When i think of the word ‘‘broken’’, i think of the ice cream machines at McNaldo’s.
When something is broken it usually implies that whatever is broken doesn’t function properly in the sense that it underperforms.
A broken ice cream machine, for example, is probably not dispensing enough ice cream at a time, or it’s not making any ice cream AT ALL.
When an ice cream machine is broken it doesn’t suddenly start dispensing twice the amount of ice cream it is supposed to, right? The implication of broken clearly implies it does the exact opposite of that; it’s NOT making enough ice cream.
So, then why is it we use the term ‘‘broken’’ to describe overtuned/overpowered characters, who perform better than they should? They’re the exact opposite of broken as they are clearly not underperforming or malfunctioning and failing their job.
I hereby suggest from now on, we all, collectively, will use the word ‘‘broken’’ to refer to underpowered characters that are in need of buffs.
Who’s with me?
1 Like
I think it’s coming from old school gaming terminology? In which if something is overtuned it’s clearly buggy, there’s an error, somewhere in a line in the code there’s a typo that makes a value 100 instead of 10 or something. So it’s flawed, it’s not functioning properly, it’s broken.
It’s similar to how in English people still regularly say they “beat the game” instead of “playing it through” or “finishing it.”
I’m not sure though it’s just what I always assumed.
2 Likes
I’m with you , but sadly i’m used to it , and sometimes i say “busted” , which is worse than the word “broken” , Sadge
Adding on to this line of thinking:
If something is too good it’s “breaking” the game by performing in an unintended way.
Mcdonald’s employees usually just say the ice cream machines broken cause it takes hours to be cleaned and that shuts whiny customers up.
Idk I just felt the need to share that after reading the OP.
If you think saying something isn’t working at any service related job in any way spares employees from rude, whiny customers, you’ve either never worked those jobs or you’ve been extremely lucky.
You can’t work a job like that and maintain much faith in humanity.
I’d say working retail made me lose faith in capitalism not humanity
2 Likes
And then see how many people love capitalism, even those same people whose lives are actively destroyed by it.
But I’ll agree anyways because f 
1 Like
We say broken as in brakes the game.
Broken is more in terms of balance.
Like a scale used to weigh an object. If something is too heavy it brakes the scale.
Uh, I mean, that’s still technically broken. Just imagine an ice cream machine that’s dumping out ice cream twice as fast – that could be making a mess, or causing ice creams to be too big, or maybe it’s overheating because of how fast its working. Uh I guess this is semantics, but, I’m just saying that “broken” doesn’t mean “doesn’t produce something.” Something can absolutely be broken and still be producing something.
We say “broken” regardless if a hero is over or underperforming because we’re talking about the health of the game, usually in terms of balance. If a character is overpowered, they’re breaking the game, because the rest of the game isn’t working as it should as a result. If one hero is dominating the meta, let’s say, then the game is revolving around their influence. That means we’re going to see games focus on the capabilities of that hero, which in turn means we’re going to see compositions based entirely around them – we’re only going to see characters that synergize well with that hero, or heroes that can effectively counter that hero/play into them. Anything less would be shooting your own chances of winning the game; you know the enemy is going to play this overpowered hero, so you have to play around that overpowered hero too.
And that creates an obviously broken state in the game. The ideal state of Overwatch, as any regular person could imagine it, would be an atmosphere where at least most of the cast sees regular play. An ideal state of Overwatch is one where you can exercise appropriate value from any hero. If that’s not true, because some heroes end up being stronger than others, than clearly we’re not in an ideal state – something isn’t working – something is broken.
So, “broken” as a term is completely appropriate for heroes that are overpowered, as much as it is to describe a character that is underpowered. Being “broken” simply means that they aren’t working as intended, regardless if they’re working too poorly or too well. A hero that’s too strong to not be playing on your team is one that’s breaking the game and causing harm to it, because the power of that character is far higher than the developers intended.
1 Like
Or it’s maybe that. I’m just basically guessing here based on what sounds to me the most plausible explanation. Maybe it’s more like what you said.
Broken typically means not functioning as intended
Overpowered used to mean just that, too strong at what it’s designed to do. It’s an overused term nowadays to describe something they personally dislike.
For me, something that would be overpowered would be Sigma’s Barrier at launch, or Zarya’s Self Bubble. It would not be something like Widow or Mercy’s Rez, it’d be more in depth of a conversation than a simple blanket term.