> A popular video titled “TOP 10 SCRIPTING PROOF! EA 100% EXPOSED! FIFA 19” purports to show 10 different clips demonstrating dynamic difficulty adjustment during gameplay, mostly near-misses, goals that should have gone in but don’t, that sort of thing.
A game is just a simulation and the skill of the player doesn't influence every aspect. Any event that is not in complete control can be nudged to benefit the weaker player. For example, a ball that's just in or out.
There's still a missing link: the article makes an assumption that the incentive to boost the weaker player is greater earnings. Otherwise it's hard to get upset about the practice.
But how does it translate to increased spending? I would guess that having more matched games would lead to both players having more fun and being more satified with their current skill levels.
I saw the video, but I have to say I am not wholly convinced of their argument. For example 1 of the "scripting examples" show a ball going through a goalkeepers' hands. In my opinion the game could have already decided that the player would shoot inside the goal (partially using RNG) and perhaps the rendering messed up a bit when the goalkeeper was jumping towards the ball. I am not sure if this is solid proof of so-called "scripting". Other examples can't really convince me either.
This is somewhat anecdotal, but fairly convincing
I admit it's a big leap and this technology seems like a good idea to an extend but it doesn't reward getting good at the game as much. As mentioned elsewhere, Elo-type matching is an alternative but does have the disadvantage you never get to beat down on noobs.
Some gamers indeed hypothesize that the earning of more money is indeed through better engagement based on artificially balancing games:
> "EA Wants to Get Rid of Fair Matchmaking to Focus on Player Spending & Engagement"
Now it could be that you know all the moves, tricks and are really good overall, but in general most people are only average players. So then they adjust the odds that you are constantly faced with better players, or they adjust the odds so that when you're 70 rated striker takes a shot from x, he's going to miss. If your opponent's 70 rated striker takes a shot from the opposite x side of the pitch he's going to score, and so on.
Doing this they can influence the losing player to feel as if they need to spend money buying card/player packs, so they can "increase in skill".
> The system matches an experienced player with a novice player to encourage the novice player to make purchases of items used by the experienced player. A novice player may wish to emulate the marquee player by obtaining weapons or other items used by the marquee player.
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074756321...