skill ceiling

plural skill ceilings

1. video gamesThe amount of skill required to master some activity (especially a game or character); the maximum possible skill.

   Coordinate term: skill floor

   5 more examples

   Chess has an extremely high skill ceiling⁠. Even the best chess-playing programs are constantly being improved.

   A fighting game with a low skill ceiling will quickly get boring after one masters its mechanics.

   Among 10 and 11-year-old children, boys' games have a higher 'skill ceiling', and are more competitive and longer-lasting than those of girls.

   1984, Peter K. Smith, editor, Play in Animals and Humans, Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, NY: Basil Blackwell, →ISBN, page 284

   There's an old game design maxim: good games take minutes to learn but a lifetime to master. Another way to say this is "low skill floor, high skill ceiling."

   2009, Steve Swink, Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation, Boca Raton, F.L.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 302

   The really fantastic thing about this "visible suits" idea is that it would have a negligible effect upon the skill floor – the additional information would not have to be used, whereas its effect on the skill ceiling would be considerable.

   2010 August 18, Markgm, “game theory and design”, in alt.math.recreational (Usenet)