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Balancing is an important factor in online multiplayer games. Characters that perform better than others will always be picked, while those that are underperforming will only get picked as a joke. In order to make every character a viable option, the devs release balance changes from time to time, to reign in those meta-picks, and buff the bad ones. On the topic of game balance, Marvel Rivals devs shared their approach in a recent interview.
“It’s All About Creating a Good Experience For Our Players”
The folks from Metro, a popular British news hub, had an interview with Guangyun Chen, the game director for Marvel Rivals. After talking about the game’s initial success, a question about game balance arose.
When asked how important is game balance for them, and whether they plan to address characters who stand out as quickly as possible or not, Chen answered that they plan to closely monitor the performance of all the heroes, over different game modes and scenarios. “Once we have some more detailed analysis and through thoughtful consideration, we’ll definitely make necessary balances and adjustments.” We recently had major balance changes, with the release of Season 1, proving the point.
“It’s all about creating a good experience for our players. It hasn’t been that long since our launch, so we’re going to continue to monitor everything and make sure everything feels right.”
Marvel Rivals Devs Approach to Game Balance Focuses on the Broader Picture
Moving on, Metro asked what is NetEase’s approach to game balance in general, and what they plan on doing about strong heroes in the competitive scene versus more casual games. The Game Director said that they plan on looking at the broader picture, and not to focus simply on casual or tournament play. Their goal is for every kind of player to enjoy the game in their own way.
“Additionally, we’ve also introduced a ban/pick system in higher tier ranked matches and in tournaments. So, this adds another layer of strategy for competitive players, giving them more choices in how they want to approach every single game.”
It is worth noting that role-lock is a common feature in games like Marvel Rivals, but the devs would rather for players to experiment with all kinds of wacky combinations. “We’ll be taking a little bit more of a Marvel-inspired approach,” said Guangyun Chen, and we applaud them for it.
The game is about Marvel superheroes after all, and it should focus more on zany team-ups, rather than ending up as yet another competitive online shooter. We have enough of those already.