角色平衡性编辑本段回目录
角色平衡
角色平衡是最令玩家不满的内容，他们觉得开发者总是无法做到这点。这也是文章、论坛谈论最多的话题。
关于角色，大家都有自己的看法。
问题是这些观点都存在一定的偏见，这显然不足为奇，是吧？但这令开发者面临独特挑战。我们就《科南时代》的游戏群体控制元素做出系列调整，这意味着各角色都会出现相应变化，我再次因反馈信息而感到震惊。玩家总是有众多不同意见，但没有什么话题比角色平衡更加矛盾，引起激烈讨论。由于所采纳意见的群体不同，X角色在经过Y改变后将变成最好或最差内容。
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反馈循环
通常开发者总是会同某些群体保持密切联系，依靠他们就即将做出的改变给出富有见地的反馈。这或来自测试人员，或来自高端公会、建设性论坛展板，或是老朋友、联系人。通常这些人能够给出有见地的观点、改变或调整意见。虽然在角色平衡方面，这往往会发生改变。
我曾和若干游戏知识丰富的人士交谈过。他们不总是同意我们的看法，但总是能够提供很好的正反反馈意见，但谈到角色平衡问题时，他们总是略显无知。
这些是我觉得知识渊博的人士，我通常参考他们给出的富有见地的看法，当谈到“他们”的角色时，他们总是表现得有些无知。这令关于角色调整的反馈信息非常难下定论（游戏邦注：在这种情况中，你要相信开发者能够客观看待）。
其重要性何在？
你可以简单认为：“优秀开发者永远都不会同意我们的看法”，但其实情况并不是如此。开发者能够从玩家身上获得很多很好的反馈，很多关于游戏的调整或补充都是基于玩家的反馈信息，这使得开发者忽略或参考这些意见都会形成一定的偏见，此问题更应引起关注。
是的，我们无法基于玩家反馈信息保持不偏不倚，但一般来说，这确实很有帮助，我们能够跳脱他们的视角发现其反馈意见的偏袒所在。而转换到角色平衡，这就更难诠释。
论坛用户通常有各种看法，但在此话题上，他们的看法总是非常矛盾。
这是个奇怪现象。
是否值得羡慕？
那么为什么我们很难公平看待此问题？
这纯粹是因为玩家打从心底就希望自己能够“胜出”，现代文化衍生的竞争性特性是此反馈信息存在偏袒性的主要根源。纯粹是因为玩家希望自己变强，其他玩家变弱。
你是否真的知道自己有所偏袒，但你希望反馈能够影响开发者，让你的角色变更强。这是否就是你每天在游戏中面对的延伸斗争？
即便是那些已处在平衡杠杆有利一端的玩家依然会感叹自己所存在的劣势，称他们需要得到某种形式的强化。即便他们能够在75%的情况下胜出，他们依然会抱怨25%的损失，而不是满足于他们比其他人更常胜出。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，作者：Craig Morrison）
The contradictions of class balance…part 1
Class balance…
…this will be a two parter, as there are two very different aspects of this subject that I wanted to talk about, and each looks at the challenges surrounding it from a different point of view, firstly from how players approach it (and what that means for developers) and then what it means to developers (and what that means for players!)…this will be one of those with a question for you all at the end as well…
Class balance is the one subject guaranteed to raise the ire of players, who feel that developers always fail to deliver, and is the source of more letters, words, paragraphs, posts, threads, disagreements, arguments, moderator interventions, flaring tempers, and all out forum warfare than any other subject you care to think of…
…class balance is something everyone has an opinion about…
The problem is that those opinions can be quite biased…not a surprise right? However it presents a unique challenge for developers. We are in the middle of a set of changes with Age of Conan that relate to the games crowd control elements, which means changes for every class, and once again I am always amazed by the feedback. Players always have a lot of different opinions, but it is never more contradictory and passionate than when talking about class balance issues. Depending on who you listen to X class will either be the best or the worst of all the classes after Y change
Feedback loops
Usually, developers, as well as reading the forums, and listening in game, will also have a list of players that they have close contact with how they trust to give knowledgeable feedback on upcoming changes. That could be from the test server, or from high end guilds, constructive forum posters, or long-time friends and associates…usually those people are good for sanity checking ideas, concepts or changes…usually…when it comes to class balance considerations though things tend to change.
I have been speaking to people who I know are very knowledgeable about the game. They don’t always agree with us, but they generally provide good pro and con style feedback, but when it comes to class balance issues they can often have a blind spot.
So here are people that I know are usually sane, knowledgeable and helpful, and that I could usually be able to trust to provide a relatively insightful opinion, have this massive blind spot when it comes to ‘their’ class. It makes feedback on class changes very, very hard to nail down. It is one of those situations where you really have to trust in the developers to be looking at it objectively.
Why does it matter?
Now it’s easy to say ‘well developers never agree with us anyway’, but that genuinely isn’t true. Developers get an awful lot of great feedback from players…a good majority of the changes or additions that make it into a game are generally rooted in player feedback in one form or another…which makes losing that option, or at least finding it a little more potentially biased, all the more of an issue.
Yes, you can never really rely on player feedback to be totally impartial, but in general terms it does help, and you can usually shift through their perspective to understand the basis of their feedback. When it comes to class balance it becomes much harder to decipher.
Forum users generally have a wide variety of opinions, but when it comes to this subject, you almost always have opinions that are absolutely contradictory.
It is a strange phenomena.
Is it an envy thing?
So why is it such a hard topic to be impartial about?
Is it purely that players, deep down, really just want to ‘win’…is the need to be competitive that is generated by modern culture the overriding factor in the biased nature of this feedback. is it simply that people only want to make sure that they get stronger, and others get weaker…
Is it a ‘meta-game’? Do you really know that you are being biased, but you hope that some vociferous feedback will somehow sway the developers in order to make your character stronger. Is it all an extension of the battles you fight in game every day?
Even those who are already at the more powerful end of the game balance equation can be found bemoaning their weaknesses and claiming that they need boosting in one way or another. Even if they win 75% of the time, they will be complaining about the things that cost them that 25% rather than be content they win far more often than they lose.
The question…
So a question for you all out there…when you provide feedback, or offer an opinion, on class balance, are you aware of your inherent bias? What is it about class balance that means often rational people have an irrational fear of being objective rather than subjective and biased?
…or is it more a case of players having a different set of assumptions that they are basing their opinions on?
Do you genuinely feel that the developers ‘don’t understand’ how to balance, or do you accept that they do, and all the fervent feedback is simply a kind of ‘meta-game’ to argue your corner and try and preserve your status or a wish to see others pegged back by the developers?
Moving on…
That hints at one of the core problems in any ‘balance’ discussion. The problem for developers is that many amongst the general population of players have a base assumption that class balance means that things should be…well…balanced…equal.. that everything should be equal…that everything should be balanced…which isn’t actually true…but that’s a subject of the next post…
…but in the meantime, back to the question…do you feel that your feedback on class balance is biased or do you genuinely feel that all the evul developers out there really just don’t ‘get it’?（Source：blogspot）
