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Also, at least in single-player games, and sometimes in multi-player too (depending on exactly where and how) balance is actually not even necessarily a goal you should be pursuing at all. The imbalance is the point, the BFG should be allowed to be the BFG, it doesn’t need to be balanced. Even better is subtle imbalances that are not necessarily telegraphed directly. Not only does imbalance indulge the power fantasy when players can take advantage of it, but discovering those hidden “broken” mechanics makes players feel like they’ve either lucked out or outsmarted the game and is actually deeply gratifying on its own.
It can also lead to some very emergent metagames that maybe haven’t been considered. Sometimes the instinctual reaction to immediately patch out and hotfix any mechanic that is found to be unintentionally overpowered might mean you’re just being the “no fun allowed” police. And games are supposed to be fun. And in multiplayer sure you have to think about the fun of all players instead of just one, but maybe you should give some thought to what would happen if you embrace the mechanic instead. Maybe it could be a per-game setting instead of just removing it. Maybe it could turn into a whole new game mode. If some people are having fun with it and could have fun using it against each other, maybe let them? It’s understandable if you’re trying to make your game into an e-Sport but even sports have different leagues with different sets of rules.
Balance is overrated IMO. Imbalance can be entertaining, hilarious, and fun. Consider trying it.
Yeah, I also have to say that I’ll often not even bother trying to work out what’s good and what is not, because there’s a voice in the back of my head that says, well, it should all be equally viable, because of balancing.
That’s a big part of the reason why I like random map generation, because it isn’t possible to make all options equally viable. Sometimes, you level up your axe skill and never find a good axe, and just have to deal with that.
Sometimes the instinctual reaction to immediately patch out and hotfix any mechanic that is found to be unintentionally overpowered might mean you’re just being the “no fun allowed” police. And games are supposed to be fun.
It’s “fun” if you’re of the OP class.
are these not the same just changing who’s good vs what?
In the first panel, each class is considered in its interactions with each other class. In the second, each class is strong against one, weak against one and their relationship with the others isn’t considered.
I read it as the adjacent ones being neutral or a 50:50 odds. But it sounds like ur interpretation might be the intention
THANK YOU. People don’t care about balance, they just want their fave class to stomp others without having to put in the work to avoid their counter.
Maybe there’s something I’m not getting, but doesn’t the second setup preclude basically anyone from stomping anyone? If stomping others is one’s goal, it’d be through picking a class and then picking on any other class that’s weak to one’s own, no?
Yeah, the point of this comic is less about people buffing their favorite class (though people do tend to lean towards that) and more about people generally thinking ‘balanced’ means everything is equal.
Though the man in the purple shirt is definitely wanting to get rid of the advantages rogues have on mages… The mages symbol also being purple lol.
Assuming this is for a team game, predator-prey relationships create interesting dynamics where teammates have to protect each other from their counters, while also aiming to create situations where they can isolate a countered opponent to press the advantage.
In a 1v1 game though, you do want panel 2. It would be very bad if Street Fighter was decided by playing rock-paper-scissors on the character select screen.
I mean, there is some nuance. Sucks for memes, because they thrive on the lack of nuance, but anyways…
Depending on implementation, you gotta be careful to avoid the top panel becoming rock paper scissors.
If class switching is cheap (say, every respawn), you’ve just built a very very expensive rock paper scissors simulator.
IRL as well.
