[1] An analysis of game balancing (featuring LOL, HEROES, and DOTA)

R.I.P. Kassadin, ~2015

In recent 5.4 patch of League of Legends, Kassadin and Veigar, the two most controversial AP champions, got HUGELY nerfed. As I watched over the changes and the reaction/feedbacks of several LOL communities, I realized that a lot of people are mistrusting and dissatisfied by Riot Games' way of game balancing.

However, I saw some of them having an illiberal vision towards Riot Games when discussing about balancing, and there were several reference of a 'nerf-centered' balacning, DOTA, an antipode of League in terms of balancing, was caught in my eyes. Also when I was looking at DOTA's balancing stats, I thought that it would be interesting to add Heros of Storm, a game that has recently launched as an open beta testing, and talk about its balancing too, so I also started looking at HEORES' balancing stats.

I have played and enjoyed these three games (LOL, DOTA, and HEROES) and recently playing League and have played HEROES for a bit, I won't be biased to a specific game while writing, but while I was researching about the three games' balancing, I felt that LOL's balancing is pretty inferior, comparing to others.

1. Game balancing of AOS genre

 There are three major methodology for game balancing of AOS genre.

 The first one is: A wins B, and B wins C, a transitive relation.
 Second one is: A wins B, B wins C, and C wins A, a non-transitive relation.

 Thrid one is: in 'a' environment, A wins B, and in 'b' environment, B wins A, an environment dependant relation.

I_Just_Cant_Express_This_In_One_Picture.png

 A transitive relation is applied in area of 'items' in AOS genre (except for HEROES).

 In LOL, a BF Sword is more powerful than a Doran's Blade, but it is way more expensive. A Crystallin Flask has more capacity than a Health Potion, but it is also more expensive. In the game that also cares about an inventory of players, DOTA, the efficiency of stat of items gets lower when the price gets higher, but in LOL it is the opposite. As the price gets higher, the price-stat efficiency gets higher, so it is clear to say that a transitive relation is applied.

 A non-transitive relation is applied in Champion matchups in each position.

 Still talking about LOL, it is hard to say that it is now, but a very long time ago, ADCs lose to Bruisers, Bruisers lose to tank, and tanks lose to ADCs. Tracking back to this reminiscense, this logic can be applied to now a bit, but it is more like that non-transitive relation is applied than it is environment dependant.

 An environment dependant relation can be explained a relationship between a Top laner and a Mid laner.

 Singed and Teemo are strong Champions, but they can get advantage if a lane is long. They struggle in Mid, which is a pretty short lane and when where you usually face a burst AP Mages.

This is actually a DOTA map, but Google brought me this...

 Games similar to LOL, DOTA, and HEROES, a.k.a. an AOS genre games, all apply those three elements. The thing that we have to pay attention is that element that makes the widest difference and that should be handled detailed is an environment dependant relation. So now let's talk about how each games are adjusting the environment dependant relation.

 2. A directional nature of game balancing

 Often when you're talking about the balancing of DOTA and LOL, we see the terms 'upward leveling' and' downward leveling'. Also when you pay attention to several League communiy, a usual sight is a compliant of a flaw of the 'downward leveling' and something like "The game will go down if this tendency of nerfing continues".

 But please, let's think first,

 - If you nerf Champion A's health to 50 from 100 and attack to 6 from 12,

 - and Champion B's health to 60 from 120 and attack to 5 from 10,

there still are some dis/advantages that are dependant to an environment, but ultimately there are no affection to a balance. Therefore, the 'upward leveling' or the 'downward leveling' are still the way of balancing, but doesn't make a problem of balancing.

 (But some might say that DOTA's 'upward leveling' method gives a difficulty to new users and LOL's 'downward leveling' method gives pre-existing users' depreciation of satisfaction.)

 But STILL, it is not enough to say that this cause a problem of balancing.

 So the directional nature of standarization does not matter. The core is Champion's charicteristic and equality.

 Since I'm writing this article based on LOL, to explain the 'charateristics' with the Champions of LOL.

Blitzcrank uses his Q to pull the opponent to his side to initiate, and uses his E to chain a CC,

but every skill of Master Yi is related to damage dealing except for his W- which means that he's a pure damage dealers.

 So what happens if these two fights? Considering that they're fighting at normal 20 minute situation with a right item build, it would be pretty difficult for Blitzcrank to win against Master Yi.

 Then which Champion would be better for the 'face-to-face' 5v5 situation? Assuming that the situation is pretty normal, Blitzcrank would be way better, since he can pull one opponent and execute one- further making a 4v5 teamfight situation.

 Like this, a characteristics of champions(characters) is a factor that an 'environment dependant relation' could work intimately.

 Equality could be found in pretty simple elements.

 Whatever the Champions are, they share the same items, the same area of vision, and like HEROES, almost every Heroes sharing the same movement speed, could be one 'equality'.

 Each game companies concern about which feature to be prominent and which point to be 'equal'. This is also the point where I complain about Riot Games' balancing.

The rise and fall of legendary LoL team, SKT T1 K

It has been several years since major League of Legends tournaments were fisrt held. As we seek through the past, there were a lot of teams rising and falling. From the first generation European and North American teams to Southeast Asian and Latin American teams, there are just numerous teams that are willing to compete against others and demonstrate their ability.

Team logos of 2014 LCS (Major ones only)

Team logos of 2014 OGN (Major ones only) 

But, because teams from Korea had put a lot of influence on the field of League of Legends in a few recent years and had been listed their name in top tier teams, it is pretty right to say that LoL teams could be classified as Korean or Non-Korean teams. (It actually was true!) (But, not now I think!)

Today, I want to talk briefly about the team that was the legend that established an unbeatable reputation and records, SKT T1 K.

The rise of a legend

It all started in 2013, when coach KkOma tried to make a secondary team of the one that have been sponsored by SKT Telecom, one of the 'big three' of Korean telecom providers. He tried to get a list of 5 out of Korean top rank 50 amateurs, who were evaluated by an ELO system (based on the win/loss in the game).

With all the expectations and wonders on the back, 5 selected players, consist of 3 amateur rookie players Bengi, Faker, and Piglet, as well as OGN veterans PoohMandu and Impact, started to dominate League of Legends Champions, a Korean pro-level LoL competitive league, consist of top 8 teams in Korea.

From the left: Impact, Piglet, Poohmandu, Faker, and Bengi.

The dominance

Making the fact that they are a newcomers to the pro scene colorless, they got 3rd place in their very first tournament. They then managed to win the Summer tournament of that year and even won their Winter tournament without losing any games out of 12, which is the one that I consider the best record of the whole League of Legends tournaments worldwide. (By the way, the opening video of the final match of the tournament is my most favorite video in the universe; it made my body to tremble at the first watch. It also let me know who Imagine Dragons are!)

Following through, not only being a champion of LoL Champs in Korea, SKT T1 K spreaded their ambition to become more globally outstanding. In 2013, they won the Season 3 World Championship held at the Staples Center. Competing against 13 other teams, SKT T1 K was absolutely demolishing, letting the foreign teams to get only a single win against them (it was the Chinese team called OMG).


Here is a montage of SKT T1 K when they're at the best!

The fall

SKT T1 K's Season 3 World Championship team profile picture

However, maintaining the seat of a king forever is a pretty unreachable thing for everything. Despite of their absolute dominance in their abilities to win, reputation, and amazing records, SKT T1 K started to fall after losing the Season 4 World Championship qualifiers(the game that decides which team in which region would go to S4 World Championship). The post season champion being absent in another championship was a pretty awkward thing, and indeed, a new champion, Samsung Galaxy Blue, had arised.

The main specific reason of a fall of the champion is, in my opinion, is a change of meta. Normal people who are playing League for fun would never know, but I still want to present some advanced knowledges.

A mere, however a still important changes of several champions- mostly called "Nerfing a champion", would change a playstyle of competitive games hugely. Since there is a 'tailing back' relationships between several commonly used team compositions (such as AOE comp > Bruiser comp > Poking comp > AOE comp), even a bit of change on a champion would intimidate a balance.

There is also a meta in each lanes; the main thing that I wanted to say is that the main reason of a fall is the change of meta in mid-lane. Faker, who's mostly called God (somehow an Unkillable Demon King), is great at playing every champion, but especially Assassin types. Since Riot Games nerfed most Assassins that he used in Season 3 World Championship, such as Ahri, Fizz, and Zed, the meta had slightly changed to Poking types, such as Ziggs and Xerath.

SKT T1 K was dominant in all lanes, but the most outstanding carry was Faker, the mid-laner. Since his power and dominance had lowered and other lanes were also dominated by other newcomers, it was evident that they will soon fall down. (Online games are extremely sensitive to ages, so the one that dominate are usually youngs.)


Something else to say...

The games that were played at their peak are pretty jaw-dropping. They were absolutely dominant on every single part of the game, from lane phase to strategies. Since they are dominating in all three lanes, it is much harder for the opponents to actually win the game- they are carrying disadvantages gained during lane phase to teamfight phase, and SKT T1 is better at teamfight too!

I mean, how can this happen in the "World Championship"?
7.3k gold lead in 16 minutes and already 2-0.

This post is more like a reminiscence than an introduction, but really, as a Korean studying abroad in America who plays, watches, analyzes, studies, and loves League of Legends, the proudness that I felt was, immense. I continued playing and develop my League knowledge because of the motivation that a legendary pro team had given to me, just like any other soccer kids getting inspired by FC Barcelona. I really want to see, since definitely not a small amount of people are interested in this subject, this kinds of games should be respected as sports, but an electronic sports, an e-Sports.

What is this game called 'Dawngate'?

            Now is the time when numerous online games are coming up to the surface. Due to a rising popularity of online gaming and its money-gathering ability throughout the world, game distributors are worried if they’re too late to take part in.

(Check this video for more information!)

What is MOBA?

            The hottest potato in the world currently, the majority among several genres of games, also the one that defines the world’s most popular online game, “League of Legends,” is MOBA.

MOBA is a genre of an online computer game, abbreviated from “Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.” It has been about more than 15 years that online multi-playing game started to get a spotlight (Starcraft), but about a decade later, a team-playing centered games came up on the surface. Like the word says, “a Battle Arena”, players gather up as a team and fight against another group of players for a victory. It seems pretty simple, but there are way too much things to be fluent with to be a ‘pro’, some are even harder that you can’t be a ‘beginner’ before you spend time playing about 20 to 30 hours.

(One of the hardest, beginner-unfriendly MOBA game, DOTA 2)

          This kind of games are also categorized as an “AOS genre”, which is a sub-category of MOBA. AOS stands for “Aeon of Strife”, a name of an extremely popular map from Starcraft. The type of gameplay of this specific map itself originated a new genre. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplayer_online_battle_arena/)


What is Dawngate?

“Dawngate” is also an AOS game, distributed by EA. Yes! That EA. Famous for their soccer video game and simulator, FIFA series.

          As I had been a closed alpha and a close beta tester, I want to introduce a bit more about this game and how it became now.

The fallacy of Dawngate

The news about Dawngate began to come up during April 2013, and the testing period began on May 24, 2013. The community beta, which is the part that I mostly spent time in, and the open beta was released on May 19, 2014.

Just like any other games, there were a lot of bugs and incompleteness in the game at the beginning. As time passed, some testers said that the progress of growth of the game was pretty smooth, but the others say that it was like a graph of a constant value. To be clear, new players weren’t increasing at the moment. Though, there was a reason. The advertisement of the game had happened only once at Gamescom, a famous game exhibition at August 2014. Also the manpower, according to a rumor, was insufficient, which means that EA had done nothing on growing their game.

The consequence of fallacy


On November 4, 2014, it was announced that the head dev is shutting down their game within 90 days because the game was not shaping up as the distributor had hoped. About the word “not shaping up as they had hoped”, one comment said that “It's not even out of beta yet. EA has literally done almost nothing for the game. And then they're surprised when it's not making waves” (http://kotaku.com/ea-gives-up-on-dawngate-their-take-on-league-of-legend-1654611218).

I wondered why a lot of ‘an ambition-full of dominating LOL and DOTA’ type of game are descending. Dawngate is based on an awesome lore, creative mechanisms, and most importantly, defined as MOBA and AOS genre, just like LOL and DOTA. I wondered why LOL is on the top of the most popular game list for about 2 years. I still got no clear reason yet. It is evident that one factor is an insufficient support just like Dawngate.


Conclusion

Another factor maybe would be the gameplay that wasn’t interesting enough. This is what I felt while playing several testing games during the community beta. (The most annoying part was the jungling- it had no point at all, and the routes were messy as hell, if you know what I meant.) I’m going to go in-depth about the gameplay problem in the next post- the difference between two successful MOBA games, LOL and DOTA2, from Dawngate. Anyways, there still are other factors that I didn’t see. Maybe experts will come up with more idea.