locked to D4; whether it’s grinding levels to get into the next zone or grinding drops to get the loot you want or even just experimenting with different options and testing at the level you know is safe to test at the methods players use are endless.
This player psychology shows up everywhere so when players ironically complain about how they play games naturally while being unaware of their own biases it becomes a self-defeating circle. We see this in every game but Diablo 4 examples might be players asking for more complex things and then asking for those things to be removed in the same breath, or asking for most depth but then shunning any form of depth, asking for more power but then requesting nerfs of things that are powerful (instead of asking for buffs for things that are underpowered) or just generally complaining that the game is too easy (which is should be as it is a knowledge game and knowledge is binary in this system; you either know what it does or don’t) while also complaining that some encounters are too hard.
The big finale conclusion though, returning to the formula, is that there’s a sweet spot for players which I think is between 30% and 60%. The player’s ability never maxes out (something probably impossible in D4) or the player’s knowledge is never complete (which is possible in D4, i.e. surprises) and preparation is required for it. Putting the player on the backfoot is hard but not impossible but players in general sitting in that range of 30~60% are happier. I think most of the people who complain about D4 specifically are outside this range; either the game is woefully easy due to the knowledge held, and it’s 0~10% difficult, or the game has mechanics that they find frustrating and off-putting, putting the surprise level too high at 70%+.
My prediction is that D4 will hit it’s stride in about 5 more seasons after LoH comes out where this stabilizes and most players will end up in that 30~60**. Once that happens the vast majority of complaining will be about how the game didn’t come out a different way rather than about the game itself and it’s components. Not due to age but due to finally being sufficiently balanced to land between the sweet spot for most players.
*Games that are “purposefully frustrating” exist, but these games are advertised this way, meaning that the player knows before embarking that they may find it frustrating and sort of like how humans watch frightening movies to invoke fear for themselves but don’t like being terrified without their consent so it is with these aspects like frustration.
**You may have noticed that 30 is 20 less than the midpoint of 50 and 60 is only 10 more. Players are adverse so 60 is the limit because while players are more open to easy outcomes players are significantly less open to difficult ones. Despite the concept of “accomplishment” it’s more a myth than anything; most players just want to win the game, rather than feel accomplished whilst doing it, even if their lips say otherwise. Science and Observation etc.