* Evaluating Competitive Game Balance With Restricted Play *

[Rman Virgil]

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I buried this resource in my "Oddities" thread but on reflection thought it perhaps deserves its own seperate place.

I came across the following publication in 2012 out of the Uni of Wash - gamers in the Computor Science and Engineering Dept. tackling a great, on going, challenge.

It's fairly short but quite comprehensive and I have found it useful.

It's entitled Evaluating Competitive Game Balance with Restricted Play.

If you're interested in game balancing, its insights are well worth an investment of a few minutes to read and then ponder in the context of WZ.

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[Per]

Or just clone NoQ eight times and pit each of him against each other in a map like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbRSgOVVaMg (listen to the explanation, then skip to eight minutes in).

[Rman Virgil]

Or just clone NoQ eight times and pit each of him against each other in a map like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbRSgOVVaMg (listen to the explanation, then skip to eight minutes in).

That's a thought.

Made me think of brawler contests. Like competitive Virtua Fighter. Combatants engaging alternate "styles" having a matrix of over 500 different combos pitted against each other. Then the divergent mindsets: playing for fun to win and playtesting to uncover flaws, come what may, even losing.

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[Rman Virgil]

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An other thought occured to me vis-a-vis the Virtu Fighter ref.

In it's last iteration there were, iirc, 20 distinct fighters / styles. At over 500 combos each, that's over 10,000 combos. Did I sit down, study and comit to memory that number of combos to become proficient ? No way ! By the act of playing, over time, I was able to intuit this vast domain of possibilities, call upon specific combos instantly and approriately in battle. An astonishing testament to the game devs design prowess - much more than any accomplished proficiency on my part, I truly think.
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