So when you are playing skyrim on normal difficulty, things hit you and you hit them equally, as defined by your weapon strength, their armor, etc. when you turn the difficulty up, they get more heath and hit harder. This is artificial difficulty. If, when you turned up the difficulty the AI just got much smarter about tactics and pinch/ flank spots, that would be more of a “true” difficulty increase.
TheReal_Floyd t1_iy6e3tw wrote
Reply to Can someone give me a brief explanation of "Artificial Difficulty"? by ShrankNutz
So when you are playing skyrim on normal difficulty, things hit you and you hit them equally, as defined by your weapon strength, their armor, etc. when you turn the difficulty up, they get more heath and hit harder. This is artificial difficulty. If, when you turned up the difficulty the AI just got much smarter about tactics and pinch/ flank spots, that would be more of a “true” difficulty increase.