ABSTRACT
The reality is that game balance means different things in different contexts. There is a pattern to its use, however, so the readers can at least offer a functional understanding of what people mean when they refer to a game’s balance. In most cases, if a player is challenged at the level of their current ability, the peoples call the game balanced. If the game is too hard or too easy for its intended audience, or if it has sudden difficulty spikes where it gets much harder or much easier in a short period of time, game may not be balanced. In multiplayer competitive games, the peoples call a game balanced if all players have a similar chance to win when the game starts, assuming equal player skill. Unbalanced games have an inherent bias that gives an unfair advantage to a player based on randomly determined turn order, starting position, player’s chosen character, class, faction, or some other initial condition.
