After Tuesday's lecture on failure in video games, I thought about some of the games I have played. A game that immediately came to mind was Madden. When playing Ultimate Team in Madden, you have the ability to take on different challenges in order to receive rewards. Like many other games, some of the earlier challenges in Madden are rather easy to complete, whereas some of the later ones are quite difficult. Whenever, I am unable to complete a challenge, I am given the option to try again. Usually, I will try at least a few more times to beat the specific challenge, but if I continue to be unable to do so, I will either move on to a different challenge or stop playing the game altogether.
Of course, EA does not want a game like Madden to be too easy. If it were, people would get through all the challenges very quickly, and would not have much incentive to keep playing the game and making in-game purchases. Nonetheless, if the game is too hard, then that could potentially be even worse for EA if people decide to stop playing the game. Therefore, I am curious how developers, like EA, determine what the right amount of difficulty should be in their games. What are your thoughts on this?