A question of balance.

There was a time when multiplayer videogames in the first person shooter genre were based on one core concept; and that concept was purely the skill of the player. This skill was based on experience and the more hours a player played their game of choice, the better they became at utilising the toolset presented to them.

The tools the skilled player had were no different to that of his or her lesser skilled opponent, but through practice the player learned to utilise these tools in a quicker and more efficient manner. Their enhanced knowledge of their environment enabled them to gain an upper hand on their enemy as well as predict with greater accuracy their opponent’s next move.

It all becomes second nature. The brain calculating the variables involved with an ever increasing speed; the muscle memory of the player’s hands more attuned to the controls, the eyes more attuned to picking out the intricate details that enable us as players to improve.

But today games are changing and this change is not something I welcome.

The beauty of the multiplayer FPS for me has always been in the skill involved; learning to use the toolset I’m given in a faster and better way than those I play against, learning something new from those who claim my scalp and even modifying their methods to suit my own style of play.

Now within this artificial digital world, the style and skill with which the people play will always differ; each player favouring their own combination of tools, their own way of approaching the challenges that they face and the opportunities presented to them.

But the toolset, the weapons and methods available to the player,
must remain the same. Everyone should have access to every part of it. This is what makes the game balanced. This is what makes the game fair.

Today though the landscape is becoming very different. The new breed of shooters are starting to incorporate toolsets with limited access, and that access is only granted to you once a certain level of criteria is met.

Typically the criteria involved are some form of experience points. This essentially equates to the more hours you play, the more points you earn and the more of the toolset you get to open. Another method may use an achievement system which is focused more on achieving certain goals to unlock more of the toolset.

The problem with these systems is they present a game environment which is not balanced, an environment where a player who has invested less time becomes even more disadvantaged than he would be already.

I’ve already mentioned that time invested generally equals improved skill and in a broad sense this is true but this does not always mean a player who has invested more time will be the more skilful.

We all learn at a different rate and some of us may be more naturally gifted in certain aspects of a game than others. Some players may hit a limit where others can still progress. But these differences are a natural and human factor, not one imposed by game design.

What really matters therefore is the opportunities we are given by the designers and in any competitive game (whether friendly or competition based), these must be the same.

Games such as Modern Warfare 2 however do not abide by these rules and its environments are full of players who have access to completely different toolsets. To make matters worse, the extended toolsets are only available to those with a higher degree of skill and higher investment in playtime.

In essence you have a battle where a newer player is confronted with a more experienced player who aside from the fact he is probably better through his experience anyway, also has improved weapons and abilities that the other player simply does not have access to.

It’s the equivalent of sending Stevenage into an FA Cup battle with Chelsea and giving Chelsea a smaller goal to defend.

Modern Warfare’s toolsets are opened via an experience points based system. Some points are gained simply by playing as part of a winning team; some are gained through frags (kills) and so on so forth. Ultimately though, the better you are as a player, the faster you will earn this exp and gain access to the improved toolset.

To make matters worse, Modern Warfare also incorporates a ‘Killstreak’ system where you gain even more rewards for fragging opponents in a row without dying. And it’s not too difficult to assume that if you have more weapons and skills than your opponent in the first place, you’re more likely to achieve these Killstreak perks quicker.

Of course, as a newer or less experienced player not all of the Killstreaks (or in other words the best ones!) will be available to you anyway because that would be far too easy wouldn’t it? No these too only open at certain levels of experience as well.

Changing direction for a moment, let me briefly explain a regular situation I used to encounter in what was for a long time my crack of choice; Half Life 2: Deathmatch.

HL2:DM was the multiplayer component of Valve’s masterful Half Life sequel, Half Life 2.

A fast paced deathmatch game, it incorporated all of the weapons from its single player brother and let us the players develop new ways to blow the crap out of each other. And it was wonderful, if comparably rather niche.

There was however a very significant split in the skill of those that played and it often became the topic of heated debate, to the point where it actually fractured friendships (something I myself have unfortunately experienced).

The source of this was what the community dubbed ‘advanced movement’ which incorporated various elements such as bunny hopping, strafe jumping and then ultimately speed skating (essentially a combination of a bunny hop and strafe jump which is undertaken continuously).

Players using these ‘abilities’ were able to move faster than their opponents and became harder to hit. This caused a gulf between those that could utilise these skills and those that could not and generally (note not exclusively) speaking the hoppers and skating players would get the better of the other players; they had a significant advantage.

Debate raged about this issue for a long time, with many players arguing that the faster players were exploiting a bug and that the game was unbalanced because of this. Whilst I don’t want to go into this debate here (and it was settled a long time ago now anyway), there is a very key difference between this and Modern Warfare’s perks. The difference is it was available to all, right from the start.

It is irrelevant whether or not you could actually do it or not (and for most like me I’m sure that learning it took a fair amount of practice), the point is it is there for everyone, there are no lockouts, you don’t need an achievement to open it up, you don’t need to earn exp to get it, it just takes practice.

It is also arguable that by limiting the tools you give to your player, you actually limit their development. In games such as HL2:DM and Quake 3, you have a toolset and apply your own unique signature to its application which evolves through time and practice.

In games which use an unlock system your time investment could in certain circumstances become a waste since a new weapon or perk can dramatically alter how you apply yourself. It is therefore arguable that these unlocks, to a certain extent at least, can force you to start the learning process all over again.

Sitting somewhere between the two extremes is Valve’s Team Fortress 2. Here you can unlock additional weapons and abilities via an achievements system.

For a long time I shied away from the game because of this factor; I simply didn’t have the time to invest in a game I wasn’t infatuated with, just to gain parity with the other players in terms of what I was allowed to use and not because of what I could learn to do.

However one thing that was pointed out to me a while ago by a friendly penguin friend of mine (who is a TF2 devotee) is that the unlocks do not completely unbalance the game. Here the unlocks often open up some advantages (perhaps greater damage) but in some areas also force certain disadvantages (for example shorter range) upon the user.

The core weapons of the game also typically remain the most used simply because the additional ones do not offer large enough incentives and therefore do not become game breakers.

Although often derided by PC Gamers and other console owners, one of the best examples of balance in a recent FPS is that shown in Halo 3. Say what you like about Bungie and the Halo franchise; but the one thing they know how to do with aplomb is make a balanced multiplayer environment.

Here an experience system does operate but it has a clear function in matching players to other similarly ranked players for more even games and whilst there are unlocks in the form of armour, these are more about the kudos that comes of attaining and wearing them than they are about any unfair advantage.

I have no qualm with this type of unlock since it is in its simplistic form just a badge, like a medal the player has earned that can be worn with a certain amount of pride. It signifies experience, it may signify skill, but it does not signify that I’ve got no chance because you’ll have a weapon 5 times more powerful and more effective than my own.

All I want from my games is a feeling I have as much chance as the next person; I want to know I’ve been beaten by superior skill, not a superior toolset.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine a Killstreak type system in HL2:DM (referenced here simply because it’s the one online FPS in recent memory I did become particularly good at) because it would have just been ridiculous, doing well is one thing but to do so because I had advantages gifted to me that no one else could have would have been just plain daft.

In fact I would argue that in this sense it would make far more sense to have just a ‘Deathstreak’ system.

Give the struggling player a helping hand, give them a more powerful weapon temporarily or a bit of extra shield if their fragged 5 times in a row. That to me is balance, not vice versa.

 

Thanks to the following for their input for this article: [NERV] Pinguin, BosonElbeano & cbjoe.

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