Hikaru no Go teaches gaming balance
PostPosted:Sat Mar 21, 2015 10:52 pm
So a while ago I made the comment how there's this iconic scene in Hikaru no Go where Hikaru told Sai that the guy going first now has a handicap, which was a rule that wasn't part of his era. When Hikaru asked him didn't he think it's weird if you go first you get an advantage for nothing, Sai's reply was "All I know is I never lose when I go first!" Now, in this particular case, Honinbo Shusake seems to overwhelmingly prefer to go first during an era where going first has no penalty, supposedly because Honinbo Shusake felt that if he offered to go last that'd be disrespecting his opponent (because obviously going first is a significant advantage, so offering to go second is like saying you're better than the other guy).
And now that I thought about it, there's an awful a lot of gaming balance argument that can be constructed exactly the same thing. E.g. 'don't you think class X is overpowered?' "All I know is I never lose using class X!" This should be something they put in all gaming message boards on top, something like, 'before you criticize someone, read this strip first'. Of course, most people would never understand the irony, but it's worth trying. In fact I think I had an exact argument in that format a week ago, which went like:
Me: "You can't possibly play with boosts in MPQ while fighting equally strong opponents due to how overwhelmingly powerful they are."
Guy: "I never need to use boosts except while fighting mirror matches, and even then, I don't really need it, but I use it on every mirror match I ever played in this game."
And now that I thought about it, there's an awful a lot of gaming balance argument that can be constructed exactly the same thing. E.g. 'don't you think class X is overpowered?' "All I know is I never lose using class X!" This should be something they put in all gaming message boards on top, something like, 'before you criticize someone, read this strip first'. Of course, most people would never understand the irony, but it's worth trying. In fact I think I had an exact argument in that format a week ago, which went like:
Me: "You can't possibly play with boosts in MPQ while fighting equally strong opponents due to how overwhelmingly powerful they are."
Guy: "I never need to use boosts except while fighting mirror matches, and even then, I don't really need it, but I use it on every mirror match I ever played in this game."