10 Video Game Moments That Were Utterly Patronising

Arguably the greatest appeal of games like Left 4 Dead is the gritty sense of surviving that comes about from immersing a player in the midst of post-apolyptic world. That feeling of holding on and struggling against waves of the undead is the whole point of this genre, so the decision to permenantly have these enemies adjusting their difficulty based on how a player is performing certainly reeks of being a little bit patronising.

Left 4 Dead was developed using a dynamic game difficulty balance feature named the AI Director. The AI Director was designed to give each player a different experience each time, and monitors how a team is performing with eachother, which goes onto impact how many zombies they have to face going forward. It can also give them helpful visual and audio cues to help keep their attention focused on where enemies are going to spawn, as well moving them along or slowing them down depending on how quickly a team is progressing through a level.

Whilst it might be helpful in scaling things for those who are adept at the game, the AI Director really robs players of that feeling of satisfaction that comes about from beating a stage that has been giving them a challenge when they know they've had the AI giving them more than a little helping hand along the way. Think of it like being carried by a parent to the finish line at a school sports day.