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== Difficulty due to technical aspects of the game ==
* [[Game Breaking Bug]] <br />A bug which renders the game unplayable.
* [[Pixel Hunt]] <br />When a plot-critical item is hidden so well in the scenery it's barely visible, and you might not even know it was there.
* [[Some Dexterity Required]] <br />Games with unintuitive, complex, or difficult control systems.
* [[Jump Physics|Uncomfortable jumping]] or other physics. Especially apparent when the system the game is on doesn't support smooth screen scrolling (like MSX).
* [[Ratchet Scrolling]]<br />Non-continuous scrolling that only allows you to go forward.
== Outcome due to factors beyond player control ==
* [[Check Point Starvation]] <br />Absence or severe lack of [[Check Point]]s or [[Save Point]]s.
* [[Escort Mission]] - some of them <br />The success of a mission depends on the performance of a non-player character you can't control.
* [[Artificial Stupidity]] - on the part of your teammates. <br />As you progress in the game, and the difficulty rises, your teammates become more and more incompetent, forcing you to pull more weight.
* [[Interface Screw]] (Type B) <br />An event where the player's display or control scheme are screwed around with.
* [[Luck-Based Mission]] <br />Skill matters not in this level!
* [[Randomly Drops]] - if the items are necessary to continue the game.
== Denial of critical information ==
* [[All There in the Manual]] <br />If you don't know how to do a [[Shoryuken]] because you didn't read the manual, that's just you being lazy, not Fake Difficulty. This is for games which refer to plot elements or instructions that are only in ANOTHER game's manual which you haven't purchased yet.
* [[Camera Screw]] <br />Problems with the camera in a 3D game.
* [[Copy Protection]] <br />Games with [[Copy Protection]] or [[Feelies]] that are not included with some nonetheless legal purchases of the game. E.g. [[Quest for Glory]] having only maps and pamphlets with certain versions of the game.
* [[Depth Perplexion]] <br />If objects that reside in the "background" layer can still kill you by [[Collision Damage]]. In isometric views, it's hard to tell what's blocking you or what's safe to land on.
* [[Hitbox Dissonance]] <br />Where the area around a character/enemy that registers hits doesn't match up with the actual appearance of the character/enemy – the game registers hits that don't visually connect, or fails to acknowledge hits that do.
* [[Leap of Faith]] <br />A hole in a platform game which, despite appearances, is ''not'' bottomless. The only way to find out is to jump in!
* [[Metagame]] <br />When joining an online game, there are a lot of unwritten rules that fellow players ''expect'' you to know that the in-game tutorials do not explain.
* [[Now Where Was I Going Again?]] <br />If you skip or forget information, you can't see it again.
* [[Selective Memory]] <br />When the player is denied information that the actual character should have.
* [[Trial and Error Gameplay]] <br />When you can only figure out the correct path by trying the incorrect ones and dying, until you get to the right one.
* [[Obstructive Foreground]] <br />You can't see yourself or the enemies because some object in the foreground is in the way.
* [[The Computer Is a Lying Bastard]] <br />Probably the worst cause of [[Guide Dang It]]. This is when the game gives you information, but it's not simply inaccurate. The computer is outright ''lying to you''.
* [[You Can't Get Ye Flask]] <br />Where the text parser in old [[Adventure Game]]s can't understand what you're telling it. Especially if you're telling it something that's really common vocabulary and ''should'' be comprehensible to the average programmer.
== Punishing decisions made long before [[Unwitting Pawn|one could reasonably understand the ramifications]] ==
* [[Character Select Forcing]] <br />Where the game designs levels or enemies to only be beatable by a particular character or set of characters and doesn't require or at least hint at which characters you need to pick at the outset. Some older D&D modules that require a certain character class's abilities in order to advance the plot (but doesn't force a member of the party to be one at the outset) are like this.
* [[Death By Genre Savvy]] / [[Death By Pragmatism]] / [[Violation of Common Sense]] <br />When a game expects you to do something stupid or downright suicidal and punishes people who take the more "common sense" option. Forgivable in more comedic games, but it is fake difficulty when you lose the chance to get the [[Golden Ending]] because you decided to make the entirely sensible decision [[We Have Reserves|not to sacrifice the lives of your squad]] to complete the mission of "get [[Phantom Zone]] Cabbages for Mr. Maginty's stew".
* [[Lost Forever]] <br />A "missable" item which, if you didn't get it on your first chance, will be unobtainable afterwards. Doubly frustrating if it's a very powerful item that will aid the quest, and sure to cause a lot of frustration if it's a ''key item'', primarily required for the [[Golden Ending|best ending]]. Extremely likely to cause controller-tossing [[Unwinnable|if it's a key item required to get]] '''''[[Unwinnable by Design|any]]''' [[Unwinnable by Design|ending at all]]''. If the [[Nonstandard Game Over]] screen/cinematic lets you know what you missed for your next go-around, then the Fake Difficulty of the situation is ''slightly'' lessened. It'd still be better if they told you about it ''before'' it was [[Lost Forever]], though.
* [[Unwinnable]] <br />A gameplay state in which it is completely impossible for the player to finish the game.
** [[Unwinnable by Design]] <br />A gameplay design element that in the future will prevent the player from winning, but the player may not be informed of this until ''hours'' after it happened.
** [[Unwinnable By Mistake]] <br />Either a bug or an oversight has rendered the game broken so there's no way for it to tell the player how screwed they are.
== Requires or rewards counter-intuitive or irrelevant behavior or skill from the player to continue the game ==
* [[Bladder of Steel]] <br />If the Pause button doesn't apply to cutscenes. Have to go to the bathroom or answer the phone? Hope you don't miss the NPC giving you the secret combination to defuse that ticking bomb...
* [[Conviction by Counterfactual Clue]] <br />A game's solution requires an answer [[Did Not Do the Research|that is blatantly incorrect in the real world]], causing players with the true answer to get stuck at the puzzle.
* [[Empty Levels]] <br />Where the stat gains from gaining levels aren't enough to beat the new, stronger wave of enemies that attack higher-level characters. This is only fake difficulty if it's possible to avoid gaining levels in the first place (and thereby enjoy the artificially lowered difficulty now or at a later date) otherwise it's just a game with a [[Parabolic Power Curve]].
* [[Unexpected Gameplay Change]] in more extreme cases <br />What the—why is this [[Visual Novel]] suddenly making me play a rhythm game? I only have one arm, man, that's why I picked up the slow-paced game instead of one of those!
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