The Code – Part 3

1. Do whatever it takes to win
2. Be respectul to your opponent
3. Game balance is irrelevant
   We have already established that when you are in a game, the only purpose is to win (unless it is a practice game), likewise whenever you are NOT in game the only purpose is to learn and improve. Meanwhile I’ve also mentioned how important it is to not be influenced by emotions because it impairs our ability to accomplish both of those two tasks. As most of you have probably experienced, game balance is one of the primary sources of emotional influence, every player will at some point feel that the race they play is to weak in some sense or that a specific build by another race is too strong. Not only do these discussions take up massive amounts of space on teamliquid or other forums, it is a constant source of rage on the ladder and a means which most of us use to rationalize our losses at some point.
   Now Starcraft 2 is a complex game and it will never ever be truly balanced. Not to mention that the game works on asymmetrical balance which means that even if the game were completely balanced overall a certain race is meant to have an advantage in a certain situation, on a certain map or at a certain stage in the game. The only thing we as players need to know though is that all of that is absolutely irrelevant.
   There was a famous debate on state of the game between IdrA and Day[9] about the balance of Zerg. Nearly everyone jumped into the fanboy boats instantly and declared that one or the other “crushed” the other in the debate. The fact of the matter is they were both talking about completely different points. IdrA was making the argument that zerg was not balanced and too weak. Day[9] was making the argument that maybe zerg is but unless you work at Blizzard it is irrelevant, and Day[9] was right.
   Even if we ignore the fact that it is almost impossible to ever actually talk objectively about balance because it is so hard to even measure balance, you can’t say that race x won y% of gsl finals and is thus stronger than the others. Because you need huge samples of data and with the metagame constantly shifting and there being patches and what not getting an actual read on game balance is near impossible. Imagine for a second though that you had 100% proof that your race is weaker than the others (unless you change race every time one is “op” which would be stupid since the next patch might change it back anyway) what are you going to do with that information? Unless you are a developer at Blizzard knowing the balance of the game has zero consequence to you. You can only play and practice with the means that are in the game, the game is what it is and if Protoss is op then Protoss is op, your unit stats are not going to improve to compensate for that just by you knowing it. You still have to play your games to win with every means, and you still need to practice by looking at the mistakes you make and improve on it. No where does game balance help you. The only effect thinking about game balance has is a negative effect in that you start to rationalize your losses to imbalance and much like how in rule 2 bad mannering becomes an outlet that allows your emotions to take over, so does balance whine. If you start to be convinced that your race is weak, then you are going to attribute things to balance and miss out on things you can improve on. In fact, even if your race is weaker, unless you are Grand Master on the Korean server, you could probably compensate for that balance just by improving anyway. If you lost to a race you feel is overpowered, ask yourself if DRG, MKP or MC would had lost to that same guy you just played? Ofcourse not they would had rolled that game by massively outskilling their opponent because their play is so much more refined than yours. Unless you are playing the game perfectly, balance is not going to be your concern, and as already established even then knowing the game is imbalanced still does not help you at all.
   So in that state of the game debate, Day[9] was not arguing at all that the game was balanced, he just tried to convey to IdrA that being consumed with thinking zerg was too weak would just be an obstacle in his game.
   So whenever you are tempted to blame a loss on balance, or to get dragged into a balance discussion try to make it part of your practice routine to put such thoughts out of your mind and instead focus on improving YOUR game, let Blizzard worry about theirs and remember that the question is not whether or not the game is imbalanced or not, but that it is irrelevant if it is.