Journalism Mode – New Sony Patent Allows Real-Time Game Difficulty Adjustment

At this point I’m certain that the future of PlayStation will only involve interactive movies masquerading as video games.

Because Sony have submitted a new patent that explores the possibility of adjusting a games difficulty setting in real-time, with such adjustments made being based on the performance of players.

Games have long provided options to adjust difficulty levels, often triggered by repeated failures. The patent from Sony introduces a more sophisticated system, using algorithms to finely tune difficulty settings based on individual performance, indicating a potential evolution in adaptive difficulty mechanisms.

This patent, accessible through the World Intellectual Property Organization, indicates Sony’s interest in advancing this technology for the future of its audience of smooth brained journalists and casuals.

Sony calls it the “Adaptive Difficulty Calibration” in the patent application.

Another interesting Sony patent long forgotten was the notion of interactive advertisements into video games where the player would have to interact with an advertisement such as by saying a certain phrases allowing the player to skip the advert and get back to gaming.

Patent filings generally mean nothing, but the mere thought that companies such as Sony are genuinely coming up with invasive and audacious thoughts and ideas is certainly worrying as one day these patents can instead become reality.

The patent describes when the player is engaging with a game on a Sony system featuring adaptive difficulty, your performance is assessed in comparison to a baseline.

If your gameplay significantly exceeds or falls short of the expected level, the game may dynamically adjust various elements to maintain an appropriate challenge.

This adaptive system is designed to fine-tune specific aspects such as movement speed, reaction time, character attributes, opponent count, and more, providing a nuanced and personalized gaming experience.

Because these “modern gamers” who typically have jobs writing articles for platforms such as Kotaku, IGN, GameSpot and more who regularly face immense challenges in video games that don’t explicitly hold the players hand and walk them through exactly where to go with vivid high visibility paint.

In essence, Sony envisions games capable of tailoring a difficulty mode based on your individual skills. The objective is to implement this process seamlessly throughout the entire gaming experience, dynamically adjusting difficulty as your ability increases.

This approach aims to address common issues that journalists and casuals may have, such as being overwhelmed in “challenging games” and general gameplay becoming too easy after once progressing through a game on its easiest difficulty setting.

Adaptive difficulty, in theory, offers a solution by ensuring a more consistent and engaging gaming experience by essentially coddling the player.

Interestingly, it appears that the data collection and adaptation of difficulty settings may extend beyond individual games. The patent suggests that skills demonstrated in one game could be correlated with aptitudes in another.

For instance, proficiency in positional movement in a first-person shooter might align with running speed in a racing game. Conversely, a weakness, such as slow and inaccurate aiming, could be linked to a slower reaction time in racing games for instance, or maybe you’re a pedal mashing imbecile, who knows.

This implies that data gathered from one game could influence the selection of difficulty parameters when the individual plays a different game.

I genuinely don’t see the point of dynamic difficulty settings being tailormade for individuals who simply shouldn’t call themselves gaming journalists, especially considering how Sony themselves seemingly only produces “cinematic” third-person over the shoulder movie games as first-party releases where story and narrative take center focus as you spend hours of your life merely moving the thumbstick as you listen to the somber sounds of NPC dialogue with minor glimpses of actual gameplay only to be inevitably interrupted by a cinematic cutscene.

In terms of actual gameplay, Sony first-party “exclusives” are as deep as a puddle and yet seemingly journalists and casuals alike seemingly continue to bicker in terms of how a games difficulty is simply too damn high, particularly games made by FromSoft.

The future of Sony PlayStation looks glimmer by the day, with the former Japanese tyrant focusing entirely on censoring Japanese creative freedom in favor of globalized western values which may or may not include gruesome realistic depictions of sex featuring a masculine “woman”, alongside a continued focus on digitalization and the banning of reselling games that customers have bought.