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A group of California players have rejected a lawsuit in which Electronic Arts is accused of using a “Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment” (DDA) to determine the outcome of FIFA: ultimate team matches. The group did so after EA proved that the controversial, patented system is not used in the game.
We first addressed the EA’s Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment system in early 2018, after an academic paper outlined the basic framework at the end of 2017. That investigation found that adjusting the difficulty level of a match-three puzzle game, based on the player’s skill level, resulted in a 9 percent player engagement improvement (i.e. players wanted to play a little more) . On the other hand, it had a ‘neutral impact on monetization’ (that is, it did not lead to players spending more money). EA filed a patent on the same basic idea in 2016, and the patent was granted in 2018. Some FIFA players have long suspected that patented technology was at work in at least some of their “Ultimate Team” games. To hear these players tell, the game secretly uses a hidden, momentum system to adjust the results of specific shots or touches, based on the current state of the game. It’s all part of an attempt to manipulate players into spending more money on better Ultimate Team player cards, as set out in that DDA patent. Or so the theory goes.
EA has said several times that he does not use DDA FIFA and that Ultimate Team results are a matter of the skill of the player and sometimes the fluctuations of the generation of random numbers. But those statements did not prevent three players in California from filing a class-action lawsuit last year over their suspicion that EA was lying, and partially asserted:
EA’s unknown use of difficulty matching mechanisms deprives gamers who purchase Player Packs the benefit of their bargains, because EA’s difficulty adjusting mechanisms rather than just the given ranking of the players’ Ultimate Team players and the relative skill of the gamers, dictates, or at least influences the outcome of the game strongly.
This is a self-sustaining cycle that benefits EA for the benefit of EA Sports gamers, as the adaptation mechanisms lead players to believe that their teams are less skilled than they actually are, leading them to purchase additional Player Packs in hoping to receive and be better players. competitive.
That brings us to today, when EA announced that the lawsuit had been dismissed. The move follows after EA said they ‘have detailed technical information and access to talk to our engineers, all of whom (again) confirm that there is no DDA or mini-dissertation in Ultimate Team modes. That’s the right result. ‘
EA went on to reaffirm that DDA technology ‘was never in’ FIFA, Madden, of NHL, and will never be. We will not use DDA technology to give players in any of our games an advantage or disadvantage in online multiplayer modes, and we absolutely do not FIFA, Madden or NHL. “
It’s nice to have the further confirmation of EA, especially with the added commitment that it applies to the other sports games of the company and also in the future. And now the statements also come with sufficient extra verification of EA’s own engineers and documents to apparently comply with a set of role players (and / or their lawyers).
On the negative side, the next time one of your shots comes in FIFA sails are wide, you do not have a narrow secret algorithm to blame.