Balance Philosophy (Thoughts on GDC Lectures)
Informal thoughts on some one of the older GDC lectures. This was from 2017, so it may be less relevant, but you can get an idea of what Ghostcrawler was aiming for when constructing Riot's balance philosophy. Some major points were regarding win rates vs play rates and what the developers considered healthy balance derived from certain algorithms using game data.
Wanted to share my perspective on the matter as a veteran player and someone who has a dwindling interest in lol esports. But with C9 being in semis, I've been watching quite a bit recently. After seeing Aatrox being pick/ban in 109/110 games, it got me thinking about Riot's balance philosophy. I went back and watched Ghostcrawler's GDC lecture to get a better understanding of exactly what was going through that brilliant man's head. Gotta love you some frostmage. I casually typed up some ideas as I was watching the lecture and came to a few conclusions. The primary being that champion/character skill cap is often neglected in an optimally balanced game. (Aiming to give most champs around a 50% win rate.)
Major flaw in having a optimally balanced game. If the goal is for every character to have a 50% win rate, what is stopping players from playing the easiest characters? A character with a high skill cap and one with a low skill cap will theoretically have the same win rate. If you know both characters have the same potential, but one is easier to play, why wouldn't you pick the easier one? Because eventually the majority of players will migrate to the easier champion since not everyone is Faker/TheShy in terms of mechanics. And in terms of esports, from a spectator's perspective, the easier character is almost always more boring to watch. Considering that easy characters typically have a one-dimensional play style with little to no outplay potential, whereas the hard characters are typically the opposite.
Players/fans are quick to realize this and it is considered "cheap" in many gaming communities. Look at Bayonetta in smash 4. People who mained Bayo and won tournaments, were often belittled by the community and even the shoutcasters for being "Bayo-abusers." The problem is that gamers want to win and if the optimal strategy is to play an easy or overpowered character, more players will play that character.
Win rate should be a reflection of skill. A difficult to master character should have a higher potential. Player skill should be rewarded. Not to say that a high skill cap character should always win, but the outcome should be in the favor of the the player who utilizes the character to its full potential. Not based off of their character selection. This is the most commonly neglected factor in most esports. Players should win or lose depending on the level of their execution of character/game mechanics. Not their champion pick. We aren't robots. Characters will rarely be played at their absolute potential, but the winner should reflect the better player. When trying to think of an example of this I often think of the what is probably the most iconic moment in modern esports. Faker and Ryu's Zed 1v1. The most hype, insane, showcase of player skill. I have personally watched and played around ten thousand hours of League of Legends since season 3 and not a single moment has even come close to comparing to that moment. Go back and watch the play. It was a thing of beauty. The APM in that moment was astonishing. That moment alone, made me want to play Zed. Those are the moments that esports were made for. A play that's akin to watching Michael Jordan dunk from the free-throw line for the first time. It leaves your jaw hanging on the floor. Faker made a name for himself in literally one play. Bringing life to a new era. The era of the "Demon King."
The dilemma is that the easy champions are given so much that the player playing the higher skill cap champion is forced to outplay their opponent in order to stay even! If a Jayce isn't up 20 cs against an Ornn by 10 minutes he lost the lane! He is forced to constantly pressure his opponent which makes them a huge target for the enemy jungler and team. How much worse is this when its Urgot instead of Ornn? The opponent is rewarded for picking an easy champ and playing safe. Locking in an aggressive pick is such a huge risk and is typically only done as a counter pick. This creates a stale meta where everyone is rewarded for playing safe and waiting for their jungler to make a play. Why should the aggressor, who is actively looking to make plays, be punished so harshly while the defensive player gets rewarded for playing safe?
If we want esports to continue growing, especially in the MOBA genre, developers need to bring back those moments. Allow all-star players to shine and make these insane plays. Let TheShy showcase his amazing Riven mechanics. Let Faker dust off his Zed. Let Sneaky break out the Draven against a real team. Start balancing the game around the carries and the big outplay potential moments. Create an environment where these types of plays thrive. Bring back the laning phase and allow players to showoff their skill in 1v1 situations again. Instead of playing champs that want to farm up for 10 minutes and group to 4 man bot. Macro play is interesting in a sense, but there's a reason why basketball is more popular than chess.
TL;DR: Current balance philosophy does not incentivize high skill cap/aggressive champions enough when considering win rate and viability in the current meta/pro scene. Esports are becoming stale due to the current meta rewarding low skill cap/overpowered champions too much. The laning phase does not allow aggressive picks to truly shine without roaming or team influence due to it being too short and rewarding defensive play styles through champion pick and jungle pressure.
Personal thoughts: I understand that every player wants to feel that they have an equal impact on the game; but realistically a support player shouldn't have the same play making potential as a Zed if they're playing Alistar and their display of skill consists of pressing WQ on top of an adc at the right time. Or in terms of certain bruiser tops like Aatrox pressing EQ on top of 4 members of G2 because G2 misplayed by clumping up. As well as a tank like Ornn making as big of a contribution to the team by playing safe and farming as a Jayce/Akali would for doing the same due to tank itemization being so cost efficient. Which forces them to play aggressive to be even or play a more cost efficient champion.
I would love to have discussions about balance and potential solutions to make league more rewarding for high skill cap/aggressive champions without them feeling unfair to play against to a certain degree. Also, I'm curious to hear the stance of Riot on this matter. Is the current state of high skill cap/aggressive laners satisfactory within your balance philosophy? Why or why not?
