Online gaming is all about fun. Your ultimate goal as a game designer, the very thing that drives you and makes you love your job, is to make a genuinely fun game.

So why does it seem like you spend so much time working on stuff that isn't really about fun? "Should this cost 5 or 6?" "Will this class be playable with this set of abilities?" "What combination of effects have I not anticipated?"

Lack of balance can sap all the fun from your game. Your creative efforts suddenly seem wasted when a few players latch onto an unanticipated combination and soon everyone is playing only a tiny fraction of all that fun content you created! Even a small imbalance can mean most of your fun design is rarely experienced by players. When every player you encounter in the game is running one of 3 "optimal" builds -- well that's not very fun either.

The +7 Balance Engine asks you to stop worrying about balance. Put your effort where it belongs: making the game fun. Let the +7 Balance Engine make sure it stays that way.

With the +7 Balance Engine, there is a fundamental change in design methodology. Instead of tweaking and re-tweaking game parameters, you think instead in terms of desired game play. In an RPG, if you want all the classes to be well represented, you can set the balance engine to ensure that. You can also set game play goals within a class. If you want to see a balanced distribution of specialists -- for example, some wizards who specialize in fire, some wizards who specialize in counter-magic, and some wizards who specialize in defensive spells -- you can express that with the balance engine. Or, if you want to allow a class to be dominated by a specialty -- for example, the priest class being dominated by healing specialists -- that can be modeled as well.

By removing focus on precise tweaking of numeric parameters, game designers can focus on the more creative aspects of the game, such as the immersiveness of game-play and addition of new game content. Game designers are freed from being overly concerned whether a new feature or concept is too strong or too weak. They can expect the player base uses everything they create, but is not able to abuse anything. Dynamic balancing ensures that even unintended consequences of the game system are brought into balance.

+7 Systems will work with you to model your game and your desired game balance, and then you sit back and relax. The +7 Balance Engine ensures your game has gameplay that is just as fun as you envisioned it.

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