[MUD-Dev] Some random thoughts on balance

[Azeraab]

The PvE game, by it's very nature, is unbalanced.   

Like a single player game, while there may be setbacks, eventually
the player will "win."  Most games use PvE as a way to progress, as
a way to add resources to the game (commonly xp and money).  The
penalties for defeat far outweigh the rewards for victory, simply
because the instances of defeat are extremely rare.  This unbalance
is demanded by players, because everyone likes to be a winner.  Just
as winning spots teams are more popular than losers, games that you
consistantly win at will be more popular than ones you lose at.  But
if the Packers won the Superbowl every year, or even 9 times out of
10, professional football would die because it is a competitive
sport.  PvE is not a competitive activity, but episodic
entertainment, much like a sitcom.  When you watch Gillgan's Island
you know the castaways arent going to succeed in getting off the
island, much the way you know you are going to win when you battle
an Orc in whatever game you are playing. No true competition
exists. But winning every time isnt fun either.  Players demand some
sort of fake competition, a chance to lose.  If they win 100% of the
time they will be as unhappy as if they never win.  PvE only works
properly if it is imbalanced. But players who excel at the game
quickly find PvE to be utterly unchallenging and boring.  The
players who are not the best at the game will tire of PvE as well,
just not as quickly.

The PvP game, is balanced.

It is a zero sum game.  For everyone who wins, there is someone who
loses.  It is balanced.  Players automatically gravitate away from
things that are ineffective to the few most effective things, and
eventually the single best thing, the final balance being total
equality.  This gravitation does not necessarily occur in the PvE
game because by separating the basic functions of combat (dealing
damage, healing, taking damage, etc) among a group of players you
can create a number of equally essential roles.  The pvp system only
works properly if it is balanced.  But players do not want to win
50% of the time, they want to win more often than not, and they are
extremely unhappy if they lose more often than they win.  So the
better players enjoy pvp and may never tire of it slowly, while the
poor players hate it and leave quickly.

So what useful conclusions can we draw from this information?

Building a PvP game on top of a PvE game is a mistake.  To take
something that is inherently imbalanced and try to to make it
balanced isnt going to work.  Creating a balanced PvP system, then
introducing MOBs to it with the abilities of the mobs being
unbalanced will be much more successful.

The holy grail of gaming lies somewhere between a pure PvP and a
pure PvE game.  To allow players to win more often than not, but
still face actual competition should be the goal of all competitive
multiplayer game design.  I'm surprised no major games have yet to
tried letting players control MOBs.


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