The first question that has to be answered before we can fully discuss game balance, is of course: What is game balance? There is no correct definition for a balanced game, and many different people use different definitions. For example, in most fighting games, balance means that there are no characters that are vastly stronger than others, and that any character could beat another character. On Smogon, a site dedicated to competitive Pokemon, balance is defined by having the highest number of viable Pokemon in the metagame possible.

Generally I will refer to a balanced game as a game without a clear superior strategy or tactic, such as choosing a certain race or character. Furthermore, it’s important that there is no strategy that can easily win, but takes almost no skill. For example, many fighting games have a character that can easily defeat most players by spamming a single attack. This does not mean it’s the best character, as a skillful player could easily beat him, but it’s still harmful to the game balance.
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I’ve played a good deal of competitive games, both casually and competitive. However, I’m always the one that goes to forums, reading up about everything possible, and learning the very foundations of the game.

Sadly, that doesn’t mean I’m immediately good at the game. Very often I’ll know a whole lot about the competitive state, every detail, all possible moves, but I never get a lot of personal experience. I’m hesitant to play with others, simply because I’m scared that I’ll suck. Add to that the fact that I’m easily bored, and I end up knowing a lot of things about a lot of games, but still sucking at them.

One thing that competitive games always have trouble with is Game balance. I thought I’d write some blogs (or articles) on this for multiple reasons. First of all, it’s to help me put my thoughts on paper. I have a lot of opinions on the topic but I never write them down. Furthermore, it’s to help people get insight into the matter. Often people talk about game balancing while not knowing the fine details of it. And last of all, I hope that maybe some new developers (or people that mod existing games) read this, so that it can improve their games
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