Comments on: Balance Is Impossible

By: Ramrod

Ramrod — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 06:00:30 +0000

this has always been a hot topic with me as well. I feel that a lot of players react negitively when playing an MMO because they feel that their chosen class in not balanced as soon as they start losing battles. They feel that they should have the best class, the strongest the fastest etc. I have a hard time on the forums convincing people that sometimes you have picked the weaker class. Things should not be “balanced” that would be boring.
PvP also brings this into hot debate as well because then people can really measure their class against others, which is why I tend to cringe when I hear a MMO is adding PvP, cause I know then that players will cry and protest on the forums, the devs will cave in and Nerf the class that is too strong.
Usually it boils down to most people not truly knowing how to play their toon/class. It really is sad. Take EQ2 for example, I though the game was perfect when it first launched as far as balance goes, then they had to change a lot because people had in their own mind what their class should be like and how strong they should be.
I say, don’t make every class balance, keep the diversity, but make one class specialize in an ability to the utmost degree.

By: Nerfbat » Balance Continued…

Nerfbat » Balance Continued… — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 18:52:22 +0000

[...] What began as a debate about whether balance is even possible between Psychochild and I (See: Balance is Impossible | Balance is Possible | Balance is Still Impossible) turned into an email conversation between the two of us. We’re both going to pull pertinent points from our emails, which really stopped arguing whether balance is possible and started talking about balance in general. [...]

By: WorldIV » I felt a great imbalance in the Force …

WorldIV » I felt a great imbalance in the Force … — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:31:05 +0000

[...] Count Dooku: It?s silly. Wat Tambor: It?s very silly. Darth Vader: It?s impossible! Obi-Wan: Is not! Han Solo: Fight Fight! (P.S. Is not!) Darth Vader: Uh huh! Is too! Princess Leia: Look, this is how you do it. Jek Porkins: But what about … [explosion] [...]

By: Rik

Rik — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 22:28:53 +0000

Repeating what I’ve said elsewhere: Balance is about making each class be a good choice. If no one plays a cleric, because you can heal just as well as a druic plus do all this other stuff, there is no balance. It’s not about getting your damage to be the same as everyone else.

By: The Gaming Bitch » On the Coattails of Balance

The Gaming Bitch » On the Coattails of Balance — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:52:45 +0000

[...] I have been trying to decide what to write about. I delved into my hopper and came back with something that I wanted to revisit. Blackguard posted something about Balance and so, I am admittedly jumping on his coattails. [...]

By: Sierra Kilo » Balance Is/Isn’t Possible?

Sierra Kilo » Balance Is/Isn’t Possible? — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 15:53:53 +0000

[...] Nerfbat and Psychochild are going to duke it out over game balance. I touched on the subject a little in my latest MMO Ideas article, but this subject is hard to solve. [...]

By: Balans jest niemo?liwy « mmoLog

Balans jest niemo?liwy « mmoLog — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 09:08:51 +0000

[...] Na blogu Nerfbat.com pojawi? si? bardzo ciekawy artyku? na temat balansu w grach MMO. Zawiera bardzo trafne spostrze?enia. Mi?dzy inymi: [...]

By: Psychochild's Blog

Psychochild's Blog — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 05:45:18 +0000

Balance is possible…

The Grouchy Gnome was at it again, boldly stating that Balance is Impossible (http://www.nerfbat.com/?p=154).
That’s what you get for letting a community manager play with design. Stay tuned for my community article, “Winning friends and influencing…

By: Brenlo

Brenlo — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 23:00:47 +0000

The term balance is actually misused

I wholeheartedly agree and developers continuing to use that word contributes to the problem. Players think of balance as true equality and expect that from their classes. While we realize that the equality is there but relative, they tend not to see the nuance and as you stated, always want what they neighbor has. The grass is always greener for most players =)

So rather than debate balance, as we all I think agree with Blackguard that it is perhaps the largest red herring in gaming, let’s find a better word to describe what developers mean when they use it.

By: TGB

TGB — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 19:34:14 +0000

The term balance is actually misused. Balance means that while Joe might be better at one thing, Doug is stronger at another, and George can’t do much of either, but has a little bit of skill in both. Ideally skills might be given a weighted value and those values will balance out. That is, they should, until someone comes along and complains about inbalance. Unfortunately, most people who complain are talking about homogeneity.

At Atlanta’s Fan Faire (I still maintain the bards were smart enough as a whole not to open their mouths) I listened as a Druid complained, quite emotionally, that she should be able to heal as well as a cleric during the class balance discussion. By definition, class balance says, no – she shouldn’t heal as well as a cleric, however people will always want something more, they will always want what their neighbor has and often times forget what’s in their own backyard.