Why "unbalanced" makes the game more interesting

Many players may have heard the word "fair play". It means that the level of participants in a balanced environment-for example, football, basketball, baseball and so on. There is nothing more to say about the balance of "fair play". In video games, "fair play" is sometimes not entirely fair, in other words, sometimes it is not balanced at all. Take the current most popular electronic competition, all games are developed based on an unbalanced game state-players control different roles, characters have different races, each character takes different weapons, rises from different locations, and has different cards in hand.

So why are we so obsessed with imbalances while we are ashamed of being unfair? Is it a disaster to play games in an unbalanced and unfair environment?

What I mean by "unbalanced" refers to the difference between the player and the player, the difference between the elements of the game, and the above two will make the game more fun. For Storm hero, these "elements" are the heroes themselves. Although developers have been trying to create a balanced environment, some game elements inevitably have an "unbalanced" problem. Still, these imbalances do not weaken, but they reinforce the fun of the game. This article just wants to let you know why "unbalanced" makes the game more interesting.

Imbalance creates interesting role-playing opportunities

The asymmetry between heroes is interesting-we think that different players have different preferences for heroes, and many players are keen to try different roles. We have been trying to make each character as unique as possible, first of all four kinds of hero positioning (combat, assassination, auxiliary and Professional), followed by mechanisms (good at pushing lines or destroying buildings), and finally the character background (I like Azmodan, because he is the King of Hell!). All of these different elements give players plenty of room to play and give designers a chance to design a clearer and more interesting mechanism.

The star spirit in StarCraft can build the entire base with only one worker unit, and the Mage in Warcraft can turn the enemy into sheep and only the goalkeeper can touch the ball with his hand. All of these imbalances give players a chance to play, and we think that when you are in a team, these imbalances make the game experience more enjoyable!

Imbalance allows us to design more powerful heroes

It is possible to design a powerful hero only with a clear role orientation. Because each hero has only a limited set of skills, it is necessary to design skills based on their role positioning so that we can design a powerful hero who is good at this role.

For example: Nova's first design idea was that life was very low, there was no "escape" skill and the player was unable to enhance Nova's ability to survive through talent. Although it sounds as if Nova is a very crispy hero, every player who has played Nova or been killed by Nova knows that her ability to kill is not weak and can be permanently invisible before launching an attack. These features can make the player feel that she is very strong, even a bit abnormal. Nova's role is to be a vulnerable killer. Because of her clear role positioning, so we can design her as a powerful hero, but also have players like such heroes.

Imbalance can give rise to many interesting ways of playing games

In the course of the game design, I often refer to a book that has nothing to do with the design of the game, which is written by Jeremy Silman, a chess master, "How to reassess Your Chess". In the book, Silman tells us that a high level chess game is largely controlled by the imbalance on the board-which player has more valuable pieces, which player controls the composition and placement of these pieces, which chess player first, and so on. Chess is a fair place to start, and both sides have the same pieces in the same position. And in the course of the game, both sides are trying to create a favorable imbalance, unfair environment, and ultimately use these imbalances and unfair defeat opponents, win the game.

This is also true of many other athletic competitions, including the Storm hero-the game is unbalanced at the start because of the hero's existence. The teams are made up of different heroes, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and the player tries to turn all these elements into an imbalance and unfairness that is advantageous to one's own-rank ahead, destroy the fort, occupy the map, all for the ultimate victory. At a higher level of competitive competition, the ability to seize and exploit these imbalances is the key to winning, and it makes the spectator feel fun. I personally feel that the tactical analysis of unbalanced points in all video games can also be a book-which imbalances make the game more interesting?

Aside from all the fun that we reap when we design these imbalances (such as different heroes), it is no good to be fun if we don't guarantee a fair environment. If a hero can kill all the other heroes for no reason, the whole game experience will be destroyed and no fun to speak of. Each game can have a role to play, or to design a game experience around how to beat such a character. I'll talk about how to find and correct this problem next time: when imbalances become unfair!