Team Balance

The one-sentence "definition" that should be in italics.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Examples

Ice Hockey

Left 4 Dead series

Anti-Examples

optional

Using the pattern

Team Balance is used to balance Teams in games that have TvT gameplay. Motivations for trying to have the pattern in games range from knowing it is unbalanced due to design specifics to considering the local variations during gameplay can cause imbalances. Then again, a design might have certain patterns already that nearly guarantee that Team Balance will not be present until supported. The list of such patterns include: AI Players, Drop-In/Drop-Out, Empowerment, Invulnerabilities, Late Arriving Players, New Abilities, Player Killing, Player-Decided Results, and Privileged Abilities.

Positive Feedback Loops

Team Balance isn't typically created by Player Balance since the advantages which individual members provide to a Team can be offset by disadvantages that member of other members have in the same Team, advantages that members in other Teams provide, or external modifications applied to other Teams to balance out said advantages.

Patterns which can effectively be used to create Team Balance during or just before gameplay begins include Balancing Effects, Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, Handicap Systems, and Symmetry. Orthogonal Differentiation and Team Development can be designed to make Teams balanced, but this is a fragile solution since even small inequalities may work directly against Team Balance instead; the use of Evolving Rule Sets can smoothen out problems over time. In games where creating the Teams are part of the gameplay, Drafting can also help create Team Balance. In general, any games which are Self-Facilitated Games can have Team Balance if the players agree on changing rules or the game state to make this happen.

Consequences

The presence of Team Balance gives players a Determinable Chance to Succeed roughly dependent on the number of Teams.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Determinable Chance to Succeed

Can Modulate

Teams, TvT

Can Be Instantiated By

TvT and either Balancing Effects, Drafting, Evolving Rule Sets, Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, Handicap Systems, Orthogonal Differentiation, Self-Facilitated Games, Symmetry, or Team Development

Can Be Modulated By

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Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

AI Players, Drop-In/Drop-Out, Empowerment, Invulnerabilities, Late Arriving Players, New Abilities, Orthogonal Differentiation, Player Killing, Player-Decided Results, Privileged Abilities, Team Development

History

An updated version of the pattern Team Balance that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.

Acknowledgements

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