Frayed Knights Dev Blog Update
-
Category: News ArchiveHits: 801
And does it really matter? In an MMORPG, of course, balance is everything. Players will complain bitterly at any perceived imbalance, as it directly effects the "fairness" of the game for them. Obviously this is true in PvP combat. But it is also an issue in the ostensibly cooperative, massively-multiplayer game worlds. It's an issue with pickup groups - a member of a less desirable class can find themselves reliving their most humiliating elementary school experiences as they watch everyone else get chosen for groups ahead of them. Players are concerned about the survivability of their characters in a harsh, unfriendly environment that was designed to be a challenge for someone more powerful than them. There element of competition may not be as direct as it is in PvP, but it is still there, under the surface, permeating every aspect of the design.
I've heard it argued that in smaller, cooperative roleplaying games - the type of environment Frayed Knights is attempting to emulate - balance is not only less important, but actually runs counter to what makes the game fun. What is important is not making sure that everybody is approximately equal in mathematical equation in points-per-second or points-per-round, but that every player has an equal opportunity to shine. You don't want a homogenized, approximately equal group of characters (or of powers) - you want a wildly varying group that somehow compliments each other.
