Engagement-Oriented Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment
As an emerging and lively research field, game designers are employing Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) in Game Artificial Intelligence (Game AI) to improve player experience. Traditional DDA methods focus little on player churn, which cannot always lead to enhanced player engagement. Hence, we p...
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MDPI AG
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/10/5610 |
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| author | Qingwei Mi Tianhan Gao |
| author_facet | Qingwei Mi Tianhan Gao |
| author_sort | Qingwei Mi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As an emerging and lively research field, game designers are employing Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) in Game Artificial Intelligence (Game AI) to improve player experience. Traditional DDA methods focus little on player churn, which cannot always lead to enhanced player engagement. Hence, we propose the Engagement-oriented Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (EDDA) to meet the urgent need for a highly general and customizable solution in the game industry. EDDA directly considers players’ churn trend to ensure player engagement during gameplay. Its real-time monitoring algorithm and common parameter set are effective in quantifying and preventing player churn. We developed a prototype system integrating seven major game genres to verify the difficulty, gameplay time, and scores of the Game Engagement Questionnaire (GEQ) in multiple dimensions. EDDA has the largest mean and median of all genres in the above metrics with the highest confidence level and effect size, which demonstrates its generality and availability in improving player experience. It is fair to say that EDDA not only provides game designers with targeted player churn monitoring and intervention means, but also offers a deeper level of thinking for the generalized application of DDA and other Game AI technologies. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e15c2f1a4d6749b198675bd5cfd34008 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-e15c2f1a4d6749b198675bd5cfd340082025-08-20T03:47:48ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172025-05-011510561010.3390/app15105610Engagement-Oriented Dynamic Difficulty AdjustmentQingwei Mi0Tianhan Gao1Software College, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110169, ChinaSoftware College, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110169, ChinaAs an emerging and lively research field, game designers are employing Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) in Game Artificial Intelligence (Game AI) to improve player experience. Traditional DDA methods focus little on player churn, which cannot always lead to enhanced player engagement. Hence, we propose the Engagement-oriented Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (EDDA) to meet the urgent need for a highly general and customizable solution in the game industry. EDDA directly considers players’ churn trend to ensure player engagement during gameplay. Its real-time monitoring algorithm and common parameter set are effective in quantifying and preventing player churn. We developed a prototype system integrating seven major game genres to verify the difficulty, gameplay time, and scores of the Game Engagement Questionnaire (GEQ) in multiple dimensions. EDDA has the largest mean and median of all genres in the above metrics with the highest confidence level and effect size, which demonstrates its generality and availability in improving player experience. It is fair to say that EDDA not only provides game designers with targeted player churn monitoring and intervention means, but also offers a deeper level of thinking for the generalized application of DDA and other Game AI technologies.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/10/5610game artificial intelligencedynamic difficulty adjustmentplayer engagementplayer experience |
| spellingShingle | Qingwei Mi Tianhan Gao Engagement-Oriented Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment Applied Sciences game artificial intelligence dynamic difficulty adjustment player engagement player experience |
| title | Engagement-Oriented Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment |
| title_full | Engagement-Oriented Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment |
| title_fullStr | Engagement-Oriented Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Engagement-Oriented Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment |
| title_short | Engagement-Oriented Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment |
| title_sort | engagement oriented dynamic difficulty adjustment |
| topic | game artificial intelligence dynamic difficulty adjustment player engagement player experience |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/10/5610 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT qingweimi engagementorienteddynamicdifficultyadjustment AT tianhangao engagementorienteddynamicdifficultyadjustment |