Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
on making the game enjoyable. This dif erent notion of balance, one where
“if all the classes [players can choose] feel really fun, then I'm doing a good
time playing a video game, rather than on designing a perfect meritocracy.
The second issue with balance in online games is that there is a stark
dif erence between playing against the computer and playing against other
players. If we think of balance in the sense of trying to make the game a fair
and even platform within which there is a meritocracy, then the design of
a game where one fi ghts computer-controlled opponents can be structured
quite dif erently than one where players fi ght against each other. Compli-
cating this further is the problem that
if video games have one bad infl uence on players, it is that they teach us
the wrong belief that you can always win. This is because the computer
opponents are designed to lose most of the time. Players got so used to
winning all the time that they go to great lengths, including cheating,
to not lose. Unfortunately in PvP [player versus player] by defi nition
some player must lose, not a computer who doesn't mind.
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This has a substantial impact on games, as players may regularly make
choices that maximize their odds of success, which may place a substan-
tial drag on any attempt to balance the game. In many games where one
faction of players fi ghts another, there is generally a better and worse side,
which could drive player choice and alter the ability to build a meritoc-
racy in the game. Even more troublesome for designers is that players may
have a limited ability to appreciate the larger global balance issues that
go into a game, focusing instead on their potentially idiosyncratic experi-
ences. As one
WoW
developer notes in response to complaints about PvP
balance in
WoW
,
I also feel the need to state yet again that remember even when Are-
nas [a location for competitive PvP play in
WoW
] are working per-
fectly, you are going to lose about half your matches and possibly more.
Arena balance does not mean that you win a lot
. This is a very dif erent
experience from PvE [player versus environment/computer] where you
do win almost every fi ght. We'll take our share of the blame for class
imbalance problems, but don't look at every single PvP loss as being all
because of us. :)
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These two factors make balancing a game with the intent of reaching per-
fect equity quite dii cult because players tend to seek any advantages they
can get, causing potentially small initial imbalances to spiral out of con-
trol. Furthermore, players are generally less interested in the balance of
the game than of the balance of the parts of the game that they see, while
designers are compelled to keep an eye on the game as a whole. Somewhat
