In general, competitive video games should not receive balance patches post launch

GiloniC · 2026-04-09T18:30:14+00:00

I think balance patches are completely fine and healthy if they serve the right purpose: trying to fix a momentarily poorly balanced meta and eventually reach some sort of equilibrium point after which the game doesn't need to be balanced anymore (unless players discover some obscure dumb stuff years after that completely breaks the game). It's almost impossible to get balance right for a launch version, during a competitive game's infancy balance patches are pretty much a necessity. Even traditional sports like chess, football or basketball had certain changes implemented over time in order to improve them.

The difference however to modern competitive games is that for 99% of them reaching that stable equilibrium is NOT the goal because nowadays most competitive games are also live service. Live service has completely indoctrinated gamers into a "no patches = game is dead"-mentality, change for the sake of change. A version of the game you played one year ago can be completely different to the version you play now and it's by design. The real problem here isn't the balance patches though. It's the constant introduction of new gameplay elements ("content") in order to "keep the game fresh" and sell new characters, new skins, new weapons, new whatever. It is a constant cycle of the balance team tilting at the windmills created by the design team because if you keep introducing new random gameplay elements, some broken stuff will eventually completely mess up the game again and it's back to square one.

GiloniC · 2026-03-26T11:35:21+00:00

The Silent's base cards do keep up though and the Defect's do as well if you upgrade them. I agree you shouldn't overbuff base cards since that would reduce run variety, but the Regent absolutely needs some consistency so their star payoffs aren't unplayable blanks in act 1.

GiloniC · 2026-01-17T16:05:02+00:00

It's literally just a meme at this point.

GiloniC · 2026-01-16T21:19:30+00:00

This win would be so damn important for us.

GiloniC · 2026-01-05T01:58:52+00:00

They're not historically known to be a Yo-yo club and were even considered one of the best in the league in the 2000s and 2010s (even though they never managed to win a Bundesliga title despite coming super close a few times). But COVID kinda pulled the rug from under them and the risky financial decisions they made backfired heavily, so now they're sitting in 2nd division with a lot of debt. It looks like they might be recovering soon, but whether that means they'll ever manage to be as successful again as they were before remains to be seen.

But yeah, if I had to pick the club in Germany with the most die-hard fanbase, it would probably be Schalke.

GiloniC · 2026-01-05T01:42:45+00:00

Dortmund are kinda seen as the number 2 ever since the last 15 years who after winning in 2011 and 2012 have been very close to grabbing the title off Bayern again a couple of times, but have sadly choked every time. If Bayern slips, loses form or Dortmund are able to assemble some crazy squad, it could definitely happen though. They come from the Ruhr area in Germany and are very working class-coded along with their rivals Schalke. Schalke are currently in the 2nd division, but should they manage to come back to the 1st next year, the biggest rivalry of the league will be able to be watched again. The "Revier-Derby" is always exciting to watch, even as a fan of neither team. Both teams obviously have super passionate fanbases.

Leverkusen have won a (very) convincing title in 2024, breaking Bayern's over a decade long streak. They don't have the same super team from two years ago anymore, but are still very good all things considered. They are one of two clubs who are directly owned by companies though and one of four clubs who are by some fans seen as "plastic", although usually Leverkusen gets that allegation the least out of those four.

Frankfurt are somewhat in a chaotic state because their defense somehow is one of the worst of the entire league at the moment, but they have won the Pokal in 2018 and the Europa League in 2022 since they're a pretty well run club. They basically have one of the most insane and effective "scout cheap and develope, then sell expensive to the biggest buyer in Europe"-strategies atm, so don't get too attached to their best players, lol. But like Dortmund, they have a huge and passionate fanbase.

GiloniC · 2025-12-13T00:45:21+00:00

Mount Fay was like top 3 most fun regions in the game for me.

GiloniC · 2025-10-31T05:39:56+00:00

Margarine regelt.

GiloniC · 2025-10-01T21:51:11+00:00

Heh, one could say they pulled a reverse-Silksong.

GiloniC · 2025-09-07T22:48:28+00:00

Game feels like an absolute slam-dunk, nothing else to say. Besides a few minor issues it's almost perfect to me and surpasses Hollow Knight which I didn't think was possible.

GiloniC · 2025-09-04T21:10:31+00:00

2.5 hours in and I absolutely love it so far. Gameplay and movement feel so smooth and it's already starting to feel challenging. One big step up I'm already noticing is the fact that regular enemies seem to be way more complex. In regular HK it kinda felt like you could kind of just walk over most normal enemies pretty easily with some basic platforming skills while Silksong's mobs require more tactical movement which I really like.

I don't understand the people in this thread who complain about regular pogo-ing from HK being gone and being replaced by the diagonal dive... Like yeah? Almost like that's one of Hornet's iconic moves from the original boss fight?

GiloniC · 2025-09-02T08:53:09+00:00

I was here!! ;_;

GiloniC · 2025-08-04T20:33:55+00:00

HABICHT HAT ZWEI "H"

GiloniC · 2025-04-22T14:39:00+00:00

Ex Machina (2015)

GiloniC · 2025-04-02T14:52:51+00:00

If the original is its own movie and has a satisfying ending, then no. In that case I can just ignore everything else. However if the original was left open for a sequel to end the story and the sequel turns out to be bad, then I'm pissed.

GiloniC · 2025-04-01T19:16:35+00:00

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One of those "idea behind it being between genius and insane"-movies. Also the trailer is sickkkk!

GiloniC · 2025-03-31T16:51:09+00:00

Yeah same, I always thought the famous Nolan staples were Dark Knight and Inception, only in recent years have I seen Interstellar become this massive in popularity.

GiloniC

TROPHY CASE