"You are the Dev" Issue #1: Fix the Problem or the Perception?

Though I'm taking a break for a bit soon (see sig), I had this idea for player discussions that I want to bring to the forums before I go. So here it is:

You are The Developer: The Kobayashi Maru and You
In this series, I'm going to present "impossible" situations that you, the hypothetical lead developer, must solve. Note that there is no right answer, I just want to gain insight into various viewpoints as well as open people up to some perspective on their own concerns. Ready? Here we go.

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Issue #1: Fix the Problem or the Perception?

You're the lead developer (Go, you!) on the hottest and latest MMO. Let's call it Council of Hotties, or CoH for short. This game, like most MMOs, allows players to highly customize their characters' abilities and potential in both combat and life skills in the game. As is developer policy, one of your devs routinely datamines to see which character builds perform well and which don't. Additionally, your Community team patrols the forums for player feedback.

After a weekend of wild parties, strippers, and Irish Carbombs (or, as it's called in the business, a Dev's Wednesday), you come in to see that you have three emails all marked urgent. (Note: Relevant information not actually in the email will be in Red.) The following situations are outlined:

• Shepard's Crook Overpowered! After checking out the stats on our latest patch, it appears that our intentional changes to the Shepard's Crook fighting style have backfired! The set is overly powerful and can readily perform two to three times more effectively than any other individual class. This is a major problem, as this makes Shepard's Crook the best melee fighting class hands-down. Edit: Fortunately, players seem to be oblivious to this. There has been no increase in use of Shepard's Crook, no upswing in success on missions due to its use, and players don't talk about it on the forums. Still, I'd like to stop the issue before it starts. We need to invest time into fixing this problem. Sincerely ~ Your main Powers-Development Lady
  
  
• Players Irate About Cannon of Justice! The entire forums are alight with players being upset the Cannon of Justice magical spell. The current player notion is that the Cannon is easily the strongest move in the game and readily overpowers any other class. Players are posting angry stories about how their builds are obsolete since everyone "knows" that Cannon of Justice is the only build to make. I know that Powers-Development Lady already datamined and proved, conclusively, that this power is perfectly balanced (This is true), but they are calling for its nerf anyway. When I tell them that we've verified this, they don't believe me and demand that Powers-Development Lady break down the exact numbers of how balanced it is. Their anger is palpable and has brought the community's productivity almost to a halt. We need to invest time into fixing this problem. Sincerely ~ Kang, Community Coordinator, First Rank
  
  
• The Meekling Power is underpowered! After talking with the small community that uses the Meekling Power, I've come to believe that this ability is genuinely underpowered. They've had one of their players, Arcanasberg, break down the exact numbers and has proven that this power is underperforming. As you know, the Meekling Power affects one's ability to crochet properly. Crochet is one of many abilities in the "Staying at home and doing nothing" sub-section of the game that includes, cooking, blogging, and posting hypothetical situations on random forums. Though we've spent a lot of time in this style of play, datamining has proven that only about 6% of players even finish the "Stay at Home" tutorial section, and even less actually play it. This means that even though the players know its broken and can prove it, very few voices actually complain about it. Nonetheless, they are right and know it. We need to invest time into fixing this problem. Sincerely ~ Tim, Community Bro
  

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Your "Powers" team is comprised of four people. When all four work together, they can, with an 80% success rate, perfectly balance a power or power set once per patch. You patch once a month.

Given that all three issues would require interaction with your Powers team in some way, shape, or form, how would you assign your team for the next patch? What about the next three patches?

Why did I have to go into a field as serious business as video games?

I would put 3 people on problem #1, 1 person on problem #3, then when problem #1 is solved, I would move them onto something new to announce and allow the players to soon forget about #2.

As a player I'd say fix # 3 first; as a dev I'd fix # 1 first then # 3. # 2 will go away (or just show everyone the charts/spreadsheets saying everything is balanced; if marketing (whoever) will allow it).

Put half on 1 and 3, #2 being balanced already.

First off, I'd wonder why a team of four could only handle one power a month...


I would put two people on #1, two on #2, and get both of those problems solved. Unknown to the population problems are still problems that would most likely cause a ripple effect on newer content if they weren't fixed. I would also keep in contact with the small but dedicated group that is affected by #3, to assure them that the problem is known. I would probably get that fix in with a smaller patch when it's done, but it wouldn't be a high priority unless there were no other pending big problems.

I'd focus on fixing #1 first (i.e. in the next patch). Nerfing the set before players start to really use it a lot will minimize the sore feelings.

#3 would be my second priority, I generally feel that if a set is under-performing it should be bought up to speed when possible, but it I consider dealing with over-performing sets to be a higher priority (regardless of relative player numbers). Importantly I would not tell Players I'm rebalancing it until I know I have the time to do it, ideally it would be in the next patch but it could get pushed back by a higher priority such as rebalancing Dual Carp Melee to fix the Haddock exploit.

#2 I'd pretty much ignore. If the data-mining shows that it is good then waiting for the meta-game to sort it out is probably the best option. Worst case I'd give the meta-game a nudge by making a flashy, but ultimately inconsequential change to the power to encourage players to try doing things without it. Of course I'm assuming here that the data-mining is 100% accurate, something that seems to be implied in your hypothetical but that I would not rely on in real life.

You guys don't think like devs. The answer is obvious.

Ignore #1 until it's a problem. If a powerset destroys a forest in 3 seconds, but no one is there to provide a link, then it didn't happen.

Ignore #2 and furthermore enlist Arcanaberg to bolster your case. By doing so you can...wait for it....

Ignore #3 because you've set Arcanaberg on the path of disproving the masses and proving her the superior intellect once again. If she continues to bother you about it, troll her in PMs by telling her you don't believe in her math juju and prefer instead a iterative process to balancing.

I'd increase the art staff to animate the problems away.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Split your time between fixing #1 and #3.

In the patch notes announce unspecified "balance" changes in reference to #2 as a result of player feedback and watch as everyone goes on about how the power is now useless as you've over-nerfed it.

#1 needs to actually be addressed by the whole team. It has the capacity to spin completely out of control once the players realize what is going on.

#2 can be solved with simple infiltration. Since you know for a fact that the power is balanced, have the data in front of you, and start a few forum posts by Newbie72. Newbiw72 makes the case that X is better than Cannon of Justice, and post damage, DPS, end use, etc from the charts, stating "I have carefully researched how much my Blaster of Congruence does, and it is the same or better than Cannon of Justice." Since the data holds true, at least one geek supa playa should be won over, and with a little forum judo the entire argument will be taken down.

#3 you're pretty much done for here. You have the choice of spending a lot of time trying to solve an unused, and flavor adding portion of the game, or not. One possible solution is to solve the thing by throwing an extra bone to the people farming the stay at home stuff by way of an extra stay at home drop only available from this one unbalanced task. Simple add to the game, do not have to take the whole team, and will not affect gameplay.

This way you have employed all your team on the real problem, still unknown to players. You have a strategy for nerfing the agro on the fake problem, and you are being kind to those who are really enjoying something....strange but beautiful to them. Be sure to let the people farming this task know that you did this on purpose, because you realized your error. sometimes the easiest way to say you are sorry is to say you are sorry and give a gift. Especially if it is easy to do and does not affect the other 99.99% game balance.

This would give you an 80% chance to solve problem 1 before anyone realizes it is a problem. even if it does not solve it completely, it has to make it better when people do discover it, and your team has their work detailed, so fixing it in the next month's patch should be easier. Problem 2 can be handled with a few forum posts by one person (team leader?0 a couple times a day. Problem 3 is a simple add, borrowing from previous adds, taking virtually no time. So you solve all problems in one months time. You are ready for next month's three (four, five...?) problems.

GL. PS I am available for hire.

As this is "Council of Hotties" I know where my players' priorities truly are: Focus the devs' energy on the jiggle-physics-based alternate-advancement system that'll be available to all archetypes. Nudge it so the best jiggles appear in conjunction with the Meekling.. but intentionally design it so there fails to be any requisite backlash jiggle at all from the Cannon of Justice, and make sure the Shepherd's Crook's animations obstruct the view.


This way:
- Your well-distracted male player base will never notice that Shepard's Crook is overpowered, as they'll be avoiding it as they fully umm... embrace the new jiggle system. The players that aren't impressed by that sort of thing will be too annoyed by the juvenile behavior of every other member on their team to bother with doing any of the math for at least a few issues. Heck, some die-hards Shephards will be DEMANDING changes to their beloved set just to get the full effect of the jiggle system. You've got some time before the overpower is noticed. Arcanasberg will be bribed into silence with pie.

- The outrage over the "Cannon of Justice" will be explained as an "issue with the bounce coefficient tied to the power's stats." The initial patch will include special code that's triggered several days after the patch, giving the illusion of a "hotfix." The first fix nerfs the cannon by 25%... with jiggle working until players zone. The next fix buffs it by 25%, but to no avail. Finally, with the numbers recalibrated back to normal, jiggle works. Again, Arcanasberg is bribed into silence with pie. Again, all players rejoice.


- Well, all players that aren't busy grinding "Meekling," that is. Sure it is grossly underpowered, and maybe someday they'll even notice, but right now, these new meekers are the happiest players in your game. Heck, now that datamining shows that 80% of your playerbase are "MEEKING OUT," you'll be able to allocate all the resources you want into fixing it. You might even dedicate an expansion to it!


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I'll post a more serious response later. This takes some more thought.

My own answer changes everytime I think about it. Currently, it's 2, 1, 3. While "working" on #2, I devote one person from the team to talking to the player base. and player base. This will slow the time when #1 is completed, but no one notice's it anyway. The game should be about making people happy, not about being balanced. If people haven't noticed yet, it's a potential problem, not an actual one. I don't want to prioritize a potential problem.

#3 would simply come last as a matter of profit vs. resources. Cold, but true.

I think what's very important that some people may not be realizing is that it seems to me, from the information I've used, that any answer that isn't #2 will result in cries of "The Devs don't care!!1111". Is that a trade-off people are okay with?

Well you forgot to put a time of year on this so I'm going to say its May. I'm going to take a gamble. First I convince HR to hire on two unpaid interns for the summer from a university either graduating seniors or soon to be seniors who hopefully have played the game(big + but really only useful in case of equally qualified applicants always take the most qualified). This works out for both us and them. They get experience in their field of study. I get about 3 months, beginning to middle of May till beginning of August, of work out of them. They may need a little extra supervision at first but thats okay.

May: The entire powers team is focused on problem #1. The interns aka Code Monkeys are assigned to problem #1 as they are hired, working with 4 experienced people they should catch on quick. Last week of May the Lead Powers person moves on to problem #3 preparing it to be worked on next in June. Last to increase the perception of community interaction the Code Monkeys will start posting a weekly "Life inside the Studio" post in the forums describing their experiences each week. It will be posted every Monday after being reviewed to prevent any confidential information leaks for example that Shepherd's Crook is being nerfed. If the Code Monkeys do a good job they might earn praise, fritos, tab, and mountain dew.

June: Powers Lead and 1 other member of the power team work with the Code Monkeys on problem #3. Having a fresh pair of eyes on it might lead to inspiration which in turn could lead to an innovative solution to make the meekling power more interesting as well as more powerful. The other two power team members will start work on problem #2. Code Monkeys continue their weekly post with hints that they are working on a currently underperforming set.

July: Full Powers Team and Code Monkeys on problem #2. The goal is to either bunt with the nerf bat or take another popular powerset that has some underperforming powers and improve them so that Cannon of Justice is no longer seen as the only way to play. Giving players more options is always better than taking them away its just that taking them away is easier, more cost effective, and more likely to succeed. The Code Monkeys, unless one or both of them turn out to be indispensable, genius Mensa Monkeys, will finish up their time with the company with their last forum post being a goodbye post.

"leak" information that #1 is overpowered and watch all the people complaining about #2 complain about #1 instead.

Then fix number #1 and by the time that is done most people would have forgot about #2.