@Michael Sidney Jane isn't talking about social media when she's saying "Toxic gameplay", "Bad design" and "Artificial difficulty". She's going to social media to *say* those things

But your points are valid

(cont'd) "People you disagree with might occasionally make a valid point Y/N"; "People you disagree with are *people*, not subhumans unfit to share the planet with you Y/N."

I'll grant "bad design" and "toxic gameplay," but Jane's wrong about social media having "artificial difficulty." If anything it's too easy to use them. Social media apps should require an intelligence test on registration. Suggested questions: "The sky is blue whether I like it or not. Y/N";

@GabeZhul
Except for streamers, who play obnoxiously difficult games so viewers can enjoy their suffering.

Old-school Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden absolutely don't compare to Jump King and Kaizo romhacks.

* Back in those times,

-> Back in those games, we've got a game for our birthday or Christmas, and we were expected to be happy with it and replay it over and over until we got our next game. Things are different now, and people are more likely to drop games due to difficulty and complain online.

@Ovis Militaris: You say that now, but did you actually have fun with those at the time? I know for a fact I didn't. I hated those damn medusa heads and co., it's just that back then, we had little in terms of alternatives. ->

It is only Difficulty if it comes from the Difficul region of France, otherwise it is just sparkling cheatery.

Spoiled young'ins. Back in my day we played games like Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania, where bats and eagles knocked you into pits when you were locked into a jump. We needed flawless timing and rote memorization. Ah... now I recall World 8-1 in the original SMB and "that pit jump." So many deaths.

I play Elite Dangerous, the is no skill gap, only the learning cliff, we already start at the bottom xD. Clasic simulator behavior.

In Feedly your comment reads: <p><span style="color: #0f1419; ...

You get the picture. Seems like HTML is going somewhere, where it should not.

Some things that are technically "artificial difficulty" have been pretty widely accepted for years. Rubberbanding in racing games, for instance. (Mario Kart games do this for both players and NPCs - players get better items at low rank, and NPCs get their speed boosted.)