 |
Quote: |
 |
|
|
 |
Originally Posted by 4thQtrStre5S |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Not quite the same, albeit that's because this thread's title is somewhat simplified.
That thread discussed the concept of dynamic difficulty as a potential returning feature in Madden. It previously existed in Madden NFL 09 and acted by silently adjusting gameplay sliders in the background as you succeeded or failed against the CPU.
This thread is discussing a technology for which EA has applied for a patent. With this technology, EA would (in any of its games, not just Madden) facilitate matchmaking in multiplayer games (or adjust settings in single-player games in reaction to user actions) in order to increase metrics such as playtime, retention, or spending. The technology could be used, for example, to reduce the difficulty of a hard boss following many failed attempts to ensure the user defeats the boss and keeps playing the game, thus increasing user retention. Dynamic difficulty in Madden 09 could be considered an extremely simplified version of this idea. The obvious concern - and what I think OP wants to allude to - is using technology such as this to encourage micro transactions, which have been under much scrutiny from games media over the past calendar year (especially following Star Wars Battlefront II).
This patent is somewhat related to
a similar patent application Activision-Blizzard filed recently, where in their games technology would exist to match-make users in multiplayer games dependent on micro transaction purchases. The example given was matching a junior Call Of Duty player who wished to become a great sniper with a more skilled player who had spent money on many sniper-related microtransactions. The idea in this example, of course, is to encourage the junior player to make those micro transaction payments.
Both EA and Activision have stated that neither of their respective patented technologies have been deployed in any released titles.