Artificial difficulty is a method of increasing the challenge within a game by simply buffing the enemy's health and/or damage, while other aspects remain the same. An example of this would be the AI within most RPG and/or MMO games.
The opposite of this, which I will call genuine difficulty, is where enemies will begin to behave in different ways and employ different tactics and smarter play as a method of increasing difficulty. An example of this would be the AI within most RTS and Fighting games.
What's your opinion on artificial difficulty?
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Difficulty is better when it's both artificial and ontop of that, traits change such as the level of aggression, movement speed, tactics and abilities used. Sometimes abilities or skills used alone make the challenge a little more interesting, but if it isn't artificially enhanced with health buff, well you'd one shot them before they can even display the new abilities if your character has a progression and grows stronger through experience. So imo, it's best with both