User:Brizingr5/Sandbox/Balance Concepts

Yay for hopefully thought-provoking blogs!

The statement "Warframe is unbalanced" comes as no new concept to many players, but what does this mean? Look at the comment section of any of the frames and you'll probably find a few comments saying "this is OP" or "I wish this were more useful" followed by a heated discussion of balance. But before we dive into these debates, I think it's important to have a proper understand of our own point of view

I think that before we can claim something is unbalanced and something needs to be done about it, we should ask a few questions to justify ourselves and get a bigger picture of how things fit together. Just some food for thought. Maybe if you even want to get super meta, you could ask yourself why you're even going to voice your opinion? Do you want to get better at forming your own opinions? Do you want to feel out how others feel on the subject? Would you like to find a solution? How much hinges on the success of you achieving your goal?
 * 1) In what terms is this feature unbalanced?
 * 2) *Does it give you a significant advantage over other players?
 * 3) *Is it accessible to all players?
 * 4) *How hard/easy is it to execute this feature?
 * 5) **Prerequisites? Post-requisites?  Active requirements?
 * 6) What impact does this feature have on the game?
 * 7) *How many parts of the game is it strong against?
 * 8) *Weak against?
 * 9) *How powerful is it against these parts?
 * 10) *Is it oppressive to other strategies?
 * 11) **Is this the players fault or the features fault?
 * 12) **Is it possible to ignore the strategy and still successfully play the game?
 * 13) What impact does this feature have on other players?
 * 14) *Does it feel oppressive to other players?
 * 15) *Are other players appreciative of people taking on the role, or do they get annoyed when they see people doing it? Why?
 * 16) *How would teams compensate for the lack of this feature? What kind of features may spring up to replace this this new demand?
 * 17) How does this feature impact how players feel about the rewards in this game?
 * 18) *Does this feature take the fun out of the game?
 * 19) **In whose eyes? (Some people find interactive things fun, while others find theory-crafting and tactical approaches of minimal interactive effort fun)
 * 20) *Does it diminish the pride of accomplishment?
 * 21) *Does it relieve the stress of grind?
 * 22) And lastly, what is the goal of the games design?
 * 23) *Are we trying to create simple, mindless fun?
 * 24) *Are we trying to create an environment that promotes users individual skill and increase their mechanics?
 * 25) *Are we trying to capture a "realistic" environment?
 * 26) *What other design goals are held as important when looking at the game as a whole?
 * 27) **Clarity? Counterplay? Fast paced? Tactical decision making? Predictive planning?