Slitherine

quote:

Alright to address the issue of balance: Some people seem to think that balance and “flavor” are opposites. (What I mean by “flavor” is the feel, the charm, the things that make a game interesting.) This is absolutely not the case. Something can be well balanced and still very flavorful.

Now, a very accurate way to create balance is to create equality. Take chess as the example. All the pieces have the same powers and both sides have the same pieces. The game is both equal and balanced. Still, unless you're a chess fan it's not very flavorful... “You want to play white or black?!?!?!” “Whichever....”

That is NOT what we intend to have in Worlds of Magic. We want to achieve a statistical balance between factions with serious (in some cases massive) differences. We want you to argue with your friends about which race is the best. We also want it to be like “Could Spiderman beat up The Hulk?” (I am not trying to start a fight here guys, Spiderman and The Hulk are both fine superheroes. Please treat the question as rhetorical.) The point is that both of them are powerful and (for the sake of argument) equal, but very, very different. That's how we want the races to be in Worlds of Magic. Which is better, the Elves or the Dwarves? Well, that depends on how you play and what you like. For some people (I should say some strategies) Elves will be better for others Dwarves.

What we mean when we say we want balance is that we DO NOT want a clear and obvious “Best Faction In The Game”. In our mind that actually takes away from the flavor. You should be able to choose a race just because you like them without having to crunch numbers and figure out that you have a 2.378% better chance to win if you play undead.

We are not trying to balance two ten pound weights on a scale. That's boring! We are trying to balance an Elephant and a Japanese Baseball team! Not that's excitement!!

That's what we mean when we talk about balance. Still, if you don't like that then use the faction editor and make a best race and then conquer the universe with it like it was Superman (Who, BTW, could beat up both Spiderman and The Hulk. So, there!) Options are even more important to us than balance. You want to make the “ultimate faction” and take over the world? Knock yourself out. We just feel it's a little more rewarding when you win on even ground.