Dynamic game difficulty balancing (DGDB), also known as dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA), adaptive difficulty or dynamic game balancing (DGB), is the process of automatically changing parameters, scenarios, and behaviors in a video game in real-time, based on the player's ability, in order to avoid making the player bored (if the game is too easy) or frustrated (if it is too hard). The goal of dynamic difficulty balancing is to keep the user interested from the beginning to the end, providing a good level of challenge.
Traditionally, game difficulty increases steadily along the course of the game (either in a smooth linear fashion, or through steps represented by levels). The parameters of this increase (rate, frequency, starting levels) can only be modulated at the beginning of the experience by selecting a difficulty level. This often leads to frustrating experiences for players as they attempt to follow premade learning or difficulty curves, which poses many challenges for game developers; as a result, this method of difficulty scaling is not ubiquitous.[citation needed]