Game Balance as a challenge for the growth of Gods Unchained

The Immutable team aspires for Gods Unchained to conquer as many players as possible and that, from my point of view, is very positive. To retain millions of players, which are the figures handled by the game's management team, it is clear that many things must be done well; One of them is, without a doubt, the design of the game for achieve a metagame balanced . Below, I'm going to share with you some areas where I think the Gods Unchained team has work ahead of them.

I'm JFA, promoter of GU Masters, and today I want to address some of them. issues that we must never lose sight of .

What do we mean by Game Balance?

Maybe you're a regular community member of the #Balance channel on the official Gods Unchained server on Discord, as I do, or maybe not. Be that as it may, I think it is essential that we start at the beginning: What is meant by the equilibrium of the metagame ?

According to game designer and trainer Ian Schreiber, the Game Balance consists of "Creating the appearance of equanimity in a game" . Schreiber's starting point is that the designer of a game is creating an experience and that experience is what will be decisive; therefore, that Balance it will be a combination of mathematical, systematization and psychological factors. If this methodological dimension interests you, I recommend the conference "A Course About Game Balance" by Ian Schreiber at the 2017 edition of the Game Designers Conference (GDC), as well as his book "Game Balance", written in collaboration with Brenda Romero and published by CRC Press.

I take it for granted that we are all aware that designing a game that delights is not easy and to achieve that "holy grail" of the aforementioned feeling of equanimity, different tools are used, from the designer's intuition to prototyping, data analytics or mathematical modeling. In any case, what is clear is that Every game designer should take emotions as their first reference And the reason is obvious: no one plays a game that does not make them feel any kind of satisfaction; which, in short, does not amuse him.

As one of the geniuses behind the success of Magic: the Gathering , the well-known Mark Rosewater, in the lecture he gave at the 2016 edition of GDC with the title " Magic: the Gathering : 20 Years, 20 Lessons Learned", The designer of a game must be very clear about what kind of experience their target audience expects . Ignoring this is a guarantee of failure, which is why it is so important to be clear about the profiles of players the game is aimed at and what the Expectations of each of them. Easy? Not at all. Necessary? Wholly. By the way, to delve into this I recommend the article signed by Mark Rosewater with the title "Design Language" .

So much so, that Rosewater even stresses that It is important not to confuse "interesting" with "fun" , because they are different concepts. In short, in the Game Balance Mathematics is at the service of feelings . A perfectly balanced system can be the basis of a bland or downright unpleasant game. Don't confuse a trading card game with a sudoku, please.

Deck Types in Gods Unchained

As usual in trading card games, in Gods Unchained the cards are grouped into Decks of different types , depending on their playstyle and the strategy they pursue to win, as well as whether they belong (or not) to one of the six existing domains.

Each game has its own characteristics, of course (this Wikipedia article on the different types of decks in Magic: The Gathering It is a good example: “ Magic: The Gathering deck types" ). Broadly speaking, and without wanting to delve into this, in most collectible card games it is easy to identify Three basic types of decks (and multiple hybrid formats):

• Aggro
• Control
• Combo

In the image below these lines, with the Balance of Forces pursued by the Gods Unchained team, the category Midrange , halfway between Aggro and Control .

When it is possible to identify common patterns in a type of deck, within the framework of a certain strategy and domain, archetypes are born. The Archetypes They are usually based on a style of play and the presence of certain key cards, such as Board Wipe Death , Dralamar Combo Magic or Chosen One Light .

In a healthy meta, there will be a delicate balance between the different types of decks and the different domains of the game. Nevertheless Striking balance isn't enough to ensure an optimal experience . Why? Because it may be the case that there is a mathematical balance, but that it does not translate into a rewarding experience for players.

See Some scenarios in which this can occur :

• False equilibrium .- When the different archetypes "cancel" each other, so that there are such unfavorable confrontations that in many cases the result is almost decided before the game begins. These types of goals are usually described as "rock – paper – scissors" and originate because in the most unbalanced duels one of the decks has a victory probability of more than 70%.
• Excess homogeneity .- When the existing archetypes lack a differentiated identity, since they generate very similar types of play, especially when they are linear and monotonous. This can be aggravated when there is a dominance or archetype that dominates the meta with manifest superiority over the others.
• Lack of agency (This term does not have an easy translation into Spanish, although The term "agency" is used in philosophy with the same meaning , ability to act).- For example, when there are decks with a game plan that, in general terms, cannot be disrupted (we will return to this idea a little later).

Of course, the Gods Unchained team must make sure that scenarios like the ones described do not occur. A healthy meta is essential .

Towards a million players in Gods Unchained: challenges in the field of Game Balance

I discovered Gods Unchained in March 2021. I remember that shortly after I read a player who commented that one of the aspects that differentiated Gods Unchained from other card games is the existence of certain mechanics, especially the mastery of Deception . The truth is that this caught my attention and left me wondering if that originality was positive for the game, although it is also true that the game has changed substantially since then (among other things, due to the jump in the game). Ward 1.0 , which protected against the effects of any spell, up to Ward 2.0 , which only protects against a list of specific effects). Naturally, the answer depends on the type of audience you want to target Gods Unchained .

The truth is that Gods Unchained has similarities with many other card games and its designers don't need to invent the wheel. In fact, they have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of others . For example, Eric Dodds, who has been the head of design at Hearthstone, explains in his lecture at the 2015 edition of GDC with the title "Hearthstone: ten bits of design Wisdom" that it is not only important to "design for emotion", but also to take emotions as a touchstone of Game Balance ("Balance for emotion").

It is worth stopping at the Examples Using:

• One of his references in the "Emotional Design Matters" section is the letter Mental Anguish . There are players who sigh for the proliferation of decks with the "milling" mechanic and, however, the fact of discarding cards generates a deep displeasure in most players (so much so, that Mark Rosewater also stresses this in the conference mentioned above... the fact that The players Want Playing Your Cards It shouldn't be too surprising, right?). Exactly the same as in decks based on the concept of "total lockdown" (i.e., hand-crush ).

• Another of his references, in the point "Embrace the medium", is the letter "Thoughtsteal" (the initial version of this card consisted of drawing cards from the opponent's hand and, when they saw the degree of frustration caused by this mechanic, they transformed the draw into a copy), as well as "Mind Control" (card that drew a creature). That is, they decided to modify these cards when they realized the visceral rejection caused by the fact that a player saw how his opponent appropriated one of his key cards (¡ his letter!) and used it against him.

There's no doubt that one of the most controversial cards in the history of Gods Unchained is "Cutthroat Insight" and the mere fact that it's a cause of permanent discontent should set off all the alarm bells. This card is an "antidote" to decks Combo , its raison d'être is to neutralize key cards in the opponent's hand; The truth is that it could fulfill its purpose in many ways (returning that card to the deck, destroying it or transforming it into another, for example), so its redesign is feasible. Luckily, "Cutthroat Insight" is a card that belongs to the Core Set and it will always be subject to modification. However, there are other cards that are no longer (or will soon cease to be so) and those will continue to be part of the meta until they enter rotation. There are cards that can be perfectly balanced from a "mathematical" point of view and yet be toxic for the game. In the field of Game Balance , going beyond statistics is an imperative necessity.

In addition, there is another factor that should not be ignored: the existence of mechanics for which there is no type of counterattack. The letters of Deception mentioned are an example, but at the moment there are many mechanics in this same situation ( Burn , manipulation of statistics, Order , etc.) and this will always be problematic. Why? Because it breaks the perception of "just", which is the very heart of the Game Balance … The players perceive that they are helpless, that their decisions have ceased to matter. This lack of "agency" It is the reason for the controversy caused by the introduction of combo decks that in their initial versions could not be sabotaged in any way.

Players need "Small victories" throughout the games, so that they feel that they have been making progress. That feeling of achievement is essential and when it does not exist, when a player feels helpless and unable to influence what is happening, disaffection begins to take its toll. By the way this is something that Eric Dodds also stresses, using "Charge" as an example , a card that made it possible to defeat in a single turn (it is an enabling card for what is known as a deck One turn kill ).

Other things to consider for the future of Game Balance in Gods Unchained

Here are some Additional points of great importance to the future of Gods Unchained.

Firstly, the management of rotations and game modes for finding a balance between all existing expansions and Genesis , the only expansion that will never go into rotation (for more details on Genesis, I recommend my article "Genesis is a special expansion, do you know why?" ), as well as the implementation of Evolution systems ( Evolutions , i.e. "recipes" for the transformation of existing assets into new assets) and, in case of imperative necessity, the prohibition of letters.

Secondly, the Sizing the menu offer , so that it is appropriately adjusted to the existing volume of players. In the case of cards that belong to the collections Welcome and Core this should not be a big problem, but in the case of expansion cards it is necessary to take into account the possibility of removing cards from the market (either through the aforementioned Evolution system or mechanisms such as Cosmic Shift ) or to enter them (by means of Prestiding , that is, reprints that try to respect the value of the original letters). This is important because access to certain cards indicates the balance of the metagame .

Thirdly, I don't want to fail to dedicate a few lines to the importance of the Gods Unchained team Avoid at all costs the power-creep . There are many reasons why the release of new expansions can have very positive effects on a trading card game: these new contents regenerate the metagame , help attract new players and reinvigorate veteran interest, and strengthen the game's economic ecosystem. However, these new cards must enrich the game by generating new synergies, new archetypes, new strategies... but never at the cost of producing the obsolescence of the existing letters. When this happens, as Skaff Elias, one of the creators of Magic: The Gathering , in the Q&A session of the conference he gave at the 2018 edition of GDC with the title "What Can Video Games Learn from Collectible Card Games?", it is impossible to reintroduce old expansions (i.e. reprint expansions that have entered rotation) and the designers end up losing control of the game. All that be said, he puts the Time Spiral card, which you may know, as an example . Remember that when you try to "fix" a "broken" card with another card that is just as broken, the end result is that the game has two broken cards; that is, the effect of a card with excessive power is never compensated by the release of another card with the same defect.

Last but not least, we would like to add that the availability of a "Balancing Guide" ( Balance Charter ) that, as described by the Gods Unchained team, documenting existing guidelines and criteria for action in this area, is critical.

A Final Thought on Game Balance and the Future of Gods Unchained

If there's one key takeaway from this article, I think it's this: the Gods Unchained team needs a Long-term vision very clear, since it will be the only way for it to move forward with a firm step. It's not easy to manage expectations and interests as diverse as those that exist in your ecosystem, from novice players to experts in trading card games, from casual players to competitive players, from f2p players to p2w players. What is clear is that satisfying everyone is impossible and that is why it is crucial that your target audience is perfectly defined.

As I have tried to explain, advanced players develop a greater tolerance to certain systems and mechanics, which are completely unacceptable for ordinary mortals (and that is why high-level players are not always the best reference in the field of Game Balance ); that is, there are mechanics that cause revulsion and hinder the retention of certain player profiles, and that is something that should never be ignored. Aspiring to enroll millions of players, to conquer a massive audience, is legitimate. Of course, it implies certain renunciations . Like everything in this life.

Thank you very much for joining me here, I trust that this article has piqued your interest. I want to take this opportunity to remind you that you can support GU Masters by purchasing your cards through the TokenTrove referral link (which has no cost for you) and invite you to join all the players who already receive the GU Masters newsletter to stay on top of what's new in the Gods Unchained universe: The Herald .

Images courtesy of Gods Unchained Pty Ltd.