Balanced does not equal fun

General Discussion
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I keep seeing these threads, mostly about Doomfist, Mercy, Widowmaker, and Brigitte, and the big tagline is that “X Hero is balanced” or “Quit whining” or “Adapt/Get over it.” There’s also the big ones telling people to stop complaining about a hero and telling them to try playing those heroes if they’re so OP.

I just feel like a lot of people forget that this is a GAME. NOUN - A form of play or sport. PLAY. NOUN - Activity engaged in for enjoyment and recreation.

ENJOYMENT.

FUN.

THIS IS A GAME. IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN. JUST BECAUSE A HERO IS BALANCED DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE FUN.

A balanced game that isn’t fun isn’t much of a game, is it?

Take Doomfist. People complain he’s OP. Frankly, he’s not. He, on average, has a relatively normal, if not weak, level of eliminations, damage, etc. But that doesn’t mean he is healthy for the game. He has three abilities directly tied to rather harsh CC, an instakill, an ultimate that is a near-guaranteed kill on some heroes and a near-guaranteed whiff on everyone else. He may be fun to play, but he is dreadful to face in a fight.

Mercy, right now, is more or less balanced. She has decent, consistent healing, what is near unanimously agreed upon to be the most powerful regular ability in the game, immense mobility and survivability, made fair by her so-so ultimate and extremely low damage output.

However, Mercy players very commonly find her unfun to play, as she has no shining moment. It USED to be her Rez (Sparkling effects, powerful voiceline, and an undeniably impactful moment), but now she has no real moment to look forward to. Every other hero can get kills or do SOMETHING cool (Sleeps, EMPs, D.Va bombs, Shatters, etc.), and it’s fun! It makes you feel good! But Mercy doesn’t have that or any real woohoo moment to look forward to, so she feels dull. Her mobility is still fun, but she doesn’t have one of those great moments. Not to mention her E, which I don’t think anyone could actually say they enjoy having in the game.

Brig is, judging by her numbers, still overtuned, but good god does anyone actually enjoy fighting a Brig? Tanks’ lives are unbearable because of the stuns, anyone with a cancelable ult hates her, she can bully supports, and she leaves a bitter taste in your mouth due to the lack of much mechanical skill or even game sense required to have a huge impact. Hell, even Mercy can be screwed if she’s caught unawares, but Brig has a 600 hp shield (Which is a chore to burst down before you even get to the armored baguette underneath) so she has very little risk. Even if you add another second onto her bash or tune down inspire, she still isn’t going to be much fun to have in the game.

Just because a hero is technically balanced does not mean that they are fun, and in a game, fun should be regarded just as highly if not higher as balance. Even if you perfectly balance a game by tinkering with the numbers, it doesn’t mean the game is fun. People need to stop claiming that heroes are OP when they’re simply frustrating, and people also need to stop telling people to quit complaining about the state of a balanced hero when the hero is very much unfun to have in the game.

TL;DR - Just because a hero is balanced doesn’t mean they should be left alone, as they can be unfun/frustrating to play as (ex. Mercy) or against (ex. Doomfist).

EDIT - Just to clarify my thoughts: Even though heroes like Brigitte and Doomfist may be fun to play as, it is unfair for that one person’s fun to trump the six other people’s fun and ruin it due to that hero being so frustrating and unfun to face.

74 Likes
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Perfectly said. I dont think its to much to ask for really.

5 Likes
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Agreed.
Thing is fun is subjective…

What one thinks is fun, may be unfun to another…

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Can we balance the game first, and then address the “boring” or “anti fun” heroes?

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Well, if you remove bridg/DF from the game, then you are removing the fun of people that play those heroes.

But **** them, amirite?

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If we’re removing heroes that aren’t fun to play against, can we add Hanzo and Widow to that list? Oh and Genji.

Because dying to Dragonblade every time you don’t have Transcendence or Sound Barrier is so much different to Ana/Zen getting bodied by DF ult.

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I mean really think of the amount of people that are in that situation. So 6 people don’t have fun because of those heroes but lets see… ohhhhh 1-2 person had fun so is that what matters right?

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Doomfist is awesome, he’s hard to play well, a complete waste of space if played at anything less than that. He misses one skill and he’s dead.

Mercy is great, she has a very low mechanic skill floor but has big impact. She requires very good game sense to play at the highest levels.

WM is fine, she’s a sniper. I can’t think of a single FPS where people DIDN’T complain about snipers.

Brig is indeed a bit much if she gets in range, like you hear all the time, she’s one of the best tanks in the game. Just sayin’…

THey’re all fun for different folks, just not you. Play something you like and let others play theirs, that’s how we get so many players.

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I agree Mercy isnt that fun. But you are making bias which Brigitte isnt fun to fight. She is pretty much fun to use.
Would that mean fun heroes arent fun to fight? Then what do you do? That means making a hero fun ruins fun.

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First of all, fun is subjective. Second, a hero being relatively balanced tends to make it fun for the people playing against said hero as well.

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I don’t agree with everything you said, but I’ll give you a like for reminding us that good balance =/= good design.

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0.3 to 0.2 is never a fun balance

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What?

Fair gameplay. Makes for a good experienced.

Equal chances. Makes for a good experience.

Sportsmanship. Makes for a good experience.

Looking to not balance is asking for something to be abused. Meaning you are asking ti have someone hover over you and your team with an advantage. Or you are looking to have an unfair advantage in a game.

There is rules and regulations for any sort of professional game. There is the constant neverending goal of keeping things balance.

Balance is so important for the experience here. By saying “no balance needed” you are hindering your own experiences trying to make things difficult for yourself or for others.

Lets face it. If this was PVE no one would be complaining. But this is PVP everyone should be on the same starting line and skill coupled with experience should be the determining factor to who wins.

But this is not the case and more often then not a loss in Overwatch only makes you feel like you got cheated out of a win.

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Because imbalance is inherently anymore fun than balance when every major sport uses a symmetrical rule set to level the playing field as much as possible? Subjectivity is not an argument, mic drop.

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“Fun is subjective. Thats not what a games supposed to be!”
/s

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Your argument makes zero sense. You’re saying Brigitte should be nerfed because she’s unfun to play against (while being fun to play). And that Mercy needs buffs because she’s unfun to play (while being perfectly fine to play against). Does a hero have to be fun to play or fun to play against? It can’t be both.

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Wow, a single scenario that happens, 1 time for every 10000 matches.

Brigitte is unfun to play against if you play any member of dive.

I main pharah and it’s horrible to play her when in the enemy team there is Widowmaker or McCree. So they should be nerfed because I hate playing against those heroes.

What a stupid logic.

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Mitrovarr said it best;

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It certainly is meant to be fun.

But the Devs have also focused more on making the game competitive. In this, it is healthier that all heroes be balanced to be useful in at least few situations.

A lot of people find competition not fun, but that’s also a fundamental piece in a lot of games. Competition.

Oh yeah, and fun is also subjective. A lot of people find Doomfist fun with his punches, Brig fun with punishing closerange enemies, Pharah fun in flying with Mercy, Junkrat fun with hitting those nades. These are a lot of things people complain about here.

Let’s be fair and honest here, do you really care about how everyone enjoys the game? Or how you do?

Overwatch’s foundation is inclusion: to allow every person integrate their own unique playstyles to participate in victory. It was made with both gameplay and even lore in mind. The colorful roster offers close to all playstyles people can enjoy and explore, like the story of Overwatch is built around the idea to accept Omnics in society.

In the end, the people that love to play as these heroes you dislike, that have dedicated time to succeed with them, deserve to play their way as much as you do yours. So long as they play seriously.

And you want to take that away? For the sake of ‘fun’? The game has fun and inclusion in mind, but the nature of a game is also competition, which is a crux to the frustration people have with the game. In order to win, you simply need to take time and be better.

TLDR: Balance is more important than fun. Since the game involves competition, every player has a right to win with whoever they connect to in a personalized game like Overwatch.

3 Likes