TL;DR: The current balance approach is broken because the interval is too long. I suggest decoupling number tweaks from big changes, and that comes with many benefits.
People talked a lot about how PvP was never balanced. People gave a ton of suggestions on how to balance, then retreated to their #allisvain corner because ANet didn’t implement it.
Big question: WHY?
The real problem is the process. ANet has followed a wrong process on balancing. Read on.
They developed the new patch in house, closed door. Then tested it in house, closed door, for a long time. Then released it, and people screamed. This is a wrong approach to software developing.
This is the new approach that they should follow:
- Cut the balance patch interval to 3 week for number changes. Faster iteration allows them to react to new OP build, especially when it only requires number tweaks, like the Healing Signet 8% nerf.
- In parallel, develop bigger balance patches that are released every 3 months that cover bigger issues.
- Decouple small/easy numeric changes from the big changes like adding new maps, so that adding a new map/game mode doesn’t make people cry because it delays basic balance changes.
Benefits:
- Easier to fix mistakes. People can argue that having faster release cycle means ANet will make a lot more mistakes/overbuffs/overnerfs. That is a fallacy, because the time span between mistakes will be reduced greatly. In one week, ANet decide to buff Guardians, and people cry on the forums? Just nerf them next week, tweaking until people don’t cry about it anymore.
- Get better feedback from the real customers. Nerfed Healing Signet 8% and people still say Warriors OP? Get a big plan to balance them in the background for 3 months, while in parallel, neft Healing Signet another 5%. After that, if people don’t complain anymore, congrats! you got the number. If people still complain, tweak the number more. At least, until the big balance patch is ready, people don’t feel like they have to play a broken game for 6 months
- Reduced QA effort. Let the gamers test it. If they don’t like it, tweak it next week. You don’t need to have your QA test the balance that intensively anymore. Your QA should focus on finding exploits and bigger problems. If you only tweak the numbers, then let the real players test them and give feedback
- HAPPY players. This also means more money. You will see less #allisvain threads because the players know that it will be fixed in 1-2 weeks instead of 6 months. You will still see threads arguing that some classes/builds are OP, but the chances are people will argue for both sides, instead of unanimously agree that Warriors are OP like right now. When you start seeing people stop unanimously complain about something, then you know you’re heading to the right direction. A shorter release cycle is a good thing.
Software development has changed. Good engineers don’t just ask the customer one time, go back to their corner, develop for 6 months, then release and find out it’s not what the customer want. Most of the time the customer doesn’t even know what he or she wants. Good engineers show their progress to the customer constantly, and let the customer give constant feedback for the iterations. Read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development
TL;DR: The current balance approach is broken because the interval is too long. I suggest decoupling number tweaks from big changes, and that comes with many benefits.
Already quit PvP. Just log in here and there to troll.
(edited by Sunshine.5014)