Blizzard

Blizzard wrote explicit highlight rules so a machine could pick Play of the Game. Because Play of the Game asks a machine to judge what is interesting, Blizzard wrote rules for four highlight types: High Score, Lifesaver, Sharpshooter and Shutdown. That lets very different heroes, such as Genji's kill streaks, Mercy's resurrections and Mei's barriers, each be credited for what they do.

Being picked can feel better than topping the scoreboard. The system is described as "asking a dumb robot to pick out something interesting."

Blizzard weights each highlight with context so raw numbers don't win. Overwatch adjusts the value of each candidate moment using the velocity of the enemy you shot, the potential impact of the player you shut down, and proximity to the objective. These modifiers stop the system from rewarding raw numbers alone.

Blizzard plans to keep tweaking these modifiers in later patches, so a system like this needs ongoing tuning.

Blizzard redesigned Symmetra because she was balanced but rarely picked. Symmetra looked balanced on paper but players seldom chose her. Blizzard's first redesign gave her a choice of two ultimates, a teleporter or a shield generator.

The lesson is to track pick rate alongside win rate. A character can be unpicked because they are unfun or too situational, even when the win rate is fine.

Rob Pardo of Blizzard warns that balancing by maths alone makes everything feel the same. Leaning on the numbers to flatten differences between options produces a game where everything feels alike. Balance should serve fun, not replace it.

The comparison offered is a sniper rifle versus a shotgun, which is a more exciting choice than two types of assault rifle even though the second pair is easier to balance. In the words of the quote: "you can high five each other and say it's balanced, but is it fun? Probably not".

Blizzard removed Warcraft 3 to make way for its disastrous remake. Blizzard delisted the original Warcraft 3 when its remake arrived, and the remake went badly. It is held up as a cautionary example of replacing an original instead of keeping it available.

Games get stuck on dying hardware, get delisted or lose servers, so some players treat a remake as the only way back. By contrast, the Resident Evil 4 remake lives alongside a moddable HD remaster, and Nightdive released the original System Shock with its source code. The takeaway: "it just means we need better game preservation".