Using Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment to Improve the Experience and Train FPS Gamers

The concept of Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) refers to software techniques that make a game adjust itself in real time to make the game better fit the player's abilities and therefore to improve his/her gaming experience. But DDA can also be used to improve and render more effective the training of e-sports players by creating even more challenging environments that always push the gamer to his/her limits. This article presents a first step towards that objective: in this study, the First-Person Shooter (FPS) game Half-Life was modified to allow several game mechanics (and, accordingly, the game's difficulty) to be adjusted in real-time creating what was expected to be an improved and more immersive experience to the player. The DDA algorithm makes these adjustments according to the previous actions of the player and towards a predefined performance goal. Preliminary results with a group of e-sports players showed positive results in terms of their perceived experience.