Gods Unchained makes a new balance announcement. This one concerns the contracting of an outside testing group known as Superpower, to run balance tests for upcoming set releases, which has received some mixed reactions from the community.
Balancing a TCG style game is always tricky. Especially as you add more and more cards to the mix. Gods Unchained has had its share of troubles on this front. And with cards from older sets becoming ‘immutable’ after a brief, post-release balancing period, the job of keeping the game semi-fair and fun becomes even more difficult!
And so, to help out with their game balance, Gods Unchained is enlisting the services of a third party group known as Superpower. This group will be contractually obliged to test Gods Unchained and report any issues they find.
Superpower and Gods Unchained
Comprised of a number of long-time GU players, Superpower is a third party testing group that is now under contract to perform balance testing for Gods Unchained. This includes cards for upcoming expansions and new game modes.
To try and avoid the perils of insider trading, the testers from Superpower are subject to a set of disclosure rules. They are obliged to report trades they if they meet any of the following criteria.
- Buying or selling any NFT on Immutable X for more than $1,000 USD;
- Trading volume (buy plus sell) or trading rewards earned in a specific ERC20 token developed by Immutable or one of its partners exceeds a multiple of $10,000 USD (i.e. $10k, $20k, $30k); or
- Trading volume (buy plus sell) of a collection on Immutable X exceeds a multiple of $10,000 USD
Some folks think that the rules aren’t strenuous enough. And in fact, Superpower has already stated that they will disclose all of their trades, which seems only fair. Especially considering that many of these players already have a significant investment in Gods Unchained cards. But players have also raised concerns about impartiality, and the potential for advantages in competitive play, especially when new sets and patches are released.
The Gods Unchained team has mostly brushed aside these player concerns, pointing out that this partnership begins with a two-month trial period. Which is a fair point. But a portion of the playerbase feels disheartened at the whole process, and that their voices aren’t being heard.
You can learn more about Superpower at https://superpower.gg
Testing and Gods Unchained
Gods Unchained has a reputation for delayed balance changes. Often leaving players with an unbalanced meta for months at a time. They have made some progress in changing this dynamic recently. And now they go a step further by hiring an outside consulting group for balance testing.
However, when you’re dealing with complex games with lots of different actions, no amount of internal testing can match the loopholes and edge cases that will be discovered once the game is exposed to a larger, public audience. And for reasons that I am uncertain of, Gods Unchained has always been very reluctant to put up a PTR, or Public Test Realm. They have done so on a few occasions in the past, but it was always very brief.
The idea of a third party testing group is not a bad one. The question is whether or not this is the right move for Gods Unchained right now. I guess we will soon see!
For more information about Gods Unchained, read our Gods Unchained game guide. You can also visit their website, follow them on Twitter, and join their Discord server.
