This past week we discussed balance in games. This is an aspect of games that I have not put much thought into since I mainly play single-person games that generally revolve around world-building rather than combat, where balance is a more obvious issue. Although balance is less obvious in the games I usually play, after learning about it in class this past week I have started to see where balance is very important. Balance in item spawn rate, random interaction rate, character temperament compatibility, and more are integral to the enjoyability of the game. If it is hard to get certain items you want or if your character has a lot of compatibility issues with the computer-controlled characters this could lead to a lot of issues in progressing with the game. Again I will talk about Animal Crossing. During the Easter event, many people complained about the balance of the spawn rate of eggs. The water egg was found when you went fishing. Many people were upset because when you went fishing a disproportionate amount of what you caught while fishing was eggs, making it basically impossible to get fish. Before last week I never really thought about this as a balance just an annoying part of the game. I also, over the course of last week’s classes, developed a respect for those tasked with keeping games balanced. I can easily see how this job is one of the most thankless. Many players would interpret this job ass fixing things that should have already been fixed or changing things that some players liked because they knew how to take advantage of the imbalance.

Sources

“Balancing League of Legends for Every Player, from Bronze to Bengi.” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii_Q4OCoHvU.