The First Question of Game Balance

So, yeah, this game balance thing. Some of the conversations I've read on forums about it have given me the impression that the people discussing it don't know what they're talking about, if anything at all. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if someone had decided that game balance is a myth and those who talk about it are living in their own little fantasy world.

It's easy to see why some people think this for the simple fact that game balance doesn't have an elegant demo. I'll get back to that in another post.

My view isn't that game balance is a myth, but my view (as I write this) is fairly close. If game balance is a worthwhile game design concept then it's only worthwhile if it helps game designers make better games. Otherwise, it's not a game design concept. I mean, really, if it isn't useful to the actual process of making games, then someone would do just as well talking about cardboard boxes as a game design concept.