Difficulty in Video Games: Understanding the Effects of Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment in Video Games on Player Experience

This thesis investigates the impact of difficulty in the context of Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA) in video games on the player experience (PX). A series of quantitative and qualitative studies were employed to compare the effects of DDA systems on the PX and to gain an understanding of the lived PX of players engaging with such systems. This research contributes to game design knowledge and the current limited understanding of the impact of DDA systems on the PX. The findings are of relevance to practitioners and researchers in the domain of entertainment games as well as other related domains such as games for education and health care.