Wintergrasp is not broken or boring, it’s just balanced poorly.
TL:DR: Wintergrasp is a map that hard-favors defense for a multitude of reasons. While the asymmetric design of offense vs defense is going to favor one side over the other usually, it is in the designers best interest to make a BG that doesn’t incentivize one side to AFK quit the second they phase in on the disfavored side.
Because Reasons: In game design, while deep systemic alteration tend to craft better experiences, they can also cause more problems. Quick fixes cost less money, and Blu/Actvsn, like any wise company cares more about a quick effective fix than an elaborate rework for a myriad of reasons. This quick fix will help solve a major gameplay balance inequity without much labor.
But Why For?: Blizzards has designed regular BGs to last about 10-15 minutes, while epic BGs tend to last 20-30. They’ve done this for practical reason after years of player testing. The days of 7-day AVs is over, and while I yearn for those days, frankly it’s probably a good decision.
The vast majority of players are not conscious decision makers regarding the macro of battle in BG, and they usually prefer to hit what’s in front of them. This makes the design of a battlegroups, specifically where people spawn and how long it takes them to get access to power, extremely important to the balance of a BG. Wintergrasp is not a failure of concept design, it’s a failure of power imbalance.
Problemos:
The East Fortress Vehicle Workshop (EFVW) is directly beneath the graveyard. This allows the defending team respawn, then immediately pick up a vehicle (a catapult if they’re not an idiot) and mow down the offensive forces a mere minute after respawning.
Defense has two workshops that they effectively own all game. this gives them a pool of power that is a 30% increase over the other team that requires no defending, and they can use that power to knock down southern towers, that’s 8 easily deployable siege engines granted by simply capping a single southern workshop.
How To Fix: EFVW removal would require defenders to either run across the map to get a siege engine to protect their west wall, which is far from their graveyard, or deploy them directly to defend on their west wall. There is a third option to run across the base, then drag their siege engine back to east wall, but that costs time. all three options should be more viable than a single option of spawning and grabbing a catapult. Additionally, it would half the power discrepancy to 1/6th.
Another Option: Defenders Always Respawns at Base
This would require even less labor on Blu’s part and allow offense to better control the workshops out of the base, shunting all defenders into the front lines of the fight, rather than forcing them to camp the back-end workshops. That’s boring. Good designers want to push people into conflict. Making them strike having them force go out of their way to shorten the countdown should be a conscious but effective decision, not a boring chore. I do not think this is a better balance choice, however, because it would make east wall overprotected and west all under-protected.
