18th October 2021, 4:55 AM
Please understand what I mean by skill ceiling and don't take what I meant by that as a statement the game is easy in any way. It isn't. At the highest difficulty, professional, it is VERY hard to beat. That has absolutely nothing to do with the popular understanding of the term "skill ceiling". The game's own difficulty has absolutely no bearing on it's skill ceiling. In fact, paradoxically, having a low skill ceiling makes the game HARDER rather than easier.
Let me try one more time to explain. Skill ceiling defines how good YOU as the player can potentially get at a game, NOT how hard the game is. If a game has an extremely high ceiling, you will eventually leave all the in-game challenges in the dust. If it has a low one, you will only ever, even under the most ideal circumstances, be able to just barely squeak out a win. In the worst cases, rare as they may be, the game's skill ceiling being too low can make the hardest challenges unwinnable. Most games never get this bad, but if you want a real world example look at the Donkey Kong "kill screen". The skill ceiling in that game is by no means low, until you reach that level where it becomes impossible to win or improve your skills in any way that could even potentially let you win. At that stage, the skill ceiling is lower than the game's built in challenge.
Again, I never said the game was easy. Saying the game has a lower skill ceiling than Diddy Kong Racing or Mario Kart 64 should not be construed to mean that.
Let me try one more time to explain. Skill ceiling defines how good YOU as the player can potentially get at a game, NOT how hard the game is. If a game has an extremely high ceiling, you will eventually leave all the in-game challenges in the dust. If it has a low one, you will only ever, even under the most ideal circumstances, be able to just barely squeak out a win. In the worst cases, rare as they may be, the game's skill ceiling being too low can make the hardest challenges unwinnable. Most games never get this bad, but if you want a real world example look at the Donkey Kong "kill screen". The skill ceiling in that game is by no means low, until you reach that level where it becomes impossible to win or improve your skills in any way that could even potentially let you win. At that stage, the skill ceiling is lower than the game's built in challenge.
Again, I never said the game was easy. Saying the game has a lower skill ceiling than Diddy Kong Racing or Mario Kart 64 should not be construed to mean that.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)