[MUD-Dev] Game Balance and Mortal Complaints

[Lovecraft]

From: Sulux, SmokEater952 at aol.com:
>I guess I am looking for ways to handle the PR aspect of these sort of
>changes, or the question of should they have been made at all. Should we
have
>eft it alone and just made sure that all new adds where balanced?

This list's archives likely has fruitful comments: www.kanga.nu/search but I
rarely, if ever, found distilled examples or directions. Unfortunately, I
also failed to find a game balance document in the Kanga.Nu library.

Refer to the "Laws of Online World Design" (compiled by Raph Koster) for
some mantras.



Balance
Note: If it is grossly imbalanced, then you'll need grosser solutions than
these.

1. Know the balance. Log it, snapshot it, or otherwise derive it from
comparison of new and old data over a given period of play-time.  Measure
points gained per hour played.
    1.1. Do not make any balance judgments based on user comments.  User
comments are great for deciding what users want and how they feel, but are
always personal and biased.
    1.2. Know the weighted value.  For example: mana may be almost worthless
to the average warrior; therefore if mana is calculated into your _warrior_
balance, it's weight is very little.
2. Add, don't subtract. Players hate asset losses. Players love new and
improved features.
    Enhance the weaker skills, spells, classes, items.  If <a> has rate <x>,
and <b> has rate 2<x>, then increase <a> to 2<x>, or otherwise change the
attributes, for example: <a>.cost=<b>.cost * 0.5.
    2.1. Creativity combined with statistical confidence will yield balance
and quite impressed players.
    2.2. When designing new realms/features, of course, make it balanced
while making it integrate well with the rest of the game.  If the new realm
or feature is significantly less profitable than the old, the
profit-conscious players won't use it.  (See John Hopson's post "Matching
and Maximizing:  How players choose between activities")



Public Relations
Note: Compassionate, loving, and loyal players, by their nature, create your
PR for you.  For the other 99.9%:

1. Poll
    1.1. Get player opinion.
        How much do players care about game balance?  If you run your game
for your players' sake, your effort to balance the game will be no more than
their relative concern.  Many players will let things slide that game
designer's would grind teeth over.  Even  some bugs may be considered
"features" and may enhance their entertainment.  [1]
        What do players think of your plan to do exactly ... <so and so>?
    1.2. If possible, make your poll valid by a user vote.  Relying on user
feedback puts you at the mercy of the loudest shouters, which is more often
your least desirable players.
2. Add, don't subtract.
    2.1. Always announce good things.  Show the goodness of what you are
doing.  Explain how it will increase their assets (the previous characters)
and profits (their future play).  Don't lie.  If you can't truthfully
explain this, then re-design.
    2.2. If you absolutely must harm someone's asset, trade with them for
something better.
3. Ask for suggestions to your plan.
    3.1. Players feel like they are participating.  When they do, they feel
partial ownership in the plan.  Therefore, they will be more willing to
think about it and accept it.
    3.2. There's a wealth of experience to be tapped.  Mostly, they'll
suggest things that are not good, but a dedicated few will provide good
suggestions.  At least you'll understand what the players' needs are
regarding your plan.
    3.3. Pat your players' on the back and publicly recognize that you are
doing what they suggested.
    3.5. If there is a FSS (frequent stupid suggestion), then politely
incorporate the rebuttal in your plan's document.
    3.4. A similar method is to seek player-experts.  Identify them and get
their suggestions.
4. One Step at a time.
    4.1. Players usually hate balance changes, so don't wound their morale
all at once.
    4.2. If you take one step at a time, you'll have time to adjust to what
the players' think and how they use your changes.  Your plan, most likely,
will need a few fixes for the damage it creates, and will certainly need
refining.  There's at least a hundred or a thousand times more brains and
hours of play-time in your players to discover the most profitable solutions
(often what designers call abuses or design flaws) of your balancing.
5. Announce ahead of time your schedule.

Consider how you would feel if you woke up one morning and discovered the
cost of gas doubled, the risk of cancer from watching a computer screen
jumped 100 fold, and all wages for all jobs were reduced to minimum wage,
and over-time declared an unfair "bug".  These are intentionally absurd
examples.  Consider your changes deeply, as if your world were the only
world for your players, and as if the imbalance that exists now were as
solid, real, and dependable as the law of gravity.

Dave Kennerly   |   Game Director   |   www.DarkAges.com



[1]    For example: in Dark Ages, when you become unconscious, if you log
out, your state of dying is frozen until you log in again.  I would have
fixed this, but there wasn't time.  Later I realized it was a fun feature.
The player would use another character to form a rescue team while he was
frozen.  In my mind, that's cheating (My character always died with dignity
of not logging out).  But, also, it was _fun_, exciting, and built community
relationships.





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