Board Thread:Wiki Running/@comment-3225604-20150623071442

The topic has been discussed for a very very long time and still it did not come to action. Now it's time to make it happen.

There are two things in this proposal:
 * Adding the difficulty "extremely hard" (color will be maroon), which is between "very hard" and "insanely hard"
 * More stringent requirements for a level to be "insanely hard"

Requirements for a level to be "insanely hard"
For a level to be insanely hard, it MUST obey ALL the three requirements:
 * It is in the "Hardest Level in Reality" and "Hardest Level in Dreamworld" poll, or pending to be in the poll.
 * It has received more than 70% of votes in the poll and has at least 15 votes. If the poll is claimed to be troll voted, after our investigation, the polls can be reset. The poll will be highlighted if the level is extremely hard.
 * It has received more than 60% of support in the comments of the page, including EVERY comment on the page of its current version.

If the level does not fulfill any of the three requirements, the level will be instantly downgraded to "extremely hard".

Justification
The addition of the difficulty "extremely hard" is used to cope with the increasing number of levels in Candy Crush Saga. There is a "general" trend that higher levels tend to be harder and also the insanely hard levels increase in difficulty when the level number is higher. However, in order to avoid having too diverse difficulty of "very hard", a mediating difficulty is needed.

Also, "insanely hard" means that the difficulty is so hard that it will make one go insane, implying that the level is very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very hard, nearly impossible. Therefore, for a level to be "insanely hard", it must receive dominating public approval, so the requirements must be tightened.

Prediction
"Extremely hard" levels can be discussed to be upgraded to or downgraded to. In my estimation, 13 now insanely hard levels will be downgraded in Reality, while a lot of Dreamworld levels are on verge of elimination since a lot of levels have null votes which they could get eliminated soon.

Advantages

 * No confusion in the meaning. "Extremely hard" is a good difficulty to be in between "very hard" and "insanely hard". "Extremely" means "to a very great degree" according to Oxford while "very" means "in a high degree", which is a bit lower than "extremely". However, "insanely" means "in the state of insanity", which suits what players may encounter when they play an insanely hard level. "Nearly impossible" would be on par with "insanely hard" and cause no difference with "insanely hard", thus causing a great confusion. And: What does it mean by "nearly"? Is "very hard" regarded as "nearly impossible"? The borders of "nearly" is too ambiguous while "extremely hard" is a much better line to separate the difficulties.
 * Keeping "insanely hard" in the top difficulty rating means "insanity" is the very least what one of the hardest level would bring. "Nearly impossible" just cannot describe the feeling.
 * Implementation of extremely hard difficulty will largely decrease the number of insanely hard levels, redefining the definition of insanely hard, which is almost impossible to pass the level, and massive amount of luck and skill is requisite to pass the level. Insanely hard levels, although, not to be limited, the number should not be too much, or the significance of "insanely hard" levels will be meaningless.
 * Implementation of extremely hard difficulty will also prevent an abuse of the very hard difficulty and narrow the gap between levels of the same difficulty. The very hard difficulty may become a scope of different layers of difficulty since some insanely hard levels may be downgraded to very hard. However, some very hard levels are claimed not to be as difficult as the newly downgraded difficulty. Compare level 92 and level 565 - there is a gap in difficulty. The newly set difficulty may be able to minimize the gap between levels in the same difficulty.
 * Implementation of extremely hard difficulty will redefine the insanely hard difficulty by public. As there is a new difficulty, some levels would be downgraded and there would be more refined "insanely hard" difficulty. Insanely hard difficulty will also become semi-automated, or even quasi-automatic.

Disadvantages

 * Resetting polls are inevitable, so does "nearly impossible".
 * You have to redefine how the insanely hard works. What requirements should a level fulfill to become an insanely hard? Or else the new difficulty would be useless. This problem also occurs in "nearly impossible".
 * It's hard for people to accept a new difficulty, as proved in past discussions of similar issues.
 * Some polls are very idle.

Q&A

 * Q: "Insanely" & "extremely" sound more or less the same. Will it cause confusion?
 * No, it will not cause confusion. According to Oxford Dictionary, "extremely" means "to a very great degree" while "insanely" means "to an extreme degree". In the definition, "extreme" also means the highest degree, whereas "extremely" does not mean "to the highest degree". Therefore, it will not cause confusion.
 * Q: It seems the difficulty rankings are as fine as it is. Adding it will cause even more disagreements. Therefore, why should we bother?
 * 1) *How do you know if adding a difficulty and not adding a difficulty will cause any disagreements? People sometimes will compare levels with other levels of the same difficulty. Level 92 is often used as a comparison of other "very hard" levels and that's why many people would still want some insanely hard levels to remain as it is. This cause some drastic difficulty difference between the "very insanely hard" levels like level 734 or past versions of insanely hard levels. Will the implementation of "extremely hard" levels cause even more disagreements? You can't tell until it is implemented.
 * Q: Will "extremely hard" difficulty be abused?
 * 1) *Theoretically, every difficulty level can be abused. Does that mean we should delete the difficulty? No! This wiki is open for everyone to comment, so if the difficulty is abused, others can voice out and reduce the abuse. After all, "extremely hard" difficulty should not be abused if the difficulty is not decided by only one party.
 * Q: Are we restricting "insanely hard" difficulty to a certain amount?
 * No, the public decides the difficulty. If you are saying "insanely hard" is restricted to a certain amount, you are just saying the public is restricting the difficulty to a certain amount and yeah no point has been made after all.
 * Q: Will this affect the difficulty grading of other sections of earning two or three stars?
 * 1) *Certainly, but if the proposal is vetoed just because of this, this means you are also vetoing the proposal of the difficulty grading of earning one star. No one said "extremely hard" must be applied to the difficulty of earning two or three stars. The difficulty can be set if needed. Just because it may have no use in other areas doesn't mean it has no use in every area. Moreover, I think the difficulty is just as simple as categorizing the levels into different categories. It's not too complicated. 