Game balance
This includes adjusting difficulty, win-loss conditions, game states, economy balancing, and so on to work in tandem with each other.
[14] However, this is not always the case, as some characters are purposely "gimped" by the game's developers in order to provide an incentive for raising their level, or to give the player an early head-start.
Unlike the connotatively neutral term nerf,[citation needed] gimp in this usage often implies that the rule change unfairly disadvantages the target.
[4] Generally, it is advised to favor many small random elements with little influence over a few with large effects to make results, that differ highly from average, less likely.
[6] A game is fair if all players have roughly the same chance of winning at the start independent of which offered options they choose.
This is particularly true of action games: Jaime Griesemer, design lead at Bungie, states that "every fight in Halo is unfair".
[24] This potential for unfairness creates uncertainty, leading to the tension and excitement that action games seek to deliver.
[25][26][27] In these cases balancing is instead the management of unfair scenarios, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that all of the strategies which the game intends to support are viable.
This example is a dominant strategy, the most damaging type of meaningless decision, since it doesn't leave a reason to choose any alternative.
[4] The “Meta”, as it is also called, can act as a self-balancing force, since counters to popular strategies become widely known and lead to players changing their play behavior appropriately.
[2][3][4] Feedback loops should be implemented carefully to only target the correct player, or otherwise they might determine the outcome too early or achieve nothing but simply delay the end of the game.
For instance, real-time strategy games often feature "upkeep", a resource tax that scales with the number of units under a player's control.
Positive feedback processes may be limited by making capabilities some concave function of a measure of raw success.
[4] Symmetric games offer all players identical starting conditions and are therefore automatically fair in the above stated sense.
Symmetry is unappealing in games because both sides can and will use any effective strategy simultaneously, or success depends on a very small advantage such as one pawn in chess.
However, it cannot be completely solved by algorithms since aesthetics are also important[6] and a perfect balance might actually achieve the opposite of fun.
[16] Firstly, a balanced basis should be created,[16][18] so most later work consists in merely changing numbers[18] and introducing new content becomes much easier.
An unbalanced system represents wasted development resources at the very least, and at worst can undermine the game's entire ruleset by making important roles or tasks impossible to perform.
[31] Another approach emphasizes that balance between game elements, strategies and actions is not the most important factor, but providing counters against any situation that may arise.
On the contrary: Especially real models, e.g. historic facts, can serve as inspiration for mechanics, counters, orthogonal unit differences or intransitive relations.
Horizon Zero Dawn, may also feature a difficulty setting called “Story” for players who want to focus on the narrative rather than interactive parts like combat.
Difficulty selection is not always presented bluntly, particularly in competitive games where all players are affected equally, and the standard "easy/hard" terminology no longer applies.
Sometimes veiled language is used (Mario Kart offers "CC select"), while at other times there may be an array of granular settings instead of an overarching difficulty option.
[33] This requires a game to provide multiple solutions or routes, each offering challenges appropriate to players of different skill levels (Super Mario Galaxy, Sonic Generations).
While tester feedback is important when developing and updating a game, there are certain things to be kept in mind: Skill and the ability to explain do not necessarily correlate with each other.
Although gamemasters have historically been humans, some videogames now feature artificial intelligence (AI) systems that perform a similar role by monitoring player ability and inferring emotional state from input.
However, it does offer knowledge and tools like a Net Payoff Matrix that can be helpful to measure power and understand player reasoning.
[7][31] It is especially useful when dealing with multiple game elements that provide varying benefits depending on different values of the same cost, e.g. when using a central resource.
While a power curve always shows an order, it does not necessarily represent exact relations, depending on the level of measurement.
Statistics can help collecting empiric data of player behavior, success rates, etc., to identify unbalanced areas and make corrections.
